At this point will FFXIV collapse if all mods and third party tools disappear?

[Shurrikhan]

And even ACT is arguably only needed by one player per static, if that. Beyond that it's just a helpful individual learning tool, rather than a way to check where a group's strategy can be revised on review of a pull-log (or whether the current strat would be able to make it ahead of enrage or would need to be greedier, though such considerations are rarer these days).

[Alleluia]

I'd bet the majority of the playerbase doesn't even know mods are a thing that can happen. So... no.

[fulminating]

I don't think so. People who use mods is a very small percentage of player base despite what people in this forums says. Even the people who uses it will shrug and continue playing without them. You also should count the people who plays on consoles, which cannot use mods even if they want. I would say only very small mount will actually quit if they can't mod.

ffxiv active playerbase according to a quick google is roughly 0 -

One of the simple tweak plugins has 3.3 million downloads, chat bubbles half a million, unsure on mare but going off how regularly people have it in their adventure plate probably somewhere of that order.

Taking a modest 50,000 as active users and a generous 1,000,000 as active players, that's still 1 in 20 or 5% minimum who use mods. I wouldn't be at all surprised if it was 1 in 5 or 20% or as high as 1 in 3 or 33.3% using a more realistic set of values.

Of course I don't know how central this is to their enjoyment of the game, but it definitely looks like everyone involved including SE is playing with fire.

[Syln]

I mean if mods were fully endorsed by squeenix i would be playing right now.

[Minifie]

The problem is repeatable content

Say you are a person who started any earlier than mid ShB so barring any very out of left field “I don’t start ShB till I have every eureka relic” this group has totally caught up on the MSQ, the MSQ aside (eden, coils, ShB job story etc) and has probably dabbled in most casual content to an extent (eureka, Bozja, fishing, ishgard restoration)

For this group of players (which also includes anyone who started later and plays more than 2 hours a day) what repeatable content did EW offer that encourages them to log on more than 2 days after the patch, criterion/variant died on release due to a lack of reward structure and variant is basically just another dungeon with a fake illusion of choice, EO is Just a third reskin of POTD with nothing unique and unlike the other 2 is very new person unfriendly due to how overscaled 1-30 is, island sanctuary automates itself and even before that is basically vanilla gathering for people who never levelled the gatherers. Hell they even integrated the trial story into the MSQ so we don’t get a sorrow of werlyt style story this expansion

What are these players who genuinely want to play supposed to do in EW, as a legacy player this has been the worst content drought since legacy itself and that is a very very low bar to clear considering legacy didn’t have any content

Ah okay I get your argument, you are after INCREDIBLY specific content niche and if it isn't met the whole thing is bad. Unsub is the goal there, honestly, since the game isn't offering the thing you want.

[VelKallor]

At this point will FFXIV collapse if all mods and third party tools disappear?

No.

FF 14 has a long way to go, can manage without them.

[Supersnow845]

Ah okay I get your argument, you are after INCREDIBLY specific content niche and if it isn't met the whole thing is bad. Unsub is the goal there, honestly, since the game isn't offering the thing you want.

I would love a diagram of the mental gymnastics required to get that response out of the comment I made

[Zeastria]

Regardless of your opinion on mods, you cannot deny the fact that mods exist for a reason.
The need for mods pretty much shows that there is a desire for improvement/change!.

Some ppl use mods bc of disability, and their only way to even play this game is by using mods to help them.

[Jokerz_93]

Uhm…
There are really cool stuffs if someone knows how to brows by their interest.
I’d tell to you to check on XIV Archive and if NSFW stuffs bother you just uncheck the option.

Modding is also used by comm to enchant their experience.
Game devs, all of game devs not only CBU3’s one work with limitation…a lot especially if they are working on an old MMO who must run on a wide range of different systems.
That’s fair but if someone has a god-like build and they like to play the game, why the can’t have the possibility to go further?
There are mods that enchants the texture definition of hairs for example or mods that upscale the normals eyes textures and mods that upscale the resolution of in game armours/items.
They are easy cool stuffs to do and try, to be fair.

How many of you like tattoos?
It’s a pity that the game has no option for them, beside the things you can affix to your chara’d face in the editor.
Also, VFX mods are a thing you should check too.
There are so many mods that are unrelated to the NSFW scenario which are made just to make the game feel more modern.
Of course you don’t have to use them.
You can choose and whatever is your choice it never has to diminish and disrespect the work behind them.
Mods are not a kick in CBU3’s face.
They are an helping hand.

For the raiding part.
It is true that there are some cheats out there that helps people in clearing contents.
Surely those plugins were made by the intent the amplify the audience within the “hardcore” player base.
They are made with the intent to help people with disabilities.
Cactbot helps who lacks of focus.
XIV combos helps who has difficulties to press 1-2-3.
Zoom hacks and AoE detectors helps to build strategies.
But, as for the things are now, the most of Hardcore raiders don’t use any of them and if they used them and those plugins were removed from the game it would be a drop in the ocean.
The big fact is if ACT would be removed.
Once you have learned the fight it’s just a matter of get gud and repeat the same skills in the same order.
Once you leaned it the only thing left to do is to go high in the chart, a chart that is unofficial and run by this bad guy known as FFXIV Logs.

ACT doesn’t provide any help in game.

If plugins were removed, indeed a lot of raiders would quit and this would be because there would be nothing left for those raiders to play with.
The fun is to reach the 99/100 and to know “I’m above the avarege”, the fights are just a part of it.

I’m a mid-core raider.
I’ve used all the plugins/cheats for the sake of knowledge.
I got my 99s just using Party Icons and Bubble chats.
Now, a tier later, I’m even tired to open up ACT and I can tell you that the only way to know the worth of something is when you dive your hands into that dirty mud and feel with your own sense how it looks like.
The rest is just bla bla bla…nosenses.

[TheNight]

Can we have a conversation about this where people don't pretend that discord is what the Dev's mean?

That isn't the point of my post though? I said Discord is not ToS-violating. The point is that the developers are exploiting free labor from the community, and without Discord servers sharing information and creating hubs for socializing, a lot of players would have quit by now, and cotent like BA will be truly dead.