Official Statement: Regarding Mod Usage and Culture

[Oizen]

I give it a week until we have more modder drama

[Y2K21]

I give it a week until we have more modder drama

This is continued modder drama, so its still at 0 days.

[Oizen]

This is continued modder drama, so its still at 0 days.

You know what I mean. There are like 5 different mare forks to kill now

[ZephyrMenodora]

Hahahahaha its exactly what i said, Money speaks like always, it clearly was because of the possibility to mod Ingamestore Shit and SHOW it to others which had to spend Money, it is exactly how i said it, i love it and with the increased server cost prices etc even if he said they dont wanna increase Sub Prices, wait for it, it still will happen sooner or later

They are running a business, and players aren't entitled to things they designated as cash shop items for free. I suppose it doesn't matter if it's on your own computer and no one else can see it, but in situations where you get to walk around in the items for free and others can see it like Mare, that's an issue.

The statement was sensible and well thought out. There are realities, as a business owner, that costs of doing business rise every year and you can't always charge your clients any more than you have 10 years ago. You seem entitled.

[Sunhwapark]

Soft launching the concept of a sub fee increase.

[Shialan]

B: As long as you don’t post screenshots of your modded character on social media (especially NSFW ones), SE won’t take action

People can still do that if they remove the watermark and STOP USING FF XIV AND SE RELATED HASHTAGS.

Most of the time, one can't even tell where a picture with a modded character was taken. Sure, everyone knows that this is a FF XIV character, but without hard confirmation through the hashtags, there is still enough plausible deniability.

[Haru304]

It's actually, surprisingly, feasible to launch a cease and desist to take action against a single mod used by hundreds of thousands of people, that has been normalised, in part due to a lack of moderation concerning the overt use and announcement of mods.

There are still plenty of methods to do exactly what the mod permitted, along with groups running forks of an unscrupulous, 'fans of the playground' persuasion, right at this very moment - because the prospect of actually moderating folk player by player, is a pretty huge undertaking. I see a lot of 'f* around and find out' in these comment threads, but the reality is, there are very few moderators pro-actively cracking down on these materials in-game without being lead directly by the nose... and I'm not talking about 'guy wants a better beard', we all know what I'm talking about.

[Johners]

I’m finding these semi-regular Yoshi-P Disappointed Dad moments rather condescending and his stance is beyond naive. It has become apparent that a portion of the player base will continue to not only push the boundary that is generously drawn, but also actively crossing it. Since this post has gone out, there’s already been people posting the adult screenshots onto mainstream platforms with the bare minimum censor bars. If that doesn’t qualify as an obvious abuse of the (mis)placed trust, then I don’t what does qualify.

Firstly, while I am in charge of FFXIV, I am also a PC gamer, and have been for many years. I've spoken about this multiple times in the past, but my own personal stance regarding mods─that I do tolerate them─has not changed. In the past twenty or so years, I've seen numerous positive examples of games with fan-made mods that expand upon existing gameplay.

While I appreciate the honesty of his preference of PC gaming, he needs to separate his personal stance from what is needed to equitably run a cross-platform multiplayer game. Square Enix actively chose to publish A Realm Reborn on PC and PS3 before eventually expanding that support to PS4, PS5 and Xbox Series consoles. There’s also the macOS version of the game and while it could be modded, the community hasn’t stepped up for this release.

The “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that Square Enix keep trying to sustain, which seems solely on Yoshi-P’s shoulders at this point, fundamentally fails the PlayStation and Xbox player base. More importantly, you can have PC specific features in a multi-platform game WITHOUT mod support. That usually entails proper support for ultrawide aspect ratios, all three upscaling technologies (DLSS, FSR, XeSS), and low latency input technologies such as NVIDIA Reflex.

Maybe console players should write to the Microsoft and Sony if this doesn’t change. I’m sure the companies that make billions from walled gardens wouldn’t want to lose players over moderation issues in one game on their stores. Likewise, I’m sure Square Enix wouldn’t want to risk losing the entire console install base over this either. This is just an idea but it’s not like there isn’t track record of games being changed universally due to mainstream store fronts wanting to be low risk.

World first raiders have also been let down as well. They used to recognise the top teams and verify the kills. It wasn’t much but it was some community management. PvPers still get that at least despite those game modes also being filled with cheaters and win traders.

I’d love to see Square Enix do some actual community management here. Sometimes that does involve being the “bad cop”. In avoiding conflict with the players, which is a recurring theme of these statements, it’s only causing other rifts. Take ownership of the situation, moderate the game in a way that reflects the reality of being a cross-platform release, and actually take steps to address long standing quality of life problems.

• Having to constantly sign into the official launcher unless you’re on Xbox is annoying. Why isn’t there proper OAuth for PlayStation and Steam? Why isn’t there a remember password/save login option for Windows and Mac standalone versions?
• Why do we need multiple third-party tools/websites for appropriate battle analysis? The duty recorder is very limited. No, not all parsing/logging is bad and you can absolutely implement that in a way that empowers players for extremes etc while also protecting those just enjoying normal mode duty finder content.
• Why are crafters and gatherers rewarded for using tools for automation? Some of this is just botting but equally, why can’t I have longer crafting macros?

This modding discourse is rather tired but it does need addressing and there’s some necessary evil that has to happen for the resolution to be reached. Leaving legitimate players, regardless of platform, at a disadvantage due to largely hands off moderation of all third-party tools is not the solution.

There are two paths that should be taken at this point. The first option is to implement official modding support which is something that can be done on PlayStation and Xbox. I won’t include the Switch 2 into this discussion as that release is only speculation at this point. The second option is actually moderating the game in line with the terms of service we already accepted to play the game.

[Asari5]

great statement.

while he said pretty much the same stuff in the past this one feels clearer and more to the point.

he also took the chance to hint at a few things. 8.0 sooner than people think? more freedom in the choice of gear - glamrestrictions?

im not gonna say ff14 is suddenly perfect but this statement for sure hit the right spot for me.

thank you yoshida

[Themarvin]

I'm not gonna summarize, he wants us to read it so let's read it properly

https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...5eb456d2183251


I normally come here and annoy the people on the forums with circular logic and placing various degrees of intricate bait, but I'll say something fr this time: This is a completely logical, sensible statement that makes a lot of sense, and I completely understand where Yoshi P is coming from. There are other issues that people can discuss like customization options being lacking and other stuff, but the fact of the matter is that Yoshi P had his back to the wall. The last thing I want is Visa or Mastercard sticking their dirty hands in this game and forcing us all to install some stupid kernel-level anticheat.

ik how this thread ends but let's see how civil we can keep it for now

That is his way of looking it and remember he say from a personal opinion, and not from the game or SE's guidelines, and also strongly pointing out, if you get caught, it is not his or SE's responsibility either, if losing account and in some cases legal actions as well.

Am just pointing it out, that does not inflict with my personal opinions either, I think mods is a great thing as long as you do not step on anyone's toes in a figure of speech.

I am also for, that mods should be for all platforms including xbox and playstation, and that the mods should be approved of by SE, to make it work those ways, you can see games like Baldurs Gate 3, where you literally inside the game can add and install various mods before loading a saved game or starting up a new campaign.

Some kind alike in those directions would be an epic move of SE to go down the road like that, and increase the equality for all platforms playing on the same servers, being in the same FCs's, same Linkshells... usual suspects at whatever place in the game.