Quote Originally Posted by LianaThorne View Post
Plugins though ultimately aren't going anywhere as Square has started to integrate them into the game. I highly doubt we'll ever get an in-game parser but you really should be thanking the people who are making these plugins (like the buff timers we recently got in the party list) because it's helping to enhance the vanilla game for both PC & console users.
As a side note though, i think a certain nuance should be considered: Is it possible to obtain the information through screen sharing? If so, its generaly not a problem.
- If someone would have a capture card, that automaticly crops just that portion of the screen, and maybe even multiple sections etc. They could have streamed that information and display that on a 2nd monitor. With reliable delay information, that would have given the same info.
- Boss timers could be an HTML+JS page that are refreshed upon a button press. Sure, animations might not always match, but knowing key times can already assist. You could even make that tools act like a 9th teamspreak member and warn through that for the entire team. Its something that can be arranged outside of the game entirely. So again, a legit workaround.

If such information cannot be obtained using such workarounds, then its a problem. But tools that make such info more easily and reliably available are because of those workarounds less of an issue. And thats why it makes sense to add it in the game directly.

The main reason why 3rd party tools shouldnt be allowed, is because you cant see what they also do in the background that can still give an advantage.