Mod users in FFXIV are getting out of control

[Driavna]

People mod for all sorts of reasons other than to make things "more real". They mod tails so that people can play as whatever animal race they want. They mod outfits to fit their particular taste in clothing and apparel design. They mod weapons because there are particular things about a weapon they'd like changed.

The other thing is, I consider there to be a large difference between telling someone "It's just pixels" when they're actually afraid of their character being seen naked, and telling someone "It's just pixels" when they take a mod to "dye" something that in game is undyeable.

My point was that people do it because is it important for them in one way or another so at the end of the day is more "than just pixels". I can't for the life of my play Skyrim without modding, I need my character looking in a certain way or I will enjoy the game less (now you also know why I don't agree with "is just cosmetics").

Anyway, I understand your point, but to me, the problem is the OP caring for something her/him don't have any control over it and not "just pixels".

[Lunalepsy]

I don't know anything about such mods.

[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...

[DreadRabbit]

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Yes, because not a single person in this thread has ever touched a T+ game before they were 13. But I do see your point. In the end it's the parent's responsibility.

But remember that 13 is still a minor. So the people using the mod in the way that a good number of posts are describing (the ones that have mentioned more creepy behavior) are risking a heck of a lot in that they're dealing with an NSFW mod while interacting with said minor. That's absolutely a gray area that's worth discussing.

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All great responses, and believe it or not I agree with most of them.

However, my point is that a lot of folks in this thread are being very callous about the issue and are dismissing just how morally grey this is. We live in an age where people are increasingly more and more defined by their digital personas, and often times they don't really have a choice in that matter. So while I and most folks in this thread wouldn't really care if someone saw their avatar naked, I can't blame the people that would. And as games and technology keep evolving as do character creation systems, this isn't an issue that's going to go away anytime soon. If anything the lines are only going to continue to become more blurred as the industry grows.

Anyway, this isn't the Sims where you have agency over every character in your game, and thus there's absolutely zero issues if you make everyone naked all the time. This is an MMO where other people have agency over their avatars, and dragging them into your (general you) voyeurism can be an issue.

I've seen some folks mention the mod(s) are used for themselves and consenting partners. That's fantastic! (not sarcasm, I do think that's great). But that's not what OP is talking about. They're talking about people making everyone naked and the abuse that's already been seen by it as well as the potential abuse that's there. If it's just pixels and people shouldn't care then why is consent an acceptable defense of the mod, but not an acceptable defense of the people against it?

As for "it's just pixels!":

Yes, they're just pixels. So what's so special about FFXIV pixels that we have to defend the ability to see them naked? Especially in an age when you can get any kind of nude of any quality of any kink you could possibly ask for? For the record: I'm not against the mod existing, but I am curious why the "it's just pixels" argument applies to people unhappy about the mod, but not to the people defending it.

[Crystal_Raven]

but I am curious why the "it's just pixels" argument applies to people unhappy about the mod, but not to the people defending it.

Honestly? This is wasted time from the development side. 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 can shut off one mod specifically, it's either all of them or none, i'd rather not have every single mod out there shut down just because someone is upset over....pixels.

[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.

[Tsunenori]

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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.