Modders did it to themselves

[Valence]

I have played FFXIV since 2.0 and I've watched the entire situation regarding restricted tools develop and evolve over time. It used to be understood amongst anyone who played that you are best off not directly naming or discussing third party tools in-game but that has been lost in the past 5 years or so.

Yoshi P has hinted a million times on live letters when the topic is discussed, although he must explicitly say that any third party tools are forbidden, he also doesn't want to have to crack down on people who use them, so he asks to please just be responsible.

In the past two expansions, I have seen tool usage become increasingly bold. They must think the devs are four years old, they know your search info isn't talking about the moon zone. They know that {Allagan Melon} in your TOP PF isn't talking about the minion. You can't even look at Twitter without being subjected to dolled up IMVU modbeasts under both official and gpose related tags, makeup that would put a Kpop star to shame and grotesque tumors growing out of their funny bits which are covered in tattoos. Everyone has seen them, and obviously the devs can see them too. I mean really, how are we praising them for integrating features from said tools into the base game but pretending like they're easy to fool at the same time?

I can only hope that SE pursues other third party tools because there are much worse things than cosmetic mods on 'You-Know-What' and the average raider cannot tell their ass from their elbow without said tools. You pushed the envelope and kept pushing until it went too far and now you're upset there's consequences, boo hoo.

The problem with that reasoning is that since everything is clearly laid out in the TOS yet nothing is done consistently in its application, from crackdowns on mods, cheats or even milder things like ingame harassment or toxicity, then we're left with people essentially left in the dark as to what are their true policies. Not that it excuses or justifies breaking the actual TOS, but what matters is the policies used in application which are what define the actual rules, not the written TOS, if both are worlds apart like they are.

Edit: also, just food for thought, the more you crack down on something illegal, the more underground you push it, and the more unsavory that something will become.