With the 6.1 update of Final Fantasy XIV, the new feature of Adventurer Plates was introduced, a type of business card for player characters. However, it quickly became apparent that some players were using it for not safe-for-work content.
What are Adventurer Plates? They are special “character profiles” that players can create since patch 6.1 in FFXIV. They resemble business cards that can be customized in various ways.
Players can:
- choose the background colors and patterns of their plates,
- select and set different frames,
- customize personal info like main job, activities, online time, etc.,
- take a personal profile photo and more
Unless set to private, players can view the Adventurer Plates of others by inspecting them. Additionally, the plates of participants in the new PvP mode Crystalline Conflict are displayed before the match to introduce the teams.
“This Plate will cause an emergency maintenance”
This is what some players are doing: After the launch of the new features, the first screenshots of player creations quickly appeared on reddit and social media. While most players present their characters as cool, cute, or funny, others have engaged in rather dirty antics.
During PvP matches, suddenly plate images appeared where characters are bending over with their nearly naked backsides, positioned in specific angles to make it look like they are having sex, or resemble “Dick Pics”, that is, images of penises.
This type of plates quickly became a meme and found a large number of imitators who recreated their own images similarly. For several days, more and more screenshots of such plates appeared on reddit as the community searched for the “worst” image.
In fact, the absolute top post (Warning, explicit sexual representation) in the FFXIV subreddit with over 13,000 upvotes currently shows an adult Adventurer Plate. Users in the thread joked that this photo will cause an emergency maintenance to prevent such image settings in the future.
It is a situation that the dev team probably did not foresee. While there are specific usage rules for the portraits that kindly request not to create content that might be considered “offensive or inappropriate.”
A more precise definition of such content and the consequences for violating the rules are not included in the description. However, it is likely that these regulations will be further adjusted in the future, as FFXIV is actually a game rated for ages 12 and up.
“I want them in all types of content.”
This is how the plates are received: Generally, the mood around Adventurer Plates is very positive. In a reddit thread, which received over 3,000 upvotes, user Peregrine2976 advocated for them to be used in all types of group content.
When players enter a dungeon or raid, their plates should be displayed on the screen just like in PvP.
The streamer and YouTuber Preach, who has spent a lot of time in FFXIV in recent months, was also surprised and excited about the small feature. In his top 5 video about the new features from patch 6.1, he says:
The number one thing that shocked me to my core, […] is the Adventurer Plates. I’m amazed that I find this fun and enjoy looking at other plates. […] It’s so good because people in FFXIV are so creative with it. All plates are different. People are either serious or funny, or somewhere in between, but they make it fit their character. […]
Basically, the feature is still in the beta phase. The director of FFXIV, Naoki Yoshida, announced that the team plans to introduce more customization options in the future.
Regarding the not safe-for-work plate images, the devs have not commented publicly yet. They currently have their hands full with the broken housing lottery, which many players are frustrated about:
