Integrity matters

[Anonemoose]

I recently resubscribed after an extended break, and I’m starting to wonder if that was a mistake. Nothing in this game matters – not individual skill level and certainly not any achievements – and I’m constantly having to walk on eggshells.

Integrity urgently needs to be restored to the game. I know this thread won’t change anything, but these are my thoughts.

I'm splitting this across three posts due to the character limit.

Achievements don’t mean anything

Nobody looks at an Ultimate title or Savage weapon and think “wow, they’re good”, they wonder which plugins they used. Every single world-first race in recent memory has been marred by cheating scandals like zoom hacks, auto-rotation scripts to execute flawless rotations, movement bots and visual overlays for perfect positioning and mechanic execution. These plugins aren’t just restricted to this high-end content either, they are freely available and widely used across all content types, from dungeons to Bozja duels; and can be used to run that content automatically while you sleep.

The same is true for gathering and crafting, with freely available plugins that automate these activities. If the download counts are an indicator, they are widely used. Ishgardian Restoration was and remains heavily botted, but there are far more bots than legitimate players in Cosmic Exploration (which is just a levequest simulator).

PVP has become pointless across all game modes. It continues to be infested with cheaters, hackers, win-traders, queue-sync abusers, and beyond all of this rampant cheating, ranked may as well not exist at all because of the bots and other tactics designed to keep those who do not pay out of the rankings. Much like the rest of the game, plugins to cheat in PVP are freely available and I really hope that people are no longer in denial about the rampant cheating.

Game design incentivizes automation

As the director and producer of the game, the blame ultimately falls squarely on Naoki Yoshida for the design of the game. Over the years, his team has increasingly and lazily relied on absurdly inflated metric grinds to keep subscription numbers active.

Because these grinds reward rare items like mounts and exclusive titles but rely on mindless, deterministic inputs, they serve as open invitations for botting. As a natural consequence of this, everything in this game can now be automated with free plugins. The entire MSQ can be automated with a free plugin, which is supposedly the game’s main attraction.

Market boards across every server are run by crafting and market-sniping bots that undercut legitimate players. Automated “bot trains” farm FATEs, gathering nodes or warp between hunt marks without fear. This can all be done with free plugins.

When the game design rewards raw metric exhaustion over fun and engaging gameplay, of course players will automate it. The result is broken in-game economy where time spent by legitimate players is completely devalued.

[Anonemoose]

Modbeast culture

What started years ago as innocent user interface tweaks has metastasized like a cancer into what we all refer to as “modbeasting”, players who have overhauled their character models, animations and environments into hyper-sexualised or distorted forms using client injectors. Defenders love to say “it’s client-side, it doesn’t hurt you”, but that misses the point entirely. It fractures the shared universe we all inhabit, and entrenches parallel ecosystems and cults of personality that enables and fosters egregious conduct.

There have been many scandals with these types of player, but I don’t think a lot of people realise how deep it goes. It’s far more than just billboards in Texas or X-rated Bluesky and Twitter accounts. There is a scandal currently unfolding whereby the developer and several users of popular “modbeast” tools and assets are under criminal investigation for producing and distributing CSAM from children they met in game and then groomed.

Is this really the sort of culture and conduct we want to encourage and condone? These individuals often hide behind a sexual identity to shield themselves from criticism and have their friends, orbiters and supporters mass report, stalk and harass anybody they disagree with or do not like. If you are ever on the receiving end of that, I feel sorry for you, because the moderation in this game is pathetic.

Moderation is a joke

The most frustrating part as a consumer is the action (or inaction) by the GM team, and the painful nature of interactions with them. Because Square Enix refuses to use any anti-cheat detection, enforcement relies entirely on player reports and public outrage. GMs are unable or unwilling to act on cheating reports (this is instead, apparently handled by a purported “Special Task Force” who, as far as I am aware, have never actually achieved anything), and almost all legitimate players eventually find themselves in Mordion Gaol being penalized for hurting somebodies feelings – but the GMs will never tell you what you supposedly said or did, making it difficult to dispute the penalty or change your behaviour if you did do something wrong. This creates the chilling effect we see in game where nobody interacts with one another, and this is antithetical to an MMO.

Monthly ban-wave lists touting thousands of terminated or suspended accounts are almost entirely RMT throwaways. The actual accounts running bots are free as long as they don’t say anything. High-profile creators get banned for calling somebody a swear word, while others go unpunished for using UI overlays or cheat tools. All while average, ordinary players get swept up by mass reports from a clique over minor disagreements in chat.

[Anonemoose]

Restore Integrity

This is not “how it’s always been” and it’s not “just how MMOs are”.

I don’t want to hear any more excuses on behalf of the billion-dollar company.

I want the game to be designed better, I want anti-cheat implemented, I want cheaters banned and botting exterminated, I want meaningful moderation. I want our level of skill to be rewarded and for our achievements to mean something. I want to be able to interact with others without fear of punishment. I want this MMO to actually be an MMO, and I want this game that I love to do and be better.

[Jeeqbit]

Achievements don’t mean anything

Nobody looks at an Ultimate title or Savage weapon and think “wow, they’re good”, they wonder which plugins they used.

I don't think that; I think the "wow, they're good" thing. It's kinda irrelevant to me if I'm wrong about it. There are plenty of people that do Savage without any of them.

they are freely available and widely used across all content types, from dungeons to Bozja duels; and can be used to run that content automatically while you sleep.

Right but if people are using them for Bozja duels and dungeons then that isn't really normal or remotely necessary for most people.

Ishgardian Restoration was and remains heavily botted, but there are far more bots than legitimate players in Cosmic Exploration (which is just a levequest simulator).

I agree here that, like a lot of SE's achievements, they are too large and repetitive to the point it makes people do this. 500,000 for each class is stupid. I think it should be a grind, but not like that - 50,000 would've worked better and been in line with what I got anyway on the classes I used.

PVP has become pointless across all game modes.

It's not though, because it has series rewards, so there is a point to do it regularly. I rarely come across any problems in PvP. The only suspicious thing I ever see is sometimes getting silenced/stunned when I use my LB, which is very suspicious but I can't always be sure when it's legit and not.

[Anonemoose]

I don't think that; I think the "wow, they're good" thing. It's kinda irrelevant to me if I'm wrong about it.

Fascinating perspective.

Right but if people are using them for Bozja duels and dungeons then that isn't really normal or remotely necessary for most people.

What about the Gold Saucer? What about Ishgardian Restoration? What about Cosmic Exploration? What about crafting? What about gathering? What about Occult Crescent? What about Island Sanctuary? What about the MSQ? What about achievements? What about raids? What about hunts? What about gear? What about relic weapons? What about relic tools? What about custom deliveries? What about beast tribes? What about PVP? What about PVP battlepasses? What about PVP rankings? What about all of Eureka? What about all of Bozja? What about FATEs? What about levelling? What about learning your job? What about combat? What about doing your rotation? What about trials? What about grand company seals? What about gil? What about scrips? What about mounts? What about minions? What about deep dungeons?

All of those things I just listed can be completely automated with free plugins. Is there anything in the game you would consider normal or necessary for most people or are you just missing the point on purpose to be contrarian?

It's not though, because it has series rewards, so there is a point to do it regularly.

You're almost there, just think on it a little bit more.

[Jeeqbit]

All of those things I just listed can be completely automated

Can be. But most people don't. And people generally ignore anyone that does or don't notice it. It's not the massive problem you're making it out to be ie. everyone in my FC isn't automating their gameplay; everyone in a linkshell I'm in isn't automating their gameplay; if these things were the case, then I'd agree.

You're almost there, just think on it a little bit more.

I did and that was the reason for my answer. The series levels make the PvP worthwhile, and when I answered I'd literally just come out of a PvP match where I'd had no problems at all, and I was doing that match to advance my series level.

[Anonemoose]

Can be. But most people don't. And people generally ignore anyone that does or don't notice it. It's not the massive problem you're making it out to be ie. everyone in my FC isn't automating their gameplay; everyone in a linkshell I'm in isn't automating their gameplay; if these things were the case, then I'd agree.

I was going to respond to this but I think your own words speak for themselves.

[MoofiaBossVal]

I wouldn't say that mods are "the" problem with FF14 Ultimates not being that prestigious compared to WoW mythics and its RWF competition.

FF14 is fundamentally less interesting to watch from a strategy perspective. There are rarely if any adds on fights. CC like sleep has been stripped out of the game. The battlefields are always flat circles or squares with no elevation or water. Just this last WoW RWF race, one of the teams on the climatic final boss was leaping off of the platform and diving underwater to evade AoEs and it was very interesting to watch. FF14 doesn't have stuff like Evokers flying to people and then carrying them somewhere else, Warlocks laying down demonic gateways so parties can split and get to different destinations fast, etc. FF14 fights really just boil down to being in the right spot on time. Also, WoW PvE competitive scene is supported by Blizzard. Not the raid RWFs, but those same teams like Method and Liquid also compete in the MDI (5 man dungeon races) which are held at Blizzcon. Square just doesn't do any of that for FF14 PvE so there isn't a reason to care. For the last Mythic+ season, Blizzard did not immediately hand out the top 1% mount rewards and instead spent a few weeks going through the logs and making sure people didn't cheat before handing them out. Etc.

The hack mods is really more about Square not really taking security that seriously. You might have missed it, but last year there was a big drama where someone made a plugin that can automatically scan every player in proximity and then upload that data to a 3rd party website, and through this it could detect alts if someone hadn't exitted the game and restarted the client before logging onto their alt. Not really a big deal since via the WoW armory, Warcraft Logs, and Raider.io you could always look up alts of anyone anyway, but for whatever reason this game has attracted a segment of people of whom I have heard nutty stories about. Anyway, after most of the active playerbase had already been catalogued on this website, only then did Square take action and sent a cease and desist to that modder... and only halfheartedly changed the code which didn't really fix the problem, and then someone else made a replacement mod and website. Square just really doesn't seem to care that much at all.

[justausername]

A lot of this is your opinion. Sure people can 'bot' the content, but for me that doesnt take away the personal achievement of me doing it without those things. If anything it makes me feel MORE accomplished. Like haha I didnt need your 3rd party tool to do this. Neener neener.

a lot of those things have and will be actually added to the game base. Like the one that auto paths to quests... thats gunna be in game for Evercold.

Rotation button reducers? Evolved mode. No its not auto combat. But I dont think as many people as you think use those do. At least not in savage or ultis. If they do their damage is probably pretty cheeks.

And pvp hacks? I dont think that is a plugin. Thats a straight hack. But still I rarely see it. Even if people do, even if i get 3rd in FL I still get my tomes or exp, and season rewards so who cares?

[Anonemoose]

Even if people do ... I still get my tomes or exp, and season rewards so who cares?

Your attitude is a big part of the problem. Believe it or not, some of us actually want accomplishments and participation in the game to matter. It's nice for you that rampant cheating doesn't impact your game experience, but what about the game experience of other people who aren't cheating or automating content? Why should others be forced to accept cheating and automation as a regular, normal thing? How is this even a controversial position to have?