What if: Starting with Dawntrail, everyone starts referring to the WoL as they/them?

[ClayyLmao]

How would you react to your WoL being referred to with gender-neutral pronouns?

She wouldn't enjoy being Misgendered. Gender neutral pronouns are not a Band-Aid to avoid offending people. They're an identity, just like any other. If you call a cis man or woman by gender neutal pronouns, you are misgendering him or her.

[Doragan]

Considering that it was done in Harvestella (a game on which XIV devs have worked on), I think the option for it would be pretty cool.

I wish we could have a pronoun/gender choice considering a few NPCs both in-game and in EE have it this way already.

Sure, adding a whole new pronoun to 13 years worth of text might take some time (even though your gender only appears, or even appears to be relevant in dialogue a handful of times only) but.. heh.
About whats already in the game right now, Male or Female is just a character setting byte or something. I hope the option to pick which one we want will be available in the future!

[TaleraRistain]

I think it would be difficult to go back and integrate it into past dialogue, or at least spoken dialogue. But maybe a happy medium would be an option for that going forward. I'd still want them to retain he/him and she/her for anyone where that applies to their WoL.

[Mosha]

The singular "they" dates back to Shakespeare. It is not just used for multiple people or plural people. Read a dictionary.

It's also very archaic, funnily enough us British people don't speak like Urianger on the daily. I also have a sneaking suspicion that it wasn't commonly used back then and more reserved for plays.

[Grizzlpaw]

I Wouldn't even notice if they changed it tbh.

[Halivel]

Don't most transgender fight to be recognized as a man or woman? Wouldn't force "they/them" on them go against that?

Trans guy reporting: different people experience their journey differently. There're plenty of those who prefer neutral pronounces as well as those who simply don't care much about them outside of being perceived as their gender visually. Also, non binary and agender is a thing, too. We aren't a hivemind.


Back to the topic: I honestly don't really see SE adding this, but the option would've been nice if they did decide to ever do it, so long as it's optional. For those who need it, it's a neat little thing that will make their day slightly better. For those who don't it's something they can simply ignore entirely. Probably won't be a thing ever, but could be a nice QoL in theory.

[CaptainLagbeard]

How about no?

[Araxes]

I do not want any of this IRL stuff in my FANTASY World. Thanks.

It is called a ROLEPLAYING Game for a reason. You play the Role of a character, That character is NOT YOU. If you think you are, then you might wanna stand up and look into a mirror.

[Immut]

She wouldn't enjoy being Misgendered. Gender neutral pronouns are not a Band-Aid to avoid offending people. They're an identity, just like any other. If you call a cis man or woman by gender neutal pronouns, you are misgendering him or her.

This is factually incorrect. The singular "they" has been in use for over six hundred years and is a catch-all for all genders and some objects. It is impossible to misgender someone with "they".

[Merrigan]

This is factually incorrect. The singular "they" has been in use for over six hundred years and is a catch-all for all genders and some objects. It is impossible to misgender someone with "they".

No, when the person is sure about their... "cisness", you're definitly being insulting if you keep using the pronoun "they". And, please, stop using the argument of seniority to justify the legitimacy of a word. There are quite a few words that are very old and have disappeared, quite rightly, because they were no longer valid (All the lexical field relating to ethnic groups, to pick the most obvious example). An element of language is consubstantial with its era; it certainly indicates a certain use of grammar, but it also carries ideological meaning. In this respect, you can't claim that forcing the "they" on someone is neutral today - and the very old use of this pronoun won't change anything here.