Naoki Yoshida addresses data mining, mods and other third party tools in Final Fantasy XIV

There is a new notice from Naoki Yoshida on the guidelines for third-party tools (including mods). Final Fantasy XIV The notice also covers rumors of the emulation to find out the latest abandonment, Dragonsong’s Reprise, datamining and the potential of effectively rendering certain mods unnecessary.

The notice formally refers to the use of various third-party tools, which is prohibited according to the terms of use. Yoshida’s comment on this blanket ban is because players asked for some tools to be investigated for possible consideration, but because there are so many tools available and potential uses, including malicious ones, the team decided on a general one ban. And players using tools can have their accounts banned or banned if caught.

However, in the longer term, a number of explanations will be made regarding community feedback on things like mods, as well as the potential dangers of tools from untrustworthy sources. While the team is constantly updating security, mods and other tools may not let players perform malicious acts, but may be able to pull additional information from the servers.

However, Yoshida also acknowledges that players sometimes use mods to, for example, expand the HUD and put more information on the screen to help them enjoy the game. So the team will review the most commonly used tools for this purpose and try to improve the HUD to discourage players from turning to mods. More broadly, improvements like this should really help console gamers.

The topic of data mining and spoilers for upcoming content were also addressed in the long term. Internal sources are suspected to have been leaked and they are investigating. Additionally, Yoshida refutes rumors that there was some sort of mimic that allowed some to discover the new Duty’s progression timeline. For emulation, it would not have been possible to run the server-side data that is not included in patches.

To read the full notice on these topics, go to Final Fantasy XIV.