Starfield’s pronoun-removing mod gets booted from Nexus Mods

Nexus Mods are removed. Starfield mod that got rid of the game’s pronoun options in its character creator. Despite the loud majority of critics, mod platform has remained firm on their decision. Starfield fans, who have chimed in on the game’s Steam page and community forum. “Frankly, we are not sad to see them go,” Nexus Mods told 404 Media, noting that the “vitriol” came from a small part of the broader mod community.

“It’s not a ‘political statement’ or an ‘alignment to one side or the other in the culture war,’” Nexus Mods said. “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.”

This mod was the endpoint of some toxic discourse surrounding Bethesda’s new space opera RPG in the week following the game’s release. A YouTuber made 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 this broke immersion. Steam Discussion Forums had several discussions in the days that followed the YouTube rant. Starfield being “woke” or “political.”

While that initial wave of conversation has died down, this mod — and its removal — seems to have inspired another wave of conversation. This minor option for character creation has been rated negatively by another round of reviewers. Starfield’s Steam page, citing “awful character creator” and “Politics (If You Know You Know),” as recently as Monday.

Nexus Mods’ decision is in line with past actions. In 2022 the popular modsite banned an account for creating a Mod. Marvel’s Spider-ManPride flags were removed from the city. A Nexus Mods blog published at the time explained, “we are for inclusivity, we are for diversity.”