On Monday, a Japanese Last Fantasy 14 raid group was the primary on this planet to defeat The Omega Protocol (Final), a grueling endgame boss battle that was lately added to the MMO. Every week later, they’re the topic of the MMO’s largest controversy, their achievements having been stripped by the sport’s developer, who referred to as their use of third-party UI mods “extraordinarily disappointing.” (opens in new tab)
Shortly after publishing a stern response to accusations {that a} Japanese raid group “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 (Final) (opens in new tab),” Yoshida wrote within the publish. “As the person who’s entrusted with full supervision over [FF14], it’s my accountability to enact countermeasures and police using 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 mentioned that, “if the presumption is that this content material might be tackled and cleared with using 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 group, the director mentioned that if its investigations did show they used third-party mods, “I, on the very least, won’t acknowledge that group 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 more durable model of an present battle 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 determine the world’s first kill.
- On Monday morning, the raid group, Unnamed_, posted screenshots of their kill and it rapidly circulated across the FF14 group.
- Just a few hours later, an unlisted YouTube video (opens in new tab) was posted displaying one of many gamers utilizing a UI mod (particularly one which means that you can zoom the digicam 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 angle of the moon. Most of the memes nod to FF14’s latest, moon-related growth.
- On account of the video, the group was disqualified from the World Race and, resulting from Sq. Enix’s punishment, has had its kill wiped from FFLogs (opens in new tab), a well-liked web site that ranks boss kill knowledge (mockingly 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. One in every of Unnamed_’s members, Feuer E’, who noticed the raid by 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 group have pointed out (opens in new tab) how frequent it’s for groups to make use of mods when attempting at a world-first raid. Very similar to high-end raiders in World of Warcraft, FF14 gamers use UI mods to assist visualize and monitor boss mechanics to allow them to deal with enjoying their characters effectively. It is mainly assumed that everybody is utilizing them at this stage of play, regardless of it being towards the sport’s ToS. Normally no person uploads a video displaying them breaking the foundations, although.
Frosty, the creator of the World Race Tracker, wrote in a response to the information (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 monitor groups who clear the raids. “It’s outdoors my skills 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 group is searching for.”
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 instantly your self, you continue to took benefit of that dishonest, and subsequently profited from it.” They clarify that they will not ban the participant however that their achievement and titles might be eliminated. The dialog ends with the GM politely asking them to delete the daggers they acquired from the raid “as quickly as attainable.”
Japanese translations for this story have been supplied by Kazuma Hashimoto (opens in new tab).
