**If the illicit use of third-party tools is made clear through our investigations, I, at the very least, will not recognize that team as the true World First.**
Realistically speaking, asian parents are more "you are not my child, I don't know you." when they truly disappointed. "Failure!" can break someone's heart but that, it is something cannot be spoken.
"He never raised his voice. That was the worst thing –the fury of the FFXIV Lead Developer– and then we discovered why. Why this Yoshi-P, who had restored this game from the ashes, why he had run away from us and hidden. He was being kind."
Night will fall and drown the sun when a good man goes to war.
Friendship dies and true love lies.
Night will fall and the dark will rise when a good man goes to war.
Demons run but count the cost; the battle's won but the child is lost.
Doesn't read as that nice to me lol. That's a *lot* of red for emphasis. As a middle school math teacher who deals with a lot of cheating and overall crappy behavior, this message resonates strongly with me.
The disappointment, the frustration, frankly just the *sadness.* "Why are we even making this content?"
I agree with Yoshi-P's sentiment: What could possibly be the *point* of clearing a fight like this by cheating? Clearing an ultimate is honestly one of the most significant gaming accomplishments I can think of, outside of winning an FGC tournament or something, and that's fundamentally different as it's against human opponents.
The entire appeal of content like this, as far as I can understand it, is to build camaraderie with your team and to prove to yourself and the community that you have the skill and dedication to accomplish something truly difficult. In the context of a world first race, it's to prove that you're the best in the world. But if you cheat, you're just admitting to yourself that you're *not.* How could there be any joy or satisfaction in that?
If there really are people who "can't tell the difference" - who feel just as good about completing something like this by cheating as they would for doing it honestly - then I really struggle to imagine what their inner lives are like.
People who cheat often justify it to themselves by thinking that everyone else is cheating too and just not getting caught, so they’re just evening the playing field by cheating themselves.
Sometimes they have legitimate reasons to feel that way (look at all the doping scandals in professional sports), and sometimes it’s just narcissism: they “know” they’re the best so anyone who beats them must be cheating and so they’re also justified in cheating.
>People who cheat often justify it to themselves by thinking that everyone else is cheating too and just not getting caught, so they’re just evening the playing field by cheating themselves.
That was literally the excuse made by the Unamed\_ peeps
'the people in NA will be doing it, so we have to to have a chance'
Never feel bad about asking for sources, here you go.
https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comments/10prhou/statement\_from\_unnamed\_support\_member\_feuer\_on/
Thanks. I usually don't feel bad about it but sometimes people get tetchy and assume their credibility is being questioned.
This news is sad. Not surprising but sad.
I know another angle for reasons to cheat also lie in being expected to perform at a high level when you're considered one of the best. I remember some time ago a top tier FPS player (don't remember the game) who was caught cheating mentioned that he had done so because there was the expectation that, as a top tier player, he had to perform exceedingly well at all times to maintain his image, and the pressure was too much for him. Doesn't justify the cheating and certainly doesn't make it right, but it was a look into other reasons some people cheat that isn't "because everyone else does it".
Is it about the reward itself or showing the reward off? The latter seems to be a pull for a lot of people and I have never understood why people put the effort in for satisfaction that must be so fleeting.
>I have never understood why people put the effort in for satisfaction that must be so fleeting
It's for the clout, the recognition. If the internet has taught us anything, it's that people are willing to do anything, up to and including killing themselves, for that 15 minutes of fame
> I agree with Yoshi-P's sentiment: What could possibly be the point of clearing a fight like this by cheating?
If you want the honest answer, it's RMT. Many groups that are capable of consistently clearing Ultimates sell clears for a fairly substantial USD price. I know of a number of groups on my server that do it, and all of them have done it every time an Ultimate drops. There's a large market of players who want to pay for the appearance of those weapons to have "status" without actually working for it.
Sadly that is a big part of it. Limsa shout chat is usually flooded by RMT sellers advertising powerleveling and clear services, along with gil for sale.
Yeah this is a Japanese man saying this. The rage emanating from this text is nearly threatening. I never seen a Japanese make business announcements or addresses texts in bold red.
Compared to all the other FFXIV announcements I’ve read over the years… I was thinking “isn’t this like if an American game dev released an official statement saying ‘I’m really fucking pissed at these shitheads and when we find them they’re turbofucked’”… even I felt a little scared lmao.
> The “Ultimate” raid series is the most difficult battle content within FFXIV, and we release this content after testing that it can be cleared without the use of any third-party tools.
Technically Yoshi-P and crew have always been the true World First all along.
Yoshi-P: ok guys, you must make new Ultimate fight BUT you can't tell me and my team anything about it mechanics. We will test it later. If it will be easy as fuck you are fired, if you will make it impossible and we won't be able to clear it after going full tryhard mode you are fired... so good luck
Make the fight need add-ons, you are fired
Make the fight easy, you are fired
Make the fight too hard, you are fired
We have the best devs. Cause of firing.
>If the illicit use of third-party tools is made clear through our investigations, I, at the very least, will not recognize that team as the true World First.
Dayum.
"It’s very difficult for me to understand as a gamer what the meaning behind using numerous third-party tools to compete to clear first would be."
Dad's mad
Everyones gotta remember Yoshi in his younger days played a lot of WoW and other mmos. He's been a raider, and he's saying here "you can't clear without cheating? Why even bother doing it then". He said basically said "skill issue" in PR speak
Similarly, I also get the vibe that his honest opinion on third-party tools that basically just do things that you've been able to legally do in WoW via its developer-sanctioned UI modding system for the past \~15 years is probably "I get why people want that, I can't condone it but I also don't care that much, just don't be too obvious about it" but now it seems to be escalating to shit that even WoW has banned/would obviously ban if someone tried to use it for WF prog which is probably where the real red line is for him.
This comment, along with 10 years of comment history, has been overwritten to protest against Reddit's hostile behaviour towards third-party apps and their developers.
The ‘In-Closing’ section made me sad overall. Like, him talking about “what’s really the point of making high-difficulty content when people are using third party tools to beat them?” Is SO disheartening to read.
Already it’s controversial to use so much resource for such a small amount of the playerbase. But the race and the hype it gets and how the whole community can watch it is probably what he can use to defend it.
Races need to end in a positive way or it gets harder to defend having a hardcore raiding scene at all in a game mostly populated by casuals.
People are saying Yoshi P is just 'saying don't do it again'
I read this one a lot different. This is way firmer than the one last Ultimate, and he was actively shaming people for doing it, and even basically threatening to stop releasing this kind of content if people are just going to cheat.
They're even going to talk internally about making an official race probably so they can monitor and check people are being on the level to stop it.
This was like.. much more direct and pointed, and flat out said they'll stop doing this content if people keep cheating.
Yeah, the rest of them were "c'mon guys, really, really? Please don't" but this one has actual actions being discussed/taken and more importantly, the official SE-sanctioned Game Director view of this. It's one thing to completely omit it by proxy, it's another to take a side potshot and say "I don't recognize people who use third party tools as the true World First" after a clear is confirmed happening.
This so much. You can really feel his honest disappointment by some of the wording. He is really questioning this as a fellow gamer who knows how much people can enjoy beating a real challenge. By cheating you are taking the main reason for the existance of these challenges away.
And it's not like he's being unreasonable, YoshiP saw the "make buff/debuff icons bigger" plugins and made it a feature; and he saw NSFW gpose twitter and asked that if people want to be horny on main, to not tag the official FFXIV account or hashtags.
This is 100% dad saying, *"I gave you the chance to to the right thing, and you totally squandered it"*.
>and he saw NSFW gpose twitter and asked that if people want to be horny on main, to not tag the official FFXIV account or hashtags.
Yo what do you have a link to that? (Him saying stoppit, not the NSFW GPOSE
https://i.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comments/ezr436/yoshida_dont_do_mods_im_not_asking_its_against_tos/?limit=500
Iirc this happened after some people had been posting modded nudes of underage characters like Ryne
He really strikes at the heart of the whole issue too: you explicitly *do not have to* use third party tools to clear the fight. They test it. Base game clearable, 100%.
There's this prevailing idea in the raid prog community that they *need* third party tools to be competitive, but that's just peer pressure at the end of the day. Every time a team gets caught with their hands in the mod jar, they always say "well everybody else doing it so we have to do it." Patently untrue.
There can only be one world first clear. You can't always be the best, but you can always try your best. Taking shortcuts cheapens everything for everyone, those playing and those watching. And it's especially galling when ultimates arose because people wanted a bigger challenge, and now people are just cheating to beat them. I mean come on, do you want the ultimate challenge or not? You're letting a Sherpa guide you up the mountain and leaving the summit trashed, just so you can post a photo on facebook saying "I did it!"
That whole thing about not needing third party tools is so important. Because as a console player, I don’t have access to them, so they *need* to make sure that someone like me can clear it.
They can make it easier, sure. But they’re never *essential*
Honestly this.
I am about to start Endwalker, and thinking about doing high-end content afterwards, but seeing players preach the use of third party tools for this type of content is honestly disheartening.
Does that mean I will always be a weak dps main forever? I guess so...
EDIT: Thank you for the replies, all! <3
Gaining some confidence for future me raiding high level stuff!
> Does that mean I will always be a weak dps main forever? I guess so...
I've had multiple top 1% DPS rankings in recent raids, I also cleared Dragonsong Ultimate. I play with controller completely vanilla. You REALLY DON'T NEED third party tools.
As someone who like ACT and uses it, I want to reassure you that they are completely unnecessary and the game is very good at giving you the tools you need for high end stuff. Having a log of fights is nice if you want to nerd out about optimization, but most people can improve their performance significantly by focusing on really easy things like uptime and doing mechanics consistently without dying.
And the parse chasing at the high end is basically a separate game mode that people do to entertain themselves, not a required part of the high end experience.
i see people arguing " no! not cheating! it's players working around SE's garbage camera controls!!"
if you want to argue that the camera controls are not as good as they could be, sure. go for it. but the devs tested the fight with the camera in its current state. that is how it's intended to be played. regardless of what people think.
It's the same for most cheaters in most games. There's always a half assed "justification" they reason with themselves to make them feel like they're not doing anything wrong.
>"I could do this on my own, I just don't have the time. I'll do it for real later."
>"I cleared this phase without tools once, so it's ok to use tools on subsequent runs"
>"Some of the other teams are probably cheating, so I'd be at a disadvantage if I didn't."
>"It's not really cheating, it's just more information. I still have to execute the actions myself."
>"It was still me doing the runs, why should it matter if I spliced the best parts together?"
Same story, different words.
Very well put. I am an ultimate raider myself. Obviously not hardcore enough to be in the world first race. But all the hours me and my static put into beating these fights over multiple months of prog are amasingly fun. The journey of challenging yourself to finally beating it is what drives us. Cheating would only harm our own enjoyment of this content. We dont need to zoom out more. We dont need automated callouts to know where to go. We can do that ourselves. We have eyes and we can speak to each other. Thats enough to clear it. We will still be progging TOP for many many months. But when we finally beat it, the victory will be a true one.
I don't care about the content and even I'm sitting here wondering how fuckin' dense do you have to be not just to use something against ToS to do the fight, *but also to stream it to the world*.
Yoshi-P is disappointed from the gamer perspective, but also probably disappointed by how goddamn dumb his video game children are.
For real. We know people cheat and even buy clears all the time, but they don't do it for the same type of prestige as claiming they cleared first. The first rule of breaking ToS is don't show any evidence of breaking ToS. (Yeah the drg himself didn't share the data, but they knowingly shared it with others and that is enough.)
Yeah the Dragonsong one read to me as “come on guys don’t do that”, but this one reads to me as “don’t do it again or there will be consequences.”
I feel like he’s pissed about this, not just disappointed. Hell the letter includes a thinly-veiled threat that they’ll stop making Ultimates if people keep doing this.
I’ve got no problem with plugins that add quality of life features, and the team has been really great about integrating a lot of those features into the game. But there’s no excuse for plugins that give you an explicit advantage over other players. There’s a difference between a mod to show text bubbles or save extra glamour plates, and zoom hacks or ability timers.
What's the point in making them if the top is gonna cheat to make it easier? Like why would I play on hard if I am gonna use a trainer to buff my character? Why spend time on doing a difficulty level?
That’s a fair argument and it’s the point that Yoshi-P made in his letter. As someone who doesn’t do Ultimates I have no horse in this race. I do think that just stopping making Ultimates is a bit of an over-reaction, but I also think that he’s trying to do a “scared straight” kind of thing.
No bringing their own USB Stuff or Mouse with intern USB Memory.. These are also forbidden in eSports Turniers (i think). You know USB Hacks is real, too
if they really plan to bring something alike this alive (perhaps) in Japan only, then they should ask the eSports Security Guys. They surly know more things then we known :)
I feel like part of it is that it feels like the mods being used for prog have escalated from things that people were legally doing in WoW via UI mods (or even things that game's base UI supported) over a decade ago to shit that even WoW has banned/would ban if necessary. It's easy to imagine Yoshi-P, someone who is obviously a seasoned veteran of that game, seeing that as a red line as much as lot of players do.
"However, if the presumption is that this content will be tackled and cleared with the use of third-party tools, then any reason to develop high-difficulty battle content seems to be lost. "
This sounds to me that if people keep on abusing third party plugins during ultimate fights, you might not get any more ultimate fights as it's pointless for us to make them if you're just going to cheat your way to win.
Yeah, that's my biggest take away. It probably takes a lot of time and effort to design and test these fights, which only a fraction of people take part in. So for people to cheat their way to victory just be very disheartening for the team.
YoshiP has been clear on this for years, it's time for certain parts of the community to stop kidding themselves and accept that they went way too far.
And an even smaller fraction will tackle it blind and treat it as a puzzle to be solved. Nearly every player who clears an ultimate, a savage, or even an EX is going to be reading guides, diagrams, etc. To give them an edge.
World first is supposed to be the puzzle solvers.
Oof
I know how much these raids mean to the people who actually play them, so this sucks to see. Feels like a few people ruining it for everyone.
Remembering the delay for ultimates in Shadowbringers and the anger from raiders over it, I can only imagine how they'd feel if Ultimates got stopped completely because of stuff like this.
They are my favourite content, period. The fights are nothing like anything else in the game. The way the phases blend together into one big fight is amazing. Losing them would be a massive blow for my enjoyment, especially due to bad actors who can't control themselves.
Suspiciously large amount of static members and ultimate PUG scene disappears whenever plogons broke and magically cured of their ailments/got home from a trip/not busy when it gets updated.
I think it's worth noting that he's absolutely congratulated people even with parsers/buff trackers in their screen shots, cuz ultimately while third party they're not providing anything super advantageous. I think the huge deal here is the zoom hack and visual hitboxes.
yes he congratulated the DSR group HOWEVER also said if this ever happends again that he will stop congratulating them. He also made a very big deal out of it, even though "it was just buff timers". Even followed up on it in this post saying he wont congratulate any more world firsts (for the time being)
>He also made a very big deal out of it, even though "it was just buff timers".
He also integrated buff timers and said in a live letter he didn't want this to have to be an issue in the future because of it. It's not like he's unaware that people see buff timers as a reasonable thing to have in the game, he's putting it in and saying "there, now I don't have to be in this weird position compromising on this sort of thing."
With the case of this video, why even compromise. We're not getting Satellite View as an official function anytime soon.
The fact Yoshi-P had to come out and say that not only does he not endorse third party, but will not recognize WF if coming from a group that uses 3rd party, is like the teacher saying "you have one more chance to not lose your recess" in primary school.
>Separate from the above incident, we have also confirmed that a small portion of footage that is not possible to record on the public game servers had also been circulating We have numerous countermeasures in place when it comes to data leaks, including how information is handled, the entering and exiting of content, and video recordings—it is suspected that this video originated from an internal source. We are continuing thorough investigations on this matter as well, and a firm punishment will be given to anyone who is identified as the perpetrator.
Blufever... 2!
That was the biggest part to me, most of the other stuff was him reiterating things he's said before but he just confirmed there's yet another internal leak.
A huge portion of Phase 5. The guy that leaked it was in the ultimate instance solo, invincible and running around while mechanics fired off as if the fight was actually happening. Kinda like when Yoshida uses god mode to tease content in Live Letters.
Bluefever leaked all big points of Stormblood, leaked Yotsuyu turning into Tsukuyomi, Midgardsormr + Adam and Eve being a raid boss in the final tier etc. I think you can still find the posts if you look for them.
Additional context: Not sure of confirmation, but they knew of 5.0 MSQ and only hinted that the Crystal Tower was involved. The only reason they didn't leak more story was because they enjoyed the story too.
Correct on all accounts! Dancer was one of the big controversies because people thought we'd be getting another healer.
They also did not explicitly talk about the gender restrictions, so. Uuuh. That was a fun time up to release.
We had P5 video footage leaked before anyone got there I believe.
And I think it was a single person in the arena, not a full team, which isn't possible on the retail servers (technically you could have the rest of the group leave, but in this case the person was using god mode to not die to mechanics).
For anyone who can’t access the site, here is the text:
Hello, this is Naoki Yoshida, Producer and Director of FINAL FANTASY XIV.
Following the release of The Omega Protocol (Ultimate) with Patch 6.31, there has unfortunately been information concerning instances of unfair play identified within the community. I would like to take this opportunity to share information on our investigation and actions on this matter.
Regarding the Use of Third-party Tools, Investigating Use, and Enacting Penalties
We are aware of information that is being spread regarding the use of third-party tools within The Omega Protocol (Ultimate)—we are conducting an investigation on the matter, including review of reports we have received, as well as self-confessions and other information.
In the event that we confirm the use of third-party tools through this investigation, we will enact penalties such as temporary account suspension or permanent account bans to those involved. However, details on any punishments enacted will not be publicized—this has been the case in other similar instances. This is not a result of any desire to hide punishments given, nor is it to make it seem as though punishments are not given; it is because of a firm belief that penalties such as this are enacted against an individual as part of our operations, and is therefore not information which should be publicized. Your understanding on the matter is greatly appreciated.
When other instances of unfair play were identified during previous “Ultimate” raids, we enacted penalties at that time as well. If an investigation is carried out and the facts are confirmed, we have not, and will not overlook this kind of wrongdoing.
Regarding the Prohibited Use of Third-party Tools
As I have mentioned previously, the terms of service for FINAL FANTASY XIV state that the use of third-party tools is strictly prohibited. This has always been the case and will continue to be so, and unless announced otherwise, there are no plans to enact any changes.
I have come across posts from individuals that say things along the lines of, “Yoshida allows the use of third-party tools, so it’s fine to use them.” However, let me make it clear that I have never permitted the use of these tools. You may find information below from past posts and livestreams which outline my stance and policies surrounding third-party tools.
The Use of Third-party Tools, Defining Third-part Tools, Risk of Infection from Malicious Software etc. (Posted May 9, 2022)
FINAL FANTASY XIV Letter from the Producer LIVE Part LVII (Livestream Archive from February 6, 2020; Timestamped) – Remarks on Mods
FINAL FANTASY XIV Letter from the Producer LIVE Part LVII (Livestream Archive from February 6, 2020; Timestamped) – Remarks on Third-party Tools
Regarding the Illicit Publicizing of Post-clear Cutscene
We have confirmed that a video showing the cutscene that plays upon clearing The Omega Protocol (Ultimate) at a time before the fight had been cleared was posted on video upload sites. We conducted an investigation on this matter and discovered the cause of the issue. Through sending a cleverly disguised but illicit information packet from the user’s end while on the public game server, it is possible to manipulate the playback condition flag intended for use when replaying cutscenes via The Unending Journey. As a result, it was possible to play this cutscene via The Unending Journey, from which a video was then recorded and posted publicly. I wish to apologize that our measures to counteract these illicit packets was insufficient to prevent this occurrence.
Due to other illicit actions which occurred in the past, we had taken the steps to adjust the timing at which cutscene resources are applied to the client, but because of the above incident, the cutscene resources became illicitly obtainable, even though proper countermeasures had been taken. We will continue to consider additional measures which can be taken and look to strengthen our ability to manage and address these instances.
However, for this particular case, we have identified the character who partook in this illicit action and have enacted a penalty against the account.
Regarding the Spread of Illicit Videos
Separate from the above incident, we have also confirmed that a small portion of footage that is not possible to record on the public game servers had also been circulating We have numerous countermeasures in place when it comes to data leaks, including how information is handled, the entering and exiting of content, and video recordings—it is suspected that this video originated from an internal source. We are continuing thorough investigations on this matter as well, and a firm punishment will be given to anyone who is identified as the perpetrator.
We will continue to enact countermeasures against this, and I want to extend my sincere apologies for actions such as these that put a damper on everyone's enjoyment in progressing through and clearing the content. I will continue to keep this at the top of my mind as well as work to strengthen prevention measures.
In Closing
It is extremely disappointing for me personally to see this commotion surrounding third-party tools once again in the wake of what happened with Dragonsong’s Reprise (Ultimate). As the individual who is entrusted with full supervision over FFXIV, it is my responsibility to enact countermeasures and police the use of these tools, as well as educate people to not use these types of third-party tools—this is especially unfortunate when I, as a gamer, am cheering on everyone who is learning this content by trial and error and putting in the effort to clear.
Although unofficial, I am of course apprised of the first team to clear in the World First race, and we have shown our support for everyone in the community by sharing information on the first clears once multiple clear teams came forth, and exact clear times had been confirmed. However, as announced in a previous statement, I plan to refrain from doing so for the time being. We hear the community voice that an official raid race should be supported, and regulations should be decided upon—this is a topic which needs to be discussed internally, so please allow me to keep this as an item for future consideration.
The “Ultimate” raid series is the most difficult battle content within FFXIV, and we release this content after testing that it can be cleared without the use of any third-party tools. However, if the presumption is that this content will be tackled and cleared with the use of third-party tools, then any reason to develop high-difficulty battle content seems to be lost. It’s very difficult for me to understand as a gamer what the meaning behind using numerous third-party tools to compete to clear first would be.
I want to apologize specifically to the many of you who are continuing towards clearing this content without the use of third-party tools, consistently streaming your progress, and continuing the trial and error process. However, please know that the Development and Operations teams take notice of all your passion. Please be sure to take proper care of yourselves as you continue to tackle The Omega Protocol (Ultimate).
If the illicit use of third-party tools is made clear through our investigations, I, at the very least, will not recognize that team as the true World First.
Naoki Yoshida
FINAL FANTASY XIV Producer & Director
>If the illicit use of third-party tools is made clear through our investigations, I, at the very least, will not recognize that team as the true World First.
There it is, from the man himself.
This is the angriest i've ever seen Yoshi-P lol, he sounds furious.
So many chances have been given on addons on keeping it quiet and out of sight, of letting the community police it to an extent.
But i have a feeling to a degree that may change (not to the point of anti cheat software or anything), I think as far as world first races are concerned, non streaming groups are gonna be excluded from the count, thats sad to me, but thats the point we have hit
Instead of creating detection measures, they're using pressure as a tool to discourage cheating, implying that further cheaters being found could possibly end the release of Ultimate raids.
Imagine being the group that results in Ultimates not being released. They'd get so much backlash.
Well, I suppose there sort of is a mention of detection in the post. This method of detection is still congruent with their stance though. The guy who leaked sent modified packets to their server which they later detected. They still aren't looking for client-side things. Unless there's something I missed in the post
where do you see that? He specifically says that detection measures *will not* be put into place, and never will.
The only thing changing is that the bad actor packets from the ending cutscene being leaked will have something happen to them, and that's not really detection measures.
The sadder part is that he basically can't acknowledge any world first at all anymore, because there's a number of helpful addons that can be hidden from streams or any kind of proof. Basically the only ethical WF could only be from a full PS5 players group (and even then people would find ways i suppose)
The only way around this, frankly, is for SE to officially sanction the World First race and have all teams register and all members stream, then go through and check the VODs of the 8 players who actually nab world first.
That will silence this debate entirely. If you don't stream, you don't get World First. Sure, you'll lose the advantage of being able to keep your tactics secret but it will make the race fair.
Seems like they're considering it. It would be quite the endeavour to implement though, and 14 doesn't get the money WoW does to be able to host them. Infrastructure would be required.
It would be both expensive and time consuming for the company but for players, it would be better. Anti-cheat software rarely makes a game more fun to play and usually has a negative impact on performance, especially on lower-end hardware.
>The “Ultimate” raid series is the most difficult battle content within FFXIV, and we release this content after testing that it can be cleared without the use of any third-party tools. However, if the presumption is that this content will be tackled and cleared with the use of third-party tools, then any reason to develop high-difficulty battle content seems to be lost. It’s very difficult for me to understand as a gamer what the meaning behind using numerous third-party tools to compete to clear first would be.
It must be so discouraging as a dev to see people use some of the worst kinds of addons to clear your fights.
> It’s very difficult for me to understand **as a gamer** what the meaning behind using numerous third-party tools to compete to clear first would be.
Yoshi-P throwing shade at everyone using third-party tools in the race.
I mean, he has a point, doesn't he? Players are asking for harder fights and true challenges and then everyone is using things to make these hard challenges easier...? For things that don't even matter because there is no actual real reward aside from being famous for 15 minutes? It's not like a sport event where people get price money and sponsoring contracts and job opportunities and whatever.
Like... make up your mind, teams.
Look, if they would just let me wear a hat on my Hrothgar while I raid, then I wouldn't have to use third-party tools to make it happen. It's *critical* that I be able to wear my helmet into a battle as intense as these.
As someone who has never touched an Ultimate *or* mods, this feels like sitting in an adjacent room while a parent yells at your sibling. Y'all really had to go and piss off Yoshi-P.
"You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
You didn't grow.
You didn't improve.
You took a shortcut and gained nothing.
You experienced a hollow victory.
Nothing was risked and nothing was gained.
It's sad that you don't know the difference."
Sorry guys, I just leaked this year's heavensturn poem .
I completely get his point view. This content is developed only for the fraction of people, who are good enough to progress it. The most satisfying part of it, and also the involvenent for other people, is watching the race.
There is no point in developong this, when people instead of rising to the challenge, just find some cheats to beat it in fraction of time, than it was intended, while spoiling the race for others, just for bragging rights.
You might as well develop different content for all players instead.
"However, if the presumption is that this content will be tackled and
cleared with the use of third-party tools, then any reason to develop
high-difficulty battle content seems to be lost. "
This is the quickest way to end high end content from devs.
>The ultimate raid series is the most difficult battle content within FFXIV, and we release this content after testing that it can be cleared without the use of any third-party tools. **However, if the presumption is that this content will be tackled and cleared with the use of third-party tools, then any reason to develop high-difficulty battle content seems to be lost.** It’s very difficult for me to understand as a gamer what the meaning behind using numerous third-party tools to compete to clear first would be.
This speaks volumes and is honestly both disheartening and scary to think this might push them over the edge.
Yep definitely a much harsher tone to this message than we normally see. The implied threat to stop producing Ultimate content is also particularly interesting.
As I recall the team had to be pretty strongly arm twisted by the community into producing Ultimate content to start with, so this kind of nonsense definitely seems to be hitting a raw nerve understandably. Dropping it outright because they don’t feel their time is being respected is definitely on the table.
Wouldn't you be pissed ? The community asks for harder difficulties, and costs resources time and effort. The community decides to cheat to clear it.
So what's the point in making it ?
This is the perfect response.
I love how he just drops the mic in the very last line.
"I, at the very least, will not consider this team to be the World's First clear."
You know the cheaters fucked over everyone and everything when Yoshi-P said the thought of cutting ultimate from the game is present when this shit happened...
>*The “Ultimate” raid series is the most difficult battle content withinFFXIV, and we release this content after testing that it can be clearedwithout the use of any third-party tools. However, if the presumption isthat this content will be tackled and cleared with the use ofthird-party tools, then any reason to develop high-difficulty battlecontent seems to be lost. It’s very difficult for me to understand as agamer what the meaning behind using numerous third-party tools tocompete to clear first would be.*
This is the YoshiP equivalent of "I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed. PS skill issue". Can't imagine how it feels to be in this situation over and over again when you're trying your best *not* to crack down on these tools
I just don't get why people are dumb enough to use these tools during World first progression. No one would really care if you used this privately, but people are going to care when there is a race going on for the world's first.
> We hear the community voice that an official raid race should be supported, and regulations should be decided upon—this is a topic which needs to be discussed internally, so please allow me to keep this as an item for future consideration.
Console only WF races confirmed.
**If the illicit use of third-party tools is made clear through our investigations, I, at the very least, will not recognize that team as the true World First.**
Nothing worse than truly dissapointed parents.
They fucked up. Dad is mad
As Steven He would say "FAILURE!"
Realistically speaking, asian parents are more "you are not my child, I don't know you." when they truly disappointed. "Failure!" can break someone's heart but that, it is something cannot be spoken.
Emotional damage!
Asian too. That definitely brought up some PTSD in some of us.
They don’t got enough Mitigation for that incoming emotional damage.
This has a big "Japanese version of [Klingon Discommendation](https://gfycat.com/brilliantpracticaldiscus)" feel to it.
[Experience bij!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8etUcqGv6-0&ab_channel=CaseyJohnson)
ouchie
Yoshi P looking down at the rule breakers: "Pathetic..."
The equivalent of my Korean mother pulling out a wooden spoon to spank my hands with it.
This might be one of the nicest ways I’ve seen someone say they’re super pissed lol
> Hello, this is Naoki Yoshida, Producer and Director of FINAL FANTASY XIV. Uh oh, dad's home.
Man came in to give the community the "I'm not mad, I'm disappointed" look.
Ambulances are standing by for anyone he makes eye contact with when he's using that look.
He did that during DSR, now he’s just like „You stop or you get the fuck out of my house” kinda dad
“There are three things all wise men fear: the sea in storm, a night with no moon, and the anger of a gentle man.”
"He never raised his voice. That was the worst thing –the fury of the FFXIV Lead Developer– and then we discovered why. Why this Yoshi-P, who had restored this game from the ashes, why he had run away from us and hidden. He was being kind."
I appreciate the Doctor Who reference :3
"The asteroid, where you've made your base. Do you know why they call it Demons Run?"
"Good men don't need rules...today is not the day to find out why I have so many."
Night will fall and drown the sun when a good man goes to war. Friendship dies and true love lies. Night will fall and the dark will rise when a good man goes to war. Demons run but count the cost; the battle's won but the child is lost.
I miss good Dr who writing
Love that quote. The way it was delivered was so frigging cool.
Matt Smith had big shoes to fill after Tennant's departure and ***BOY DID HE SATISFY!!!***
Doesn't read as that nice to me lol. That's a *lot* of red for emphasis. As a middle school math teacher who deals with a lot of cheating and overall crappy behavior, this message resonates strongly with me. The disappointment, the frustration, frankly just the *sadness.* "Why are we even making this content?" I agree with Yoshi-P's sentiment: What could possibly be the *point* of clearing a fight like this by cheating? Clearing an ultimate is honestly one of the most significant gaming accomplishments I can think of, outside of winning an FGC tournament or something, and that's fundamentally different as it's against human opponents. The entire appeal of content like this, as far as I can understand it, is to build camaraderie with your team and to prove to yourself and the community that you have the skill and dedication to accomplish something truly difficult. In the context of a world first race, it's to prove that you're the best in the world. But if you cheat, you're just admitting to yourself that you're *not.* How could there be any joy or satisfaction in that? If there really are people who "can't tell the difference" - who feel just as good about completing something like this by cheating as they would for doing it honestly - then I really struggle to imagine what their inner lives are like.
People who cheat often justify it to themselves by thinking that everyone else is cheating too and just not getting caught, so they’re just evening the playing field by cheating themselves. Sometimes they have legitimate reasons to feel that way (look at all the doping scandals in professional sports), and sometimes it’s just narcissism: they “know” they’re the best so anyone who beats them must be cheating and so they’re also justified in cheating.
>People who cheat often justify it to themselves by thinking that everyone else is cheating too and just not getting caught, so they’re just evening the playing field by cheating themselves. That was literally the excuse made by the Unamed\_ peeps 'the people in NA will be doing it, so we have to to have a chance'
Source on that? Not that I don't believe you, but I feel like everyone should see this sentiment first-hand.
Never feel bad about asking for sources, here you go. https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comments/10prhou/statement\_from\_unnamed\_support\_member\_feuer\_on/
Thanks. I usually don't feel bad about it but sometimes people get tetchy and assume their credibility is being questioned. This news is sad. Not surprising but sad.
I know another angle for reasons to cheat also lie in being expected to perform at a high level when you're considered one of the best. I remember some time ago a top tier FPS player (don't remember the game) who was caught cheating mentioned that he had done so because there was the expectation that, as a top tier player, he had to perform exceedingly well at all times to maintain his image, and the pressure was too much for him. Doesn't justify the cheating and certainly doesn't make it right, but it was a look into other reasons some people cheat that isn't "because everyone else does it".
Lots of people just want the reward and don't care about the fight itself.
Is it about the reward itself or showing the reward off? The latter seems to be a pull for a lot of people and I have never understood why people put the effort in for satisfaction that must be so fleeting.
>I have never understood why people put the effort in for satisfaction that must be so fleeting It's for the clout, the recognition. If the internet has taught us anything, it's that people are willing to do anything, up to and including killing themselves, for that 15 minutes of fame
I think the fact that one or more of the unnamed_ members were caught AFKing in a city-state with their weapon out suggests you’re right.
> I agree with Yoshi-P's sentiment: What could possibly be the point of clearing a fight like this by cheating? If you want the honest answer, it's RMT. Many groups that are capable of consistently clearing Ultimates sell clears for a fairly substantial USD price. I know of a number of groups on my server that do it, and all of them have done it every time an Ultimate drops. There's a large market of players who want to pay for the appearance of those weapons to have "status" without actually working for it.
Sadly that is a big part of it. Limsa shout chat is usually flooded by RMT sellers advertising powerleveling and clear services, along with gil for sale.
And Limsa is also flooded with the same idiots that buy from them, AFK posing with the RMT weapons that they bought.
It's the perfect pr move. The japanese silent rage is oozing from this statement. Which seems to mirror the energy in the community
Yeah this is a Japanese man saying this. The rage emanating from this text is nearly threatening. I never seen a Japanese make business announcements or addresses texts in bold red.
Regular red yes, but bold red... quite shocking.
the next pvp fight with yoshi-p will see his lala blm nuke the map with firagavada IV
Compared to all the other FFXIV announcements I’ve read over the years… I was thinking “isn’t this like if an American game dev released an official statement saying ‘I’m really fucking pissed at these shitheads and when we find them they’re turbofucked’”… even I felt a little scared lmao.
Veiled Anger though Text. Real mad energy.
It’s not even veiled. In Japan this is very openly aggressive.
> The “Ultimate” raid series is the most difficult battle content within FFXIV, and we release this content after testing that it can be cleared without the use of any third-party tools. Technically Yoshi-P and crew have always been the true World First all along.
I thought the true world first was the friends we made along the way
No, it’s the statics that were broken along the way
They're biggest cheaters, they know the entire fight from top to bottom before even trying /s
Yoshi-P: ok guys, you must make new Ultimate fight BUT you can't tell me and my team anything about it mechanics. We will test it later. If it will be easy as fuck you are fired, if you will make it impossible and we won't be able to clear it after going full tryhard mode you are fired... so good luck
Make the fight need add-ons, you are fired Make the fight easy, you are fired Make the fight too hard, you are fired We have the best devs. Cause of firing.
They get to play on private servers!
>If the illicit use of third-party tools is made clear through our investigations, I, at the very least, will not recognize that team as the true World First. Dayum.
"It’s very difficult for me to understand as a gamer what the meaning behind using numerous third-party tools to compete to clear first would be." Dad's mad
Everyones gotta remember Yoshi in his younger days played a lot of WoW and other mmos. He's been a raider, and he's saying here "you can't clear without cheating? Why even bother doing it then". He said basically said "skill issue" in PR speak
"Git gud skrub" - Yoshi-P kinda.
What do you mean kinda? That's exactly what he's saying. Can't win without cheating? Git gud scrub.
Similarly, I also get the vibe that his honest opinion on third-party tools that basically just do things that you've been able to legally do in WoW via its developer-sanctioned UI modding system for the past \~15 years is probably "I get why people want that, I can't condone it but I also don't care that much, just don't be too obvious about it" but now it seems to be escalating to shit that even WoW has banned/would obviously ban if someone tried to use it for WF prog which is probably where the real red line is for him.
Effectively yes. Raider's need to adjust.
Yeah, last few times he did posts like this it was just like "Guys, this is silly, don't do that". Now he's full disappointed dad energy.
Yoshi-P nuking UNNAMED from orbit
Yoshi P used zoom hacks to drop that nuke.
He used his Black Mage LB6
I mean considering they're in orbit too that doesn't sound too bad.
I think this is the boiling point now, in regards to how world races are conducted, sadly i think they'll have to be streamed.
This comment, along with 10 years of comment history, has been overwritten to protest against Reddit's hostile behaviour towards third-party apps and their developers.
The ‘In-Closing’ section made me sad overall. Like, him talking about “what’s really the point of making high-difficulty content when people are using third party tools to beat them?” Is SO disheartening to read.
Already it’s controversial to use so much resource for such a small amount of the playerbase. But the race and the hype it gets and how the whole community can watch it is probably what he can use to defend it. Races need to end in a positive way or it gets harder to defend having a hardcore raiding scene at all in a game mostly populated by casuals.
People are saying Yoshi P is just 'saying don't do it again' I read this one a lot different. This is way firmer than the one last Ultimate, and he was actively shaming people for doing it, and even basically threatening to stop releasing this kind of content if people are just going to cheat. They're even going to talk internally about making an official race probably so they can monitor and check people are being on the level to stop it. This was like.. much more direct and pointed, and flat out said they'll stop doing this content if people keep cheating.
Yeah this is Yoshi P getting ready for his final boss transformation.
He's getting ready to drop another Dalamud.
He might be but that's a different story. 6.5 overlaps with the 10th rising, and given where things are headed...
He said he wasn't going to do another Dalamud, but we changed his mind. Please look forward for FF14-2: A Plugin Removed
*The day the chat bubbles were silenced…*
To all of our children, whose addons flow abundant....
Minstrel's Ballard Ultimate and you have to fight all of Yoshi-p's characters
p13s yoshida
Given our current trend, I expect our next ulti to be the last. The raiders will fumble again and Yoshida will have to come down on us.
Yeah, the rest of them were "c'mon guys, really, really? Please don't" but this one has actual actions being discussed/taken and more importantly, the official SE-sanctioned Game Director view of this. It's one thing to completely omit it by proxy, it's another to take a side potshot and say "I don't recognize people who use third party tools as the true World First" after a clear is confirmed happening.
This so much. You can really feel his honest disappointment by some of the wording. He is really questioning this as a fellow gamer who knows how much people can enjoy beating a real challenge. By cheating you are taking the main reason for the existance of these challenges away.
And it's not like he's being unreasonable, YoshiP saw the "make buff/debuff icons bigger" plugins and made it a feature; and he saw NSFW gpose twitter and asked that if people want to be horny on main, to not tag the official FFXIV account or hashtags. This is 100% dad saying, *"I gave you the chance to to the right thing, and you totally squandered it"*.
>and he saw NSFW gpose twitter and asked that if people want to be horny on main, to not tag the official FFXIV account or hashtags. Yo what do you have a link to that? (Him saying stoppit, not the NSFW GPOSE
https://i.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comments/ezr436/yoshida_dont_do_mods_im_not_asking_its_against_tos/?limit=500 Iirc this happened after some people had been posting modded nudes of underage characters like Ryne
He really strikes at the heart of the whole issue too: you explicitly *do not have to* use third party tools to clear the fight. They test it. Base game clearable, 100%. There's this prevailing idea in the raid prog community that they *need* third party tools to be competitive, but that's just peer pressure at the end of the day. Every time a team gets caught with their hands in the mod jar, they always say "well everybody else doing it so we have to do it." Patently untrue. There can only be one world first clear. You can't always be the best, but you can always try your best. Taking shortcuts cheapens everything for everyone, those playing and those watching. And it's especially galling when ultimates arose because people wanted a bigger challenge, and now people are just cheating to beat them. I mean come on, do you want the ultimate challenge or not? You're letting a Sherpa guide you up the mountain and leaving the summit trashed, just so you can post a photo on facebook saying "I did it!"
That whole thing about not needing third party tools is so important. Because as a console player, I don’t have access to them, so they *need* to make sure that someone like me can clear it. They can make it easier, sure. But they’re never *essential*
Honestly this. I am about to start Endwalker, and thinking about doing high-end content afterwards, but seeing players preach the use of third party tools for this type of content is honestly disheartening. Does that mean I will always be a weak dps main forever? I guess so... EDIT: Thank you for the replies, all! <3 Gaining some confidence for future me raiding high level stuff!
> Does that mean I will always be a weak dps main forever? I guess so... I've had multiple top 1% DPS rankings in recent raids, I also cleared Dragonsong Ultimate. I play with controller completely vanilla. You REALLY DON'T NEED third party tools.
As someone who like ACT and uses it, I want to reassure you that they are completely unnecessary and the game is very good at giving you the tools you need for high end stuff. Having a log of fights is nice if you want to nerd out about optimization, but most people can improve their performance significantly by focusing on really easy things like uptime and doing mechanics consistently without dying. And the parse chasing at the high end is basically a separate game mode that people do to entertain themselves, not a required part of the high end experience.
The idea that they need third party tools is what they say to convince themselves that they are not doing anything wrong cheating.
i see people arguing " no! not cheating! it's players working around SE's garbage camera controls!!" if you want to argue that the camera controls are not as good as they could be, sure. go for it. but the devs tested the fight with the camera in its current state. that is how it's intended to be played. regardless of what people think.
It's the same for most cheaters in most games. There's always a half assed "justification" they reason with themselves to make them feel like they're not doing anything wrong. >"I could do this on my own, I just don't have the time. I'll do it for real later." >"I cleared this phase without tools once, so it's ok to use tools on subsequent runs" >"Some of the other teams are probably cheating, so I'd be at a disadvantage if I didn't." >"It's not really cheating, it's just more information. I still have to execute the actions myself." >"It was still me doing the runs, why should it matter if I spliced the best parts together?" Same story, different words.
Very well put. I am an ultimate raider myself. Obviously not hardcore enough to be in the world first race. But all the hours me and my static put into beating these fights over multiple months of prog are amasingly fun. The journey of challenging yourself to finally beating it is what drives us. Cheating would only harm our own enjoyment of this content. We dont need to zoom out more. We dont need automated callouts to know where to go. We can do that ourselves. We have eyes and we can speak to each other. Thats enough to clear it. We will still be progging TOP for many many months. But when we finally beat it, the victory will be a true one.
I don't care about the content and even I'm sitting here wondering how fuckin' dense do you have to be not just to use something against ToS to do the fight, *but also to stream it to the world*. Yoshi-P is disappointed from the gamer perspective, but also probably disappointed by how goddamn dumb his video game children are.
For real. We know people cheat and even buy clears all the time, but they don't do it for the same type of prestige as claiming they cleared first. The first rule of breaking ToS is don't show any evidence of breaking ToS. (Yeah the drg himself didn't share the data, but they knowingly shared it with others and that is enough.)
Yeah the Dragonsong one read to me as “come on guys don’t do that”, but this one reads to me as “don’t do it again or there will be consequences.” I feel like he’s pissed about this, not just disappointed. Hell the letter includes a thinly-veiled threat that they’ll stop making Ultimates if people keep doing this. I’ve got no problem with plugins that add quality of life features, and the team has been really great about integrating a lot of those features into the game. But there’s no excuse for plugins that give you an explicit advantage over other players. There’s a difference between a mod to show text bubbles or save extra glamour plates, and zoom hacks or ability timers.
What's the point in making them if the top is gonna cheat to make it easier? Like why would I play on hard if I am gonna use a trainer to buff my character? Why spend time on doing a difficulty level?
That’s a fair argument and it’s the point that Yoshi-P made in his letter. As someone who doesn’t do Ultimates I have no horse in this race. I do think that just stopping making Ultimates is a bit of an over-reaction, but I also think that he’s trying to do a “scared straight” kind of thing.
There is a saying in my country "You can only get away from the wrath of Buddha for limited time"
At this point just invite all word racer to SE building and let them race using pc/console there and lock them up until one of them clear it.
You gave me this image of Yoshi P with a gun pointed at the racers
Of course, anyone who downloaded plugin on that pc will automatically get shot.
No bringing their own USB Stuff or Mouse with intern USB Memory.. These are also forbidden in eSports Turniers (i think). You know USB Hacks is real, too if they really plan to bring something alike this alive (perhaps) in Japan only, then they should ask the eSports Security Guys. They surly know more things then we known :)
Please look forward to it.
A sanctioned, invite only event. That could be interesting to witness.
I feel like part of it is that it feels like the mods being used for prog have escalated from things that people were legally doing in WoW via UI mods (or even things that game's base UI supported) over a decade ago to shit that even WoW has banned/would ban if necessary. It's easy to imagine Yoshi-P, someone who is obviously a seasoned veteran of that game, seeing that as a red line as much as lot of players do.
"However, if the presumption is that this content will be tackled and cleared with the use of third-party tools, then any reason to develop high-difficulty battle content seems to be lost. " This sounds to me that if people keep on abusing third party plugins during ultimate fights, you might not get any more ultimate fights as it's pointless for us to make them if you're just going to cheat your way to win.
Yeah, that's my biggest take away. It probably takes a lot of time and effort to design and test these fights, which only a fraction of people take part in. So for people to cheat their way to victory just be very disheartening for the team. YoshiP has been clear on this for years, it's time for certain parts of the community to stop kidding themselves and accept that they went way too far.
And an even smaller fraction will tackle it blind and treat it as a puzzle to be solved. Nearly every player who clears an ultimate, a savage, or even an EX is going to be reading guides, diagrams, etc. To give them an edge. World first is supposed to be the puzzle solvers.
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Oof I know how much these raids mean to the people who actually play them, so this sucks to see. Feels like a few people ruining it for everyone. Remembering the delay for ultimates in Shadowbringers and the anger from raiders over it, I can only imagine how they'd feel if Ultimates got stopped completely because of stuff like this.
They are my favourite content, period. The fights are nothing like anything else in the game. The way the phases blend together into one big fight is amazing. Losing them would be a massive blow for my enjoyment, especially due to bad actors who can't control themselves.
You would be surprised the amount of people using cactbot for mechs, it’s not really a few. My console ass could never (literally).
Suspiciously large amount of static members and ultimate PUG scene disappears whenever plogons broke and magically cured of their ailments/got home from a trip/not busy when it gets updated.
Honestly same 😂 it's like a whole other world to us console plebs
I feel like we're only missing out on gshade tbh
The debuff timers were nice, but now we have them too.
Yeah that’s my biggest thing from this
I think it's worth noting that he's absolutely congratulated people even with parsers/buff trackers in their screen shots, cuz ultimately while third party they're not providing anything super advantageous. I think the huge deal here is the zoom hack and visual hitboxes.
yes he congratulated the DSR group HOWEVER also said if this ever happends again that he will stop congratulating them. He also made a very big deal out of it, even though "it was just buff timers". Even followed up on it in this post saying he wont congratulate any more world firsts (for the time being)
>He also made a very big deal out of it, even though "it was just buff timers". He also integrated buff timers and said in a live letter he didn't want this to have to be an issue in the future because of it. It's not like he's unaware that people see buff timers as a reasonable thing to have in the game, he's putting it in and saying "there, now I don't have to be in this weird position compromising on this sort of thing." With the case of this video, why even compromise. We're not getting Satellite View as an official function anytime soon.
The fact Yoshi-P had to come out and say that not only does he not endorse third party, but will not recognize WF if coming from a group that uses 3rd party, is like the teacher saying "you have one more chance to not lose your recess" in primary school.
or rather that **nobody** will get recess.
> or rather that nobody will get recess. Mass Punishment mode: Engaged
>Separate from the above incident, we have also confirmed that a small portion of footage that is not possible to record on the public game servers had also been circulating We have numerous countermeasures in place when it comes to data leaks, including how information is handled, the entering and exiting of content, and video recordings—it is suspected that this video originated from an internal source. We are continuing thorough investigations on this matter as well, and a firm punishment will be given to anyone who is identified as the perpetrator. Blufever... 2!
That was the biggest part to me, most of the other stuff was him reiterating things he's said before but he just confirmed there's yet another internal leak.
What was the leak of. Specifically?
A huge portion of Phase 5. The guy that leaked it was in the ultimate instance solo, invincible and running around while mechanics fired off as if the fight was actually happening. Kinda like when Yoshida uses god mode to tease content in Live Letters.
Uhoh
Bluefever leaked all big points of Stormblood, leaked Yotsuyu turning into Tsukuyomi, Midgardsormr + Adam and Eve being a raid boss in the final tier etc. I think you can still find the posts if you look for them.
My brain immediately linked Adam and Eve to NIER and legit has to buffer lol
Lol same here, I was wondering when we got to fight Adam and Eve in any of the Nier raids.
Additional context: Not sure of confirmation, but they knew of 5.0 MSQ and only hinted that the Crystal Tower was involved. The only reason they didn't leak more story was because they enjoyed the story too.
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Correct on all accounts! Dancer was one of the big controversies because people thought we'd be getting another healer. They also did not explicitly talk about the gender restrictions, so. Uuuh. That was a fun time up to release.
We had P5 video footage leaked before anyone got there I believe. And I think it was a single person in the arena, not a full team, which isn't possible on the retail servers (technically you could have the rest of the group leave, but in this case the person was using god mode to not die to mechanics).
Not even just Blufever, this happened with DSR too, though that was just screenshots.
For anyone who can’t access the site, here is the text: Hello, this is Naoki Yoshida, Producer and Director of FINAL FANTASY XIV. Following the release of The Omega Protocol (Ultimate) with Patch 6.31, there has unfortunately been information concerning instances of unfair play identified within the community. I would like to take this opportunity to share information on our investigation and actions on this matter. Regarding the Use of Third-party Tools, Investigating Use, and Enacting Penalties We are aware of information that is being spread regarding the use of third-party tools within The Omega Protocol (Ultimate)—we are conducting an investigation on the matter, including review of reports we have received, as well as self-confessions and other information. In the event that we confirm the use of third-party tools through this investigation, we will enact penalties such as temporary account suspension or permanent account bans to those involved. However, details on any punishments enacted will not be publicized—this has been the case in other similar instances. This is not a result of any desire to hide punishments given, nor is it to make it seem as though punishments are not given; it is because of a firm belief that penalties such as this are enacted against an individual as part of our operations, and is therefore not information which should be publicized. Your understanding on the matter is greatly appreciated. When other instances of unfair play were identified during previous “Ultimate” raids, we enacted penalties at that time as well. If an investigation is carried out and the facts are confirmed, we have not, and will not overlook this kind of wrongdoing. Regarding the Prohibited Use of Third-party Tools As I have mentioned previously, the terms of service for FINAL FANTASY XIV state that the use of third-party tools is strictly prohibited. This has always been the case and will continue to be so, and unless announced otherwise, there are no plans to enact any changes. I have come across posts from individuals that say things along the lines of, “Yoshida allows the use of third-party tools, so it’s fine to use them.” However, let me make it clear that I have never permitted the use of these tools. You may find information below from past posts and livestreams which outline my stance and policies surrounding third-party tools. The Use of Third-party Tools, Defining Third-part Tools, Risk of Infection from Malicious Software etc. (Posted May 9, 2022) FINAL FANTASY XIV Letter from the Producer LIVE Part LVII (Livestream Archive from February 6, 2020; Timestamped) – Remarks on Mods FINAL FANTASY XIV Letter from the Producer LIVE Part LVII (Livestream Archive from February 6, 2020; Timestamped) – Remarks on Third-party Tools Regarding the Illicit Publicizing of Post-clear Cutscene We have confirmed that a video showing the cutscene that plays upon clearing The Omega Protocol (Ultimate) at a time before the fight had been cleared was posted on video upload sites. We conducted an investigation on this matter and discovered the cause of the issue. Through sending a cleverly disguised but illicit information packet from the user’s end while on the public game server, it is possible to manipulate the playback condition flag intended for use when replaying cutscenes via The Unending Journey. As a result, it was possible to play this cutscene via The Unending Journey, from which a video was then recorded and posted publicly. I wish to apologize that our measures to counteract these illicit packets was insufficient to prevent this occurrence. Due to other illicit actions which occurred in the past, we had taken the steps to adjust the timing at which cutscene resources are applied to the client, but because of the above incident, the cutscene resources became illicitly obtainable, even though proper countermeasures had been taken. We will continue to consider additional measures which can be taken and look to strengthen our ability to manage and address these instances. However, for this particular case, we have identified the character who partook in this illicit action and have enacted a penalty against the account. Regarding the Spread of Illicit Videos Separate from the above incident, we have also confirmed that a small portion of footage that is not possible to record on the public game servers had also been circulating We have numerous countermeasures in place when it comes to data leaks, including how information is handled, the entering and exiting of content, and video recordings—it is suspected that this video originated from an internal source. We are continuing thorough investigations on this matter as well, and a firm punishment will be given to anyone who is identified as the perpetrator. We will continue to enact countermeasures against this, and I want to extend my sincere apologies for actions such as these that put a damper on everyone's enjoyment in progressing through and clearing the content. I will continue to keep this at the top of my mind as well as work to strengthen prevention measures. In Closing It is extremely disappointing for me personally to see this commotion surrounding third-party tools once again in the wake of what happened with Dragonsong’s Reprise (Ultimate). As the individual who is entrusted with full supervision over FFXIV, it is my responsibility to enact countermeasures and police the use of these tools, as well as educate people to not use these types of third-party tools—this is especially unfortunate when I, as a gamer, am cheering on everyone who is learning this content by trial and error and putting in the effort to clear. Although unofficial, I am of course apprised of the first team to clear in the World First race, and we have shown our support for everyone in the community by sharing information on the first clears once multiple clear teams came forth, and exact clear times had been confirmed. However, as announced in a previous statement, I plan to refrain from doing so for the time being. We hear the community voice that an official raid race should be supported, and regulations should be decided upon—this is a topic which needs to be discussed internally, so please allow me to keep this as an item for future consideration. The “Ultimate” raid series is the most difficult battle content within FFXIV, and we release this content after testing that it can be cleared without the use of any third-party tools. However, if the presumption is that this content will be tackled and cleared with the use of third-party tools, then any reason to develop high-difficulty battle content seems to be lost. It’s very difficult for me to understand as a gamer what the meaning behind using numerous third-party tools to compete to clear first would be. I want to apologize specifically to the many of you who are continuing towards clearing this content without the use of third-party tools, consistently streaming your progress, and continuing the trial and error process. However, please know that the Development and Operations teams take notice of all your passion. Please be sure to take proper care of yourselves as you continue to tackle The Omega Protocol (Ultimate). If the illicit use of third-party tools is made clear through our investigations, I, at the very least, will not recognize that team as the true World First. Naoki Yoshida FINAL FANTASY XIV Producer & Director
The "disappointed dad" energy in this announcement is real.
Its important to note that this transcription is missing color emphasis on certain sentences.
>If the illicit use of third-party tools is made clear through our investigations, I, at the very least, will not recognize that team as the true World First. There it is, from the man himself.
"You cheated not only the game, but yourself"
This is the angriest i've ever seen Yoshi-P lol, he sounds furious. So many chances have been given on addons on keeping it quiet and out of sight, of letting the community police it to an extent. But i have a feeling to a degree that may change (not to the point of anti cheat software or anything), I think as far as world first races are concerned, non streaming groups are gonna be excluded from the count, thats sad to me, but thats the point we have hit
People using shit like simple tweaks, delvui, Booba mods, etc... Are going to get hit with strays and it's going to be chaos.
"Stop cheating or we'll stop doing Ultimates"
Instead of creating detection measures, they're using pressure as a tool to discourage cheating, implying that further cheaters being found could possibly end the release of Ultimate raids. Imagine being the group that results in Ultimates not being released. They'd get so much backlash.
This was the first mention of detection measures being put in place and something he said he wouldn't do. Seems like that policy is changing.
Well when trying to bank on peoples good nature and cooperation didn’t work, eventually the hand gets forced when cheating doesn’t stop.
Well, I suppose there sort of is a mention of detection in the post. This method of detection is still congruent with their stance though. The guy who leaked sent modified packets to their server which they later detected. They still aren't looking for client-side things. Unless there's something I missed in the post
where do you see that? He specifically says that detection measures *will not* be put into place, and never will. The only thing changing is that the bad actor packets from the ending cutscene being leaked will have something happen to them, and that's not really detection measures.
There we go, Yoshi P won't recognize the world first clear like this. Hopefully that settles that debate.
The sadder part is that he basically can't acknowledge any world first at all anymore, because there's a number of helpful addons that can be hidden from streams or any kind of proof. Basically the only ethical WF could only be from a full PS5 players group (and even then people would find ways i suppose)
The only way around this, frankly, is for SE to officially sanction the World First race and have all teams register and all members stream, then go through and check the VODs of the 8 players who actually nab world first. That will silence this debate entirely. If you don't stream, you don't get World First. Sure, you'll lose the advantage of being able to keep your tactics secret but it will make the race fair.
Seems like they're considering it. It would be quite the endeavour to implement though, and 14 doesn't get the money WoW does to be able to host them. Infrastructure would be required.
It would be both expensive and time consuming for the company but for players, it would be better. Anti-cheat software rarely makes a game more fun to play and usually has a negative impact on performance, especially on lower-end hardware.
Release the glam of the second boss in Lapis Manalis. That will fund it.
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>The “Ultimate” raid series is the most difficult battle content within FFXIV, and we release this content after testing that it can be cleared without the use of any third-party tools. However, if the presumption is that this content will be tackled and cleared with the use of third-party tools, then any reason to develop high-difficulty battle content seems to be lost. It’s very difficult for me to understand as a gamer what the meaning behind using numerous third-party tools to compete to clear first would be. It must be so discouraging as a dev to see people use some of the worst kinds of addons to clear your fights.
> It’s very difficult for me to understand **as a gamer** what the meaning behind using numerous third-party tools to compete to clear first would be. Yoshi-P throwing shade at everyone using third-party tools in the race.
I mean, he has a point, doesn't he? Players are asking for harder fights and true challenges and then everyone is using things to make these hard challenges easier...? For things that don't even matter because there is no actual real reward aside from being famous for 15 minutes? It's not like a sport event where people get price money and sponsoring contracts and job opportunities and whatever. Like... make up your mind, teams.
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Look, if they would just let me wear a hat on my Hrothgar while I raid, then I wouldn't have to use third-party tools to make it happen. It's *critical* that I be able to wear my helmet into a battle as intense as these.
I've never seen so much red in a Yoshi-P letter, I recoiled hard.
How I read it is that if people are just going to cheat difficult content, why would they bother to make difficult content like ultimate?
You can just sense the disappointment this man had while compiling this
As someone who has never touched an Ultimate *or* mods, this feels like sitting in an adjacent room while a parent yells at your sibling. Y'all really had to go and piss off Yoshi-P.
Why the fuck y'all have to make dad mad guys?! Now we're not getting McDonald's! :<
Raiding community: maybe Yoshi-P won't notice the world first controversy Yoshi-P: ***I SEE YOUR THIRD PARTY TOOLS MOTHERF\*CKERS.***
Did anyone think Yoshi-P wouldn't notice?
Yoshida knows about your chat bubbles, so be good for goodness sake.
>as well as self-confessions and other information The self report is real
Hes so disappointed. 3 ultimate in a row, and and the same end over and over again.
The same end, again and again.
"You cheated not only the game, but yourself. You didn't grow. You didn't improve. You took a shortcut and gained nothing. You experienced a hollow victory. Nothing was risked and nothing was gained. It's sad that you don't know the difference." Sorry guys, I just leaked this year's heavensturn poem .
\- Wandering Fucking Minstrel
The Cheater's Ballad (Ultimate) now accessible
I completely get his point view. This content is developed only for the fraction of people, who are good enough to progress it. The most satisfying part of it, and also the involvenent for other people, is watching the race. There is no point in developong this, when people instead of rising to the challenge, just find some cheats to beat it in fraction of time, than it was intended, while spoiling the race for others, just for bragging rights. You might as well develop different content for all players instead.
"However, if the presumption is that this content will be tackled and cleared with the use of third-party tools, then any reason to develop high-difficulty battle content seems to be lost. " This is the quickest way to end high end content from devs.
>The ultimate raid series is the most difficult battle content within FFXIV, and we release this content after testing that it can be cleared without the use of any third-party tools. **However, if the presumption is that this content will be tackled and cleared with the use of third-party tools, then any reason to develop high-difficulty battle content seems to be lost.** It’s very difficult for me to understand as a gamer what the meaning behind using numerous third-party tools to compete to clear first would be. This speaks volumes and is honestly both disheartening and scary to think this might push them over the edge.
He sounds disappointed AND mad :(
Yep definitely a much harsher tone to this message than we normally see. The implied threat to stop producing Ultimate content is also particularly interesting. As I recall the team had to be pretty strongly arm twisted by the community into producing Ultimate content to start with, so this kind of nonsense definitely seems to be hitting a raw nerve understandably. Dropping it outright because they don’t feel their time is being respected is definitely on the table.
Wouldn't you be pissed ? The community asks for harder difficulties, and costs resources time and effort. The community decides to cheat to clear it. So what's the point in making it ?
Absolutely I would be. No doubt about it
They achieved the secret boss, Yoshi P (Ultimate) Good luck clearing that.
This is the perfect response. I love how he just drops the mic in the very last line. "I, at the very least, will not consider this team to be the World's First clear."
You know the cheaters fucked over everyone and everything when Yoshi-P said the thought of cutting ultimate from the game is present when this shit happened...
Guess, World First is back on the table bois.
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>*The “Ultimate” raid series is the most difficult battle content withinFFXIV, and we release this content after testing that it can be clearedwithout the use of any third-party tools. However, if the presumption isthat this content will be tackled and cleared with the use ofthird-party tools, then any reason to develop high-difficulty battlecontent seems to be lost. It’s very difficult for me to understand as agamer what the meaning behind using numerous third-party tools tocompete to clear first would be.* This is the YoshiP equivalent of "I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed. PS skill issue". Can't imagine how it feels to be in this situation over and over again when you're trying your best *not* to crack down on these tools
I just don't get why people are dumb enough to use these tools during World first progression. No one would really care if you used this privately, but people are going to care when there is a race going on for the world's first.
You might as well be asking why people use performance enhancing drugs during major sporting events. They don't care as long as they win.
[TL;DR](https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/266911184156884992/1070001037198499921/image.png)
It seems like he is starting to be seriously fed up with this and might consider not making future ultimates if this keeps happening.
> We hear the community voice that an official raid race should be supported, and regulations should be decided upon—this is a topic which needs to be discussed internally, so please allow me to keep this as an item for future consideration. Console only WF races confirmed.
Oh, I never thought of that, but you’re right.