Despite its success, Starfield is currently at the heart of a significant controversy, giving rise to a virulent debate between supporters and opponents of a particular choice made by the developers. Focus on this controversy.
In an effort that some describe as opportunism and others as good will, the video game industry is increasing initiatives to promote what is commonly called inclusion. The objective? Allow everyone, regardless of the gender they identify with, to find themselves in games without feeling excluded. In the case of Starfield, this policy of inclusion is expressed in particular through the pronoun options made available to players, an approach which is not unanimous.
A controversy rages on Starfield
This controversy has just reached a new level with the intervention of NexusMods, a platform renowned for hosting mods of different games. NexusMods has indeed decided to remove a Starfield mod allowing the removal of pronoun options from the game. While insisting that this measure was not a political stance, NexusMods asserts its right to refuse to host this mod on its platform.
Speaking to 404 Media, NexusMods explained that promoting diversity and inclusion is a priority for them. The removal of the mod, while appreciated by many, is intended to encourage a positive modding community. The platform added that the wave of negative, violent and hateful reactions coming from a minority confirms that they made the right choice. NexusMods also expressed its indifference to the departure of these individuals from their platform. This is what is said. We’ll let you be the judge of all this.
It’s not the first time, and certainly not the last
This kind of controversy is not a first in the world of video games; In the past, other games, such as Crusader Kings 3, have experienced similar controversies, with certain mods allowing for example to remove the homosexuality of certain characters. Mods which, unlike the Starfield case, are always available online. Despite this controversy, many other mods for Starfield remain available on NexusMods, offering gameplay adjustments, shaders, and the integration of characters from other universes, such as Star Wars stormtroopers.
On the side of Bethesda, the studio behind Starfield, the team is focusing on developing features requested by the community. Among the expected new features, we note support for Nvidia DLSS on PC and the introduction of a slider to adjust the field of view (FOV), promising an even more immersive gaming experience in the future. For the moment the publisher has not communicated on the mod controversy. It’s always a little sad to see this kind of controversy arise. This shows that even when everything is going well, a shadow must be added to the picture.
This is clearly not the first time that an RPG has wanted to be more inclusive; you just have to see what it is possible to do with Cyberpunk 2077 to realize that this freedom of choice is far from new.