When it comes to modding, a lot of the things you enjoy now wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for that community. The MOBA genre that started with DOTA, spawned League of Legends, while also creating Counter-Strike and Team Fortress, all of which wouldn’t exist if there hadn’t been a modding scene. Call of Duty Zombies wouldn’t be around since they stole the idea from modders who created a zombie mode for so many shooters. But it’s not just games and genres that now exist because of modding, but the skins, the add-ons, the ingenuity and creativity of modders given free reign. Sadly, Nexus Mods has forgotten that modding is synonymous with artistic freedom and fun as the platform has become censorious and fascistic.
You may think those are harsh words, but recent events have brought to light how far Nexus Mods has fallen. Such a claim revolves around Nexus Mods banning a Marvel Rivals skin that replaced Captain America’s face with that of President Donald Trump. But the issue doesn’t stop with Nexus Mod banning the Donald Trump mod as the platform has been accused that its censorship is biased and focused in only one direction. Especially since, according to their own guidelines revolving around “Inappropriate Content” entails “a blanket ban on mods relating to sociopolitical issues in the United States of America” which was implemented September 28, 2020.
Yet, despite those clear parameters, mods of President Joe Biden were still on Nexus Mods. Or they were as of January 4th according to X user @Pirat_Nation. Upon doing a search of our own, before posting this article on January 6th, there were no search results relating to Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, or Bernie Sanders. However, there were still results for mods based on former President Barack Obama from as far back as 2009.
Interestingly enough, ten minutes after we ran our search, all mods related to Barack Obama no longer come up in the Nexus Mods search results.
It appears that Nexus Mods is finally purging its database of “sociopolitical issues” to pretend that it is unbiased, but the cat is out of the bag. Even then, this is still censorious behavior. Especially as the guideline covers quite a bit stating,
“Content that may be generally construed as provocative, divisive, objectionable, discriminatory, or abusive toward any real-world individual or group, may be subject to moderation. This includes but is not limited to content involving politics, race, religion, gender identity, sexuality, or social class. We tolerate content related to real world issues and events as long as the appropriate tag (“Real World Issues”) is used and the content is handled in a tasteful, respectful, and non-inflammatory manner.”
Despite the fact that mods are created so that gamers can play video games the way they want to, Nexus Mods has made itself the arbiter of what is and isn’t appropriate. Similar to how news media outlets have made themselves the arbiters of what should or shouldn’t be played depending on their sociopolitical views. Which is ironic since Nexus mods allow nudity to be posted and disseminated on its platform. After all, Nexus Mods will ban anything that will remove the usage of pronouns in a game, pride flags, or whitewashing of characters. Though, for the latter, it doesn’t ban mods that colorwash characters such as a dark-skinned version of The Witcher’s Geralt of Rivia mod.
Which is not surprising.
But why does Nexus Mods stop the changing of a character’s skin color when mods can replace NPCs with completely different NPCs such as, back in the day, the enemies in the original DOOM game could be replaced with Barney or the Energize Bunny (still going!). It’s a funny example, but it is relevant to the discussion.
While many gamers have stopped using the platform, the recent banning of the Donald Trump mod has brought to light that, once again, Nexus Mods has devolved into an anti-modding platform. That it is the antithesis of a community that was built on the idea that people want to play the game that they want, the way they want to. No matter how silly or offensive it might be.
This time, it is starting to sink in for even more people who once supported Nexus Mods in the wake of the Trump mod banning. It is time that other competitive platforms take advantage of Nexus Mods’ blunder and remind modders and gamers what it is like to truly have free reign to make what you want, play the way you want to, and have fun while doing so.
Which includes seeing President Trump as Captain America. If former President Bill Clinton could dunk balls in NBA Jam, then President Trump can throw a shield in Marvel Rivals.
Author’s Note:
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