tbh i don't understand the brainworms on this topic like

they're all banned, that's just the case. there's no actual gray area. doesn't matter what it is. if you use the tools, you run that risk and the way to avoid that risk is to not present your usage of them in game or through video/image - usually with watermark in the latter case. if you do present use of them publicly, to be frank, you're just stupid and need to accept that.

how i feel as a player is simply:

there's more leniency with some tools in terms of how hard they go after them, such as cosmetic tools, or tools that track otherwise available and pertinent information. SE won't proactively go after people using a damage meter, tbh. reactively? yeah. i don't really have issues with cosmetic stuff, or damage meters, or shaders to help visibility, etc...

but, to me, there's also tools with grayer areas -- ie: cactbot/zoomhacks/etc... as while a reasonable human being wouldn't consider a damage meter as a cheat, these tools can (and sometimes do) break encounter design at times, even if ultimately it doesn't really affect people too much if they're employed. i don't tend to lump these tools in with outright cheating, but i can't say they don't make encounters easier to accomplish and i know SE - during a largely publicized event - isn't going to want these types of things front and center (or, even anything in the first category) due to their TOS and how a congratulatory statement from them can implicitly endorse these tools their TOS forbids. that said, a zoomhack on the level you see in TOP does change how a player would approach that encounter. you can say panning your camera is useless or w/e, or being able to see clearly the entire arena from a moon's eye view should be standard or w/e, but fight design takes into consideration what you can and cannot see on the screen. ofc, it's not perfect - hardware can change perception, but ultrawide monitors don't really get to the level of a rts view. not needing to look around, not needing to read that information quickly as you check each position, knowing 100% your partner on the other side of the boss is completely correct, etc... all of that does impact an encounter difficulty. call it bs difficulty if you want, but that doesn't really make it so. granted, i also feel group dynamics and teamwork are also part of a fight's inherent difficulty.

then there's stuff like... paisley park, whatever one displays AOE indicators you are not supposed to have access to in content, that display mechanical sets ahead of time on your minimap, or botting programs/automation programs etc... where that is just cheating.



gonna be real, for the most part others' use of these tools doesn't affect me or my gameplay. however, enforcement to some degree of them (such as: if you're openly talking about it, and someone gets SE's attention for it) i'm... kind of fine with. if there was no enforcement, or if there was a blanket allowance for these tools, then the game would end up in WoW's situation regarding addons -- people will demand you use the ones they think are best, and then there'd be community standards to have certain ones on, and tbqh i prefer not using the vast majority of tools. i do think SE should take note when a witch hunt on a player is occurring and let curbing the witch-hunting behavior take precedent over punishment for plugin usage, but.

for community events, they'll be harsher. obviously. like there's a business incentive to be harsher on anything highly publicized. if you're someone who thinks they wouldn't do anything, idk what to tell you. if they do go the route of sanctioning it themselves, i imagine they'd either only consider those who stream, or they do have a way to see what tools are employed on their end in some capacity and would then verify the clears themselves (like, iirc, bungie does).


but no, i also don't want a program that reads all the files on my computer and hands all that over to SE. i know digital privacy is generally a moot point these days, but... a game's competitive integrity when played at a level i dont participate in doesn't... fucking matter to me more than whatever scraps of digital privacy i have left. like, ultimately, plugins in a videogame are a non-issue. i have opinions, everyone does, but there's some things that drastically outweigh ffxiv competitive integrity.