Starfield is one of the biggest games of the year, being highly anticipated and hyped up before its launch given how much players were looking forward to experiencing it for themselves. Created by storied developer Bethesda, and directed by the famous Todd Howard, it is another open-world role-playing game (RPG) by them. Their past successes include games such as The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Fallout 4, amongst others.
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Modding is a big part of Bethesda games, particularly on PC, with mods ranging from bug fixes to improved graphics to redone combat to additional content and much, much more. However, one mod for Starfield, specifically one that removed the pronoun options in the character creator, proved to be controversial, and Nexus Mods, a mods hosting website, removed it from their collection.
Why was the Starfield pronoun remover mode deleted?
The mod in question was removed because it did not align with Nexus Mods’ values and commitment to diversity. In an email statement to 404 Media, Nexus Mods said:
“Hosting this mod was not for us and it is certainly within our rights not to host content on our platform. 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”.
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While some of the Starfield community praised the decision, others were unhappy with the decision and let their thoughts about the subject be known online. Nexus Mods weren’t concerned, though, saying in the same email that:
“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”.
Nexus Mods’ stance on this matter means this isn’t the first time they’ve removed mods, as they have previously removed a mod that took out the Pride flag from Spider-Man Remastered.
What did one YouTuber say about gender pronouns in Starfield?
The whole issue of gender pronouns in Starfield first shot into the limelight when a YouTuber, HeelVsBabyface, first made an expletive-filled rant on the subject and went viral. In the video, he had said:
“I love nothing more than to be dragged out at every f*cking conceivable opportunity so that you can f*cking current-day us. Sorry, you wanted to get immersed in our world? Guess what, f*cking pronouns! F*cking gender ambiguity! F*cking current-day Californian sh*t, because that’s what we f*cking know because we are boring. We’re so, f*cking, boring! We can’t see past our own f*cking reflections, that’s the level of our narcissism at the Bethesda Western Gaming Company.”
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He also accused Bethesda of breaking his in-game immersion and escapism, saying:
“F*ck your immersion, f*ck you having a good time. F*ck you falling into a world and getting lost. No, no, no! Current f*cking day, f*ck off! You’re boring, you’re f*cking dull. You have nothing to say, you are a one-hived mind twatwaffle. That’s all you f*cking are. And you wonder why people are getting f*cking sick and tired? You take everything we love, all our immersions, all our fantasies, all our escapism and you just can’t help shovel your dogsh*t f*cking crap ideology into everything. Every single solitary f*cking thing.”
After making his displeasure known in his emotional video, HeelVsBabyface went viral, and many people disagreed with him.
