Yoshi-P's Response To The FFXIV "Stalker" Mod Is Bizarre And SE Has Painted Themselves Into A Corner With Addons

But hey, there's a Live Letter coming...so there's that.

Michael Byrne
By Michael Byrne, Editor in Chief Posted:
Share:

ffxiv_vexed_emote_feat

It has been a tad over two weeks since changes made to the Final Fantasy XIV (FFXIV) blacklist features gave a third-party addon the ability to reveal player IDs to users. This essentially allowed the mod to locate all the alt characters associated to someone who blacklisted you. That, in turn, saw the community dub the mod the "stalker" mod since nefarious actors could use the mod to harass your alts after you'd blocked them on your main character.

Since then, the MMORPG's team has literally been silent on the situation, which certainly didn't help anything.

Producer/Director Yoshi-P has finally broken that silence in an official forum post, but his response has almost no teeth and fully displays the corner Square Enix has painted themselves into when it comes to third-party mods.

After acknowledging the mod in question and providing details on what the mod can be used to reveal, a segment of the internal player ID according to the post, Yoshi-P continues by pointing out that other information such as credit card information and personal account details cannot be accessed by third-party tools.

What is the team doing about the current situation? Apparently, and bizarrely, still discussing options internally. Options that apparently include "Requesting that the tool in question be removed and deleted," or "pursuing legal action."

That's it.

Basically, pretty please stop.

The post continues by reiterating the team's stance on mod and discourages players from sharing how to use them. He closes with, "We will continue to take a firm stance against their usage."

If by "firm stance" he means that the team has always SAID they shouldn't be used, fine. They've been consistent on that message. However, I wouldn't exactly describe the "wink wink nudge nudge" nature of the team's stance as "firm." Addons have always been that "what we don't know won't hurt us as long as you aren't public about it" item.

That stance finally puts SE in their painted corner fully now and I'm honestly amazed it hasn't happened earlier.

yoship_stalker_mod_response

Asking someone to delete the mod is fine, but it really does nothing. The current version gets deleted, but the cat is out of the bag for anyone (including the original mod's creator) to just create another one and be less public about it. Threatening legal action may discourage others from creating similar addons, but what legal action can you actually pursue? You'd have to go to court and deal with the defense claiming that they aren't doing anything to "crack" into data they shouldn't have. The mod literally pulls info the client leaves exposed, just as many mods do.

If I have to defend myself in this situation, I'd literally ask the court why SE isn't taking ALL mod creators to court for violating TOS if that is really the only thing I've done "wrong."

So what can SE do? Well, first they could change what THEIR client shows to potential addons. However, that's just a band aid for the current issue. A more permeant fix is to either fully embrace addons and provide official support/approval of them, or start aggressively going after mod usage.

The first option seems like something the team just doesn't want to manage. That second option comes with pissing off a wide portion of your game's audience that uses certain mods for totally "valid" reasons. RP features, quality-of-life and accessibility mods, and other benign mods do provide "net goods" in the community. Would those players stick around if they were fully taken away and not added to the game proper by SE? I don't know. That second option probably comes with the game monitoring player PCs more, too...something that many aren't too keen to allow for perfectly valid privacy/security reasons.

One thing is for sure, Square Enix made this bed and now (finally) has to sleep in it and will likely have to make a tough decision one way or the other soon.

Until then, the next Live Letter stream is scheduled. Expect patch 7.2 news on February 7th at 3 AM PST.

Share:
Got a news tip? Contact us directly here!

In this article: Square Enix, Final Fantasy XIV, FFXIV.

About the Author

Michael Byrne
Michael Byrne, Editor in Chief

Mike “Magicman” Byrne has been a part of the MMOBomb family for years and serves as the site’s current Editor-in-Chief. His love for MMOs and gaming in general has led him to covering games for numerous gaming websites including Gamebreaker TV and XIV Nation where he proudly displays his fanboy flag for FFXIV:ARR.

More Stories by Michael Byrne

Discussion (0)


Read Next

You May Enjoy