Final Fantasy 14 developers are cracking down on illicit mods

Developers have taken action against two streamers that used mods while playing the MMORPG Final Fantasy 14 live to an audience. Two streamers, Hiroro, and Bagel Goose had their characters placed in an “in-game” jail after they used mods to violate the terms of the service. The active moderation is the latest development that has sparked a larger conversation and anxiety about the use of mods in Square Enix’s popular online game.

Final Fantasy 14 is a bustling online world where players take on high-level, multi-stage raids as teams. While the game continues to receive regular patches, players have taken it upon themselves to create mods that improve aspects of the game like its visuals or quality-of-life features. Mods that enable players to improve the in-game HUD information, such as battle mechanics and damage per second output. This information is used often by top-level players to complete difficult raids.

Mods are in violation of the Terms of Service of the Game. Square Enix is now taking action against Hiroro, Bagel Goose and other streamers for their use of mods. In a VOD, you can see Bagel Goose being sent to Final Fantasy 14 “jail” which is an area called Mordion Gaol where players are sent to talk to a general moderator. From there, the moderator will decide on the specific punishment for the player whether it be a temporary ban, taking away certain items, or so on. Streamer Hiroro was similarly punished, but the VODs have since been scrubbed only leaving screenshots of the enforcement.

Mods, or third party tools, are prohibited in Final Fantasy 14, although many players use them. On May 9, producer and director Naoki Yoshida, published a blog post on the official Final Fantasy 14 website stating that players’ accounts could be suspended or even banned for using mods. Next, the post lists the mods for HUDs. It states that the modification of the UI in order to show additional information was forbidden. It should be mentioned that although the official solution to this issue is being worked on by the developers, the process could take some time.

Yoshida’s blog and the highly visible acts of moderation have sparked a larger conversation about moderation on the platform. Players have often interpreted many of Yoshida’s statements about third party tools as being fine to use so long as players don’t harass people, but now they’re unsure what’s allowed and what isn’t. Additionally, it’s still unclear to many in the community if the developers will start enforcing a stricter ban policy on all mods or just on some. For example, some players use mods for accessibility purposes, like removing particle effects to reduce eye-strain.

Polygon reached out to Square Enix for clarification and will update the article as we hear back.