Pronouns???

[MilkieTea]

How about we imagine them, with a wider height slider, some masculine face options…and the better posture…

major drool.

i find that they already look pretty masculine as is but as seen by my history on these forums, i’m never opposed to *more* options. though i do prefer their shorter but still tall options - they’re a perfect middle ground between miqo and elezen in terms of height.

[Lunalepsy]

So this was something I've been thinking about for a while but...how easy would it be to just be able to pick our pronouns at character creation? You could pick your sex to whatever and that'd be the physical aspect of it but pronoun choice would just differ the text.

The idea came to mind after a trans friend struggled to make a character they could be happy with. They went with a lady Lala but they didn't get past the cut scene before they were annoyed with being called a "lass".

I know it's not something people are asking for and I know there's going to be rude naysayers who will say it's not important, that you shouldn't let pronouns get in your way of gaming, but it seems like it'd be an easy thing to implement. A lot of games are going that way so why not???

I wish people would read about the importance of pronouns in Language rather than use pronouns as an agenda to silence others and make them feel uncomfortable because they disagree with your viewpoints.

[Aniise]

i find that they already look pretty masculine as is but as seen by my history on these forums, i’m never opposed to *more* options. Though i do prefer their shorter but still tall options - they’re a perfect middle ground between miqo and elezen in terms of height.

Yep, I also like that they are on the shorter side. Their height is perfect for my taste, though I understand that others wished for them to be taller and more masculine.
In general, more options to customize the characters would be awesome. At least, in my opinion, it would be better to invest dev time into this topic than adding the choice of pronouns to the game. But that's just me :/

[MilkieTea]

Yep, I also like that they are on the shorter side. Their height is perfect for my taste, though I understand that others wished for them to be taller and more masculine.
In general, more options to customize the characters would be awesome. At least, in my opinion, it would be better to invest dev time into this topic than adding the choice of pronouns to the game. But that's just me :/

imho a he/she toggle in character customization *is* another option to customize characters.

separate it from trans rights and what have you - sometimes cis straight dudes want to play girls (i dont wanna stare at a guys butt the whole time type of deal) but dont want to be flirted with by thancred, or referred to as “lass”.

on the flip side, what if i wanted to play a guy, because i am one, but wanted them to refer to me as a girl if i picked the more feminine male options, as an opportunity for personal roleplay.

a he/she toggle would allow for these instances (of which there are plenty, i know anecdotes dont speak for *much* but they do mean something)

its a personal option that doesnt affect others gameplay beyond having to *look* at the pronoun selection. it could even default to she/her pronouns if you pick a female character and he/him pronouns if you pick a male character. this way people who dont want to interact with this option dont have to.

this isnt evwn likely to happen but allowing the opportunity fir people to express their wants for things isnt harmful.

[Aniise]

imho a he/she toggle in character customization *is* another option to customize characters.

True, that alone would not be so hard to implement. I agree with that. But there are as many pronouns as there are genders right now. Just adding "they" for example would be a lot of work I think, and kinda complicated in the other languages?

I'm German for example (so forgive me if I'm sometimes not so good at expressing my thoughts in english, lol) and had to google the german gender neutral pronoun right now which is "xier" or "hen" something I guess? And I've never heard of it before, so I'm not even sure if thats genuine or not. But I don't think those are officially accepted pronouns yet.

The german word for "they" plural in german is called "sie" (plural), which also can mean "she" ("sie" singular). So if you wanna take the german "they" and make it into a singular pronoun, it would be the same word as the feminine pronoun "sie"(he/she/they -> er/sie/sie). So yeah, thats where the complications start already. xD

[MilkieTea]

True, that alone would not be so hard to implement. I agree with that. But there are as many pronouns as there are genders right now. Just adding "they" for example would be a lot of work I think, and kinda complicated in the other languages?

I'm German for example (so forgive me if I'm sometimes not so good at expressing my thoughts in english, lol) and had to google the german gender neutral pronoun right now which is "xier" or "hen" something I guess? And I've never heard of it before, so I'm not even sure if thats genuine or not. But I don't think those are officially accepted pronouns yet.

The german word for "they" plural in german is called "sie" (plural), which also can mean "she" ("sie" singular). So if you wanna take the german "they" and make it into a singular pronoun, it would be the same word as the feminine pronoun "sie"(he/she/they -> er/sie/sie). So yeah, thats where the complications start already. xD

Oh no yeah. I’ve not been talking about adding any more pronouns myself, just about a he/she toggle.

Would it be great if they did? Absolutely, but I do understand the sheer amount kf work involved in that, and that it would be catering to a minority of a minority that has been generally okay with just the male/female pronouns thus far. There are language concerns to think about too, and not ever language uses/is built for genderless singular pronouns.

I have a question though - are sentences structured differently in german in regards to singular they vs she? I know sie is both, but would the sentence “She drinks water.” “They drink water” be worded differently in german assuming the “They” is singular rather than plural?

[Velvet_Lunarfang]

No just no I am tired of hearing about it in real life. I play this game to escape this f'ed up reality lol

[Aniise]

I have a question though - are sentences structured differently in german in regards to singular they vs she? I know sie is both, but would the sentence “She drinks water.” “They drink water” be worded differently in german assuming the “They” is singular rather than plural?

The structure would mostly be the same.

Present tense:
She drinks water. -> Sie trinkt Wasser.
They drink water. -> Sie trinken Wasser.

Simple past
She drank water. -> Sie trank Wasser.
They drank water. - > Sie tranken Wasser.

Future
She will drink water. - > Sie wird Wasser trinken.
They will Drink water -> Sie werden Wasser trinken.

In this case it's just the verb that changes depending on the pronoun.

[MilkieTea]

The structure would mostly be the same.

Present tense:
She drinks water. -> Sie trinkt Wasser.
They drink water. -> Sie trinken Wasser.

Simple past
She drank water. -> Sie trank Wasser.
They drank water. - > Sie tranken Wasser.

Future
She will drink water. - > Sie wird Wasser trinken.
They will Drink water -> Sie werden Wasser trinken.

In this case it's just the verb that changes depending on the pronoun.

So it would be generally the same amount of work to implement in both english and german. That is… quite a bit of work.

[Aniise]

(Cant edit because on Phone.)

To add to that, Sie is also the nicer Form for "you", like a determiner.
You use either "du" or "Sie" if you talk to someone. Sie is for people you dont know so well, it's a bit more polite. In that case you would also use the Same sentence structure you would use for the Plural "they" sie.

Would you like to drink water? -> Möchten Sie Wasser trinken?
Would they (plural) like to drink water? -> Möchten sie Wasser trinken?

Only difference is that the singular "Sie" is capitalized.

Just something I wanted to add really quickly xD