Official Statement: Regarding Mod Usage and Culture

[Tulvi]

This guy has a seemingly unlimited amount of patience with this community...

This also confirms what I already knew. They do not have a problem with you using mods, so long as you don't use them to affect other people's game and play. As long as everything is only on your end, and you are not using it to abuse others, you're good. You can even share (appropriate) screenshots with others online. Just don't use the official trademarks. Every other "Visual mod" that might be nsfw, keep it private amongst yourselves and don't harass people with them or shout about it in public chats.

And this is actually a big step forward, that Yoshi said this clearly and addressed even NSFW mods. Reading comprehension is not very strong with this community, which is why we already see so many misinterpretations of this, in a way, breakthrough statement.

Up until now, the “don’t ask, don’t tell” mentality was deduced by the community from somewhat vague statements about mods in which Yoshi always only repeated that all mods are against the ToS, but then never acted against them actively (up until Mare ofc.). Now we have his personal opinion on the matter, clearly stating that he personally doesn’t mind / understands mods for purely personal use. I kinda have a feeling he went much further in his today’s statement than his colleagues from SE’s legal team would like him to. In a sense, he actually is giving a blessing to usage of visual mods for personal use (in a roundabout way, not directly ofc.). He does this by explaining the cases in which SE and himself are forced to act - when it’s a legal issue or affects someone else’s gameplay / alters or affects someone else’s visuals of the game or experience.

The modding community now has a clear confirmation of what they could until now only deduce:
1. All mods are against the TOS, but:
- A: SE will only act against mods that are based around syncing and sharing
- B: As long as you don’t post screenshots of your modded character on social media (especially NSFW ones), SE won’t take action.

A much clearer confirmation of this is actually a huge thing for everyone, not just the modding community, because now we know in exactly which cases SE will take action.