A user-created game modification — or mod — designed to replace in-game pride flags from the recently-released PC port of Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered, was reportedlt taken down by NexusMods and ModDB, two of the biggest online sites for PC game mods. Both sites have confirmed that the ‘troll’ mod, which was uploaded from a new account, had been removed.
According to a report by The Verge, popular game mod hosting site NexusMods explained in a blog post that the mod for Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered was uploaded to its site by a brand-new account with no modding history, which the site’s administrators suspect is a secondary account for one of the site’s users, or a ‘sock puppet’ account.
The mod replaced the pride flags found around New York City with the US flag on Marvel’s Spider Man Remastered. Along with removing the mod, both “the sock puppet account and the user’s main account” have been banned by NexusMods.
“It was very clearly done deliberately to be a troll mod. The fact the user needed to make a sock puppet like a coward to upload the mod showed their intent to troll and that they knew it would not be allowed,” NexusMods stated.
“Had they 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 re-uploaded it again after being fairly warned. The creation of the sock puppet removed any doubt and made it a very easy decision for us,” they added.
ModDB, which hosts mods for PC games like NexusMods, also announced via a tweet that it had removed the mod. “ModDB is an inclusive environment for all and we do not permit targeting marginalized groups. Our content moderation is largely automated but when identified, we have a zero-tolerance policy for this kind of content,” the website said in the tweet.