Mod users in FFXIV are getting out of control

[Vidu]

Does he honestly think that switching from female to male will make a difference? A lot of people (including myself) love the male body. SE did a good job with male character models (especially miqote, roe and hyur midlander males). Tell him not to be surprised if someone uses a mod to mod his male character! xD

I've been playing since ARR beta - about two years as a male elezen, after that I gave up on the dream that we'd ever get nice long hairstyles for guys (I know we did since then) and I changed to a FemRoe (I'm not using mods, so if I want long hair, FemRoes are really the way to go. Great race-exclusive hairstyles!). That makes about 2.5 years of having a female character.

The clostest to getting hit on with my male elezen was one person telling me that they really liked my glamour while we were waiting for someone to finish the cutscene in Leviathan NM.
I have, however, been getting a few - I didnt keep count - weird and creepy textes since I've been playing a female Roe. I suspect they're to "special intrest" to draw that much attention and I usual dont linger in public places, but the ones I got were enough. Never reported them, though - they didnt bother me to much after all.

Obviously this isnt enough of a sample size and I dont wanna claim that male characters dont get hit on - but I suspect, drawing from my own experience, that its far less likely. So yeah, it does make a difference.

[ErryK]

He even felt the need to go from a female to a male character just because of it.

This is such a dumb thing to do and say. There are predators on both sides, it isn't just exclusive to female characters.

The nude one is just vulgar, and can cause problems with the wrong ppl who are willing to abuse the use of it.

Then the fault lies with the person and not the mod, right?

[JackHatchet]

It's amazing how vivid opinions people have about avatars. Whether it's for or against them. Some people think avatars are throw-away valueless constructs and others feel like they're a part of their personality.

The one thing I've noticed is that the people screaming "shut up and get over it" are probably saying those things to add fuel to the fire. No one has ever really won an online debate by harassing someone.

[JackHatchet]

A large part of this discussion has subverted the point and had become community vs community. Pro mod people against snow-flakes. And all sorts of legit issues are getting overlooked like protesting against harassment. Ultimately, the bigger this battle gets the more attention it brings to modding. If pro-modders want to keep their mods they should self-police themselves and refrain from adding more fuel to this fire. Agree with people that harassment is wrong--and then move on. Trying to argue the legitimacy of mods will only result in more fire. And the bigger the fire gets--the more Square-Enix will notice it. And they'll nuke the modding community to put that fire out. So can we try to agree and move on?

[Alucard135]

And they'll nuke the modding community to put that fire out.

SE won't bother with this issue because they know it will open up a huge can of worms on them regarding parsers and bots. Furthermore, it doesn't negatively affect their sales from mogstation (the fact that they started modding the demonic and angelic attire from release day indicates that they already purchased it).

[KisaiTenshi]

SE won't bother with this issue because they know it will open up a huge can of worms on them regarding parsers and bots. Furthermore, it doesn't negatively affect their sales from mogstation (the fact that they started modding the demonic and angelic attire from release day indicates that they already purchased it).

Are you sure about that? How do you know they didn't just swap the models?

The only way SE could actually identify modders if is they install a client-side detector that can detect when game files are read/modified. This would also get rid of ACT and ReShade, and, at that point, SE would be hurting their bottom line.

That's very wrong. SE doesn't need to install anything like Hackshield or GameGaurd, or VAC, or Warden, etc. Those tools are defeated. What would be needed is hook rejection code (which would also break tools like nVidia Experience, AMD ReLive/Raptr, MSI Afterburner, OBS, etc) that requires static compilation (no third-party libraries, no CRT/CPPRT DLL) to avoid CRT patching, and encryption of both the game binaries and the assets so that tampering with either prevents the game from running.

And thus increases support costs.

However as stated, many times, the game client can never be perfectly secured unless it's simply a video stream from a secured location. So why bother with the extra complication when it would mean having to re-download the complete game every time the protection system is broken.

No, at best, SE has not cracked down on modding, third party tools, etc, because up until relatively recently people were not putting a spotlight on it. SE can continue to ignore modding at it's own peril, and then when they finally decide to ban everyone, they will get a PR blowback because they hadn't enforced their ToS at all before. Either SE starts cracking down on known ACT users, or it's going to have to live with the lewd mods proliferating and ruining the game's reputation further.

I don't expect SE to do anything, really. Not till someone carelessly shows them on a twitch stream that SE staff are watching.

[Hestzhyen]

No, at best, SE has not cracked down on modding, third party tools, etc, because up until relatively recently people were not putting a spotlight on it. SE can continue to ignore modding at it's own peril, and then when they finally decide to ban everyone, they will get a PR blowback because they hadn't enforced their ToS at all before. Either SE starts cracking down on known ACT users, or it's going to have to live with the lewd mods proliferating and ruining the game's reputation further.

I don't expect SE to do anything, really. Not till someone carelessly shows them on a twitch stream that SE staff are watching.

SE hasn't cracked down on modding purely because of the futility of it. You mentioned yourself that players will defeat any and all countermeasures so the preventative measures are probably wasted effort that the devs can focus into other areas. I also sincerely doubt XIV's reputation will get worse because it has the same nude/lewd modding community that all major games do. If anything XIV is totally tame compared to some options I've seen for other games... and there are plenty of great SFW options too, like prettier Au Ra scales, long hair, NPC outfits that aren't available in the game or on the Mog Shop, nicer texture packs, color tweaks to existing minions and mounts, etc.

If SE suddenly starts trying to play whack-a-mole with modding communities by issuing DMCAs and other take-down notices then they absolutely deserve any negative press they get. User mods are a thing game companies have learned to live with; in some respects, it helps the game attract and keep new players since they can satisfy their own particular desires without SE spending Dev resources to cater to every niche and fancy. Since SE wasn't gung-ho about cracking down on parsers or mods before now it will absolutely be a knee-jerk reaction to placate pearl-clutchers like OP. That's worse than letting some horndogs see naked characters on their screens IMO.

Live and let live. If you don't like it, don't use it. If you get harassed by mod users, report them and sleep well knowing a GM will land on them like a ton of bricks. If you like it, go ham at your own risk and keep it to yourself.

[Alael]

snip

Here another doomsday caller, Wow and before wow lineage 2 had those ''mod'' and they never had any problem as matter of fact blizzard clearly state that they would act only againts those taking avantages And not only making estetical changes for the player itself, There were those who in wow modded mines (gatherer mine intended) into lighthouse or similiar, those people were banned But i have never heard blizzard banning user for using ''nude'' parch in what 15 year? and look the game is still here what a suprise.

[HyoMinPark]

No, at best, SE has not cracked down on modding, third party tools, etc, because up until relatively recently people were not putting a spotlight on it. SE can continue to ignore modding at it's own peril, and then when they finally decide to ban everyone, they will get a PR blowback because they hadn't enforced their ToS at all before. Either SE starts cracking down on known ACT users, or it's going to have to live with the lewd mods proliferating and ruining the game's reputation further.

I don't expect SE to do anything, really. Not till someone carelessly shows them on a twitch stream that SE staff are watching.

SE hasn’t focused on banning people that use third-party tools because it would hurt their bottom line. They are already well aware that people use mods, ACT, ReShade, and the like. It’s not like this suddenly came up within the last six months or so, and they aren’t as ignorant about it as you think.

Also, the developers were watching Ultimate streams. ACT was very vividly present on those said streams.

[KageTokage]

Also, the developers were watching Ultimate streams. ACT was very vividly present on those said streams.

I can't help but wonder if they watched any of the streams where people were hacking the camera so they could zoom out far enough to see the entire arena at all times and thus make the divebombs and other mechanics easier to avoid.