diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index c870dfbdb7..69e38e91d9 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -43,6 +43,9 @@
 
 !docs/images/*
 
+#the following files should never be changed
+(2) Vox Populi/Mapscripts/EMP
+
 #ignore output from Visual Studio, ModBuddy, and Inno
 .vs/
 BuildOutput/