Final Fantasy 14 Director Yoshi-P Threatens Legal Action Against 'Stalking' Mod

In early 2025, a Final Fantasy XIV mod ignited concerns about player stalking after reports surfaced that it could scrape hidden player data. This included sensitive information like character details, retainer information, linked alternate characters, and more.

The mod, "Playerscope," tracked specific player data of anyone near the user. This data was sent to a central database controlled by the mod's author, regardless of whether a specific player was targeted or if the user was simply in proximity to others. The information gathered went beyond what's typically accessible through in-game tools.

Playerscope accessed "Content ID" and "Account ID," allowing cross-character tracking. This exploited the Content ID system introduced in the Dawntrail expansion, originally designed to let players blacklist others across their service account and multiple characters.

The only way to prevent data scraping was to join Playerscope's private Discord and opt out. This meant that, theoretically, every Final Fantasy XIV player outside that Discord was having their data harvested—a significant privacy breach. The community reacted strongly, with one Reddit commenter stating the mod's "purpose is obvious, to stalk people."

Weeks ago, the mod's author revealed on Discord that Playerscope had been uploaded to GitHub, causing a surge in popularity. Due to Terms of Service violations, it was subsequently removed from GitHub, though allegedly mirrored on Gittea and Gitflic. IGN verified that no Playerscope repository exists on these alternative platforms; however, the mod could still be circulating privately.

Naoki 'Yoshi-P' Yoshida, Final Fantasy XIV's producer and director, issued a statement on the official forums addressing third-party mods, clearly referencing Playerscope. The statement acknowledged the existence of tools accessing non-public character information, including portions of internal account IDs used to link other characters on the same service account.

Yoshida stated that the development and operations teams are considering requesting the tool's removal and pursuing legal action. He reassured players that while the mod exposed character information, it couldn't access personal data like addresses or payment information stored on Square Enix accounts. He urged players to avoid using third-party tools, refrain from sharing installation details, and emphasized that such tools violate the Final Fantasy XIV User Agreement and threaten player safety.

While third-party tools like Advanced Combat Tracker are commonly used by the raiding community and integrated with sites like FFlogs, Yoshida's legal threat represents a significant escalation.

The FF14 Community Responds

The community's response to Yoshida's statement was largely critical. One user commented on the lack of options to fix the game's vulnerabilities to prevent such mods. Others criticized the statement for failing to address the underlying issue of exposing sensitive information on the client-side. The Playerscope author has yet to respond publicly.