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

[Vahlnir]

There wouldn't be a need for any of this if the game just had a way to tell me

Yep. This is the heart of the issue. The options people feel that they need don't exist in game, so they add them themselves. I don't really blame the players there as much as I blame SE and the devs for creating this issue. I'm not defending the "cheaters" for the world first race, but they've been allowed to get away with a lot in the past, even using ACT while on a live stream WITH Yoshi P watching and he never really batted an eye. So I have to ask, which is it? If it's an issue now, then the ball is in SE's court. Improve the game and give people at least some of what they want, and this issue will solve itself with time. Mostly. Mods and add-ons will exist as long as they are given free reign, which they are. Chiding the player base at this point solves nothing, because they have already admitted that they can't really crack down on these things, at least not in a meaningful way. They let Pandora's Box fly wide open, and that is on them.

[redheadturk]

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.

I myself use mare and cosmetic mods. But I only share my UUID with a very small number of people that I implicitly trust. But cosmetic mods are all I use, now that they have implemented the single QoL feature I very desperately needed [aka the buff timers on the party list and the ability to make them larger] That does not mean that I am going to welcome a rootkit onto my system. The people I share my appearance with [primarily my tiny FC of less than a dozen people] I trust. The rootkits that are anti cheats from big corporations I don't.

[PikoAliapoh]

I don't really blame the players there as much as I blame SE and the devs for creating this issue... Chiding the player base at this point solves nothing, because they have already admitted that they can't really crack down on these things, at least not in a meaningful way.

If they can't crack down on them, maybe they could just remove ultimates from the game? That'd be another solution to this whole thing!

[Vahlnir]

If they can't crack down on them, maybe they could just remove ultimates from the game? That'd be another solution to this whole thing!

That would make an already bad situation worse. The solution would be to improve the game and lessen the desire for these things. Perhaps make some mechanics easier to read, though not any easier to execute, as an example. Players shouldn't feel the need to zoom out excessively just to see what in the world is going on. Ultimate might be the focus at the moment, but it also shines a light on a lot of other issues, too.

[DixieBellOCE]

If the game provided the information that end game players want to help improve their gameplay, then there wouldn't be the need for parsers.

1. Personal Damage
2. Critical % Chance
3. Direct Hit Chance

The 'Combat Log' the game provides is nothing but a mess, good luck even trying to read it.
They need to revamp it to show all of the above, or just condense the information into.. a calculator.. so you can actually make sense of the 10000 lines of text in a single fight. (Oh look there's something that already does that!)

[Gemina]

Yep. This is the heart of the issue. The options people feel that they need don't exist in game, so they add them themselves. I don't really blame the players there as much as I blame SE and the devs for creating this issue. I'm not defending the "cheaters" for the world first race, but they've been allowed to get away with a lot in the past, even using ACT while on a live stream WITH Yoshi P watching and he never really batted an eye. So I have to ask, which is it? If it's an issue now, then the ball is in SE's court. Improve the game and give people at least some of what they want, and this issue will solve itself with time. Mostly. Mods and add-ons will exist as long as they are given free reign, which they are. Chiding the player base at this point solves nothing, because they have already admitted that they can't really crack down on these things, at least not in a meaningful way. They let Pandora's Box fly wide open, and that is on them.

Cheaters are going to cheat, bud. SE can implement every single mod and ACT currently used by players and design their content around those features, and what happens is new cheats will be used to make that content easier, or mods will be used to make available what isn't. The goalposts will always be moved. It also isn't just about making things easier, it's also about these players having advantages over other players who can't or won't use the addons. Then there is the element of simply just respecting the content as it is intended to be played. It is so odd to me that players somehow will place blame on the dev team when they are the ones being disrespected.

It's a really good thing I'm not Yoshi, as my own hammer of fairness is completely and totally indiscriminate. I wouldn't last long in his position as I would eliminate any future ultimate content, housing, and any other feature in the game where there are those who stand to benefit by stepping on others. But I come from a level of discipline where if a child eats a cookie when they are not supposed to, all of the cookies are thrown out.

[Vahlnir]

Cheaters are going to cheat, bud. SE can implement every single mod and ACT currently used by players and design their content around those features, and what happens is new cheats will be used to make that content easier, or mods will be used to make available what isn't. The goalposts will always be moved. It also isn't just about making things easier, it's also about these players having advantages over other players who can't or won't use the addons. Then there is the element of simply just respecting the content as it is intended to be played. It is so odd to me that players somehow will place blame on the dev team when they are the ones being disrespected.

It's a really good thing I'm not Yoshi, as my own hammer of fairness is completely and totally indiscriminate. I wouldn't last long in his position as I would eliminate any future ultimate content, housing, and any other feature in the game where there are those who stand to benefit by stepping on others. But I come from a level of discipline where if a child eats a cookie when they are not supposed to, all of the cookies are thrown out.

I mean, I pretty much acknowledged that this would always be a thing. I'm mostly just calling on the devs to be less reactive and acting so surprised when they have allowed this to happen for long and be more proactive by adding some things that players feel the need to mod in. The devs acting like their feelings are hurt isn't going to do anything. Like you said, cheaters are going to cheat. If the devs don't like it, then give players some reasons NOT to. Ultimates are free advertising, so I'd probably call Yoshi P's bluff if he ever threatened to stop making them.

[Denji]

depends on how it functioned. if it just used what's already available and just passively scanned processes and the like without involving rootkits or memory-heavy nonsense then... well, i'd probably still play the game.

if it actually dug its claws into my garbage? no. haha no. nnnnoooo. not just because of how invasive that is but because it doesn't actually stop people from cheating. you'll just make better cheaters. they never work.

[Bissonnettzi]

That would only mess up people's performance and modders will simply find a way to work around it so, nay.

[fantasiaaddict]

The innocent have nothing to fear. I support it.