Final Fantasy 14 Continues to Face Ongoing DDoS Attacks

Final Fantasy 14 continues to be the target of persistent distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, with three incidents reported within just a week affecting the North American servers. Players have taken to social media platforms to voice their frustrations about the attacks and express their discontent with Square Enix’s response.

In essence, a DDoS attack involves overwhelming a server with excessive fake traffic, aiming to disrupt its normal operations, leading to crashes or significant slowdowns. One common method involves a single attacker harnessing a botnet—a network of compromised computers—to bombard the server with a flood of spoofed login attempts, denying legitimate users access. While server hosts can employ various strategies to mitigate DDoS attacks, no method is foolproof. This means that players of online games like Final Fantasy 14 must exercise patience during such incidents.

This isn't the first time Final Fantasy 14 has faced DDoS attacks, especially during the Dawntrail expansion. Nevertheless, players continue to share their grievances. On the r/ffxiv subreddit, a user named Advarrk posted a screenshot showcasing a dungeon run that was abruptly interrupted by a DDoS attack on September 23. According to a post on Lodestone, the attack was detected around 1:00 AM Eastern, coinciding with the time most North American players were logging off for the night.

In Advarrk's screenshot, three members of their late-night dungeon group were disconnected, as indicated by the red icons next to their blurred-out usernames. Other Reddit users chimed in with their own experiences of DDoS disruptions. While some reported no disconnections, others described how their raid nights were marred by multiple players being booted from the servers amid the attacks. Since September 18, Final Fantasy 14 has endured three separate DDoS incidents.

DDoS Attacks Continue to Challenge Final Fantasy 14 Players

- Final Fantasy 14 has experienced three DDoS attacks since September 18, randomly targeting North American servers.

- Players have faced disconnections and high latency due to the influx of fake traffic.

- Many users have shared their frustrations and experiences as this wave of DDoS attacks persists.

While the DDoS attacks are a significant concern, they are not the first technical challenges faced by Final Fantasy 14. In spring 2023, players encountered severe lag that rendered the game virtually unplayable for those using ISPs like AT&T. Some affected players resorted to using a virtual private network (VPN) as a temporary fix while Square Enix worked on the issue.

With Final Fantasy 14 scheduled to be showcased at the 2024 Tokyo Game Show, players remain hopeful that solutions for addressing the ongoing DDoS challenges will be discussed. How Square Enix plans to alleviate player concerns remains to be seen.