If I recall, there was something sorta similar with FF13-3?
My impression is that they have it there as a just-in-case for themselves--if someone starts, for example, selling iPhone cases on redbubble with FFXIV IP, even if it's fanart, they want to be able to put a stop to that sort of thing. Probably also if they see something that they feel really reflects badly on them as a company - like, idk, some kind of manip of in-game graphics that makes it look like the game itself is about child abuse? (I'm picking a really extreme example), they want to have explicit, existing tools to Deal With That right away.
Also, with FFXIV, they do a *lot* of contests of "design this thing" or "submit your art of your character" type things, and they probably want to avoid what happened with the character designer for Weiß Kreuz back in the day, where the studio owners had to redesign the characters for subsequent anime because the designer decided *she* owned the designs, not the studio that contracted her for it.
tl;dr I haven't seen any signs of them enforcing it with regard to art and fanworks - often, they promote people's stuff via Twitter and the like - and I don't think they're planning on shutting down their fan community. I think it's more protecting themselves for some of the reasons above, but I could be wrong.
no subject
My impression is that they have it there as a just-in-case for themselves--if someone starts, for example, selling iPhone cases on redbubble with FFXIV IP, even if it's fanart, they want to be able to put a stop to that sort of thing. Probably also if they see something that they feel really reflects badly on them as a company - like, idk, some kind of manip of in-game graphics that makes it look like the game itself is about child abuse? (I'm picking a really extreme example), they want to have explicit, existing tools to Deal With That right away.
Also, with FFXIV, they do a *lot* of contests of "design this thing" or "submit your art of your character" type things, and they probably want to avoid what happened with the character designer for Weiß Kreuz back in the day, where the studio owners had to redesign the characters for subsequent anime because the designer decided *she* owned the designs, not the studio that contracted her for it.
tl;dr I haven't seen any signs of them enforcing it with regard to art and fanworks - often, they promote people's stuff via Twitter and the like - and I don't think they're planning on shutting down their fan community. I think it's more protecting themselves for some of the reasons above, but I could be wrong.