One of the biggest PC mod repositories in the world, NexusMods, has banned a mod that let Starfield players remove all mentions of pronouns.
The mod was presumably crafted after a tiny number of perpetually angry snowflakes kicked off because Bethesda had adopted the inclusive practice of enabling players to select their pronouns for their sci-fi adventure.
Nexus says the decision to ban the mod isn’t a “political statement” and while it does not like to “police what people can and cannot mod into (or out of) their games”, it was “within [its] rights not to host content” it didn’t want to host. And it really didn’t want to host it.
“Hosting this mod was not for us and it is certainly within our rights not to host content on our platform,” NexusMods told 404 Media.
“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.”
As you’ve probably already guessed, the decision has been met by cheers from some and jeers from others, although the “hatred, vitriol, and threats of violence” the team has received since removing the mod has been nothing but “reinforcement that this has been the best course of action”.
“Frankly, we are not sad to see them go,” NexusMods said.
Still undecided about giving Starfield a go? TRG’s Editor-in-Chief Jake reckons “Starfield is a technically solid systems-heavy role-playing game that works well with a surprising degree of polish compared to previous Bethesda RPGs,” but added that “despite this, Starfield has no sense of character and the story lacks impact”.
Awarding it 4 stars out of 5 in our Starfield review, we praised its “endless amount of things to explore”, deep skill system, and excellent starship combat, but thought its middling ground combat, patchy writing and “soulless” feel held it back from a 5/5 score.
If you’re still not sure, don’t forget that you can try Starfield yourself for no extra cost if you’re a Xbox Game Pass subscriber.
For more games to get lost in, check out our picks of the best RPGs, alongside our list of the best single-player games.