ffxiv Square Enix on Third-Party Tools in FFXIV Raiding

[ara 11]

In the wake of the Dragonsong’s Reprise World First (WF) race, a new handful of problems has risen to the surface — the use of third party tools.

Third party tools have been widely known to inhabit a gray area within the community in terms of their use. More often than not, third party tools are fairly harmless, allowing people to change the appearance of characters on the clients’ side and are generally unobtrusive to other players. Other, more prominent third-party tools are more questionable, such as the unending debate of using triggers or callouts to aid a party in completing and managing mechanics. 

Earlier today, Yoshida made a statement regarding his stance on third party tools, which coincided with the link to the WF clear video being taken down by Square Enix. For those who are unaware, Neverland’s RDM uploaded a video of their clear from their POV to YouTube that included enhanced information from the fight, from party buffs to debuff trackers and triggers clarifying where you should position yourself for certain mechanics.

At this point in time, it is unclear as to why the copyright claim happened. The community widely speculates it is due to Square Enix finally setting their foot down on third party tools. However, recent developments show that that might not be the case, as elaborated on by popular streamer Arthars. 

Placeholder for tweet 152378504631826432

It is important to note, however, that a VOD from Neverland’s MNK still remains available to watch. 

Public outcry has sparked a debate of whether or not using triggers constitute cheating. There are some who believe that any and all kinds of modifications to the game are considered cheating. On the other hand, there are those who believe creating triggers for mechanics they’ve already seen is no different to having a coach call out mechanics, which many groups already use in the form of 9th or 10th raid members monitoring and aiding their progression. Some even argue that triggers are necessary if they want to claim first place.

Prior to the announcement, a well-known Japanese world progger by the name of Hiroro_FF was sent to GM jail mid-progression for showing his tools during stream. 

Another well-known streamer in the community who goes by BagelGooseFF was also pulled out of prog for similar reasons.

While most of the effects are felt most keenly by the Ultimate community, the ripples extend outside of the boundaries of competitive high-end duties. It has been discovered that PVP rankings have also received a closer look from Square Enix, with numerous confirmed win-traders removed from the Crystalline Conflict ranking in particular. While the situation is different, with win-trading clearly being against the rules, it seems like Square Enix is started to put the pressure on players who break the guidelines and rules.

What do you think about Square Enix's renewed stance on third party tools? Do you think this was the right call or were things just blown completely out of proportion? Let us know down below!
 

[lolblizzard 38]

we can clearly see where the use of those addons have driven wow to.. encounters are designed with those in mind and they make the game unplayable for a vast playercount. they should just stop those "greylines" and put a clear statement for addons to prevent the same mistake wow has made.

[SidonisAntares 290]

One of the things I like best about FFXIV is there are no damage meters unless you use a third party software, which has made the roulette dungeons/raids far less toxic. The game has easily interpretable telegraphs for those abilities they want to be telegraphed, so there's no need to head down the DBM road, and theoretically using 3rd party to do callouts on non-telegraphed abilities could be considered a line not to cross with SQEX.

[Marauder 58]

Personally, having to go through endgame fights a few times to learn the mechs and get used to it is fun for me. Or at least, it's more fun to go into a fight blind and not knowing what to expect instead of getting orders from an addon.

22 hours ago, lolblizzard said:

we can clearly see where the use of those addons have driven wow to.. encounters are designed with those in mind and they make the game unplayable for a vast playercount. they should just stop those "greylines" and put a clear statement for addons to prevent the same mistake wow has made.

I'm actually really in agreement here. Making fights with DBM and Recount in mind has made the fights a little lazy. Not bad, but not as good as they could have been.

[SidonisAntares 290]

4 hours ago, Marauder said:

Personally, having to go through endgame fights a few times to learn the mechs and get used to it is fun for me. Or at least, it's more fun to go into a fight blind and not knowing what to expect instead of getting orders from an addon.

I'm actually really in agreement here. Making fights with DBM and Recount in mind has made the fights a little lazy. Not bad, but not as good as they could have been.

Not so much lazy, but nearly impossible to beat without them because the fights are tuned around the expectation of the majority of the playerbase using them.

[Marauder 58]

19 hours ago, SidonisAntares said:

Not so much lazy, but nearly impossible to beat without them because the fights are tuned around the expectation of the majority of the playerbase using them.

Yeah that's a fair assessment. If they used clear telegraphs it wouldn't be so bad. 

I do really enjoy how Yoshi P in his letter essentially said "Prove you can beat the fight without a crutch." Basically as nice as you can possibly say "git gud" lol.