Quote Originally Posted by KisaiTenshi View Post
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.