Final Fantasy XIV isn’t messing around anymore. Back in late April, producer and director of the game Naoki Yoshida made a statement regarding trolling. Now, Square Enix once again stepped up to make a statement against more issues within the game: FFXIV mods are unacceptable, and if you’re caught using them you’re going to get sent to an in-game jail.
FFXIV mods statement
Final Fantasy XIV stands as the world’s most popular active MMORPG. In that world exists raids, which have since become insanely popular, to the point people make unofficial “world’s first” races whenever new multi-stage raid missions come up. With these player competitions comes the idea of modding one’s game. Players use mods for their HUD to better keep track of battle mechanics, damage-per-second output, and boss behavior. Such modifications, notably, are not allowed in the game.
Once again, Naoki Yoshida stepped up to tell players off of their bad behaviors. On May 9th, he released a statement redefining third party tools and where the game stands on such modifications. Yoshida acknowledges that because the races are unofficial, they usually limit involvement. However, they’ve done so much as to recognize players who do achieve these goals in the past, and take partial responsibility. In particular, Yoshida stresses:
“But a race should be fair, and it’s our earnest wish that participants don’t use third-party tools.”
Players sent to jail
With the statement came promises that Square Enix would take action against players defying these rules. This came to fruition with FFXIV streamer Hiroro, forcibly sent to the in-game jail while using FFXIV mods. The jail, a dungeon called the Mordion Gaol, isn’t typically available to players outside of a special event. Mordion Gaol is meant to discipline players “without disrupting the gameplay of others.”
Additionally, Hiroro isn’t the only player facing consequences for using FFXIV mods. Streamer Bagel Goose also ended up forced to teleport to jail with visible mods on his screen. Melo, a raidmate of Bagel Goose, stated Bagel Goose received a week-long Twitch suspension due to cheating in a multiplayer game. Hiroro declined to comment further on his jail sentence and consequently deleted any of that footage from Twitch and YouTube.
How long these players stay in jail for seems unclear. Many in the community since pointed out other high-profile players and streamers using mods. Whether Square Enix notices their efforts and go on to ban them or not is yet to be seen. Regardless, Square Enix has made their stance on FFXIV mods quite clear: don’t use them.
Via, Kotaku.
