For those checking out the Stellaris #modding scene, some interesting content seems to have appeared on the #SteamWorkshop. Within days of the launch, several Nazi-themed mods became #available to download, with quite a few adding national socialist imagery to Stellaris the flag creator. Thanks to Paradox Interactive, who are keeping an eye on the situation, the publisher is not afraid to take down offensive content.
The first mod to be pulled is a small change to the game called European Phenotype And Names Only (White Humans). Which replaces the multicultural population of the United Nations of Earth, the default human faction in Stellaris, with an all-white nations. The mod is still available from other third-party sites but seems unlikely the community creators will ever make back onto Steam.
A Paradox representative gave the following statement:
“We shipped the game originally with an accurate representation of humans, that is to say diverse in both ethnicity and personality…we embrace the idea that players mod the game to best represent how they want to play, we do NOT however wish to enable discriminatory practices.
“We appreciate any inappropriate mods being brought to our attention and will take them down where necessary, we also encourage players to make use of the flagging function provided by Valve where needed.”
Despite the developer’s position on this mod, it is currently still available via third party site ModDB.
A second mod, entitled Separate Human Phenotypes is also being reviewed by Paradox. This mod splits the human race into four separate species, meaning that players can create a custom empire using people of just a single ethnicity. A rather odd thing to do.
Without using mods, human empires within Stellaris are made up of diverse populations, and rightly so, with people of all races haivng equal role in every aspect of civilization. Which is common sense.
And who would have thought game modding would get such racist and discriminatory content?
