Mod users in FFXIV are getting out of control

[PocketFox]

So how do I avoid feeling harassed by all the female avatars I see in as little clothing as is allowed by the game itself, strutting around in public spaces with their jublies hanging out as much as possible?

(That was a joke.)

In all seriousness, every community has its bad apples. While it's unfortunate you seem to have gotten some icky whispers and such, that still doesn't lend much credence to your original post, which seemed to be little more than paranoia. There was a lot of "can" and a lot of assumptions without any actual evidence that a) such things were actually happening to you or b) that you were being shown these hypothetical screenshots or being harrassed (before you made this post, that is).

And on a snarkier note...

Honey, I can almost guarantee people aren't modding their games to look at *your* character. Nobody -- not you, not me -- is that special. They're doing it to look at their own.

[Nhadaly]

Most people that mod their game do it to look at their characters or their consensual partners, not randoms, i read through 6 pages and was apalled that the OP got upvotes, they seem like the sort of person to get offended by everything given their replies to some of the posts that offer advice and criticism.

They also seem to be unable to distinguish between fantasy and reality if they get that offended by randoms seeing their character nude randomly in a videogame and then start comparing it to real life.

[Saraphin]

There is a Core issue, and then the issue that is simply a result of this.

Harassment is no good. Period. The mods? those aren't an issue unless someone is using them to harass you. people can not have mods and still do the same sexual harassment. There is a reason I play a Male Au Ra. as a female, it was random tells all the time asking if I wanted to "ride a staff" or something along those lines. I would blink at my screen and then find their character, "inspect" it and go "well, while the offer is interesting...but it appears you seem to have a small problem in the staff area. one that will not allow me to enjoy it." I do RP, so when i get people attempting to harass me because of my character, I'd lay it on and just give back until they went "...well bye now". it's a game. FFXIV is an "jMMORPG" aka "Japanese Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game".


Select words there to look at: "Massively Multiplayer", which means there will be hundreds of people you come into contact with all day long. "Role playing game" take it like you would D&D. You may like your character, you may have a background for your character. if you don't. that's your choice. me? i'm writing my character's backstory. I enjoy the writing, it helps me de-stress after a day of roulettes.

Not everyone can just brush off this sort of thing, and they should not. however, many of these tells that I got when I was a female character was over 2 years ago, well back into the start of HW, and I'm fairly certain before modding started. I can't say for certain, because I simply don't know, but i've modded my Sims Games (1-3) and I know that it can be fun sometimes to have things look different, have unique looking items. The Fact that there are communities which are actually allowed by the makers makes it a lot less of a hassle. Do I look at some of the screenshots I see of modders and cringe? Yes, I do, but also in that, I go "that's beautiful and amazing and...the detail is wonderful." there are both positives and negatives in each way but one thing is Certain No one should be harassed. if someone that has mods harasses someone else, you take it out on them, not the entire community that creates amazing (and sometimes awfully beautiful) remastered, upscaled textures for the game. I personally have spent hours in photoshop to change how my character looks and i'm proud of that, because it makes Dante my Aurian male, not just another stock Aurian male.

Modding isn't bad. it's people and their inability to act like a mature adult that is bad. Do not take down an entire group for the actions of one person. To put it simply: that's akin to racism (sexism, genderism) and I hate to say that.

[Aerlana]

On one side, i said you shouldnt be worried about people using mods, even NSFW mod, (my other post on page6 to explain )

on other side, people coming in game to complain about a forum topic are stupid. And then, blacklisting is logic, and people like the one on the screen should be report... simply. There is difference between watching character in some slutty outfit and harassing people...

[RiyahArp]

Idk, I mean, people seem to be handwaving this away too much.

Problem is that it's not official nor requires consent from both people, in addition you can also use it to take screenshots of said people. That's not a good feeling, especially for people who might have dealt with rl or virtual harassment in the past.

I'm on ps4, so I don't do it, and it doesn't bother me too much, but the OP shouldn't be shouted down over it, just because people like their mods in general. It's something that is really troublesome, and I don't think there's any real solution to it. Like I mean, I don't think it' unreasonable to respect people's wishes and not view them in the buff.

[HyoMinPark]

Idk, I mean, people seem to be handwaving this away too much.

Problem is that it's not official nor requires consent from both people, in addition you can also use it to take screenshots of said people. That's not a good feeling, especially for people who might have dealt with rl or virtual harassment in the past.

I'm on ps4, so I don't do it, and it doesn't bother me too much, but the OP shouldn't be shouted down over it, just because people like their mods in general. It's something that is really troublesome, and I don't think there's any real solution to it. Like I mean, I don't think it' unreasonable to respect people's wishes and not view them in the buff.

If the OP isn’t actually being targeted by this harassment via mods, why are they raising hub-bub about it? Their first few posts in this thread was talking about being targeted for harassment via nude screenshots posted on social media and the like, but there is no proof that this actually happened to them, nor anyone they know. So why be concerned about it? Why start telling people to “be careful” and start spreading this fear that all modders are perverts that want to look at your character naked? This is aside from the fact that they are conflating the idea that they and their character are the same—that it’s even remotely comparable to talk about someone posting screens/seeing your avatar naked like you would talk about someone doing that to your person. Contrary to what the OP seems to think, modders don’t mod to see your character naked. The vast majority could not care less about other people’s characters.

[Tsunenori]

snip

I think a lot of the pushback you see is coming at the idea that they're seeing you nude. Like, I've known people who don't want to wear the swimwear in the game because they don't want someone to see that much of them, and they aren't RPing when they say that. It comes across as a little weird.

I realize someone will ask "But the people modding for nudity aren't weird?"

To which I'd say no, not really. People are horny, and people express that in different ways. Mod scenes both SFW and NSFW have existed since the dawn of gaming and virtually every game you've played has a mod scene out there somewhere. Someone earlier in the thread mentioned The Sims which has an incredibly healthy NSFW mod scene that gets mainstream attention and from which some mod makers earn enough to live off of. Rule34 has also been mentioned in this thread, and if you talk to many artists and illustrators you'd be surprised at how many actively work in the NSFW scene because they make a ton of money doing it.

The point I'm getting at is that there's always going to be an appetite for this kind of content, and it's almost entirely self-fulfilling. Nobody is commissioning art or modding their game because they care about what you, the OP, myself, or anyone else looks like. The portion of those players who would then want to jeopardize not only the mods they enjoy but also their accounts by then harassing other users with those mods I'd imagine is insignificant enough for a thread like this to come across as pearl clutching. I guarantee this thread is not the first time Square-Enix has heard about a mod scene for FFXIV, and it's better business to let those players exist in peace than to crusade against them, provided they aren't rocking the boat much.

The better option is for players who DO feel harassed to either try to deal with Square-Enix directly to stop the person harassing them, or in the case of content hosted on third-party sites, to deal with the support staff of those sites if the person hosting the content using your character's likeness doesn't remove it at your request.

Late Edit: Personal opinion, but I'd almost be offended to hear they went after mod makers before they did anything to really clamp down on botting. The amount of gathering and PvP bots that keep on hanging out is a much bigger detriment than aesthetic modding.

[DreadRabbit]

Why would they waste their time and bother to find a way to patch this type of stuff out potentially ruining dozens of other perfectly fine mods that improve the game visuals a little or whatever because some people can't get over the fact that it's just pixels?

You kind of contradicted yourself here. If it's just pixels and they don't matter, then why would it matter to you if mods improving visuals get affected? After all, the visuals of this game are just pixels. Therefore they shouldn't matter or be worth defending. But we all know that's not the case.

I do agree that it would be a shame to blanket ban all mods, and I would rather that not happen. However if they did/do, then going after people like OP is just plain wrong. In that event you blame the people that abused the mod.

Sims and NSFW industry

Agreed completely. There's nothing wrong with wanting NSFW content or creating it, and I don't think that people using the mod in general should be condemned or anything like that.

Nobody is commissioning art or modding their game because they care about what you, the OP, myself, or anyone else looks like.

Then the mod(s) in question needs to be restricted to the player's own avatar and people on their friends list. If that were the case then I'd agree: no reason whatsoever to complain about what consenting people are doing on their own time with their own game.

[RiyahArp]

I think a lot of the pushback you see is coming at the idea that they're seeing you nude...

Um...why is this weird? The player has control over whether they want to wear a swimsuit or not, and who to wear it for. You don't have control over someone seeing you, apart from hoping the mod only works with specific pieces of clothing. As for the people modding...um no bloody offense, but if you ever have been part of or know any erp scene, you know its a very mixed bag of people who do it for various reasons and are of VERY varying mental stability. People thinking its all kittens and rainbows really surprise me. I'm not talking mods in general, just this specific one. And yes, some people use it because they want to see people's characters like that. Some do it respectfully, but it wouldn't surprise me otherwise.

I mean, you lost me at the commission thing because if you draw, yeah some people try and get work done nonconsensually with other people's characters. Not many, but enough where you better make sure both people are ok with the drawing. It's not everyone, but you're not pearl clutching if you require people to be on the up and up either.

I don't think it's a widespread or solvable problem, but it doesn't take everyone to really screw someone up, just a handful of people. I don't think people should really pooh pooh this, but its a very thorny issue that has no real answers to it.

If the OP isn’t actually being targeted by this harassment via mods, why are they raising hub-bub about it? Their first few posts in this thread was talking about being targeted for harassment via nude screenshots posted on social media and the like, but there is no proof that this actually happened to them, nor anyone they know. So why be concerned about it? Why start telling people to “be careful” and start spreading this fear that all modders are perverts that want to look at your character naked? This is aside from the fact that they are conflating the idea that they and their character are the same—that it’s even remotely comparable to talk about someone posting screens/seeing your avatar naked like you would talk about someone doing that to your person. Contrary to what the OP seems to think, modders don’t mod to see your character naked. The vast majority could not care less about other people’s characters.

I don't know about proof, but I'm not sure how you know she has none. Keep in mind there are a lot of sites for that kind of content.

As for modders in general, no they don't. I thought this was specifically about one type of mod, but it seems you are thinking it is a false flag to get all mods out?

As for "you are not your character," I don't think it's that easy. If someone creeps on you online, it doesn't always make it better that it's just pixels. It also depends on the person, I mean, some people may honestly have dealt with harassment both sexual or not in their lives, and loss of control can be very bad. You're kind of handwaving it away some, in order to defend modding as a whole from being curtailed. I don't think it should be, but this specific issue is unique and can be dealt without judging all modders

[HyoMinPark]

you know its a very mixed bag of people who do it for various reasons and are of VERY varying mental stability.

What? Are you for real saying that people who write erotic fiction or erotic roleplays are mentally unstable? Actually mentally unstable?