Some Final Fantasy XIV players like to say that the MMORPG has a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy toward mods. While technically verboten under the strict terms of the game’s user agreement, Square Enix has mostly been content to look the other way as long as the mods aren’t interfering with the overall health and integrity of the game. But last week, a plugin for Final Fantasy XIV called Mare Synchronos was taken down by its creator after receiving a letter from Square Enix’s lawyers. The crackdown came as a surprise to some, while others felt like players had left Square Enix with no choice but to take action. And reading between the lines of a new blog post from Final Fantasy XIV director Naoki “Yoshi-P” Yoshida, that’s essentially what happened.
Normally, mods in Final Fantasy XIV are only visible to the player using them, but Mare Synchronos, created by modder DarkArchon, made it so that any changes to a person’s avatar or other parts of the MMORPG would be visible to everyone else using the plugin. Sometimes there were tens of thousands of players using Mare Synchronos at the same time. Using Syncshells to coordinate mods, players could effectively create opt-in shadow servers within the larger game where they could do all sorts of things Final Fantasy XIV doesn’t normally allow.
It gave players complete control over how they looked in the game. It was great for role-playing. And it also seemingly drew increasingly unwanted attention from Square Enix, as some players reportedly used it to access items from the paid microtransaction shop for free or render NSFW versions of their avatar and then share them on social media. Some are even joking that an infamous billboard from years ago advertising a Final Fantasy XIV beach party marked the beginning of the end for this aspect of the game.
The new August 27 post from Yoshida reads like something he was really hoping to avoid having to write. It starts by stressing his personal affinity for modding—”I’ve seen numerous positive examples of games with fan-made mods that expand upon existing gameplay”—and that he doesn’t see the point of trying to hassle individuals about their mod usage—”I personally see no reason to track down or investigate gamers for the general use of mods.” But he also believes mods should be “for personal use only” and lays out a cardinal rule for modding within Final Fantasy XIV: “that their style of gameplay does not infringe upon others, and that they do not negatively impact the core game, its services, or intended game design…”
These are the principles that apparently led Square Enix to ultimately take Mare Synchronos offline over three years after it was first released. Yoshida distinguishes two examples of mod usage in the real world. One has two players encountering each other in the game. The first has rewards from an Ultimate raid they completed, while the second didn’t have time to complete the raid and so modded the rewards onto their character. If that second player’s mods aren’t visible to the first player, there’s no real issue for Yoshida. But once those mods are visible, it becomes a big problem, especially in a handful of particularly egregious scenarios.
Are gooners the reason real FFXIV banned Mare?
One includes players using mods to obtain paid items from the FFXIV Online Store. “Some may say that Square Enix is to blame for trying to make money by demanding that players spend extra on optional items,” writes Yoshida. “We operate our servers and data centers twenty-four hours a day, three-hundred-sixty-five days a year with the hope that our players can enjoy a reliable gaming experience. Currently, global inflation is taking its toll at a rapid pace, driving up server electricity costs, the cost of land, and even the price of servers themselves. We do not want to increase subscription fees for players, if at all possible—but keeping our game running requires sufficient income. If we start creating a deficit, FFXIV may no longer be able to operate. This is an example of damage dealt to the services we provide.”
The other is using mods to generate character lewds (you can search “FFXIV Gposer” on any social media platform for examples). “Let’s consider another theoretical mod: one that displays your character entirely naked,” he continues. “If this presentation is displayed only on the user’s screen, that might fall into the category of personal use and responsibility. (Bear in mind that this is my personal interpretation, and not a discussion of whether that behavior is right or wrong.) However, if the user posts a screenshot of their naked character publicly on social media, FFXIV itself may be subject to legal measures by regulators in certain countries.”
While not pointing to a recent censorship campaign against NSFW games on storefronts like Steam and itch.io directly, the director says laws moderating content are also a concern. “These laws are there to protect minors and for a variety of other reasons, but the fact remains that they are tangibly becoming stricter,” Yoshida writes. “We have a duty to provide our services in adherence to the laws of all countries where FFXIV is available, and if we are unable to do so, the distribution of our game can be prohibited.”
“Man’s out here begging people to shut the fuck up,” was one fan’s takeaway on the FFXIV subreddit. Another was more blunt: “TL:DR Stop posting your character’s dick on Twitter.” While many players are glad to see the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy being unofficially made official, the collateral damage of Mare being taken offline remains. Role-play groups that weren’t necessarily engaged in any of the offending behaviors that Yoshida directly points to have essentially had their entire reason for playing FFXIV nuked from orbit. Even if those fans only make up a fraction of the MMORPG’s overall player base, it cements the loss of some of the game’s most vibrant communities, at least for now.
