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The story
In FF14, popular even on PS5, a debate over the use of MODs and DPS-tracking tools flared up on the console wars (geha) board. One post argued that “in other online games, cheaters get pushed out of the community, but in FF14 it’s the people who *don’t* cheat who end up feeling like outsiders.” In response, some defended the developers’ refusal to add anti-cheat measures, arguing it could destroy the culture of racing to clear raids and post the fastest logs. Opinions were split.
There was also frustration over how this plays out on consoles, given a MOD-centric culture that creates a gap between platforms.
What people said
Only the Nintendo fanboys ("Nishi-kun," 5ch slang for anti-Nintendo trolls posing as fans) are against it
You can't properly install MODs on PS
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PS piggy: "…MODs are evil!"
Our "guru" (sarcastic nickname for producer Naoki Yoshida) never said "MODs are banned"
He said anything that affects other players is a no-go, though
That's just the starting line — this is a game where in-game disputes have actually led to real deaths
If you cheat in FF14, instead of getting called out, people tell you "It's your own fault for not cheating too, lol" or "If you're not using tools, don't bother showing up to high-end content!"
In other online games, cheaters get shunned by the community, but in FF14 most people see everyone else cheating and think "guess I'll cheat too" — the community's manners are just done for
You say "other online games," but
Western MMORPGs often have official MOD support.
I was surprised UO (Ultima Online) just came bundled with a well-regarded MOD tool as standard.
Well, I guess since they only market to Japanese users, they ended up banning MODs…
Wasn't there a Western player who got world-first on a new boss and then quit FF14 with the parting shot, "Finally, I get to escape this pathetic cheater pool"?
Calling it a "cheater pool" is pretty brutal
This, basically
FF14 is riddled with MODs simply because it's low quality as a product
A friend of mine actually said this — cracked me up (lol)
Just upload your own logs then
Wanting someone else to do it, and publicly at that — are you dumb?
So why'd they even release it on Switch 2
Probably because there's no playerbase there?
They released it on Xbox too and that didn't help either
And then they complain when things get broken because of it
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HQBby-BbgAAHUuR.jpg
Nothing weird about this, honestly
You can tell from checking someone's gear during matchmaking that something's off, and in this case it looks like glamour (cosmetic) gear at item level 0 — getting called out is fair
Checking someone's gear just to call them out —
what a community, man
How can people just go modifying someone else's work without permission?
You didn't know?
The producer here actually said he wants to thank the people who make them
By the way, the ones losing their minds over this are PS loyalists — they've been bitterly griping for years that it's "unfair" they can't use them
Apparently they even want MOD support pulled from PS entirely
Oh, you didn't know?
That guy only sees FF14 as a product, nothing more
Is there such a thing as a game a company releases that ISN'T a product for sale?
Unless you mean like some test project made by new hires, or a bonus freebie?
Honestly, I don't get what you're trying to say
Even free-to-play games
are tools for making money, you know…
Uh… do you even play games?
We need to quarantine them from the boss man who's out there thanking those guys
Sure, every online game has people calling stuff out…
builds, items, gear
Are you new to online games or something?
Even in FPS games, people leave if you pull some garbage move
Even in Battlefield people leave the squad
Like when you need to push after a revive beacon's down, and someone starts camping as a useless potato sniper instead
Things have been dull lately, so my group of 4 tanks and healers has started deliberately toggling off tank stance to just pad DPS, and we clear raids and extreme trials while intentionally leaving one specific party member dead the whole fight, just for kicks
Watching them rage-quit is hilarious, we have a blast about it on voice chat
Building a game that turns into "Toxic Online" is exactly why only this kind of trash sticks around
It's all Yoshida's fault
But I still think it's lazy that they haven't closed the platform gap, when they clearly could, despite releasing on multiple platforms
I think the reason FF14 doesn't have anti-cheat is that it would kill everything built around ACT (the third-party combat parser)
Meaning FFLogs would die, and so would the raid-race scene where people flex their clear times
There's also a whole segment of players doing Savage raids on the assumption that tools are available, so adding anti-cheat would basically be suicide — it'd destroy the main content
No, if the game needs a DPS meter, the devs should just build one in officially…
Otherwise that's basically the same as saying console players can't participate
That's a fair point
But if the devs officially add a DPS meter, this garbage community will use it as an excuse to start gatekeeping people
And the devs clearly don't want to be blamed for that, so they can't implement it
I know other MMOs riddled with cheats too
but at least those keep the platforms separate
The population's too small for that, it'd never work
Background and Key Points
Final Fantasy XIV is Square Enix’s subscription MMORPG, rebuilt from a failed 2010 launch into “A Realm Reborn” in 2013 under producer/director Naoki Yoshida (nicknamed “Yoshi-P”), whose turnaround made him something of a folk hero in Japanese gaming and explains why posters treat his public comments as near-scripture. The game runs on PC, PlayStation, and now Xbox and Switch 2, but only PC allows third-party software: ACT (Advanced Combat Tracker) parses combat logs into DPS numbers, which feed FFLogs, the external site raiders use to benchmark and rank clears of “Savage,” the game’s hardcore raid tier. Console platform holders, especially Sony, don’t certify overlay or injection tools, so PS players structurally cannot use them — this is a platform-certification issue, not something Square Enix chose. The “geha” board itself is 5ch’s dedicated console-wars forum, so tribal PlayStation-vs-PC sniping is baked into the framing before the topic even starts.
The thread doesn’t actually split on whether cheating is good or bad in the abstract — it splits on whether Square Enix’s refusal to police these tools is a defensible tradeoff (killing ACT/FFLogs would gut the raid-race culture that keeps hardcore players engaged) or an abdication that leaves console owners as second-class citizens in content they paid full price for.
What’s likely to be missed: “MOD” here mostly means glamour/cosmetic reskins and log parsers, not stat-altering hacks — nothing here is pay-to-win or combat-breaking in the FPS-aimbot sense, despite the “cheater” framing. It’s also worth knowing Western MMOs like Ultima Online have shipped with sanctioned mod tools for decades, so FF14’s tolerance isn’t the outlier the thread implies — its console lockout is.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Hardware & Industry (Console Wars)) thread “[Barrier Sad News] FF14, Hugely Popular on PS5, Sees Fans Double Down That “Cheating Isn’t Evil” — This Community’s Manners Are Just Awful“.
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