Modding websites ban anti-LGBTQ+ creations

Nexus Mods and ModDB have banned mods that are “deliberately against inclusivity”, after a user posted a mod that removed Pride flags from a game.

Nexus Mods and ModDB, websites dedicated to “modding”, which is the act of modifying your game to your specific tastes, recently banned a Spider-Man mod that removed Pride flags from the game. The websites’ owners published a new set of rules for uploading content as a result.

Some context here — modifying PC games is a common and time-honoured tradition in the gaming community. Mods for popular games like Skyrim add everything from rebalanced skill trees and fan-made storylines to turning all dragons into a flying representation of the state of Ohio.

I have replaced all the dragons in Skyrim with the state of Ohio. pic.twitter.com/zd1rXTLMOG

— Trainwiz (@trainwiz) August 1, 2022

So naturally, with Spider-Man Remastered’s release on PC, tons of fantastic mods have come out. Spider-Man has a lot of suits from the comics, TV-shows and movies, for example, and those that weren’t included in the game natively have been added as costume mods.

One user, however, decided they wanted to mod something out of the game, as spotted by PC Gamer. Going by the handle “Mike Hawk”, the user uploaded a mod that converted the Pride flags, a symbol of LGBTQ+ support, into regular American flags, calling them “stupid” and tagging the flags with the words “Trump 2024.” Following a lot of outrage, the admins of both Nexus Mods and ModDB stepped in.

Why does your site allow hateful, partisan filth like this? pic.twitter.com/l8hqIhXZPi

— Hilly Bones (@MobageAdvertise) August 17, 2022

“If we think someone is uploading a mod on our site with the intent to deliberately be against inclusivity and/or diversity then we will take action against it.” Nexus Mods stated in a blog post. “The same goes for people attempting to troll other users with mods deliberately to cause a rise. For our part, we will endeavour to do a better job of moderating our website to this ethos ourselves.”

Going further, the website urges users that disagree with the anti-hate policy to “please, delete your account — and move on, as we will.” ModDB followed up shortly with a similar policy: “ModDB is an inclusive environment for all and we do not permit targeting marginalised groups. Our content moderation is largely automated but when identified, we have a zero-tolerance policy for this kind of content.”

Written by Junior Miyai on behalf of GLHF.