Increasing number of players using 3rd party tools

[Somnolence]

Completely agree, that specific "plug in" literally changes one button on your skill bar into another completely different skill if its classed as a follow up combo, It literally automatically manipulates the skill bars and the slotted skills, irrelevant if it makes things easier or not and still requires one button pressing as some are arguing, it is still automatically manipulating gameplay through 3rd party software which is clearly an advantage and clearly breaking ToS

Using 3rd party software to manipulate gameplay is against ToS in most games. I know for a fact one WoW player and addon author is currently working adapting an addon from wow that lets you put you whole opener onto one button, you can literally put any number of skills into it and it will automatically skip skills on CD and have automated priority orders.

If things like these are left to get completely out of hand we are eventually and inevitably going to end up exactly like WoW

On other hand taking hardcore stance on third party automation would screw over people with disabilities.

I'd say anything that does not affect other players should be allowed.

Let's take DoL/DoH as an example. A tool like TeamCraft automatically marking gathering entries as complete when you gather enough of something via packet capture is harmless as you can do the same manually. But a tool capturing Marketboard information and posting it on Universalis? With server visit feature allowing to use other server marketboards this does lead to possible profit loses for crafters since people that know about this are more likely to server hop to buy cheapest option. But then again you can do the same manually by visiting each server and checking out the prices, which will be more up to date this way.

Since this game is not PvP focused third party tools then only can affect other players via social interaction. Harassment and giving wrong impression about the game is the only things Square Enix cares about as this is what would affect player satisfaction with the game and media perception.

However the player base went way too far in some ways. When Yoshida spoke about third parties and TOS violation it was due screenshots of the game modded with porn mods.