"Disturbing" Stellaris Mod Removed for Promoting Racial Agenda

A fan-made mod for Stellaris that makes all its characters white has been removed from Steam Workshop by the game's developer, Paradox Interactive.

According to a Reddit post by a Paradox community manager, the studio initially left the European Phenotype and Names Only (White Humans) mod on Steam, despite personal objections to its purpose and content. However, when the mod's developer began using its description to push an agenda, Paradox decided to step in and remove it.

"We saw the mod, thought it wasn't in very good taste, but let it remain," the post said. "Then the creator of the mod decided to update the description of the mod to promote an 'agenda' not related to computer games at all, and this was being clearly displayed on our product page. We decided it was a step too far and removed it."

In response to comments, the community manager added: "There are several mods that will allow you to role-play in most of the different ways I've seen you suggest in here. This particular mod had several disturbing elements in it's public description which we do not want to have clearly displayed on our product page however.

"You are right of course. Our job is to make computer games, not push political agendas. This is why we removed some political proclamations being made in the description field on our workshop page."

Speaking to Eurogamer, a separate Paradox representative said the studio supports mods developed to support unique play styles, but it draws the line at discrimination.

"We shipped the game originally with an accurate representation of humans, that is to say diverse in both ethnicity and personality," said the rep.

"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."

Paradox COO Susana Meza Graham later clarified the studio's rules of conduct on Twitlonger.

"We have a few rules of conduct that have been in effect for the better part of a decade where racial slurs, among other things, are not allowed. We interpreted this particular mod as breaking those rules of conduct, however it would appear that the comments surrounding the mod, rather than the mod itself, were the biggest problem.

"We welcome everyone to create all kind of mods for us as long as they comply with our rules of conduct and we expect our modders to help us keep the comment sections free of any racial slurs or other things that do not comply with these same codes."

Graham added: "This is the last we will comment regarding this particular mod."

Stellaris sold more than 200,000 copies in its first 24 hours, breaking the "revenue record for any of Paradox Interactive's previous titles during the same period," the company previously said.