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

[Kranel_San]

In light of the recent TOP issue and concerns surrounding the legitimacy of their clear - would you be opposed to anticheat software scanning your system for addons/parsers/plugins?

This would help enforce the total and categorical ban on any third party programs used.

I believe there are a lot of useful addons, plugins, and mods that many players are using. The moment you take that from them is the same moment you encourage them to quit the game, and I'm not talking about the NSFW modding community because that's a completely different matter.
I think it's better to support the game with official features and QoL improvements that render these third-party tools obsolete, or at least render as much as possible before starting to use whatever third-party detection methods. This way, not only you increase customer satisfaction, but also decrease the number of potential players who might quit as a result.
That being said. There will always be people using third-party tools, and the first step in solving the problem is admitting it. Hence my recommendation is to add these third-party tools as official features when possible as stated above. The next step should be a gradual detection of third-party tools to allow players to use some (but not all) and get gradually used to a different gameplay style than the one they used to play with if some third-party tools can't be added as official features without completely stripping the players to mitigate the number of potential players who might quit. .

[Kuroka]

Sure i would, i run no software id need to hide lol

Also we do deserve it.

[caffe_macchiato]

The vast majority of online games published in the past 23 years have had anti-cheats, whether you realize it or not. FFXI and FFXIV stand alone among major online games. For everyone in this thread complaining about anti-cheats, I want you to uninstall Steam and close your account. You say you’d leave this game, so why not leave the others as well? Why are we exceptional?

By the way, we don’t need an anti-cheat to turn off plugins, but that’s a bit beyond the scope of our (and Square’s) field of expertise.

[Zebraoracle]

Sure i would, i run no software id need to hide lol

Also we do deserve it.

Speak for yourself, plenty of players don't use mods of any kind, and some of us use only cosmetic mods. I don't think any of those players deserve having invasive software installed on their PCs.

[Araxes]

it would probably help if they just took reports of Plugin/cheat/addonusers more seriously.

[xenahawk]

Honestly i have nothing to hide so i wouldnt care if they did, let them scan away. As long as it doesnt interfere with my quality of gaming like causing lag or whatever. I personally dont get it you have players clamouring for hard content even some who complaing that the game is too easy. I would like to know how many of those people are the ones using those tools.

[caffe_macchiato]

Speak for yourself, plenty of players don't use mods of any kind, and some of us use only cosmetic mods. I don't think any of those players deserve having invasive software installed on their PCs.

An anti-cheat isn’t “invasive” in the way that you think. On a basic level, the game scans its own files to make sure they match the official ones. This is the same method used when you “verify game file integrity” in Steam or other launchers. It’s also how VAC operates. In fact, the entire system can run server-side. There’s no “scanning” that needs to be performed on your hardware. And AFAIK, a game has a legal and technical right to access its own files.

Also, have people not considered the sheer difference in magnitude between the above system and Mare? Which not only scans your files, but allows arbitrary downloads and code injection onto your client? In addition to uploading information from your client to others? In addition to sharing you and your alts’ statuses? On some dude’s private PC in his basement, no less (no one knows who or what runs Mare). Far, far more intrusive and yet 20,000 people are running Mare at any given time. A large portion of the FFXIV community welcomes intrusiveness. An anti-cheat would relieve them of that.

[Amarande]

The second SE starts scanning my PC with weird invasive rootkit stuff is the second I get over any remaining FFXIV habit that I have left.

What's really weird is that this mindset is a very common one - and yet plenty of people would be fine with requiring every group member during world prog to stream their run for legitimacy.

As in, apparently surveilling someone's room RL (not to mention excluding nearly everyone whose RL doesn't allow for a streaming-presentable gaming environment ...) is a lesser evil over surveilling their PC ...

Personally, the main issues I've seen with anti-cheats are:

a, most of them (especially the ones Asian developers usually rely on) do not work properly unless you're running an actual Windows operating system (especially important now with how much of a hit the Steam Deck is).

b, kernel level trust increases the attack surface for actually-malicious software.

c, performance hits. Would really rather not see 7.0 (especially with the graphics revamp on top of it) start requiring Forspoken level system specs (what? you don't have a 4090? have fun with the framerate in hunts and exploratory missions! LOL).

[WolfKit]

I play on Steam Deck, so I'm using Proton as a compatibility layer to run ffxiv on Linux instead of Windows. While some anticheats can be configured to allow Proton, more likely than not I would be collateral damage.

[Rehayem]

No amount or type of anti-cheats will prevent people from cheating. Once one understands this, anti-cheats become obsolete. They cause more harm than good.