In truth, I think it's pretty absurd to have over two hundred thousand players using an extremely convenient third-party mod facilitated by an equally convenient third-party tool, that's prolifically normalised and accepted to the point it just becomes common knowledge, and also expect people not to spill the tea. There are already numerous popular (and not so popular) forks of the mod in question being bandied around ad nauseum, with Discord servers in the thousands of users... so, yeah, no lessons on discretion really learned here, or heck, 'mod safety', or whatever.

Personally, I used to be very averse to the idea of mods, up until just late-game Endwalker when I developed a more accepting attitude towards them because they have the potential to improve the overall experience of the game.

For every mutant or fan of the playground out there, there's a lot more people simply enjoying a nicer looking hair cut, a thicker beard, additional body scars, etcetera. And for every mod out there that someone might dislike or find to be at odds with immersion, there are... countless that folks will doubtlessly enjoy.

I genuinely think that 99% of the time, paid mods are a large no no, but I also don't like monthly subscription based MMORPGs cash locking some of their most awesome content behind further pay walls.

When it comes to... player safeguarding, particularly where minors are concerned, it falls to people to be personally responsible, and I take great issue with people shamelessly linking randoms to carrd profiles brimming with either warped edits or pure, more often -far- from vanilla bits of smut. It's largely a problem that boils down to individual discretion, and of course, supervision.

Thankfully, data suggests that an overwhelming number of players are 18+, and that the game typically doesn't appeal to younger folks, and that applies to this genre of MMORPG across the board. Nearly every community you'll find in game has pretty strict restrictions about being aimed at 18+, with corresponding Discord servers, that, -game not withstanding-, often have at least one explicit NSFW channel. (I don't really get it but whatever)

My hottest take, largely, is that Square Enix moderation is pretty 'meh' across the board, and moderators were -definitely- not taking pro-active action anywhere near as much as they should be doing. You cannot convince people that discretion is required unless they see real consequences for their actions being routinely executed. You cannot expect everyone, in a group that numbers in the hundreds of thousands, to comprehend the importance of 'fight club', if there is no consequence for blabbing about fight club. And people, who're still screaming in shout chat about every fork out here, have not learned a thing, because they do not comprehend the broader consequences for the modding community. Even after having their favourite toy taken away.