Nexus Mods removed Starfield mod that removed the game’s pronoun options in the character creator. The popular mod platform has stood by its decision despite backlash from a vocal minority Starfield fans, who voted on the game’s Steam page and community forum. “Honestly, we’re not sad to see them go,” Nexus Mods said 404 Medianoting that the ‘vitriol’ came from a small section of the wider mod community.
“It is not a ‘political statement’ or an ‘alignment with one side or the other in the culture war,’” Nexus Mods said. “We stand for diversity and inclusion in our community and removing diversity, while attractive to many, does not promote a positive modding community.”
This mod was the end point for some toxic discourse around Bethesda’s new space opera RPG in the week following the game’s release. A YouTuber went on a viral rant about the pronoun options in the game’s character creation screen – players can choose between she/her, he/him, and they/them – claiming it broke immersion. In the days following the rant, the Steam Discussion forums had a few popular threads about it Starfield being ‘woke’ or ‘political’.
While that first wave of conversations has died down, this mod – and its removal – seems to have inspired a new wave of conversations. A new round of reviewers clearly upset by this small character creation option have returned negative scores Starfield‘s Steam page, citing “terrible character creator” and “Politics (If You Know You Know)”, as recently as Monday.
Nexus Mods’ decision is in line with previous actions. In 2022, the popular mod site banned an account for which a mod had been created Marvel’s Spider-Man who removed Pride flags from the city. A Nexus Mods blog published at the time explained: “we are for inclusivity, we are for diversity.”