Pronouns???

[Jin-]

Why they want to steal the meaning of they?

[Hysterior]

Why they want to steal the meaning of they?

they
/ðeɪ/
pronoun
pronoun: they

1 - used to refer to two or more people or things previously mentioned or easily identified.
"the two men could get life sentences if they are convicted"

people in general.
"the rest, as they say, is history"

people in authority regarded collectively.
"they cut my water off"

2 - used to refer to a person of unspecified gender.
"ask a friend if they could help"

used to refer to a person whose gender or sexual identity does not correspond to the traditional binary opposition of male and female.
"Asher thought they were the only non-binary person at school until a couple of weeks ago"


Definitions from Oxford Languages

[Fland]

No disrespect but if you Identify as a certain sex wouldn't it make sense to play as the sex you identify as?

I think it's more of a customization issue in OP's friend's case.
They've tried to choose the gender that they identified as but can't create the look of a character they like with that gender, so they went with the opposite. Which resulted in their character being referred to with pronoun that they're not identified with.

Since OP's friend ended up with fem lala, but don't want to be referred to as "lass", I assume they identified as male and initially want to create a male character but can't create a male character that they like. Although, I'm curious why didn't they just go with male lala since there's not much difference between male and female lala anyway.

[MilkieTea]

I think it's more of a customization issue in OP's friend's case.
They've tried to choose the gender that they identified as but can't create the look of a character they like with that gender, so they went with the opposite. Which resulted in their character being referred to with pronoun that they're not identified with.

Since OP's friend ended up with fem lala, but don't want to be referred to as "lass", I assume they identified as male and initially want to create a male character but can't create a male character that they like. Although, I'm curious why didn't they just go with male lala since there's not much difference between male and female lala anyway.

There’s a bit of a difference, namely in the eyes and hair choices. It’s enough for me to never play a male lala, ahah.

[Awha]

Oddly enough I have used they as singular since I was a child. So I personally have no issue with it though I will admit I do find it uncomfortable using other pronouns probably cause I am just not use to it. So I use they even if I know their pronoun if it does not conform to my boomer sensibilities.

[MilkieTea]

Oddly enough I have used they as singular since I was a child. So I personally have no issue with it though I will admit I do find it uncomfortable using other pronouns probably cause I am just not use to it. So I use they even if I know their pronoun if it does not conform to my boomer sensibilities.

That’s valid. Most people who use neopronouns aren’t expecting you to automatically know how to use it, when to use it etc etc.

The ones who do are those tumblrinas who just discovered them and want something to be mad about.

[HollowedDoll]

There’s a bit of a difference, namely in the eyes and hair choices. It’s enough for me to never play a male lala, ahah.

Male lalafell be like:

I have a very hard* time telling them apart tbh, especially when no voice acting is involved.

*in cases when they look like this.

[MilkieTea]

Male lalafell be like:

I have a very hard* time telling them apart tbh, especially when no voice acting is involved.

*in cases when they look like this.

See, I can tell when there’s a male or female lala just because of the eyelashes and depending on what face they chose, the mouth.

[Iscah]

For NPCs at least, you can also generally recognise Lalafells' genders by their names. Ejika Tsunjika is very definitely a male Plainsfolk name with the two-part rhyming structure; female names are always three-syllable repetitive though the pattern varies by clan (Tataru, Nanamo, Kururu); male Dunesfolk are four-syllable (Papalymo, Gegeruju) but N counts as a syllable (Papashan).

[Fyrebrand]

I guess it depends on how they programmed the dialogue to work. It could be as simple as just referencing a variable, which determines whether you get the "he" dialogue or the "she" dialogue. If that's the case, then they could just add on a "gender pronoun" selection, and have that choice determine the variable's value instead.

I can't see them integrating a "they" pronoun though. Then they really would need to go in and change a bunch of dialogue, including many voiced lines. Perhaps in the next Final Fantasy MMO, they will consider this? It's not a big deal if you plan it from the beginning, but going back and trying to fix it after the fact is something else.