Empowering Expression: Modding Practices in Final Fantasy XIV: Online

Media, such as film, literature, and video games, center around white, cisheterosexual logics and contribute toward the marginalization of the multiplicity of identities and identity expressions that exist. As such, people may not see themselves represented in media, disempowering those who are underrepresented. Video games perpetuate these hegemonic logics; however, as a form of media, video games are able to be modified with ancillary and auxiliary coding to change the aesthetics and mechanics of the gameworld, known as modding. We conducted eleven semi-structured interviews with players of the massively multiplayer online role-playing game Final Fantasy XIV: Online to understand their modding practices. Drawing on a conceptual frame bringing together identity, identity work, and empowerment, we find that modding facilitates empowerment through expression, connection, and participation. We discuss how modding serves as a method of expression-based routine infrastructuring. We then propose design guidelines supporting intentionally malleable design.