Non-binary option for characters, please?

[kamenkuro]

I’ll assume you aren’t part of such a group as I am, so it’s predictable that you’d find it “highly unnecessary” if that’s the case. I’m a paying customer, so I have just as much right as you and the next player to voice my wishes and preferences for the game. If more people like me raise their voices to it, they would indeed gain something substantial from it. Our support and loyalty. I’d recommend this game to everyone if they had an option like I and others want for, so while it could take some work, it wouldn’t be fruitless.

Just because you are a customer does not mean that you are entitled to features. I agree you have the right to ask for things but you have to consider the company, the people working on it, and the bottom line. This idea does not affect me. In fact it won't affect most players. That's the thing. The company does not care about such a small group. The people working on the game would have more work on their plate than they need. The cost of having people work on it would not be worth it. What you're proposing isn't as simple as adding RP tags to houses. That's just a UI feature in a small part of the game. What you're proposing is that they go the through the entirety of the game and make sure that every single instance of text referring to gender is in line with a personal belief held by a small negligible amount of people. What you're offering them in exchange for all their hard work isn't money. Which is what you're already giving them. You and yours are already playing and paying for the game without this feature. This feature isn't what you came for. If this was being proposed back when the game was still being worked on this may have worked since there wouldn't be as much work. However since we are currently 3 expansions in that's a tall order with no payoff. The only real feasible compromise is that they release this in a new expansion and only dialogue made afterwards has this option.

[Niceville]

I'd rather they devote the time towards fixing Eureka.

[Awful]

I could care less if they refer to me as a he, a she, or a potato.

[Soupa]

If people don't wanna conform that's fine and all just play as a character that doesn't. I don't really think we need an option for it, if the dialogue bothers you just skip it. Seems like a waste to allocate resources to something like this rather then actual content. I really don't feel like there's enough people to really warrant it either. Sorry fam.

[SenorPatty]

The only way I can see this work is if SE cares enough and finds the spent money to do this minimal enough to go back up to five years of quest, replace every single pronoun with "WoL" as it is the fastest way to get it done and dialogue doesn't need restructuring with "they" and then slap a "WoL" tag option in the language settings that when highlighted says "you will now be referred to as WoL at all times."

For once, this an option I can't get behind, not because it's a lot of work but because I don't see the overwhelming demand for it that would warrant the work for it.

[Deceptus]

I can already anticipate how “controversial” and “SJW” this post will be received by some as (God, when society in about 100 years from now looks back on this and how the word “SJW” is used as a slur for people who ask for more options of self expression, they’ll facepalm so hard.), but as a non-binary tax and sub-paying adult human, would there be any way you could (Square, that is) implement a gender neutral option, maybe if not on the character creation screen, then tucked away in the settings somewhere? (To avoid offending many of those who cry at the sight of *gasp* more than 2 genders!)

I look forward to the original remarks about Attack Helicopters and god knows what else being used as an argument against more options, but to the MANY gender-nonconforming players of this game (I’m sure you’ve all seen how many LGBT* FC’s there are), even just having one catch-all option outside of the gender binary would be so wonderful. I spend an ungodly amount of money on Fantasia due to being pretty fed up of being referred to as male or female constantly in basically every cutscene. (I probably shouldn’t have said that, you’re making a killing off me Square, I’ve probably funded all the expantions at this rate) What do you all think? Dangerous question to ask online, especially here, but I’ll risk it.

Non-binary makes up <1% of the total population. You're asking a team to spend money and time to put content toward that.

[Hestzhyen]

Hard to "just ignore it" when it's in your face all the time... and yes, those who have never questioned and don't care will not notice the pronouns. For people who are in flux or who are non-conforming, it's as noticeable as someone poking you in the eye every time it happens.

My character is male, he is who he is, a separate entity from myself. But if I tried to recreate someone exactly like myself in the game I'd be in OP's position where I didn't really fit since characters would always, always, always use he/she. I'm sympathetic in general to the desire to see more than gendered pronouns for this reason. If there was a neutral option I would definitely use it! However...

Personally I don't think XIV is the place to add this stuff in. It's a game made with clear binary divisions in mind (just look at all the restricted glamours, fashions, and even hairstyles) and it wouldn't be a net benefit to the game to retrofit even something as simple as dialogue options. As many other people have said the systems behind selecting the pronoun to use are more complicated than they might seem at first glance. I'd rather see QoL upgrades to other systems like glamour, Eureka, gearing, and more.

More options are always better. But XIV is what it is at this point in terms of gender representation and I wouldn't want to change it just to make me and OP happy. That's something they can consider for a different game, if they so choose. Honestly though, even Western games haven't really come around to the concept and they're much more "ahead of the curve" so to speak than Eastern devs for this kind of representation. Just make a character you like to look at and don't try to recreate yourself to a T. It's just not possible and asking dev resources to make it work for our tiny minority is unreasonable.

[Rymm]

Let me preface this by admitting that this would not apply to me, so I'm totally neutral about it; I probably wouldn't even notice if they added it and I have no reason to be against it.

However, I wouldn't get your hopes up about this happening, ever. It's not even the lack of gender-neutral words in some languages or the work involved in going back over the thousands of lines of dialog to change it. It's the cutscenes that are the biggest hurdle. SE switched voice actors between ARR and HW so it would not be as simple as recording one new word for each of them and editing it in where appropriate. It would mean re-recording every single spoken line in the entirety of ARR content to ensure that the voices matched. There is simply no way in h*ll that SE is going to pay for for that to appease such a small minority of the playerbase.

It has nothing to do with being with LGBT or politically correct or trans/homophobic and everything to do with the almighty dollar.

[Vaelin]

Non-binary makes up <1% of the total population. You're asking a team to spend money and time to put content toward that.

Yes, money and time I also put into this game. Just bringing this conversation to their attention is good enough for me for now, since all minorities are treated with vitriol or ignorance until people speak up enough about it. It’s a big deal for people in my situation so bringing the discussion to their attention is all I can ask for, since as you said, I’m in the minority of players.

[Soupa]

Yes, money and time I also put into this game. Just bringing this conversation to their attention is good enough for me for now, since all minorities are treated with vitriol or ignorance until people speak up enough about it. It’s a big deal for people in my situation so bringing the discussion to their attention is all I can ask for, since as you said, I’m in the minority of players.

Bringing something to the table to discuss is not enough to further a cause, sure you'll get people's attention but doing bare minimum stuff like this serves to hurt it. Victimizing your community by saying things like they're treated with vitriol and ignorance makes the cause look weak. Not saying there aren't people out there who are abusive to those in the situation of non-conformity but theres good people out there too who, while it may not be their thing, won't care and accept you as is.