Would you be opposed to SE implementing a program to scan for addons/parsers?

[Raiya]

I'm pretty sure Yoshi-P has enough experience playing MMOs to realize that adding any kind of scanning will only achieve 2 things.

1) It'll be a major annoyance to the entire playerbase, possibly resulting in performance drops

2) It'll push the entire third party scene underground, and start an arms race with them.

SE isn't going to do it, when there isn't really any benefit to having it, beyond just simply saying that they have it. They would sooner axe future development of Ultimate raids than to waste resources on this stuff.

This. Those sorts of tools are nothing but trouble and only lead to more drama and witchhunts anyways. Besides there privacy issues as well to consider that would lead to legal trouble and such. I've seen the trouble they've caused playing various MMO's over the years to know that any such "anti-cheat" is something that is hassle and I'd be opposed to anyways.

[Midareyukki]

Yes, extremely opposed. Those sorts of software are unreliable as they are and tend to report false flags due to some fringe configuration they happen to not like. And the FF14 launcher is already a not-very-fun source for weird glitches and exceptions.

Besides, as much as we harp on third-party tools that give players an advantage and automate the game, there are some that grant quality of life options that SE has yet to implement. Such as better support for disabilities, increasing the font or support for other languages.

[Anger]

Yes, extremely opposed. Those sorts of software are unreliable as they are and tend to report false flags due to some fringe configuration they happen to not like. And the FF14 launcher is already a not-very-fun source for weird glitches and exceptions.

Besides, as much as we harp on third-party tools that give players an advantage and automate the game, there are some that grant quality of life options that SE has yet to implement. Such as better support for disabilities, increasing the font or support for other languages.

Those those third-party tools that "grant quality of life options" are categorically banned.

[ForteNightshade]

I'm pretty sure Yoshi-P has enough experience playing MMOs to realize that adding any kind of scanning will only achieve 2 things.

1) It'll be a major annoyance to the entire playerbase, possibly resulting in performance drops

2) It'll push the entire third party scene underground, and start an arms race with them.

SE isn't going to do it, when there isn't really any benefit to having it, beyond just simply saying that they have it. They would sooner axe future development of Ultimate raids than to waste resources on this stuff.

This is what most people don't understand. None of the anti-cheat or DRM software has accomplished much of anything except to vastly annoy regular customers. In fact, only Amazon/Twitch has been successful in beating out adblock. Why is that? Because they literally made a division dedicated to doing precisely that. Very few companies want to spend the resources and manpower constantly having update their DRM to compete with users who essentially have potentially all the free time in the world to render their work worthless. Facebook once boasted they had defeated adblock only for their investment to be broken without 48 hours.

None of this accounts for the sheer amount of money they will lose from people quitting the game. In a hypothetical scenario where everything from parsers to mods are blocked with no way of getting them to work underground, a good amount of people using them will unsub. So now you have Square Enix spending millions to maintain and update DRM nobody likes all while losing millions from those unsubbing. Just to say their game is pure. Not exactly a strong selling argument to investors.

[RitsukoSonoda]

anti-cheat software tbh doesn't stop cheaters or bots. It just annoys legitimate players by making the game less stable and run worse while being a small annoyance to the people who make the cheat software because they have a few additional hoops to move around making said software.

[DiaDeem]

Don't most Easy AC games have rampant cheating anyway??

[Midareyukki]

Those those third-party tools that "grant quality of life options" are categorically banned.

I know. But that's the thing. People are going to quit if those quality of life tools aren't allowed, unfortunately.

I never said that those are okay, they still break the TOS.

And people really need to stop taking any such points as immediately defending the use of third party tools.

I'm just being pragmatic here. We're focusing on tools that enable cheating and give people an upper hand. What upper hand would a colourblind person have over being able to see the AoEs everyone else has through the use of a shader or some other form of modification?

Because yes. Yoshida has said 3rd Party Tools overall are not okay in the latest post. No one disputes this.
He's also said, however, in previous moments that not only does he not want a witch hunt over these things, there are tools he considers to exist in a gray area.
And those are things he's gradually having implemented into the game, the latest of which is being able to tell which hit is magical or physical damage.

Even if they're categorically banned, you still need to consider their use and application. Why they're being used overall. And until SE implements those into the game to discourage their use, you'll basically be telling people that rely on those things to "get good" over something that isn't within their immediate control.

And with that, you'll just lose customers. A select handful, sure. But you'll still lose them anyway.

People need to stop being such hard-headed over these things. Okay, fine, they're all banned. But if even the lead producer of the game is capable of saying "Yeah, there are green areas, just keep them hushed and make sure they don't impact anything else", so can you, for crying out loud... The TOS doesn't need to be applied all black-and-white over every possible thing people do and say and get.

The fact the lead producer acknowledges gray areas means that saying "categorically banned" has nuance.

And keep in mind though, I'm only pointing toward quality of life stuff that helps people with disabilities and stuff like that. Not advocating for cheating of any kind.

[BaconBits]

Don't most Easy AC games have rampant cheating anyway??

Laughs in Elden Ring

[Yeol]

There is no point. People will always find a way around anticheat softwares.

[LalafellDown]

They said they can’t because of legal issues with other countries.