Banned Starfield mod tried to remove everyone's pronouns, accidentally made everyone non-binary

Starfield cockpit
(Image credit: Bethesda)

A Starfield mod, banned because it tried to remove everyone's pronouns, inadvertently made everyone non-binary.

Starfield boasts an impressively detailed character creation system, which, as well as deciding your space explorer's appearance, traits and skills, allows you to choose which pronouns you wish to use. The latter has led to considerable outrage from some players who can't seem to get with the times. In fact, one was so outraged at the mere notion of letting others express themselves in this way that they created a mod to remove the pronoun selection from the game entirely.

In response, popular modding site Nexus Mods revealed that it would not support the mod. "Hosting this mod was not for us and it is certainly within our rights not to host content on our platform," it told 404 Media. "It's not a 'political statement' or an 'alignment to one side or the other in the culture war.' 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."

In a rather hilarious turn of events, the mod didn't actually work as its creator intended. This was spotted by user Kryosquid on the Starfield subreddit, who wrote: "I saw this mod on nexus before it was taken down and the stupid thing is it doesn't actually remove pronouns, it just removed he/him and she/her meaning the game would then default to they/them pronouns. Effectively making anyone who downloaded the mod non-binary. These bigots are so full of hate that they can't understand basic English."

In a separate statement regarding the mods removal, Nexus Mods said, "If that upsets you enough that you no longer want to use our site then, quite frankly, your presence here will not be missed. I invite you to use your account settings page's 'Delete account' feature." Last year, it had much the same response for those ticked off by its decision to delete the mod that removed the Pride flags in Marvel's Spider-Man.

Make your adventures in space more seamless with our pick of the best Starfield mods to improve performance and gameplay.

Anne-Marie Ostler
Freelance Writer

Originally from Ireland, I moved to the UK in 2014 to pursue a Games Journalism and PR degree at Staffordshire University. Following that, I've freelanced for GamesMaster, Games TM, Official PlayStation Magazine and, more recently, Play and GamesRadar+. My love of gaming sprang from successfully defeating that first Goomba in Super Mario Bros on the NES. These days, PlayStation is my jam. When not gaming or writing, I can usually be found scouring the internet for anything Tomb Raider related to add to my out of control memorabilia collection.