Is GShade allowed?

[Lauront]

Current issue is not that "it only affects streamers". If we dont get official response, this will affect literally everyone who posts their screenshots on any social media (discord included). With current witch-hunt (which is against TOS too but guess we can ignore that part of TOS) it doesnt take much - you could have edited your screenshot with photoshop (which many do) but they dont give a damn. They will report and make up you used gshade.

Before this, you could go back to the 2013 post and say "look, they said its allowed". Now? Just report literally everyone because they mightve used reshade. because their photo has deep-green grass instead of washed out green.

There was already someone posting (not sure which site, saw just snippet of it) that they will go thro social media and report people using gshade "as revenge for the streamer hunt".

Yes and without clear rules on this front, it comes down to GM discretion. Even if the GMs have clear rules they abide by behind the scenes, the ambiguity won't stop (will encourage) the brigading. No appetite to deal with the brigading? Not hard to see where it'll go.

[SwingLifeAway]

You'd probably see a pretty big increase in harassment and the general toxicity that comes along with it if it was officially okay:d by the devs.

Except you wouldn't because the rules on harassment don't magically disappear just because some plugins are okayed. They've also already been in use for nearly a decade, so they are already a part of the culture and identity of the game whether anyone likes it or not. I really feel like a lot of people are being super dishonest by conveniently forgetting these facts.

[Welsper59]

Current issue is not that "it only affects streamers". If we dont get official response, this will affect literally everyone who posts their screenshots on any social media (discord included). With current witch-hunt (which is against TOS too but guess we can ignore that part of TOS) it doesnt take much - you could have edited your screenshot with photoshop (which many do) but they dont give a damn. They will report and make up you used gshade.

Before this, you could go back to the 2013 post and say "look, they said its allowed". Now? Just report literally everyone because they mightve used reshade. because their photo has deep-green grass instead of washed out green.

There was already someone posting (not sure which site, saw just snippet of it) that they will go thro social media and report people using gshade "as revenge for the streamer hunt".

Even the old post wasn't accurate in relation to Gshade though. It was about a specific ENB injector tool. What they say about that does not equate to a different tool or program, even if they function similarly. So realistically, you're still in the same position as you were before lol.

Legally at this point in time, SE would be the biggest idiots to tell you an unofficial 3rd party tool is okay. They'd be opening the flood gates so widely to people trying to validate the limits of what is crossing the line. I'm pretty sure they don't want to annoy their legal department, who likely also report to the higher ups about changes, that the XIV team wants to do something objectively stupid by increasing risk by not having blanket statements to cover their own asses.

[Necrotica]

The intent may he to kill all visibility of the game. Maybe the devs liked it better when the game was less popular?
No more streamer, no more screenshots, no more bard music. Kill all word of mouth praise for the game to the point the population goes back to 2012 levels.

[Theodric]

The intent may he to kill all visibility of the game. Maybe the devs liked it better when the game was less popular?
No more streamer, no more screenshots, no more bard music. Kill all word of mouth praise for the game to the point the population goes back to 2012 levels.

Potentially. I do think they probably see what sort of player created 'content' the game is known for on Twitter. I know multiple people who don't even play the game but are well aware of the shady reputation the weirder portions of the community are known for on Twitter.

[Larirawiel]

Why is this a problem for people though? Are people that unreasonably afraid of even the very idea that they could be violating ToS? I would say this whole ordeal should be a learning experience for people. That context factually matters.

It is in this case not clear whether you violate the TOS or not. But if it is a violation then using Windows or Linux or MacOS would also be a technical one.

The kicker about that though? It's business as usual for everyone that isn't streaming addons/plugins that don't give yourself away. Go ahead and use Gshade, ACT, etc. Your risk has not changed for the time being. If you were using it responsibly before, there's no reason you should rethink it now... unless you stream lol. Though Gshade is still probably gonna be given some leeway.

It does not only affect streamers. It also affects screenshots, which you could have altered with Photoshop/Gimp. If it does look like Gshade then someone could report you. Even if it was Photoshop. And if a GM comes to the same conclusion then your account could be banned.




Cheers

[Infinitygirl]

Personally I think GShade should be a default thing in the game I personally don't use it but I've seen some incredible stuff come from it. The way I see it is if you don't advertise that you are using the mod you should be fine. Like don't put #GShade whenever you post a picture using GShade on Social Media as that could be considered as advertising the mod.

[Semirhage]

The devs don't approve of it tho but that's just what they have to say officially if they said they were fine with it then you'd probably see it normalized way more and have it be a common thing talked about ingame.
You'd probably see a pretty big increase in harassment and the general toxicity that comes along with it if it was officially okay:d by the devs.

If the alternative is the current "improvement is for nerds, you don't pay my sub! Now heal me through this enrage; it's not my low damage doing it." toxic casual playerbase, is it truly an improvement?

[JepMZ]

Ummm, there's already a new ToS last year

[Deveryn]

Ummm, there's already a new ToS last year

They updated one section, a process that isn't as simple as just slapping some words on a document.

There's nothing to update regarding these tools, as everything is spelled out.

Here. Just watch this explanation of the situation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nublKg6R1tY