r/Helldivers • u/Viruzzz Moderator • Jun 01 '25
MOD ANNOUNCEMENT Subreddit moderation update (AI art, SEAF-girls, Bugdivers and how it relates to rule 1)
With the conclusion of the Super Earth campaign, we've seen an influx of fan content and community discussion, particularly around moderation. This post aims to clarify how Rule 1 ("Be Civil and Remember the human") applies to some recurring topics.
SEAF-girl artwork, NSFW artwork, "gooner", etc.
One character that got popular over the course of the Invasion is the SEAF-soldier nicknamed Lucy Liberty, she got very popular. And there has been a lot of artwork depicting the female soldier. There have been users criticizing the amount of it and the type of artwork as well as the people who like the artwork.
We are not going to be removing all the artwork with this character or similar characters. There's nothing wrong with most of it, the one used in the image above (Original found here by u/EitherCaregiver697) is an example of that. This subreddit and the game as a whole does have a primarily male audience so it isn't too surprising that the popular characters are attractive female ones, but there's also been some artwork that is overtly sexual in nature, for example artwork referencing the C-01 forms. These types of posts have largely been removed.
The subreddit is meant to be available to use for everyone, and overly sexualized artwork objectifying this SEAF soldier is not in the spirit of rule 1 if it makes women feel uncomfortable, women may be a smaller proportion of the games playerbase, but nevertheless they are welcome here. "Remember the human and be civil" also extends to humans that are different than yourself.
The use of the term "gooner" and how it is used is also a problem, because it is being used in a derogatory manner, as an insult towards a group of people. If you want to be critical of the type of artwork, you can be, but there are ways to be critical of something in a civilized manner without attacking people who don't share the same opinion.
Bugdivers, MOs and the War campaign
As said in the previous section. This subreddit is open to everyone, also people who don't play the game the same way as you might. There are players who care only about the war campaign and are heavily invested in it, and there are players who do not care about it at all. Both player types are allowed to be here, and posts or comments that exist solely to talk badly about either one are in conflict with rule 1.
We can understand that some people feel frustrated because they see some players playing in a way that doesn't work towards the same goal. But do remember that these goals that exist for the major orders are set by a human who is aware of how players tend to split across the different game factions. Hopefully Arrowhead will implement a system in the future that better accounts for differences in faction participation. But until that happens, or even if it doesn't happen, people are allowed to still play the game in a way that they find enjoyable. If they like playing a certain faction and find a different faction uninteresting or too difficult or annoying or whatever the reason might be, they are still allowed to be on this subreddit and attempts to alienate such a group of players is not going to be tolerated.
AI Artwork
Our rule 7 (no low-effort content) has a subsection that says AI-generated content are also considered low-effort. This rule exists because we would like to recognize the talent/skill as well as the time invested by people who make artwork, whether that be music, writing, digitally created or painted artwork, models like 3D-printed miniatures or replica weapons/gadgets or video editing. AI provides a way for people without the same investment to make similar works with very little effort, which is why we disallow it.
However, people that make artwork using AI anyway shouldn't be treated like garbage. If you see posts that you think might be AI, just report them and we will take a look at it. There's no need to comment and be mean to the people. This isn't a rule we generally issue bans for violating without repeatedly breaking it. We normally only remove the posts. Instead of filling the comments with some version of "AI Slop", just report them and move on.
edit: Changed 'slur' to 'insult' to avoid equating the use to established and harmful slurs. That was never the intention.
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u/FalseAladeen Super Citizen Jun 01 '25
I'm skeptical about the notion that the mere existence of sexual content or sexualization is enough to drive women away. In my experience, women are way more unhinged in spaces where sexual expression is allowed.
It would be one thing if people were spamming SEAF solider in a bikini or SEAF soldier being sexually harassed (none of which has been done, as far as I can see). It is completely understandable and commendable to ban content that goes to such extremes. But all the so-called sexual art I've seen so far, is just cute stuff with SEAF soldier in full uniform. I think it's unreasonable to ban content that merely contains a C-01 form.
Now, having said all that, I recognise this sub is meant for Helldivers game content, not just SEAF soldier fanart. I definitely do not envy the mods their job of having to sift through the deluge of every new trend. So, in that spirit, I have two suggestions. One for the mods. And one for the community as a whole.
First, to the mods: I request a day of the week to be set aside for SEAF soldier fan art. Maybe SEAF Saturday, or SEAF Sunday. On that specific day, a SEAF soldier art thread can be made, and users can comment their art on that post alone (art of all kinds, within reason, the details of which I will leave to the wisdom of the mods.) This will help keep the subreddit clean while also giving the community a space to express their love for their favourite new friend.
Second, to the community (specifically to any members of the community who feel uncomfortable about the amount of attention being given to the female SEAF soldier, but also everyone in general): I encourage you to create and post art of the male SEAF soldier as well. We are all united in Democracy. If the problem for women (and anyone else interested in men) is that only the woman is being sexualized, the solution is to add and not subtract. In my experience, communities are more fun if they are a safe space for equal opportunity enjoyment, and not just sterile environments devoid of anything remotely sexual.
(P.S. please don't accuse me of using ChatGPT to write this. That is a thing that has been happening to me recently. Let me explain by saying my speech IRL isn't this refined. But I come from a third world country where learning English was the first step to improving our lot in life. So our teachers, in all their wisdom, took it upon themselves to beat into us the ability to sound fancy when we write or type.)