In early 2025, a Final Fantasy 14 mod called "Playerscope" sparked widespread privacy concerns among players. The mod was reported to be capable of scraping hidden player data, including character details, retainer information, and any alternate characters linked to a Square Enix account. By exploiting the Content ID system introduced in the Dawntrail expansion, Playerscope enabled users to track specific player data within their vicinity, sending this information to a centralized database managed by the mod author.
This mod not only accessed "Content ID" and "Account ID," which allowed tracking across characters but also raised alarms about potential stalking. Players could only opt out of this data scraping by joining a private Discord channel associated with Playerscope. This situation led to significant privacy risks, with one community member on Reddit stating, "the purpose is obvious, to stalk people."
The mod gained popularity after its source code was discovered on Github, leading to its subsequent removal due to terms of service violations. Although it was mirrored on other platforms like Gittea and Gitflic, IGN confirmed that the repository no longer exists on these sites. However, there's a possibility that the mod continues to circulate within private communities.
In response, Final Fantasy 14's producer and director, Naoki 'Yoshi-P' Yoshida, issued a statement on the game's official forum addressing the issue of third-party mods, specifically referencing Playerscope. Yoshida confirmed the existence of tools that access character information not visible during normal gameplay and highlighted the potential misuse of internal account IDs to correlate data across characters on the same service account.
Yoshida outlined the development and operations teams' considerations, which include requesting the removal and deletion of the tool and pursuing legal action. He reassured players that personal information such as addresses and payment details registered on Square Enix accounts cannot be accessed by these tools. He emphasized the importance of maintaining a safe environment and urged players to refrain from using or sharing information about third-party tools, as their use violates the Final Fantasy 14 User Agreement.
Despite the prohibition of third-party tools, tools like Advanced Combat Tracker are commonly used within the game's raiding community and referenced on sites like FFlogs. Yoshida's mention of potential legal action marks a significant escalation in addressing these issues.
The FF14 Community Responds
The Final Fantasy 14 community has reacted strongly to Yoshida's statement. One player commented, "fixing the game to break the mod isn’t on the list of options they’re considering I see," suggesting a desire for more direct solutions. Another player proposed, "or you could just see how not to expose the information on [the player’s] client side. Of course, this means extra work which they did not plan for, but is Final Fantasy 14 really on such a tight schedule and budget they can't deal with these things properly?"
A third community member expressed disappointment, stating, "Kind of a disappointing statement that really fails to acknowledge the root cause of the problem." As of now, the author of Playerscope has not responded to these developments.
