About Final Fantasy XIV, you often hear how great the community is. However, in the 80th Producer Letter, options were announced for the upcoming expansion to block other players, in some cases even completely hide them. The director hopes that you will not use these features.
What features will there be? For Final Fantasy XIV, there will be new community features with the next expansion Dawntrail. In the last Producer Letter, the following were announced:
- Blacklist
- Mute List
- Expression Filter
- Housing Exclusion Options
- Lodestone Updates
There is already a blacklist in the game where players can be added. However, the new feature in Dawntrail is that not only messages from the players on the list will be hidden, but also their characters. In fact, all of them: Even new Warriors of Light created from the associated service account will be hidden.
The mute list, on the other hand, allows you to mute certain players only
. The expression filter is also meant to help block spoilers or inappropriate expressions in chat.
The housing exclusion options go deeper: You can now exclude other players from entering your house for up to ten days. This feature will also apply to free companies.
Changes to the Lodestone, the official community site, also bring more privacy. In the future, you should be able to set whether other players are allowed to find your character at all. Additionally, you should be able to determine what information others can see about you.
More Security Options for FFXIV – But the Director Doesn’t Want You to Use Them?
What does the director say about this? Naoki Yoshida, director and producer of Final Fantasy XIV, personally introduced the new features for his game during the livestream. He explained that he is reluctant to have too many rules. However, about half a year ago, the team decided on these innovations.
He further explains:
I believe that many people’s time is shifting to a virtual world and that it will continue to develop in this direction. I have always thought about how [new blacklist] features would look.
I have thought a lot philosophically about these features, and personally, I hope that people do not feel the need to use them, but I absolutely understand when one reaches a point where it must be done.
Naoki Yoshida in the 80th Producer Letter via Youtube, 13.04.2024
Yoshida especially hopes that these features are not needed. However, he is aware that there are situations where they are absolutely essential.
A New Blacklist – Is It Necessary?
Is there reason for such features? The player base of Final Fantasy XIV is generally friendly and helpful. However, that does not mean that, as in any social situation, there are not individuals who behave inappropriately or even harmfully.
Despite all the friendliness, you may encounter unpleasant players in dungeons. Of course, there are people who are frustrated when the group repeatedly fails against a boss.
It can also get a bit harsher: there are known cases of stalking and harassment in the game by the community. One weak point is the marriage system. If a player unilaterally dissolves the marriage with another player, the other player can still track their ex via a teleportation ring.
More about the marriage system and stalking in Final Fantasy XIV can be read here:
Of course, it would be nice if features like blacklists in Final Fantasy XIV were not necessary. It is completely understandable that Naoki Yoshida wishes for this as well. However, the reality is that not all players are always friendly to one another.
However, the new features should assist players in defending themselves against malicious teammates.
However, the vast majority of the community proves time and again that they are incredibly warm-hearted. For example, the player base gathered in front of an in-game NPC house to honor the voice actor of the NPC housed there. His friend invested nearly 200 hours into the MMORPG to hear his voice
