Nexus Mods Fine With Bigots Leaving Over Removed Starfield ‘Pronoun’ Mod

nanoUFO@sh.itjust.worksmod to Games@sh.itjust.works – 711 points –
Nexus Mods Fine With Bigots Leaving Over Removed Starfield ‘Pronoun’ Mod
kotaku.com
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I am now totally confused as to what is even going on. After reading multiple top level comments, many responses and then reading the article (gasp I know... blasphemy) I can't tell if conservatives are mad about pronouns being an option or not being an option. Many of the comments made it sound like they added pronouns, the way the article is written makes it sound like they removed the ability to choose pronouns.

So which is it. Who is mad, and why exactly?

Edit: Okay, maybe I understand now. Someone created a mod that removed pronouns. The place that hosts mod downloads, removed that mod from their list of downloads. Now people are mad it was removed. Do I have that right? If so, my only remaining question is if one were to use the mod, does it mean others not using the mod can't see their pronoun(s)?

Selecting the sex of the PC has been a standard feature in practically every RPG with character creator ever, and definitely in Bethesda RPGs, what they added is an option to change pronouns the PC is referred to by NPCs from the default. If you want them to match you simply don't touch that option, done.

From a developer's perspective it's dead simple, similar in triviality as allowing people to mix+match any voice to any body type. Cyberpunk's free choice of genitals needs some implementation care but if you're planning for it from the start it's also easy.

Where things get more complicated is things like dresses for male bodies, especially if you don't have any shape keys in place. But if you use one body mesh for everything and simply shape key it into male and female then it's again no issue (you also need to lerp animations then, probably, male and female bodies walk differently because hips). Basically it's hard if your asset pipeline is simple, if the pipeline is sophisticated it's easy.

If so, my only remaining question is if one were to use the mod, does it mean others not using the mod can’t see their pronoun(s)?

It's a singleplayer game. Nothing you do can have any effect on the experience other people have with the game.

I think this is the reply that prompted me to reply at the top of the post. Does your edit mean I was of some help? You appear to have the right of it, yes.

As to your second question: what mod loadout a player has will have zero bearing on another's experience. If one were to use the mod, others would not be affected.

Yes, I believe re-reading your comment (not sure if it was post or pre edit) finally made me put all the pieces together.

If this is single player, the controversy is even more dumb than I had originally thought.

Now I am curious what the default pronoun options are, and if you were able to skip choosing it entirely, or pick "other" or "none"?

Apparently it defaults to the one matching your phenotype. The game gave you the option to change it if you felt like it. The mod removed that option and may have had a rant against the existence of LGBT+ people in its description and that description was the cause for removal (I can't verify since it was removed, but that's what others have said).

Does anyone know what the list is? Can you even choose they/them or xe/xem? Or is it just you could pick the inverse?