Is ‘Oblivion Remastered’ Too Woke? Right-Wing Gamers Are Trying to Mod Out This Feature - They think a less inclusive design decision would actually improve sales.

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Update (4/23/2025): When reached for comment, Ultraporing told Waypoint that his body type edit was intended as an “open source mod, inspired by open source projects on Github.” He called the mod’s comment section on Nexus Mods his “biggest shock.” In his words, there were the “pro-modern change and contra-modern change factions” that “viciously fought with words,” along with himself as part of “the 3rd group that tried to just stay away from the madness.”

“In any case, I still am convinced that my mod never violated any rules, and neither did I,” Ultraporing told Waypoint, describing the Nexus staff member’s reasoning for the mod’s removal as “too vague and at times contradicting.” “Most likely the sad truth is that this person just was probably very angry at me and the mod for whatever imagined problem it represents or causes. And just basically abused his power to get rid of the offending parts, namely the mod and myself.”

Ultraporing plans to continue his mod’s development with uploads on ModHQ and DEG Mods, describing both as sites “where creators [get] more protections.” When asked about TulpaTownW’s body type mod, Ultraporing also explained that he granted others permission to reupload and modify his mod, as long as credit was given (and his mod was not sold).

“If he used my mod as a base and expanded on it for V2, it’s ok with me, and just a bit disappointed that he didn’t even give me the smallest courtesy I asked for in the OG post,” Ultraporing said. “If he didn’t use it and it’s all coincidence it’s also fine by me.”

Original: Did you download The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered yesterday, sit down to play, and throw your controller at your TV? You know, because Bethesda shadow dropped a “woke” remake? I bet the thought didn’t even cross your mind, since you’re a reasonable human being who doesn’t hate minorities. Unfortunately, the biggest losers in gaming are up in arms over Oblivion Remastered due to a gender-affirming change in the game’s character creator. Oh, no, not trans people playing video games!

So, how upset are these right-wingers? They tried to promote a mod that alters the terms used for the game’s body type descriptors. And when one of the biggest modding sites on the internet banned the change, they went ballistic. Gotta love right-wing gamers getting owned, huh?

What’s the deal with those ‘Oblivion Remastered’ Body Type options?​

Shortly after Oblivion Remastered launched on PlayStation 5, PC, and Xbox Series X|S, gamers discovered that the Elder Scrolls IV remake did away with its gender selection terminology. In the original Oblivion, players chose their “gender” as “male” or “female.” Based on your chosen gender, your player character’s stats would be affected.

Now, Oblivion Remastered uses a “body type” system, where players choose between “Type 1” or “Type 2” options. Reflecting a more feminine or masculine presentation, respectively. Stats are also decided based on the player’s origin, not their gender. While pronouns and gendered titles are still tied down to your body type, the change is at least a step in the right direction for representing nonbinary and GNC players — and the new stats system prevents your gender from mechanically altering how you play the game.

However, right-wing gamers were furious about the change, attracting the worst possible people on Twitter to complain about it. Shortly after the new character creator options were discovered, disgraced Red 5 Studios CEO Mark “Grummz” Kern — well-known for his role as a ring leader for the right-wing gaming community on Twitter — quickly tweeted up a storm.

“There was zero need to change this in Oblivion Remastered,” Kern wrote. “Bring back the original Male/Female.”

They actually think ‘oblivion’s body type feature is holding back sales?​

Kern went on to claim that Bethesda should restore the original gender options, arguing the company “would see a huge boost in sales” if an extremely forgettable character creation option was brought back. “Everyone would call them based and the brand would soar,” the right-winger said. “It would be funny to watch the meltdown as the dollars rolled in.”

For the record, Oblivion Remastered‘s Steam release peaked at 182,298 players in the past 24 hours, meaning it has surpassed Marvel Rivals, Schedule I, and Baldur’s Gate 3 for top players over the past day. SullyGnome ranks the remaster as the 9th most-watched category on Twitch over the past three days. It seems highly unlikely that a menu tweak would actually improve sales. Not because Oblivion players truly prefer the term “body type” over “gender,” but because your average gamer is already enjoying the game as is.

Let’s be real: Your average gamer just wants to play Oblivion with nice graphics. They’re going to buy the game regardless of the “culture issues” at play. We saw this with Starfield and Hogwarts Legacy, and we’ll see this with other games in the future, too.

The worst gamers you know are mad at Nexus Mods now​

Nonetheless, modder Ultraporing turned to Nexus Mods last night with an upload called “Classic Bodytype,” replacing “Type 1” and “Type 2” with “Female” and “Male,” respectively (interestingly, the modder did not replace “Body Type” with “Sex” and “Gender” until a later iteration). Nexus Mods removed the addition soon after its upload and banned Ultraporing for “violating our community rules.” The reason for the ban was listed as “posting an intentionally-antagonistic mod with intention to evade the rules.”

“While the modification itself is not inherently a problem, the intention of the author is the problem. When a user reported that they had archived the mod on a website dedicated to archiving TOS-breaking content on Nexus Mods and other modding websites with a particular focus on bigotry, the author replied: ‘Awesome, thanks for picking up on my intentions,’” the post said. “From our File Submission Guidelines: ‘Files that remove gender identity including pronouns from a game that have been intentionally put in place by a game developer, when the removal is clearly to be divisive or cause hostility within the community or marginalize specific group(s).’”

A thread dedicated to the mod on the forum RPGHQ is filled with angry remarks toward trans people and Nexus Mods staff. One user called Nexus Mods “a bunch of rancid cunts.” Another poster used the n-word. “Stay ass mad troons the mod will forever be on here,” a third gamer added. “Troon” is a transphobic slur commonly used to refer to transgender women.

Grifting off the right-wing never gets old in games​

One site, DEG Mods, turned to Twitter to promote a second Oblivion Remastered body type mod from TulpaTownW. This iteration uses the term “sex” instead of “body type” (and was criticized as “rat behavior” by Ultraporing as it “does not give credit”). As of this article’s publication, it is the only mod available for Oblivion Remastered on the site. The move was hailed as a victory by right-wing Twitter users, even though it ironically alters Bethesda’s original artistic intent.

“F censorship. F Nexus Mods,” one anti-feminist VTuber said in a viral tweet, calling her critics “pro censorship.”

It’s worth noting that while right-wing gamers are salty over Bethesda’s gender-affirming options, the game is not without controversy on the other side of the political spectrum. On April 7th, the BDS movement directly called on a boycott of Microsoft, declaring it “the most complicit tech company in Israel’s illegal occupation, apartheid regime, and ongoing genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza.” Bethesda was directly mentioned as a publisher to boycott. As a result, many players on the left have requested their fellow customers to refrain from purchasing Oblivion Remastered.

“We need to make a tangible financial impact on Microsoft to discourage them from supporting Israel in its ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people,” one Steam user wrote. “Say no to genocide.”

So, don’t call Oblivion Remastered a left-wing darling. As with many things in the games industry, the circumstances around this game are not black and white.

VICE reached out to Ultraporing and TulpaTownW for comment.

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The original game of the year edition still holds up today, so was this "remake" really necessary? Honestly, I would've preferred them remaster something like Morrowind, or Daggerfall. I'll stick with the original Oblivion. Thanks.
A Daggerfall remaster already exists. It's called Daggerfall Unity. It's even playable on Android devices. Tried it on a tablet and had no issue leaving the first dungeon. Getting it to work can be a bit annoying, but anyone wanting to play Daggerfall probably already has a high enough IQ to figure basic troubleshooting out.

Morrowind also has a remaster of sorts. OpenMW. That also can be played on Android, but I've never tried. Too lazy to copy Morrowind's files onto my tablet. Definitely a good idea to use a controller if you want to play Morrowind on Android.
 
The original game of the year edition still holds up today, so was this "remake" really necessary? Honestly, I would've preferred them remaster something like Morrowind, or Daggerfall. I'll stick with the original Oblivion. Thanks.
I like how the original looks almost like a colorful painting at times. That doesn't seem to be the case in the remaster. Plus, it's 125GB which is batshit insane for a remaster of a 5GB game.

The only things they seem to have improved are the NPC faces a little bit and the level scaling (allegedly).
 
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I like how the original looks almost like a colorful painting at times. That doesn't seem to be the case in the remaster. Plus, it's 125GB which is batshit insane for a remaster of a 5GB game.

The only things they seem to have improved are the NPC faces a little bit and the level scaling (allegedly).
There's mods that do that for free. They aren't even hard to install with Wrye Bash and Oblivion Mod Manager. Just download the files and drag them where they need to go. In my case, that means putting more complex mods in the mods folder for Oblivion mod manager and putting everything else in the bash installer folder.

The reason I use this weird mess of a set up is modern mod managers don't play as well with Oblivion. They're useable, but not as good as older managers. You probably can get by with Vortex(I used to use this with Oblivion and it was fine) or Mod Organizer 2. No need to copy this crazy shitposter's autistic setup. Do not use Oblivion Reloaded, by the way.

Oblivion Reloaded looks nice, but it makes the game more unstable than usual. It also caps the fps at 40 for some reason and adds motion blur. There are forks that remove the less popular features, but they probably still have the same stability issues.
 
insufferable article, how can anyone read this slop?
They don’t. That’s the secret the media doesn’t want you to know. Readership is astroturfed and at an all time low. Dead industry and can only exist with money from outside sources to prop it up. Nobody wakes up and thinks, wow I can’t wait to go to vice and see what new stories just posted. The only thing that’ll die quicker than their publication is their tranny author who wrote this.
 
So why change anything in the first place? These freaks need to realize that most are against them.
The ones who are aware of it get off on knowing that.
As long as they're protected and serve by the government and law enforcement, most people ain't going do anything to them.
 
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I like how the original looks almost like a colorful painting at times.
The atmosphere of the original with the beauty of the environments and the soundtrack is unmatched. I'm sure the remaster would lose a lot of that magic in favor of "realism" in texturing.
 
I looked it up it seems people are saying it’s because of Chinese translations?
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I can imagine some CCP official messaging Nexus Mods saying "Do you have any idea how long Chairman Xi waiting for Obrivion remaster? He no want homo shit in his game. Fuck-a-you! You re-enaber mod now! You do it or I terr Todd Howard why his game no serr in Grorious Peoperr's Repubric! Then he come after you for all the copyright shit! You fix! You fix now!"
 
Nexus caved and the mod is back up, which is surprising because they have a history of banning wokeness removal mods like the one that removed the gay flags in Spider-Man 2.
Caved is overselling it. The comments are locked and the mods pinned some stupid fucking message at the top.
 
Was watching an aquaintence playing it today, seems still pretty much the same game surface level visually sans graphics, some fuckery witht he UI and some other shit but then again I wasn't paying super close attention so it might be like the paper mario remake where they just sneak in a ton of nonsense level edits tot he english script to make things "less toxic" or "appeal to modern standards and practices" or whatever other nonsense.
 
99% of all app store releases of console/PC games are unplayable dog shit.
The SaGa remasters are pretty good on mobile, same with the Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters even without using a controller. The Trials of Mana port and The Last Remnant port are pretty good too. Same with most of the dragon quest games except VIII but there's a mod that makes it pretty much the best version of the game. Better than the ps2 and 3ds versions. Pretty much every game on my phone is a console or PC port. Some of them actually from google play. Well they're available on the play store anyway. There's a bunch of metroidvanias and other games I played on my phone. Afterimage, HAAK, Bloodstained, Elderand, 9 Years of Shadows, Carrion, Hyper Light Drifter, Death's Door. They're all just as good as the console/PC versions.

If you go outside the play store to unofficial ports there's even more. My computer's pretty old so Hollow Knight actually runs better on my phone than it does on my computer. There are pretty decent CrossCode and Rain World ports too. There's a Cuphead port made by some russians but it was a bit janky last time I tried it.
 
The original game of the year edition still holds up today, so was this "remake" really necessary? Honestly, I would've preferred them remaster something like Morrowind, or Daggerfall. I'll stick with the original Oblivion. Thanks.
Please no, remasters and remakes are nigh universally terrible and make the games worse, Daggerfall and Morrowind don't need that.
Also, Daggerfall already got Daggerfall Unity which is sort of a remaster, and Morrowind is still getting updated with Project Tamriel and OpenMW. Keep corporate hands away from those games.
 
I am tired of being called "right-wing" or "extremist" or "transphobic" simply because I would prefer that my fantastical role-playing adventure that is built from the ground up to transport you to another world not remind me how fucking retarded people IRL are.
Better be right-wing then, because you won't be allowed to do that otherwise. You have to ingest left-wing propaganda at all times: at work, at home, and outside, and you better never roll your eyes or try to avoid it.

Seriously, what's with the resistance some have to being righty when the left is dying on the hill of trying to butt fuck everyone full of their insane identity politics? Is the view really that nice from up on the fence?
 
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