In early 2025, a mod for Final Fantasy 14 named "Playerscope" raised significant privacy concerns due to its ability to scrape hidden player data. This mod could access details such as character information, retainer data, and any alternate characters linked to a Square Enix account. Playerscope allowed users to track specific player data of anyone nearby, sending this information to a centralized database managed by the mod's author. This tracking included sensitive details like "Content ID" and "Account ID," which could be used to monitor players across different characters, exploiting the Content ID system introduced in the Dawntrail expansion.
The only way to opt out of this data scraping was to join a private Discord channel for Playerscope. This means that every Final Fantasy 14 player not in the channel was potentially having their data collected, posing a major privacy risk. The community's reaction was swift and vocal, with one Reddit user stating, "the purpose is obvious, to stalk people."
The mod gained significant attention after its source code was found on Github, leading to a surge in its popularity. However, due to violations of terms of service, Playerscope was removed from Github. Despite this, it was reportedly mirrored on other platforms like Gittea and Gitflic, though IGN confirmed that the repository no longer exists on 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 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, including parts of a player's internal account ID. He assured players that personal information like addresses and payment details could not be accessed by these tools.
Yoshida outlined the development and operations teams' plans, which include requesting the removal and deletion of the tool and considering legal action. He emphasized the importance of maintaining a safe environment for players and urged them to refrain from using or sharing information about third-party tools. He reiterated that such tools violate the Final Fantasy 14 User Agreement and could compromise player safety.
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 mention of potential legal action marks a significant escalation in the game's stance against such mods.
The FF14 Community Responds
The Final Fantasy 14 community has responded critically to Yoshida's statement. One user pointed out, "fixing the game to break the mod isn’t on the list of options they’re considering I see." Another suggested, "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 commenter expressed disappointment, noting that the statement "really fails to acknowledge the root cause of the problem."
The author of Playerscope has yet to respond to these developments.
