A Starfield mod that attempted to remove pronoun options from the game’s character creator has been taken down by Nexus Mods, as the website has firmly stated it stands for “diversity and inclusion in [its] community.” Nexus Mods says it reserves the right to not host any mod on its platform, and that it will not indulge the vitriol of certain elements of the game modding community.
“Hosting this mod was not for us and it is certainly within our rights not to host content on our platform,” Nexus Mods told 404 Media of the decision. “It’s not a ‘political statement’ or an ‘alignment to one side or the other in the culture war.’ We stand for diversity and inclusion in our community and the removal of diversity, while appealing to many, does not promote a positive modding community.”
“A reinforcement that this has been the best course of action has been some of the hatred, vitriol and threats of violence coming from a very, very small minority of the community. Frankly, we are not sad to see them go.”
In recent years, Nexus Mods has implemented similar rules to remove mods that promoted hateful behaviour – including a recent Marvel’s Spider-Man mod that attempted to erase rainbow flags from the game’s world. As Nexus Mods makes clear, there is no room in the modding scene for bigoted behaviour.
Read: Popular modding websites are banning anti-LBGTQIA+ mods
Since launch, a vocal minority of Starfield players have taken issue with the game’s inclusion of diverse pronouns that allow players to identify their custom character as they choose. The option is a simple pop-up in the character creator, and choosing a pronoun takes less than a second.
Despite this, some have claimed it’s agenda-pushing, or that it dampens their experience. Days after launch, a screaming rant from one particular player went viral for its bizarre, over-the-top nature, and wild claims that the feature somehow breaks the game’s immersion.
The recently-released, now-banned pronoun mod attempted to erase this inclusion, likely in an effort to appeal to those few, vocal players who took to social media to cry “woke” in the days following Starfield‘s launch.
Ironically, as one commenter pointed out in the wake of the ban, it appears the mod may actually have the opposite effect as intended, as it remove pronouns entirely – reverting all characters to non-binary they/them terms. Despite this, the intention of the mod was clear, and it has now been removed as a firm statement that Nexus Mods is not a home for discriminatory behaviour.
