Thanks To An Addon, Final Fantasy XIV’s Updated Blacklist System May Cause More Problems Than It Solves

On the surface, the changes to Final Fantasy XIV’s blacklist system are great. You blacklist someone and they more or less disappear from the game for you altogether. You can’t see their character or name in the MMORPG’s world, they can’t see you or message you. The system will even keep them from trying to enter your house – should you be lucky enough to have one.

Unfortunately, the updates that were supposed to help cut back on stalking have apparently made things easier. According to a report on PC Gamer, the feature changed the character-wide ID to one that’s account-wide. When used with a plugin named PlayerScope, this “account ID” allows the user to see every character tied to that ID.

For players who have created alts to avoid other players, this is going to be a problem as it will lead people using the mod right to them. If you’re wondering if the player has to put their ID into the mod for it to work, the answer is no. Unfortunately, the information is readily available. In fact the creator has stated that it’s an "opt-out" situation as they feel the mod wouldn’t be effective if it were "opt-in" due to “the data pool being too limited”. Opting out requires you to send your information to a stranger on Discord...so not exactly ideal either.

Until recently, the mod hasn’t been widely available. However, the creator has been preparing to change that. It probably won’t be available as a direct mod on Dalamud, as they’ve issued a statement saying that “the Dalamud project fundamentally does not approve of the plugin in question, nor do [they] believe that it was necessary to create in the first place”. The post also states that they have no control over custom repositories and notes that the entire issue is a result of the blacklist changes in the game.

This being the case, it seems likely that Square Enix will have received wind of it by now. The question will be how they choose to deal with the issue. Simply beginning to ban mods could do serious damage to their player base – in a variety of areas. Mods are used in the game for everything from tracking raid stats to roleplaying to creating accessibility options that don’t exist in the game yet – or in the case of the combo thing they implemented, exist in the game poorly. Given that mods are technically not allowed but SE has taken a softer approach in the past, I guess we’ll see.

One thing we do know that Square Enix is doing something about on the harassment front is moving to defend their own staff. I’m sure we’ve all heard by now that some people just really do not like Wuk Lamat and have been taking that out on the voice actor, sending abusive messages, death threats, and more.

Yoshi-P formally asked everyone to stop, but that apparently didn’t have the desired effect. Now, it seems Square Enix is over the whole thing and has created a new policy to deal with it. The “Group Customer Harassment Policy”, includes a detailed list of activities that the company considers harassment, ranging from acts of violence to discriminatory speech. There’s also a list of several things considered “undue demand”, this includes things like unreasonable requests for monetary compensation or demanding that Square Enix punish employees”.

As for the punishment for engaging in this behavior, the company reserves the “right to cease providing support services or to refrain from providing [their] group’s products and services”. If things cross a certain line, individuals may be looking at legal action. As the policy states: “Where such action is egregious or with malicious intent, Square Enix reserves its right to protect its employees and partners and to take legal action or criminal proceedings upon consulting the police and/or lawyers”. Basically, if anything you’re doing is included in their list on this policy, they’ll likely be taking legal action.