Pronouns?

[SturmChurro]

The OP is asking for a gender neutral pronoun. I don't even understand why trans are even a part of this conversation.

[Iscah]

ehhh, don't NPC's already mostly use terms like adventurer; hero of Ishgard; warrior of light/darkness ect when talking about the player character (especially in voiced cutscenes and the Tales of storries)? So that's already gender neutral language, simply because it means they only have to record one version of the cutscenes.

In voiced cutscenes to cut down on needing to record two versions of a line, yes. But sometimes they just can't help it or they'd tie the language into knots.

The rest of the time, they do use gendered wording a lot through the script.

I think a big conundrum with including a separate pronoun choice in games (not specifically FFXIV but with that kind of setup), even if the writers want to and are starting from scratch so they can build it in, is that it does multiply how many versions of scenarios they have to write out. A "third option" of using they is really more like a third-and-fourth option because dialogue will still differ between male-bodied and female-bodied characters. Give a free choice of he/she/they and you need to write - or at least consider - six variations of how the dialogue would play out. Certainly FFXIV's script would need places where people mistake your gender or ignore it or just aren't going to know.

Only allowing for the two distinct genders and no middle ground for confusion is just a lot simpler for storywriting purposes with a variable character, especially in a game like this with a complex script, because it has a lot more impact on dialogue than other character-design choices.

[Ammokkx]

alright I can't be the only one noticing the massive amount of post culling going on here

[Sathona]

I wouldnt call it minimal considering the amount of dialogues and voice acting that exists, it would take a lot of work, so i cant see it happening.
Plus its a lot eassier to work with he/him she/her.

Still not sure why people make transphobic comments but i guess twitter is leaking in here too lol

[spf1200]

The OP is asking for a gender neutral pronoun. I don't even understand why trans are even a part of this conversation.

Because this is the internet

[Tsumdere]

alright I can't be the only one noticing the massive amount of post culling going on here

That's because some of the posts were abhorrently malicious towards a simple, well-meaning question.

And to answer the OP, there isn't a way to set pronouns and there likely never will be because of the intricacies of a said option and the way the game is coded. Make full use of the character comments as most people in game won't have get in a tizzy over it.

[reiichi]

What makes you confident?

That "binary toggle" for setting male or female pronouns is the same one for setting whether the character is male or female. There isn't a separate record of what pronouns to use - and if you "open it up to players' choice" (or even add a single third option) then it stops being a binary toggle and becomes something that needs to hold more data than the simple binary on/off.

It's also just not how the script works.

It doesn't store "he/she" in some separate place and drop them into the script as required; pronouns are built into every single piece of script individually. It might be he/she, him/her, sir/madam, Master/Mistress [Forename] or it might be an entire sentence or paragraph that needs to change for a particular situation. It would be a huge undertaking to alter every single line of text to include a third option, and open choice wouldn't even be feasible.

Actually....the game scripts very much store a general script that uses a <gender placeholder>. The same way it does for <race placeholder> too. There's a fair amount of branching and text payloads that go on in the game's scripts and making additional changes isn't the massive task you may think it is.

While directly talking about datamined resources and where to find them is against the ToS, it's also only a quick internet search away and there is a whole third party plugin system that includes a pronoun preferences option. (Now injecting additional pronouns in would be a bit more...tricky, but not impossible.)

[Lihtleita]

While I doubt this will ever be added to xiv (the game is 10 year old spaghetti) it would be nice to see pronoun/body type/voice separated as is done in more modern rpgs like the demon souls remake or the saints row games for the next ffmmo. More customisation is always nice, even if most ppl will just play a default face catgirl dancer

[Iscah]

Actually....the game scripts very much store a general script that uses a <gender placeholder>. The same way it does for <race placeholder> too. There's a fair amount of branching and text payloads that go on in the game's scripts and making additional changes isn't the massive task you may think it is.

While directly talking about datamined resources and where to find them is against the ToS, it's also only a quick internet search away and there is a whole third party plugin system that includes a pronoun preferences option. (Now injecting additional pronouns in would be a bit more...tricky, but not impossible.)

From what I remember seeing of raw script, it's something along the lines of "if character is X, display text 'xxxxx'", and as I've been saying it's not just a matter of dropping in a single word in the right place bacuse there are so many different forms of gendered words or sentences.

It's not a matter of dropping in an external placeholder to determine whether Thancred tells you he's "quite taken with you" or simply "somewhat in awe". It's not placeholder text that determines how Magnai and Daidukul react to you. It's specific text at that place in the script which must check your character's gender and display the appropriate set of text boxes, but it's not just dropping pronouns alone into a generic script.

I can only imagine this "third party plug-in for custom preferences" had to do a lot of work to set up a custom system. It also presumably stores that information locally, and doesn't transmit it to other users, but if you want others to see your custom pronouns then that information has to be carried along with your character to every other person who sees you on their screen.

[Jin-]

Thread already getting censored? Yet RagingStallion roams free