It would appear that Final Fantasy XIV producer and director Naoki Yoshida has McFreaking had it with addons being used in order for raid teams to clear Ultimate difficulty content first, as for the second time in a row, he has had to issue a statement about the drama.
According to reports and self-confessions received by the devs, the party that cleared the newly added Omega Protocol Ultimate fight were using third-party tools, which Yoshida reminds players is strictly prohibited; he even went so far as to bring receipts in the form of links to three separate statements saying as much. Yoshida further promises that those who are found using addons will face temporary or permanent account suspensions, though who receives what punishment will not be publicized.
The statement further goes on to call out “illicit publicizing of post-clear cutscenes” involving a player who used an information packet to obtain and share story footage after the Ultimate raid. According to Yoshida, the perpetrator received a penalty. Additionally, an internal leak of “a small portion of footage that is not possible to record on the public game servers” has made the rounds; Yoshida promises that a “firm punishment” will be doled out to the perpetrator.
The closing portion of the address is oozing general annoyance at the world first race situation as well as confusion about why people feel the need to use addons in order to win the MMORPG’s toughest fights:
“The ‘Ultimate’ raid series is the most difficult battle content within FFXIV, and we release this content after testing that it can be cleared without the use of any third-party tools. However, if the presumption is that this content will be tackled and cleared with the use of third-party tools, then any reason to develop high-difficulty battle content seems to be lost. It’s very difficult for me to understand as a gamer what the meaning behind using numerous third-party tools to compete to clear first would be.”
