Paradox Interactive has removed at least one user-created mod for its recently-released space strategy game Stellaris from Steam Workshop, on the grounds that it enabled "discriminatory practices."
Developer and publisher Paradox Interactive has removed at least one user-created mod for its recently-released space strategy game Stellaris from Steam Workshop, on the grounds that it could have enabled "discriminatory practices."
Paradox's action points to a notable but rarely-used (at least in such a public, visible way) power developers have to control what sort of user-created content is made available for their games through Steam Workshop.
The mod in question, "European Phenotype and Names Only," changed the game to ensure all human characters "are only European - and [have] European names only", is no longer on the Workshop but can still be found at third-party modding hubs like ModDB.
Reached for comment about the pull by Eurogamer, 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."
The company is reportedly also investigating at least one other mod that affects the way Stellaris portrays humans, though for the monent it's still available on the Steam Workshop. The game itself is currently doing the business for Paradox, which recently trumpeted Stellaris as its fastest-selling game to date.
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