On Monday, a Japanese Closing Fantasy 14 raid workforce was the primary on the earth to defeat The Omega Protocol (Final), a grueling endgame boss struggle that was just lately added to the MMO. Every week later, they’re the topic of the MMO’s greatest controversy, their achievements having been stripped by the sport’s developer, who known as their use of third-party UI mods “extremely disappointing.” (opens in new tab)
Shortly after publishing a stern response to accusations {that a} Japanese raid workforce “cheated” through the use of third-party mods of their world first Omega Protocol kill, Sq. Enix revoked the achievement and titles from all eight players. (opens in new tab)
“This can be very disappointing for me personally to see this commotion surrounding third-party instruments as soon as once more within the wake of what occurred with Dragonsong’s Reprise (Ultimate) (opens in new tab),” Yoshida wrote within the submit. “As the person who’s entrusted with full supervision over [FF14], it’s my duty to enact countermeasures and police the usage of these instruments, in addition to educate individuals to not use some of these third-party instruments—that is particularly unlucky once I, as a gamer, am cheering on everybody who’s studying this content material by trial and error and placing within the effort to clear.”
Yoshida reiterated that any use of mods, or “third-party instruments” is forbidden in FF14, and stated that, “if the presumption is that this content material shall be tackled and cleared with the usage of third-party instruments, then any motive to develop high-difficulty battle content material appears to be misplaced.”
Even earlier than Sq. Enix punished the raid workforce, the director stated that if its investigations did show they used third-party mods, “I, on the very least, won’t acknowledge that workforce because the true World First.”
The Omega Protocol (Final) scandal — briefly
- FF14’s patch 6.31 launched final week with The Omega Protocol (Final), a tougher model of an current struggle made for the sport’s top-tier gamers.
- As is common with Final-level raids, the unofficial World Race for Charity stream (opens in new tab) began to trace and establish the world’s first kill.
- On Monday morning, the raid workforce, Unnamed_, posted screenshots of their kill and it shortly circulated across the FF14 neighborhood.
- A couple of hours later, an unlisted YouTube video (opens in new tab) was posted displaying one of many gamers utilizing a UI mod (particularly one which permits you to zoom the digital camera out to see the boss enviornment).
- The video sparked debate over the validity of Unnamed_’s world first kill. Folks started posting memes that depict the “zoom hack” from the attitude of the moon. Most of the memes nod to FF14’s latest, moon-related enlargement.
- On account of the video, the workforce was disqualified from the World Race and, as a result of Sq. Enix’s punishment, has had its kill wiped from FFLogs (opens in new tab), a preferred website that ranks boss kill knowledge (satirically gathered by way of groups utilizing a mod).
The time has come for you and yours to clear TOP pic.twitter.com/tmdywX1NGGJanuary 31, 2023
“That is one small step for man, one large leap for…””Uhhhhh Houston. You will not consider what I am seeing proper now.” pic.twitter.com/U6fkGWQJ7rJanuary 31, 2023
It is nonetheless unclear who owns the YouTube account that uploaded the video. Considered one of Unnamed_’s members, Feuer E’, who noticed the raid via Discord screenshare, claims (opens in new tab) the channel belongs to them, however that the account was hacked and the video was uploaded by another person. The channel’s identify interprets to “Divine Judgement” and was created on January 27, two days earlier than the video was posted.
Many individuals within the FF14 neighborhood have pointed out (opens in new tab) how widespread it’s for groups to make use of mods when attempting at a world-first raid. Very like high-end raiders in World of Warcraft, FF14 gamers use UI mods to assist visualize and observe boss mechanics to allow them to concentrate on enjoying their characters effectively. It is principally assumed that everybody is utilizing them at this degree of play, regardless of it being towards the sport’s ToS. Normally no one uploads a video displaying them breaking the principles, although.
Frosty, the creator of the World Race Tracker, wrote in a response to the news (opens in new tab) that the verification course of has at all times relied on official achievement monitoring posted to The Lodestone (opens in new tab), communication from Sq. Enix, and their private verification of screenshots and VODs.
Frosty says that any longer, they may now not observe groups who clear the raids. “It’s exterior my talents to provide full integrity when all I’ve to base the clear off of is a screenshot and any knowledge despatched to different web sites.” They inspired groups to offer VODs for “the extent of legitimacy the neighborhood is in search of.”
One of many members of Unnamed_ posted a screenshot (opens in new tab) of a dialog with a FF14 GM detailing their punishment. In a translation of the messages (opens in new tab) that I’ve verified is right, the GM says, “Though you didn’t commit any dishonest straight your self, you continue to took benefit of that dishonest, and due to this fact profited from it.” They clarify that they will not ban the participant however that their achievement and titles shall be eliminated. The dialog ends with the GM politely asking them to delete the daggers they obtained from the raid “as quickly as potential.”
Japanese translations for this story had been offered by Kazuma Hashimoto (opens in new tab).
