Users were deleted from ModDB and Nexus Mods due to their lack of inclusion.
Just like Sony’s God of War did earlier this year, Insomniac’s Marvel’s Spider-Man just made the switch from PlayStation exclusive to Windows PC. The modding community, which now has the flexibility to change Spider-Man into Kingpin and other characters, has naturally taken an interest in the expansive, open-world superhero game.
Some modders targeted the different Pride flags dispersed across Marvel’s Spider-New Man’s York and replaced them with American flags, whereas others took this newfound freedom for granted. Thankfully, well-known mod websites ModDB and Nexus Mods have spoken out against this behaviour.
Nexus Mods published a blog on its website on Thursday in which it discussed some “silly drama.” The article describes how a player used a sock puppet account to submit an anti-LGBTQ mod that got rid of all the Pride flags in-game. The site administrators banned both the user’s main account and the sock puppet account after Nexus Mods pointed out the user’s deliberate trolling.
User Dark0ne, site owner and author of the Nexus Mods blog article, stated, “In regards to the substitution of Pride flags in this game, or any game, our policy is thus: we are for inclusivity, we are for diversity.” “We will take action against someone if we believe they uploaded a mod to our site with the purpose to deliberately be against inclusivity and/or diversity. The same holds true for those who purposefully employ mods to troll other users in an effort to raise the stakes.
The statement continued by promising that the crew would work harder to update the website on their own in the future. It was also made clear that when removing mods like this, Nexus Mods may only take them down from their website and not completely delete them from the internet. Some mod sites might have this kind of cruel mod available, but Nexus Mods won’t be one of them. Dark0ne wrote, “We don’t want to and won’t fight this with you. “[…] Please remove your account if this policy offends you or if you believe that we have violated some standard of business ethics that you find intolerable.”
A few hours later, when a supporter tweeted proof of a mod that particularly targeted “stupid Pride flags” and was marked with “Trump” and “Trump 2024,” another well-known mod website, ModDB, followed in Nexus Mods’ footsteps. The site banned the people who made the mod and took down the content, according to a post from the ModDB Twitter account, which added that “ModDB is an inclusive environment for all and we do not accept attacking marginalised groups.” While ModDB’s moderating processes are automatic, the site promised users that it will nonetheless remove stuff like this if made aware of it.
Even though site-specific bans like these won’t completely eradicate abusive mods, Nexus Mods and ModDB’s efforts communicate an important message of inclusivity to players inside and outside the PC gaming community.
