Modders did it to themselves

[BlisteringFrost]

Correct. And as you can see by the post up above, even this didn't help.
Some people are a lost cause.

Can you hold my hand and guide me, slowly, through traffic, while explaining to me in thoroughly meticulous detail why I'm a good little sprout pwease?

[Haru304]

Internet is rife with porn surrounding characters from franchises that are aimed at children. This isn't a new thing and FFXIV isn't a unique example, and that's without delving into porn commissions which were a thing way before any type of custom mod. I'm not saying people shouldn't be responsible, because they should, and whether or not it involves a child but especially so, (mmorpgs, ffxiv specifically, have an overwhelming adult playerbase, fortunately) you should not be exposing people to unsolicited NSFW materials, period. Unfortunately, this often falls flat, because the vast majority of FFXIV affiliated Discords are either 18/21+, and usually have at least one NSFW channel. Safeguarding, particularly where minors are concerned, has to be a constant, rigorous process and a combination of player responsibility, parental supervision and proper moderation enforcement.

Beyond players being banned in-game for freely hosting or advertising such content, I don't imagine things will escalate beyond that. And if Square Enix moderation actually cracked down more frequently on Third Party Mods, then it would follow that players would be more discreet concerning Third Party Mods. If anything, the ambivalent attitude towards 99% of Mods or how they're shared (still extremely possible btw) reinforces the idea that they can't feasibly moderate them effectively.

Syncshells we're a great idea in theory, but pretty poor in practice when you consider that people cannot and will not keep their mouths shut. The convenience, and ease of access, while great in execution, bred a very lackadaisical mentality surrounding not just this particular Mod, but Mods in general.

Personally, I don't care about people circumventing a cash shop that I highly dislike. And I value the achievement of doing something versus getting a shiny participation sticker for it. If you want more subs, make the game better. If you adopt a complacent attitude towards development, players are going to adopt a complacent attitude about opening their wallets.

And one of the largest ironies, is that the fans of the playground variant of the mod is still, allegedly, available and being used to this day. Hmm...

[Clerith]

And one of the largest ironies, is that the fans of the playground variant of the mod is still, allegedly, available and being used to this day. Hmm...

You mean the Loporrit-Sync Server? It was mentioned in the Interview with the Mare creator and that it is not adviced to use it.
You can also easily find information about this online. But I assume they don't (yet) have an official address to which they could send a cease-and-desist order? I'm not sure.
It could also simply be that they've chosen Mare because of its widespread popularity and are now observing the reactions. We'll see.

[Haru304]

You mean the Loporrit-Sync Server? It was mentioned in the Interview with the Mare creator and that it is not adviced to use it.
You can also easily find information about this online. But I assume they don't (yet) have an official address to which they could send a cease-and-desist order? I'm not sure.
It could also simply be that they've chosen Mare because of its widespread popularity and are now observing the reactions. We'll see.

I think it's also just largely the case that, ironically, alleged predators are more capable of discretion than your average mare-user. Which isn't surprising, but I appreciate the irony.

[pathetica]

Yet I read so many comments here that deflect and argue just to make their in-game ERP addiction seem more justified. It's disgusting.

Many people who lost Mare are deeply afflicted with porn addiction, it's sad and disgusting at the same time. I only wish for their swift recovery, if not for themselves then for their future relations.

[Anzaman]

Well, given how Mare had 270k users, I'd be more surprised if all of the users would have managed to stay silent.

At those numbers, even 1% acting like rulers of the universe would be large enough number to cause noticeable disruption in the Aether.

[Aidorouge]

frankly the reason why the cash shop isn't doing as well is because theirs not been much of good quality from my perspective

I know I certainly came to regret buying anything out of the mogstation when I realized the Warden's Set cut off my tail.

"Should have read the fine print" doesn't change the fact that glamour has gotten so bad that it routinely removes my racial features, and any items that do this are not worth obtaining in-game or buying.
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Lastly the censorship getting stricter would make sense if this changed anything at all... like no this will not prevent that sort of stuff.

It's worse than that, if Sqaure-Enix is caving to censorship so readily, it won't be long before their own in-game content becomes subject of outrage. If people were to start spamming the 2B pants and Beeknees all over social media instead of modded stuff, how long until the nannies come back complaining about that too?

Square-Enix didn't get the prudes off their back, they flung the door wide open for them to come after something else.
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Imagine having a 12 yo begging you as the parent to allow them yo play FF14. You google the game and come across these porn pics. Would in all good conscience and common sense you really let your kid play this game?
I definitely wouldn't.

You're right, absolutely no child should be playing this smutty game filled with half-naked catgirls ...these are all in-game and not-modded items by the way. So if we're really going to play puritan police here, the game ITS SELF is going to draw unwanted attention over censorship without even needing Mare to do any damage.

I don't think people here are understanding that Square-Enix has now set a precedent, and a lot more stuff, both mods and in-game, will need to be purged to abide by this new standard of "child friendly".

[Commander_Justitia]

If I would be a dev for the game, e.g. design armor sets, for difficult content or $ - then patch day and everybody wears it next day, makes me feel like... am I really the dev? or somebody outside the company making the decisions over my work? It is a lot of power such a popular mod can have, deciding what players are effectively doing with their time. Is it a MMORPG or a second life simulator disco umbrella game?

Like be happy, we don't have kernel anti cheat spyware. They already let you do what you want. Compare that to WoW

I don't think its just UK btw, it is multiple countries. AI is killing the internet as we know it, and there is an urge to getting control over it right now with more identification and surveillance systems etc. to counter it. All in the name of protecting children, while leading IT security professionals are telling you that it is a pile of ineffective bs, restricting your privacy and security rights. You can probably look up "chat control" yourself in EU, as its being debated this year. A backdoor to everything you say online. Can't wait till some ffxiv player gets police visit for his lalafell nsfw pictures that got automatically flagged by AI, as false positive...What will this say about SE?

EU has a Pegi16 age rating. I think in USA and elsewhere its 13+. I think it should be 16+, I saw too much questionable predatory stuff in partyfinder. Idk if FFXIV likes to get into the news as Roblox did recently. They need to avert damage now proactively, or they face damage to their reputation as company in the future.

[TBerry]

Most people throwing spite or Schadenfreude at the Mare shutdown do not seem to understand or conveniently ignore how the RP community works.It's about characters, mostly everyday peiople of all walks of life, living their life on this star. Of course there are people who like to engage in light RP, or just try to hook up, but most of the time they adhere to the etiquette..
In my entire time in the community people mostly use mods to tweak their characters. Certain body mods are needed to give your character tatoos or piercings or give them more defined muscles, though the latter can be done without.
Plus to see all of that you had to be be SYNCED. You had to WILLINGLY subjact yourself to see this.
Also sex is normal part of life and usually part of the character arc.
Never have I encountered a character that is younger than 18, and most seem to understand the implications and deal with dark content respectfully. Most of that content is also confined to party chat and within the RP community.
Alos IC =/= OOC.

[Exmo]

Yoshi-P's explanation is so patient, tolerant and clear. At this stage, whoever's still complaining just wants something to complain about.