Popular Final Fantasy 14 Mod GSHADE Trends On Twitter After Developer Adds Malware to Program To “Teach A Lesson”

Naoki Yoshida has made it abundantly clear how he disapproves of the use of third-party tools in Final Fantasy 14. This was brought to light again with the recent Omega Protocol raid. Now, while Yoshi-P himself hasn't addressed the new situation yet, the FFXIV community has been affected by the use of the popular mod, GSHADE. The mod doesn't make the game easier or anything substantial, it's just a simple mod that changes the game's overall aesthetic. A harmless mod, or at least it was until the mod's developer purposefully added malware into the third-party program.

the final message on the feedback discussion channel.
...a "you are running software that may compromise gshade processes" and gshade shutting itself down could have saved all this trouble pic.twitter.com/lnyQvX42fS

— soot 𓅂 𓁹 (6.3 DONE... YEET) (@RaVenZeYs) February 6, 2023

The hidden code inside the program will cause a forced shutdown of a user's computer if GSHADE's files were accessed by a third-party application. Specifically, the program was created to “teach a lesson” to another popular FFXIV modder. Marot--the mod's developer--admitted that they chose a restart because it was “completely harmless” but more noticeable than a quick process kill.

After players were vocally upset–and rightfully so–Marot mentioned that the malware had been removed. Still, this alteration of code made GSHADE and RESHADE go viral on Twitter, and it can only be assumed that this may be the end for Marot’s mod.

Now, as players hurry to delete the program from their computers, some are running into an error that permits the uninstall only AFTER they update to the latest version. For those who are looking to uninstall the program but are having issues, please look to the post below for help.

For those who are uninstalling Gshade and moving back to Reshade, DO NOT just uninstall Gshade! Complete directions are here:https://t.co/R2hv8dOo8C

— M'ista Spot (@Atticflowers1) February 6, 2023