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FF14 Update Pure Square Enix Quality

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Square Enix’s latest Final Fantasy XIV update is showing the company’s usual forethought and attention to detail – the update adds a public “player history” feature which shows exactly when players were playing and what they were doing, with no option to turn it off.

Whilst on paper an innocuous addition, in practice the update handily exposes MMORPG addicted NEETs and employees sneakily playing on the job in violation of company policy, to say nothing of exposing the fact that most of the game’s “official players” quit weeks ago.

The update:

[Important Update Details]

General
– Implemented a “History” feature which displays a record of any achievements the character has accomplished in FINAL FANTASY XIV.
The page can be accessed by selecting the “History” option located under the “My Site” menu and also within the “Character” section.

Of course, it could be argued that Square Enix is doing employers a favour by allowing them to pinpoint slackers.

It is not however doing itself much of a favour – players exploring the feature quickly rumbled the showcase players who were enthusiastically shilling for the game:

Seiyuu Rina Katou logged in once on the 2nd of October and never again, and after writing about her experiences playing the game with such enthusiasm throughout the rest of the month…

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Mangaka Kayoko Saito wrote extensively about the game and drew 5 manga about it, but only played for 10 minutes:

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She also reported visiting places her play history reports she never got to…

Investigation of the rest of the “official players” assembled reveals most of them gave up playing weeks ago, perhaps their only honest act whilst endorsing the game.

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