Final Fantasy 14’s Latest Raid Sparks Controversy as World First Winners Accused of Cheating
What should have been a celebration of the group that cleared the most challenging content possible in Final Fantasy 14: Endwalker has turned into controversy as the first team to clear the latest FF14 raid was accused of cheating I got
The exception is… isn’t that also kind of cheating? Depends on who you ask.
The gist is that FF14 patch 6.31 was released last week, including the new super-hard version of the existing raid, the Omega Protocol. An unnamed group took the crown on Monday by posting a winning screenshot. unreleased video One of our members started circulating by showing us how to use the mod to zoom out the camera much more than usual. There are also some less noticeable UI mods that appear in videos that track various elements of combat.
Per the FF14 terms of service, no mods of any kind are allowed within the game.Anonymous was subsequently disqualified from the race and the kill was revoked both in game and by popular logging sitesIn addition, there was a lengthy statement Posted on FF14 official bulletin board FF14 director Naoki Yoshida reiterated Square Enix’s stance on third-party tools (no one allowed at all) and that unspecified penalties apply for their use. The post further condemns the recording and distribution of certain in-game cutscenes and other non-recordable footage.
“The Ultimate Raid series is the most difficult battle content in FFXIV, and we will release this content after testing that it can be cleared without the use of third-party tools,” Yoshida wrote. If the premise is that this content will be tackled and cleared using third party tools, then the reason for developing high difficulty battle content seems lost.As a gamer, it seems to me that It’s very difficult to understand what it is, what does it mean to race to be the first to clear with a plethora of third-party tools.
“…if the investigation reveals unauthorized use of third-party tools, at least I would not accept that the team is truly World First.”
If you’re unfamiliar with FF14, this looks like a legitimate cheater crackdown game, but the reality is more complicated. In MMORPGs with raid content, including FF14, the terms 3rd party tools, mods, addons, etc. are actually very common. Most high-end players use mods to track boss mechanics, customize the UI to make it more usable, and make the game more user-friendly. FF14’s rival, World of Warcraft, is a game with a similar “world’s first” race around the most difficult content, an active high-end raid where everyone publicly uses dozens of mods in his scene. I have. FF14’s scenes are less prominent, but it’s still no secret in the community that many people playing at the top level use them. They just don’t broadcast its use. keep happening.
But with that being said, it’s also true that given the crackdown, there’s likely a lot of teams trying to clear content without using mods at all. It’s hard to say exactly how common is is across FF14. Some mods (such as the aforementioned small UI tools) are fine, but Some have suggested that the camera zoom is over the line. This is an awkward situation, not helped by the fact that there are really no anti-cheat measures to prevent this.
The community will probably never reach consensus, but modding in FF14 may continue unless Square Enix’s crackdown becomes severe enough to affect regular players en masse. That said, aggressively snatching away such awards could discourage serious world first hopefuls from attempting such things in the future.
Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. you can find her on her twitter @duck valentine.
