Anti-Pride Spider-Man Mod Changed Modding In An Instant
"Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered" has been a hit with critics and triumphantly ported the game to the PS5 and the PC. Bringing the webslinger to PC has opened up new vistas for fans, who have been able to dig into the game files and uncover secrets. It also created the opportunity to further mod the game. Since its release, we've seen horrifying mods, twisted mods, and even a mod that brings one of Spider-Man's creators into the game. Now, it looks like an anti-pride mod may have changed the modding community forever.
The story began with a Nexus Mods user creating a secondary account and uploading a mod that removed all of the Pride flags in the game, replacing them with U.S. flags. The mod, which was viewed as being anti-LGBT+, drew the attention of Nexus Mods, which quickly responded by removing the mod and deleting the creators secondary and original accounts. Nexus Mods posted a message explaining its decision and taking a stand for inclusivity in gaming.
In the post, Nexus Mods focused on the fact that the mod was uploaded through a secondary burner account. According to the modding website, this was an indication of malicious intent. The statement claimed, "Had [the modder] not been a coward and had they used their main account instead, we would have simply removed the mod and told them that we did not want to host it, only banning them if they reuploaded it again after being fairly warned."
The site also told users that it would not stand for discriminatory mods of any kind. This forceful condemnation was quickly followed by other signs of support from the modding community.
Anti-Pride mod inspires a pro-inclusivity response
On the same day, another modding website, ModDB, tweeted its own statement, echoing Nexus Mods' support of inclusivity and assuring followers that it had also removed the mod and banned the account. Since then, individual modders have decided to show their support for the LGBT+ community with mods of their own to combat the negativity.
Modder Loina created a mod, uploaded to Nexus Mods by Aeitous, which does the opposite of the offending mod, replacing all of the U.S. flags with even more Pride flags, blanketing New York City with them. Meanwhile, user PalateSwap has created a mod which updates the game's pre-existing Pride flags to the newer Pride Progress design.
While the descriptions of these mods make no mention of the recent Pride flag controversy, James Troughton at TheGamer has speculated that these mods may have represented a direct response to the offending mod's apparent anti-Pride sentiment.