What ought to have been a celebration of a gaggle clearing essentially the most difficult doable content material in Remaining Fantasy 14: Endwalker has became controversy, because the very first crew to clear the newest FF14 raid has been accused of dishonest.
Besides…it is also type of not dishonest? Relying on who you ask.
The gist is that final week, FF14 patch 6.31 launched, together with a brand new, super-hard model of an present raid: The Omega Protocol. A typical race to be the primary raid crew on the planet to clear it ensued, with a gaggle known as Unnamed_ taking the crown on Monday by posting screenshots of their victory. Nonetheless, not lengthy after, an unlisted video started to flow into displaying certainly one of their members utilizing a mod to zoom the digicam out a lot farther than it usually ought to be capable of do, presumably to get a greater view on the mechanics. There are additionally some less-obvious UI mods displayed within the video monitoring varied components of the combat.
Per FF14’s phrases of service, mods of any form should not permitted within the recreation. Unnamed_ has since been disqualified from the race and had its kill revoked both in-game and by a popular logging site. Moreover, a prolonged assertion was printed on the official FF14 information board from FF14 director Naoki Yoshida, reiterating Sq. Enix’s stance on third-party instruments (none in any way permitted) and that unspecified punishments could be enacted for utilizing them. The put up moreover condemns the recording and circulation of sure in-game cutscenes and different footage that is not supposed to be recordable.
“The final word raid sequence is essentially the most troublesome battle content material inside FFXIV, and we launch this content material after testing that it may be cleared with out using any third-party instruments,” Yoshida wrote. “Nonetheless, if the presumption is that this content material might be tackled and cleared with using third-party instruments, then any motive to develop high-difficulty battle content material appears to be misplaced. It’s very troublesome for me to know as a gamer what the which means behind utilizing quite a few third-party instruments to compete to clear first could be.
“…If the illicit use of third-party instruments is made clear via our investigations, I, on the very least, won’t acknowledge that crew because the true World First.”
If you happen to’re unfamiliar with FF14, this reads like a recreation rightfully cracking down on cheaters, however the actuality is far more sophisticated. Third-party instruments, mods, add-ons, no matter you name them, are literally extraordinarily widespread in MMORPGs with raid content material, together with FF14. A big portion of high-end gamers will use mods to trace boss mechanics, customise their UI to be extra useful, or in any other case make the sport extra user-friendly. FF14 rival World of Warcraft, a recreation with comparable “World First” races round its most troublesome content material, has an lively high-end raiding scene the place everybody publicly makes use of dozens of mods – should you’re not, you are dragging the group down. Whereas FF14’s scene is not fairly that pronounced, it is nonetheless not a secret in the neighborhood that many individuals enjoying on the prime ranges are utilizing them. They’re simply not broadcasting that use as a result of, nicely, issues like this hold taking place.
However all that mentioned, it is also true that given the crackdown, it is possible there are a variety of groups attempting to clear the content material with out utilizing mods in any respect. Given the specter of punishment round it, it is exhausting to say exactly how widespread mods are throughout FF14. So throughout the group, participant reactions appear to be cut up between individuals who really feel the ban was justified, and others pissed off that such a harsh punishment was doled out for one thing that they understand as commonplace. Some are suggesting that whereas some mods (such because the aforementioned small UI instruments) are superb, the digicam zoom was what crossed the road. All informed it is a messy state of affairs, unhelped by the truth that there aren’t really any anti-cheat measures stopping this from taking place.
Whereas the group could possible by no means come to a consensus, modding in FF14 is more likely to proceed except Sq. Enix’s crackdown grows extra extreme to the purpose of impacting common gamers en masse. That mentioned, having such a prize actively taken away is more likely to discourage critical world first hopefuls from attempting such a factor sooner or later.
Rebekah Valentine is a information reporter for IGN. You will discover her on Twitter @duckvalentine.