Pronouns???

[Haru304]

There, dev resources are not wasted. Now why are you against other players being referred to by their preferred pronoun in game?

It would in-fact, contrary to my opinion yesterday as I didn't touch on the technical aspects, be incredibly easy if the inclusion in this scenario was simply a matter of performing a switcheroo for he and she pronouns. That's not what a lot of people want, however. People want gender-neutral pronouns (which IMO to an extent violate my personal understanding of grammar in various scenarios and are confusing) and people want gender-neo pronouns. Would it not be wrong to leave those out? It wouldn't just require swapping some words out. It'll require restructuring entire sentences, to tailor to people's individual experiences of the story. Now, as you've pointed out, that's a pretty big technical issue to tackle.

In my personal experience of the game, people playing non-binary, gender non conforming, trans, etc characters have simply had their character model reflect that (and of course everyone has a different idea of masculine and feminine to an extent, I mean look at the thread OPs friend who could only get a lalafel to represent 'their' idea of what was and wasn't gender representative to them). It's not a hard thing to conceptualize in this type of universe. I find it odd that people jump to the 'pixies' of all things to shout 'this exists, this exists!', etc, you don't need to point out a mythical creature in a fantasy setting to justify the pronouns your character uses or your character's gender identity.

Something you said earlier was in regards to 'finding characters relatable', etc 'this is what this type of game is for', etc. Why does your character need to be perfectly representative of you in order for it to be relatable? I find myself asking this more and more as of late. I play this type of game to indulge in another character's story or experiences, and certain aspects of those may or may not be relatable, but that doesn't mean the character itself has to be one hundred percent representative of me. I don't have to be black, for example, to sympathize and feel a relation to the struggles of a black character, and likewise with gender. What's with this mentality that you can ONLY relate to people if they ARE you? It seems odd to me, as someone who doesn't particularly like being bound to labels and stereotypes.

Last but not least, I think this generally comes down to the player. Ultimately, you're in control of who and what your character is, as a creator, and no amount of in-game text can take that away from you.

[Lanadra]

Something you said earlier was in regards to 'finding characters relatable', etc 'this is what this type of game is for', etc. Why does your character need to be perfectly representative of you in order for it to be relatable? I find myself asking this more and more as of late. I play this type of game to indulge in another character's story or experiences, and certain aspects of those may or may not be relatable, but that doesn't mean the character itself has to be one hundred percent representative of me. I don't have to be black, for example, to sympathize and feel a relation to the struggles of a black character, and likewise with gender. What's with this mentality that you can ONLY relate to people if they ARE you? It seems odd to me, as someone who doesn't particularly like being bound to labels and stereotypes.

Completely agreed. Like, I'm a straight white male irl, as generic and cookie cutter as it gets. Yet I play a female Au Ra in this videogame and have no issues relating to her story and struggles. Because I accept that she does not represent me, my Au Ra, Alessia, is not me. She does not need to conform to what I am, nor do I subscribe to the idea of 'i am a straight white male irl, so my character has to be the same'.

I will for context and clarity quote my earlier post on this specific view:

Ultimately my view is this: You play a character in this setting, of a race and gender that abides by the rules of the setting. Disconnect from the character. Acknowledge that the character is not you and is not meant to represent who you are in real life. It is most definitely what I'd advise your friend to try to do. Now, in player interaction, that's an entirely different matter, you can request friends/acquaintances and if you wish attempt to ask even strangers to respect preferred pronouns. Obviously in interactions with other people it does matter more.