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

[sharknado]

SE would lose a lot of goodwill in EU, OCE, NA, if they did this. People value their privacy. I too would be most displeased and consider playing alternatives like Guild Wars 2 if they did this anti-consumer move.

The more competitive game the more anti-cheat systems it has. Don't expect online games to "value your privacy" if you are afraid of anti-cheat systems. And there is nothing that affects your privacy if the game checks if its own files and runtime were modified. That's the basics it can do to block plugins and mods.

And the worst thing that can happen is all world first race players would start using addons, everyone would know it, and as nothing would leak SE would do nothing aside from making fights harder and harder because players clear them "easily" thus ending up designing fights that require add-ons to clear. Then any new player wanting to join any non-basic content would be flooded by the list of "unofficial" mods to even play the game. How "fun" would that be?

[Byron-Blackfyre]

how many people actually take part in world firsts? less than 1 percent of the population. What happens in ultimates shouldn't be used as ammunition against the vast majority who don't even participate in that content or care about it.

[ForteNightshade]

The more competitive game the more anti-cheat systems it has. Don't expect online games to "value your privacy" if you are afraid of anti-cheat systems. And there is nothing that affects your privacy if the game checks if its own files and runtime were modified. That's the basics it can do to block plugins and mods.

And the worst thing that can happen is all world first race players would start using addons, everyone would know it, and as nothing would leak SE would do nothing aside from making fights harder and harder because players clear them "easily" thus ending up designing fights that require add-ons to clear. Then any new player wanting to join any non-basic content would be flooded by the list of "unofficial" mods to even play the game. How "fun" would that be?

This is doomsaying as Yoshida has come out and specifically said they have no intention of designing any encounter above that of Dragonsong. While Omega is certainly pushing the very edge of that statement, it's more a matter of opinion which you find harder. Ironically, Omega has seem some degree of criticism already because of how precise mechanics are relative to previous Ultimates and how said precision can be frustrating due to this game's very poor latency. Regardless, we will never see anything require addons in this game nor will Ultimate push beyond what's been released. Very few of the already small Ultimate playerbase would even want something harder than Dragonsong or Omega.

[Absimiliard]

Very few of the already small Ultimate playerbase would even want something harder than Dragonsong or Omega.

The burnout rate on it is pretty high already. Anything above those two - or releasing Ultimates more frequently, for that matter - would run the risk of driving a significant portion of that already miniscule portion of the player-base away from the content entirely.

...But you know, I feel like Dragonsong and Omega Ultimte in some ways might actually not be as ridiculous (relative to player skill at the time, which has definitely increased over the years) as pre-nerf Pepsi Man was back in Heavensward. That thing was the slayer of FCs. SE even apologized for it. One can only imagine what something that monstrously overtuned would look like with today's standards of mechanical complexity.