Updated 3:49pm EST (8:49pm BST): The "European Phenotypes" mod has been reposted by Progeny of Europe, along with a somewhat mocking description calling it "an experiment to test how far Paradox will lie about banning my other mod" after "a wild ride of lies and slander."

Progeny says the current description shouldn't run afoul of Paradox rules that he says he was forced to glean from "conflicting reports to gaming media about why [Paradox] removed my mod." To keep the mod in Paradox's good graces, "any comments that will trigger Paradox and send them into an irrational fit of lies will be removed... If you are going to leave a comment, talk as though you are talking to the Stasi."

Original Story

publisher Paradox has removed a Steam Workshop mod that made all in-game humans white Europeans, altering the game's standard diverse population of planetary citizenry. The claimed reasoning behind that decision, and the reaction to it, are raising a lot of discussion over what is and isn't "appropriate" content for a game's modding community.

The "European Phenotype and Names Only (White Humans)" mod delivered just what it claimed, changing the portraits and names for the game's non-white human characters to read as "European white." After removing the mod from Steam Workshop, a Paradox spokesperson told Eurogamer that while the company "embrace[s] the idea that players mod the game to best represent how they want to play, we do not however wish to enable discriminatory practices."

The spokesperson also encouraged users to continue flagging "inappropriate mods" on the game's Steam Workshop page (which is controlled by Paradox and appears alongside the game's Steam sales page).

Over on Reddit, though, Paradox Community Manager Paradoxal_Bear said that the issue wasn't the in-game effect of the mod itself but "several disturbing elements in its public description which we do not want to have clearly displayed on our product page." He didn't go into detail on what elements were "disturbing," but screengrabs of that description from before it was removed suggest that the message "no 'multiculturalism' here!" could have been the most problematic phrase.

"We saw the mod, thought it wasn't in very good taste, but let it remain," Paradoxal_Bear clarified. "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."

Paradox COO Susana Meza Graham echoed the clarification in issuing what she said was Paradox's final comment on the matter through Twitter. "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."

Paradox's rules of conduct state, "You shall not send any messages or posts that are considered foul, vulgar, sexually harassing, racially offensive or in any way discriminatory. This includes, but is not limited to, sexist language, ethnic slurs, hate speech and religious epithets. Paradox reserves the right to, in its sole discretion, remove any such posts or messages."

Following her statement, Graham's Twitter replies have been somewhat predictably flooded with negative comments, both from those critical of Paradox "stifling creativity" and those simply supportive of the mod's racial ideals. "This is a statement of utter contempt for the thousands of nationalists who play your games," one tweeter wrote. "Paradox is dead to me."

At press time, it doesn't look like Paradox is attempting to purge other potentially controversial racial mods from the Steam Workshop Community. A mod promising "One Race Humans - Caucasians" is currently available, as are similar ones limiting in-game humans to Asians, Africans, and women, for instance.

This situation lends some credence to Paradox's claim that the description language, and not the mod itself, was what led to the removal. But the mod's creator, who goes by "Progeny of Europe" on Twitter and elsewhere online, states that he was "never contacted about this" before his mod was removed and asked Graham why Paradox didn't reach out "before censoring me for comments unrelated?" In response to a similar complaint from the modder, Graham agreed that "we should have contacted you and will do so now."

Despite being delisted from the Steam Workshop community, the "European Phenotype" mod is still available on ModDB (though without the "no 'multiculturalism' here!" phrasing in its description). Progeny of Europe pledges that "in case my mod gets removed here due to Paradox's ideological pushing... I will provide alternative ways to download if Paradox keeps on with their inquisition."