Quote Originally Posted by Carin-Eri View Post
Why was it a bad decision? What prompted the Cease and Desist Order? What would've happened if SE had not acted upon whatever it was that prompted them to take this action?

I don't know the answers either - FACT is we, the players, don't really know what prompted this action; player response to what has occurred is being fuelled by emotion, not facts. But I would suggest there is a high probability that SE was attempting to avoid litigation that would result from doing nothing. And unhappy players complaining, leaving, and/or posting review-bombs was probably a softer hit to take than legal expenses.
Well its objectively a bad decision because lets face it, XIV is not in the best of places right now.

Dawntrail was not received well, the player base has been bleeding players, new players aren't coming in at the rates they used to, likely googling dawntrail reviews and staying away.
We just had a financial report from SE saying their MMO devision's gross sales is down 2.9 billion yen, and while its true every expac dips in the middle like this, its the worst its ever really been seeing numbers dropping to ~4.0 levels.

Pissing off the Modbeasts and getting them to quit the game now is a questionable move because the player base is already down. Losing even more, even if we were to guess it be about 10% (though I'd estimate it to be closer to 20-30%) isn't exactly a good idea right now, especially when Yoshida gave us the now infamous line about not being able to afford making normal versions of Forked Tower.

Less players = Less Subs = Less Money. Thats why it was a bad decision. Square Enix was 100% within their rights to do this, but the timing is pretty bad, and it has the potential the hurt the game in the long run. Especially if we start to see more C&Ds targeted at third party tools/plugins.