So
For those who follow me for non-FFXIV reasons, I bring a crumb of internet drama to your door:
As with a lot of MMOs, roleplaying is a big thing. A BIG thing. Another big thing is the modding scene, so you can get your character looking just how you like. Squeenix does not best love mods, but it's broadly a don't-ask-don't-tell situation: as long as your mods don't give you an unfair advantage and you don't rub them in anyone's face, they'll look the other way
Guess what's the explicit direct polar opposite of not rubbing it in anyone's face
Buying four entire billboards in a major US city about it
A roleplay group bought out multiple billboards to advertise an event, and used both a modded screenshot (edit: that apparently uses a datamined unreleased outfit holy shit) and the official game logo on it
This Has Gone Well For Them and last I heard people had been banned temporarily over it pending more severe action, the modding scene is having very real fears that Squeenix will crack down on mod use over it, and apparently the organizers are pitching a hissy on their discord
No one is happy
Apparently there is a standoff happening outside the group's house where people are camped out on magitek armor using the missile emotes
tldr list of what’s known thus far for those that don’t wanna scroll thru all the rb’s, from the top...
guild house is decorated / set up to be a nightclub + erp venue in-game > publicised erp is against game TOS because potential to expose minors to pornographic content etc.
some attendees and/or staff use mods > against TOS
game producer basically says “i can’t stop you from doing it so don’t let me see it and you’re fine” otherwise they get banned faster than they can blink... well now everyone can see it in 2987341987236401923641px
some saying staff are paid real money for working there + real money for erp > against TOS for rmt (real-money trading)
ran a twitch stream donation saying it was for the trevor project + made thousands of $$$$$
there is ONE receipt which has surfaced (that i have seen) that says a donation to TTP was made for $230 ... nowhere near the amount of $$ made during the stream
handful of staff of the rp venue report having no idea where the money went, i.e. “it was just gone one day”
rented billboards (at least two, at least one of which is digital) for at least $1,200/month. probably more in the ballpark of $12,000. bc that’s a number that was circulating (esp in the discord where staff were ragging on people telling them “bad idea” because “you’re just jealous you can’t afford this kind of thing”)
(sus yet over that missing money and expensive advert? ‘cause that’s fraud if it’s a 1:1 flow of money buckos!!!)
on the billboard...
a character in a datamined outfit for the 2022 summer event (obviously against TOS)
a character with a facial mod (against TOS)
square enix watermark (copyright infringement)
final fantasy xiv logo, implicating the game is complicit in the event or otherwise sponsoring/promoting it (copyright infringement, misinformation)
website address (taken down ~4 hour (or less) after the internet became Aware of this)
discord server + user name(s)
staff totally on board with this brainiac idea were 100% certain they wouldn’t get in trouble for anything / continue to state they’ve done nothing wrong
one of the characters featured on the billboard has already been temp banned with possibility of permaban as of the evening of july 5
SE lawyers woke up and found out they’d have the easiest day of their lives
and some fun tidbits...
obviously, people started joining the discord to rubberneck... in light of this, a staff member installed an emote that was a fake trojan -- ultimately harmless but drives antivirus NUTS
threatened to report anyone reacting to posts with clown / skull / nerdface emoji to “local authorities and have you arrested” ... for discord emotes. lmfao. that’s where that copypasta comes from.
a former staff member’s éxpose on twitter
actual news media sites reporting on it
all in all, we in the “find out” phase of fucking around fellas
