Popular modding site Nexus Mods has banned the user who removed the Pride flags in the PC version of Marvel’s Spider-Man, sparking an outcry that the site has actively disengaged from.
The original mod was called “Non-Newtonian New York,” and replaced the in-game Pride flags dotted around New York City with US flags.
As today’s announcement from Nexus Mods explains, “In regards to the replacement of Pride flags in this game, or any game, our policy is thus: we are for inclusivity, we are for diversity. 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.”
How homophobes should be treated.
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Like “beatings will continue until morale improves” kind of worse?
You gotta hate people that are different from you a lot, to be able to go as far as making a videogame mod like this, wtf
What I don’t get is why people even care about what other persons do? Like how does my sexuality affect you at all lmao?
Discrimination is for people with less than 2 braincells.
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Just as modders are free to take their mods elsewhere.
This looks like suicide for Nexus Mods. I doubt modders are thrilled with Nexus Mods taking down popular mods.
Based
Nexus Mods is a privately owned site. They can do whatever they want on their site. Personally, I agree with the site on the removal.
I’m not sure how I feel about this.
On the one hand fuck that guy you should accept LGBT people
On the other people should really be free to mod their games how they want.
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On one hand, everybody can 100% dictate what happens on their site. On the other hand, it would be nice if a public service would accept all kinds of ideas and thoughts without dictating anything.
Imagine you would be prohibited to talk about socialism for example, or post socialist memes. Would you be in favor of any instance forbidding this, so that you have to set up your own? Or would you rather have as many instances as possible allowing this kind of content?
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This isn’t a public service though.
I know. Maybe this was badly phrased on my side.
On the one extreme, you have tens of thousands of communities for a very narrow and small community. There, you can only talk about certain things, but not about other things.
On the other extreme, you have one community where everybody can talk about everything, and everyone can see what others write and comment.
Both are not okay, because it’s a good idea to prohibit content that is about harming human beings, like calls to violence. This is already covered by laws in most countries. I argue that this is a good thing. So according to the law, you can’t talk about literally everything on online forums.
Having the above in mind, I argue that it is best to have lesser numbers of communities, and have less narrow limits. That way, we can see what the people are thinking and saying, and we lessen the chance of creating filter bubbles.
I personally would rather want to see what people are thinking and saying, even when it is about things I disagree with. For example, I rather have a talk about capitalism, and why I think it is a bad idea and has problems, with someone who thinks it is a good idea. I wouldn’t like if that user is prohibited to talk about it.
I could also talk about this with people who already agree with me, but… you know? That’s not quite the same.
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Thanks for your comment! I agree with your view on growth through discussion.
Keep in mind nexusmods has a blanket ban on all US sociopolitic commentaries.
Interesting. I didn’t know that. Though, it may be difficult to decide what is a sociopolitic commentary, and what is not. As far as I can see, there are lots of mods that exchange the original flags of a game with LGBQT+ flags. I’m not arguing for the removal of those, but I fear some kind of double standard.
By the way: I think the mod that was banned was a troll attempt… and it succeeded. This was what the troll intended: Internet drama. If we would have just leave it be, and I think almost nobody is actually interested in that mod, it would have been a fairer and less troll feeding solution.
Replacing some flags doesnt discriminate anyone.
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Are there any other flags in the game? And do you think that queer people cannot exist without rainbow flags, or how should I understand your comment? And if the mod is pointless, it really shouldnt be necessary to remove it.
Aside from the mait topic. Who’re you to decide if the mod should or should not be removed? Nexus is not the goverment or anything, they’re are as free as you and me to do whatever they want with their plataform.
And I am free to disagree with their decision.
This is similar to making a mod that replaced all non-white characters and NPCs with whites.
No, because flags are not people.
I’m KINDA with you on this one, to be honest. Modding is all about the right to disrespect one’s surroundings.
On the other other hand – Even if it’s not on Nexus, the mod can still exist. It’s not like the modders are gonna go to prison or anything.
There’s nothing that stops people from modding their games how they want, they just can’t host that kind of mod on NexusMods. If they’re adamant about it, they can self-host it or host it elsewhere.
Agreed. You can be pro-LGBT and also be tired of seeing rainbow flags everywhere…
Mod should’ve replaced them with hammer and sickle though
Treating your customers like this is a great way to lose customers.
That’s the point though, isn’t it? They clearly don’t want such customers.
They are free to do whatever they like, but not wanting customers doesn’t sound like the smartest business decision.
Bigots would scare off other modders. It is the smart business decision.
The article pretty much says that Nexus Mods is losing users because of this ban.
Yes, as it would either way, losing one niche doesn’t mean shit. Abide by the rules imposed or move
Nexus Mod competitor likes this.
We dont need abusive customers anyway
So people pay money for a game, want to enjoy it without thinking much, and then get these forced politics shoved down their throats? This isnt even about liking LGBT people or not (I dont have anything against them). But this is like putting advertising for politicians in the game, it can completely ruin the immersion.
Advertising politicians in a game and presenting a realistic environment for which storytelling to evolve within are two entirely different things lmao. This does nothing to immersion, this is you wanting a game which doesn’t reflect the opinions others hold.
If I pay for a game, I expect it to be able to customize it however I wish.
and you can, you just can’t get that mod on this website
And you’re able to customize them the way you want. Nobody said that you can’t.
Exactly, I dont want to see opinions about politics in a spiderman game. Whether its about LGBT or any other topic. For that I will go to Lemmy.
A pride flag is not an opinion about politics my dude
It absolutely is, but a good one. Putting up any flag is actually counted as a very explicit political statement, also “nonpolitical” shit is liberal idea meaning “acceptance of status quo” - which is a political statement too.
A flag is only a political statement when it’s attempting to influence a decision to be made for or by a political party. There is no pride government/country/etc. It is only considered a political statement because most countries have decided to legislate against queer individuals and often the flag is flown to show support for queers. However it’s presence is not necessarily a political statement. The same could be said of country flags - it can be used to communicate where you are from, your background, your history, or any other number of non-political statements. It often, however, is flown as an act of endorsement or support which makes it a political statement.
Pride’s goal from the beginning has been liberatory politics and it’s important not to downplay that to make it more palatable. It’s political to fight to assert our right to have rights. Hell, the very concept of queerness is extremely political: it’s a political coalition of very different groups who work together because we share common political goals because we all suffer from the same oppressive norms and policies.
Where we should disagree with someone saying to keep politics outta their vidya gaemz is to say that doing so is both impossible and undesirable. AAA games are already so fucking afraid of saying anything at all, imagine how dry they’d be if they listened to the “no politics” crowd even more.
great points!
No, a flag is signalling you are supporting something or identifying with something. That is a political statement. For example supporting LGBT is a political statement in every country, just more safe in some, like in France nobody would probably mind, in Poland you will get sometimes yelled at and maybe vandalised and in Saudi Arabia it’s probably illegal.
it can be used to communicate where you are from, your background, your history, or any other number of non-political statements.
All of those are political statements, even if very minor and moslty inconsequential (“identifying with something”). But depending on circumstances the outcome might change. Imagine you’re a Russian living in the West and you just want to “communicate where you are from” and fly a russian flag - people were losing jobs and got a death threats for that.
signalling you are supporting something or identifying with something. That is a political statement
I think that’s too liberal of an interpretation of the definition of political statement - at that point doing pretty much anything is a political statement, which calls into question what the point of calling something a political statement even is.
In my opinion yes.
If you think that a gay pride flag isn’t a political statement, then I assume you also think a white pride flag isn’t a political statement?
Edit: Also, if the inclusion of a gay pride flag isn’t a political statement, then how can its removal be a political statement?
The fact that it’s a political statement you and I may happen to agree with doesn’t mean it’s not political, and advancing that argument just makes you sound as irrationally prejudiced as the people you oppose.
It may well be a political statement but it’s use in the game is to create an immersive atmosphere and people have pride flags in front of their businesses in the city irl so I don’t see why it’s so weird to have it placed in a game as well. It’s not like the game stops to tell you to donate to your local LGBT friendly politician.
Expressing pride for your background or a characteristic you have is not a political statement. It’s only a political statement when you’re attempting to influence a decision to be made for or by a political party.
I wasn’t arguing that it’s removal was a political statement either. I simply stated that it’s not the same as advertising a politician in a game, because that is political statement.
you can do whatever you want. Go ahead and install this mod, which was made from the same games code that they ship to saudi arabia…
The mod puts US flags instead, for me thats even worse. Anyway I dont even own the game.
How being gay is politic now?
The flag is political.
How is that a problem? Its a representating of a collective who happen to be marginalized throughout history and wish better treatment and representation by expressing their identity in the most basic way possible. Just letting the world known they exist and deserve equal respect.
There are countless groups which fit the same description. Doesnt mean they should all be represented with flags in a freaking spiderman game.
Why not?
As if the US flag isn’t
It sure is.
