Anna Clemens, who has been creating Closing Fantasy XIV plugins for 3 years, is an outlier among the many FFXIV modders I’ve talked with. She publishes underneath the title ‘ascclemens,’ and he or she doesn’t make any effort to cover her full title and call data. She’s additionally the one one of many MMORPG‘s modders that I spoke with who agreed to have her title revealed on this piece.
Mods in Closing Fantasy XIV are off-limits; something that isn’t baked into the PC sport is technically in opposition to the principles. On that matter, Clemens says that “each developer is considerably frightened, however I’m not too frightened.” For a protracted whereas, mods have existed in a “don’t ask, don’t inform” state – loads of gamers use them, and so long as you’re not bragging about it, you most likely received’t get in any bother.
Builders occupy a barely completely different house. The seller has a much bigger goal on their again than the consumer. One of many extra common hubs for gameplay-altering modifications is Dalamud, a plugin infrastructure that enables gamers to obtain a curated collection of tweaks. Clemens’ plugins are accessed by means of Dalamud.
I had the prospect to talk with certainly one of Dalamud’s lead programmers (they requested anonymity, so I’ll simply name them DP). DP additionally works on the wildly common customized launcher XIVLauncher, which permits PC gamers to avoid wasting their login data and facilitates the usage of Dalamud plugins. They’ve a barely extra fraught relationship with mod growth. They’re a lot cagier about publicity, and so they say most modders are equally cautious of the limelight. Plugins have gotten a variety of consideration with FFXIV’s latest explosion in reputation, a results of the discharge of a significant growth coinciding with a worldwide pandemic.
DP says, “we mainly depend on residing a distinct segment the place no one cares about us.” Catching the highlight is harmful; DP says they discourage streamers from utilizing plugins, not simply because gamers who’re caught modding are at risk of a ban, however as a result of it’s unsafe to go away a paper path pointing to Dalamud’s devs. They continue to be hopeful that SE will take cues from the plugins that gamers reply to, however they’re additionally conscious of the inherently tense relationship between the 2 events.
This anxiousness isn’t simply current amongst plugin builders. I spoke to a trend modder (additionally nameless; we’ll name them FM) who voiced comparable considerations. FM isn’t overly frightened about Sq. Enix, however they keep what they describe as a “wholesome quantity of paranoia.” Style mods have been on the forefront of some controversy – FFXIV followers could bear in mind final 12 months’s notorious ‘billboard get together’, an in-game rave marketed on an actual billboard. The occasion attracted controversy partially for actually promoting modded outfits on the billboard. FM says they haven’t felt the fallout from that incident, however additionally they actively keep away from mentioning their work to different FFXIV gamers, and so they say there’s all the time the looming menace of “a campaign in opposition to modders.”
Sq. Enix isn’t the one anti-modding agent on the market, both. Loads of FFXIV’s fiercest followers have their very own doubts. The angle in the direction of third-party software program has all the time been bizarrely hostile – throughout my analysis for this piece, I got here throughout one FFXIV discussion board publish arguing that utilizing Discord for voice chat is technically dishonest – nevertheless it’s develop into particularly disagreeable just lately. In January, a bunch of Japanese gamers referred to as UNNAMED cleared a brand new high-difficulty raid with the help of gameplay-altering instruments, resulting in an unlimited wave of backlash in opposition to third-party software program. Closing Fantasy XIV’s director, Naoki ‘Yoshi-P’ Yoshida, issued an announcement condemning all mods and plugins, leaving mod builders in hotter water than ever.
So, if direct motion from FFXIV’s developer is a continuing fear, and there’s no cash to be made in a hobbyist’s area, why do modders preserve going? There are just a few causes, however, in fact, all of them boil down to at least one factor: modders like altering the sport.
Clemens’ first full-fledged FFXIV plugin, launched in the summertime of 2020, is named Peeping Tom. It’s a easy mod that enables gamers to view once they’re being focused by different gamers. Clemens designed Peeping Tom for private use, just because she was interested in who was her, however she says she enjoys seeing different folks get one thing out of her work. Clemens says her favorite plugin of hers is normally the newest one she’s labored on. After we spoke, that was Orange Steerage Tomestone, a plugin that provides the flexibility to create messages on the bottom, a la Darkish Souls. In Clemens’ phrases, “It positively helps that folks really get some pleasure out of utilizing that one.” In true Souls trend, Orange Steerage Tomestone is normally used for pointless messages.
DP, in the meantime, describes themself as a tinkerer first and a gamer second. Their early forays into mod growth occurred across the launch of FFXIV’s full-scale 2013 reboot, A Realm Reborn. This was a time when there weren’t many assets for FFXIV modders, and at a time when the sport was sorely missing in quality-of-life options. Their earlier mods have been for private use solely, and solely in single-player video games, so FFXIV posed an attention-grabbing problem. Like Clemens, DP began off making issues for themselves, however Dalamud has develop into a bunch for plugins that make the sport extra foundationally accessible. As DP says, “we’ve a variety of customers that depend on plugins to play the sport within the first place as they’re deprived.”
FM began modding for their very own profit, too. They got here into FFXIV across the similar time as DP, and so they play principally male characters within the sport. Their preliminary motive for trend modding got here from frustration on the restricted availability of trend mods for males, in order that they set about making some. They’ve tailored different items for male characters, they’ve labored on authentic items, and so they’ve even veered into reasonably NSFW modding, a area with its personal group controversies – FM says the one time they’ve seen Sq. Enix take motion in opposition to a consumer, it was an NSFW modder who marketed their Twitter. They inform me that “Turning into a pure NSFW modder is one thing I are not looking for.”
Modding isn’t nearly altering the sport, although. It’s additionally about group. Kinship and camaraderie have been main factors of debate amongst all of the builders I spoke with. Each FM and DP began modding earlier than there was vital mod assist, and so they each appear impressed by the best way the group has grown during the last a number of years; FM says the assets accessible to new trend modders have made the passion considerably extra accessible. Clemens seemingly confirms this – she hasn’t been part of the scene for so long as the opposite two modders I spoke with, however she says that she discovered XIVLauncher and Dalamud early in her modding journey, and so they have been useful instruments.
The modding group appears content material to share data freely and playfully. Clemens shared a light-hearted custom amongst Dalamud plugin builders: when options from a plugin are carried out in an official FFXIV patch, or when Sq. Enix immediately addresses points that plugins have already solved, plugin builders are awarded a “Certificates of Excellence.” When Sq. Enix acknowledged that it will be too resource-intensive to point out whether or not you had already collected an merchandise in that merchandise’s tooltip, Clemens acquired a Certificates of Excellence for her plugin, Good Reminiscence, which does precisely that.
Mod builders, unsurprisingly, additionally use a variety of mods. Clemens tells me that she makes use of “almost each plugin accessible,” and FM says that they make use of Dalamud plugins in addition to different trend mods. Animosity and competitors are overseas ideas right here. In spite of everything, everyone seems to be aiming for a similar purpose: a greater FFXIV.
The group informs a variety of the choices made amongst modders. DP is chargeable for most of the restrictions on what Dalamud will and won’t host. Clemens says that she trusts Dalamud’s laws, and that they’re a part of the explanation she feels so snug about modding. Per DP, a variety of these selections are made primarily based on the local weather of the broader FFXIV group. For DP, differentiating between a modification and a cheat is “a relentless battle,” however the line is drawn partially by “the final temper of the group.”
DP tells me that the dividing line has modified considerably because the modding and mod-using communities have grown. “When there are 50 those that use your instruments, you don’t have a tendency to consider this,” they are saying, “however we’ve gotten much more conservative with what we permit and assist with.” As mods develop into a much bigger a part of the sport, and as DP’s mods develop into extra common, the strain to get issues proper continues to mount.
The group is a double-edged sword for FFXIV. Take, for instance, GShade, an extremely common beauty instrument designed to make the sport look higher. GShade is a fork of an analogous instrument referred to as ReShade (with out getting too technical concerning the finer intricacies of GitHub repositories, you’ll be able to consider it as a mod of a mod). Notably, whereas ReShade is open supply, GShade will not be. Lately, a modder referred to as ‘NotNite’ began messing round with various, open-source methods to put in GShade shaders. Just a few days later, gamers utilizing NotNite’s new strategies and instruments found that GShade would forcibly restart their computer systems with out warning.
GShade developer Marot Satil later confirmed in a Discord message to NotNite that the pressured restart was a deliberate response to NotNite’s tinkering. After a short however explosive group response to the transfer, Satil seemingly took GShade off the web fully. I can’t remark too profoundly on the thought course of behind any of those strikes – neither Marot Satil nor NotNite responded to requests for remark – nevertheless it definitely looks as if a cut-and-dry instance of a usually snug, nice group folding in on itself, a reminder of how unstable and petty hobbyist teams can develop into.
On the finish of the day, although, the intention behind modding is just to make the sport extra gratifying. There’s no different purpose to do it. The fallout that arises from battle between modders might be dramatic, nevertheless it’s a pure consequence of attempting to make one thing materially higher for as many individuals as attainable. Is all this price it? I’m undecided. However for some people, it definitely is.
For some modders, making the sport “higher” means making it extra accessible; FM makes use of XIVCombo, a plugin that maps repetitive combos to a single button, which helps with their consideration points and makes the sport extra instantly playable. For others, it simply means altering aesthetics; one Dalamud plugin replaces the FFXIV well being bar with a mechanically equivalent Kingdom Hearts well being meter. In DP’s phrases, “Usually, I feel it helps that there is no such thing as a revenue or clout incentive at play for many devs I do know/collaborate with, we actually do exactly wanna make the sport a bit higher in a passion-y type of method.”
Ardour, so far as I can inform, is the secret for Closing Fantasy XIV modders. Generally, that zeal explodes, resulting in community-wide chaos. Extra usually, although, it merely waxes and wanes – DP tells me that they’re planning on stepping away from modding, which has develop into extra traumatic lately. However there are all the time gamers round who simply desire a Closing Fantasy XIV that’s higher for them. DP says they’re not anxious about leaving the scene. The group’s gotten sufficiently big that they now not really feel the necessity to act as a steward. “There are a variety of very succesful and sane folks now that I belief to steer these tasks,” they are saying. So far as I can inform, FM and Clemens don’t have any intention of slowing down any time quickly.
For those who’re feeling impressed to get again into the sport, take a look at our FFXIV courses information, or our breakdown of the brand new Island Sanctuary, a hotly anticipated function added in patch 6.2.