A new stalking tool

[Bubert]

Anti cheat would screw everyone who uses XIV on Mac because SE can’t be bothered to properly optimise their game for Macs. Bad idea… Original launcher that Mac users have sucks. It’s a copy paste from windows and it’s unplayable.

I think blacklist works how it should, but people refuse to use it.Since we already have tools to get rid of stalkers, the rest falls on people to protect themselves online like I’ve said a million times before!

[Solowing]

Trying to drill into people's head about how SE quite literally left everyone's backdoor open to facilitate their DT BL system is futile. But ig that's the kind of mass they want to keep around.

Because they wernt trying to put that load on their server, so they offloaded the work to onto the users device.

But since the players have the id and its key stored on the machine, unless they do an entire backend rework. Like tore up from the floor up, rebuild.

What are people willing to wait the content drought out to see it fixed? And im talking 6 months+

[Daralii]

Is anticheat really that invasive though?

It isn't like you'd have an SE employee rooting through your filesystem. It would just be checking if there was anything interfering with the game and would be a huge net gain IMO.

Personally, I would love if we could have achievements without the assumption that they were botted and WF races without the assumption that all teams are cheating.

Anticheat usually runs on either ring 3, where applications run, or ring 0, which is the most tightly controlled part of the entire system and the core of the OS. I will also mention that ring 0 anticheat has still been hijacked and used for ransomware before, because all software can have exploitable flaws, and you aren't fixing that without it being a huge pain in the ass.

[Ilisidi]

And anti cheat is useless in this case anyway, since it's possible to listen to the network stream from a completely different device without doing anything to the device that's running the game.

[TheGoldSaucerFan01]

Its always fun to see how others either blame the player being stalked (hurr durr they dont use the most shittiest block system known to man (they use it) )

Or say erm we cant have anti cheat system because xyz.

This is exactly while SE doesnt really bother to do anything since the army of ''MUH MULTIMINION DABLOONS COMPANY'' protectors have to either blame others or say nothing can be done.

[BigCheez]

Anticheat usually runs on either ring 3, where applications run, or ring 0, which is the most tightly controlled part of the entire system and the core of the OS. I will also mention that ring 0 anticheat has still been hijacked and used for ransomware before, because all software can have exploitable flaws, and you aren't fixing that without it being a huge pain in the ass.

It doesn't matter what access the anticheat has. It matters what the anticheat is doing. I feel like the obsession with anticheat running at kernal level is a bit of a "can't see the forest for the trees" moment.

Genshin is the only notable case that I can think of in which anticheat has been used to create a security exploit. Pointing at this as if it's a common occurance despite most games having secure kernal level anticheat with zero issues is a bit of a red herring.

And anti cheat is useless in this case anyway, since it's possible to listen to the network stream from a completely different device without doing anything to the device that's running the game.

This is true. In this case it's simply the client being sent data that they shouldn't be sent.

I think anticheat is a worthwhile separate discussion though.

[Bubert]

Its always fun to see how others either blame the player being stalked (hurr durr they dont use the most shittiest block system known to man (they use it) )

Or say erm we cant have anti cheat system because xyz.

This is exactly while SE doesnt really bother to do anything since the army of ''MUH MULTIMINION DABLOONS COMPANY'' protectors have to either blame others or say nothing can be done.

Blacklisting someone means that their character together with all their alt characters will be gone from your sight. They won’t be able to interact with you, they won’t be able to access your house, they are not even able to interact with you in duties if you get matched with them nor join your PF groups. Yoshi P literally erases them from your existence. The rest falls to a player to protect themselves.

If those players you speak of are using the blacklist feature then explain how are they still getting stalked? A stalker can make a couple of new accounts, but you all forget that they are locked from entering other main cities in game at early levels, nor they can send you tells! Unless they use public chat, but then again you can blacklist them again. Something with ya’ll stories doesn’t add up to me.

And if you spill your real name, surname, address, love life to Ffxiv members outside the game and they decide to stalk you then it’s not SE’s responsibility, it’s yours!

[Kaurhz]

It doesn't matter what access the anticheat has. It matters what the anticheat is doing. I feel like the obsession with anticheat running at kernal level is a bit of a "can't see the forest for the trees" moment.

Genshin is the only notable case that I can think of in which anticheat has been used to create a security exploit. Pointing at this as if it's a common occurance despite most games having secure kernal level anticheat with zero issues is a bit of a red herring.



This is true. In this case it's simply the client being sent data that they shouldn't be sent.

I think anticheat is a worthwhile separate discussion though.

I do think both matter equally, as a lot of kernal anti-cheats can be notoriously annoying with certain system configurations. BattlEye can be like this, and it's annoying more than anything. So yeah, I do think there's a legitimate concern around what access it has, in addition to what it can do. Especially when there are a fair few anti-cheats that will remain installed on system, even when you uninstall the game. ACE was known for this with Delta Force, and would conflict with other anti-cheat applications even after uninstalling

Genshin is the most notable, simply by virtue that it was a ransomware (and a massive game at that). But there have still been problems... ESEA had an issue where they deployed a bitcoin miner, SFV also installed a hidden rootkit on PCs. These are honestly enough to make people skeptical enough, and then realistically you do have to ask the question that if SE cannot develop a blacklist QoL feature that doesn't result in them communicating things to the client (that frankly should not), then you really do have to remain curious on what stock you're willing to put onto an anti cheat.

It doesn't need to be a common occurrence either, it just needs to have that risk factor, which is massive when something has kernal access.

[Aidorouge]

Its not that invasive. People panic over it

It's not "panicking" to point out Square-Enix's gross incompetence with security programming that is openly on display with the blacklist alone. It's a "red flag" not an "oopsie".

Trusting this same company to have kernel access to our computers is insanity, especially when we know for a fact that this community has deranged bad actors, hence why we have had 3 stalking mods already. I'd rather SE not empower/enable those bad actors further by allowing them the possibility of doing truly serious damage the moment they find another vulnerability in Square-Enix's garbage code.

[Alicie]

Its not that invasive. People panic over it

Anticheat can't be added into a paid product afterwards, SE will have to deal with refunds and legal issues, on top of mass player exodus. That's not the point, the point is, just rollback blacklist to it's previous state before you can come with proper implementation, if ever.