In early 2025, the Final Fantasy 14 community was rocked by privacy concerns over a mod named "Playerscope," which was reported to have the ability to scrape hidden player data. This included sensitive details such as character information, retainer information, and any alternate characters linked to a Square Enix account. The mod enabled users to track specific player data of anyone nearby, sending the information to a centralized database managed by the mod author, regardless of whether the user was directly interacting with the tracked player or simply in their vicinity. This capability extended to data that players typically couldn't access through in-game tools.

Playerscope manipulated the "Content ID" and "Account ID" systems, introduced in the Dawntrail expansion, to track players across different characters. This feature allowed for blacklisting across service accounts and multiple characters, raising significant privacy alarms. The only way to prevent data scraping was to join the private Playerscope Discord channel and opt out, suggesting that all other players were at risk of having their data collected. The community's reaction was swift and critical, with one user commenting on Reddit, "the purpose is obvious, to stalk people."

The mod's popularity surged after its source code was found on Github, but due to violations of terms of service, it was removed from the platform. Despite this, it was rumored to be mirrored on Gittea and Gitflic, though IGN confirmed its absence from these sites. The mod might still be circulating in private communities.

In response, Final Fantasy 14's producer and director, Naoki 'Yoshi-P' Yoshida, issued a statement on the game's official forum. He acknowledged the existence of third-party tools like Playerscope, which accessed hidden character data and attempted to correlate information across service accounts. Yoshida assured players that personal details like addresses and payment information remained secure and inaccessible to these tools. The development and operations teams were considering removing and deleting the tool, and even pursuing legal action. He emphasized the importance of maintaining a safe environment and urged players to refrain from using or sharing information about third-party tools, reminding everyone that such use violates the Final Fantasy 14 User Agreement.

Despite the prohibition of third-party tools, tools like Advanced Combat Tracker are commonly used by the raiding community and referenced on sites like FFlogs. Yoshida's threat of legal action marks a significant escalation in the game's stance against these mods.

The FF14 Community Responds

The Final Fantasy 14 community's response to Yoshida's statement was overwhelmingly critical. One user suggested that the game should be updated to prevent the mod from accessing sensitive information, saying, "fixing the game to break the mod isn’t on the list of options they’re considering I see." Another player proposed that the root issue was the exposure of information on the client side, questioning whether the game was too constrained to address such issues adequately. A third commenter expressed disappointment in the statement, noting it failed to address the core problem. As of now, the author of Playerscope has not issued a response to these developments.