Non-binary option for characters, please?

[Theskymarble]

I could care less if it was an option but I wouldn't hate if it was. But I don't think it would matter to much in this game. I mean if it was something like a Bioware game with romance subplots or something then sure but its just an mmorpg. You can refer to yourself if you wish and be fine with it right? Besides this is a lot of effort as they would have to go back and include new dialogue in all the cutscenes. That is a lot of cutscenes to put work into something that at most would be a cool nod to your character. Something I rather have going into making the game more fun and fixing issues like someone earlier said in the thread Eureka.
Also I have to agree that you're coming off as a very special snowflake. This is the internet people will only really care about your gender if you bring it up and even then most people are cool with whatever here because we just wanna play the game. Not true for everyone but the majority probably doesn't care what you are unless you're something morally wrong.

[Warghoul570]

However someone chooses to identify themselves as if fine. I don’t care but it’s really getting tiring how people need to try and force their ideals on everyone else. This is a game for god sake. Do something better with your time like community service and try to make a real difference in the world

[OurMom]

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'm legitmately confused, according to trans people and "SJWs" gender and sex aren't the same thing and that you can "change your gender" but not your sex, so if the game is referring to you as male or female depending on your character, wouldn't it still be correct? Adding a "non gender" option wouldn't fix that because your sex is still there....right?

[Nariel]

I never heard of any scientific study to explain the non-binary feeling so I can't voice any "they should" or "they shouldn't" BUT we talk about a japanese compagny in japan, run by japanese.

As incredible and advanced their culture may seems its one of the less tolerant country in the world, they barely tolerate tourism and consider that kind of feeling as a mental disease so good luck with that.

[AmemeAmeklin]

I think it would be easy enough in each language to add this option. Japanese actually very rarely uses he/she/him/her; typically something like 'ano hito' (that person) is used, or a name is used (reason why third person for 'cutesy' talk is so common), or it is otherwise clear in context who is being referred to. As for MSQ dialogue, it is usually clear when the WoL is being discussed while they're right there in the room.

The problem is, I think, that they might have trouble with gender-locked gear, because you have to pick a body type to go with the gender...so unless this is a purely MSQ-cosmetic option, it would take a lot of time to implement.

As for the 'John and Mary are having an argument' example, you also run into this problem with 'John and Tim are having an argument. He wants you to take his side.' It's not just they/them as singular that causes confusion there, and as others have said it has been used as a singular pronoun for some time now.

[BillyKaplan]

As for the 'John and Mary are having an argument' example, you also run into this problem with 'John and Tim are having an argument. He wants you to take his side.' It's not just they/them as singular that causes confusion there

I'm gonna add to that - if you can't rephrase that sentence to work outside of that template, you probably shouldn't be writing for a living.

[AmemeAmeklin]

I'm gonna add to that - if you can't rephrase that sentence to work outside of that template, you probably shouldn't be writing for a living.

Haha I'm pretty sure it's bad English, too. You shouldn't use proforms without their antecedents/postcedents in a sentence like that, technically. So you'd have to do something like 'Bjorn and Saoirse are having an argument. Bjorn wants you to take their side.'

[Shallan]

This has to be a troll. Please tell me you're trolling.

[Daranion]

Snip

Japanese isn't gendered? What are you on about? They have a ton of different ways just to refer to oneself, let alone others. Wait just a second... World:Goblin?

[Gun-Cat]

Japanese isn't gendered? What are you on about? They have a ton of different ways just to refer to oneself, let alone others. Wait just a second... World:Goblin?

Japanese has, and uses very frequently, a lot of gender neutral terms. You are probably thinking of あたし、僕 and 俺 as terms to refere others or the different ways to call your siblings, but in the end Japanese is very gender neutral. You can actually see it in the tales of the storm, in the english version they included a "The WoL is Male/Female" option, something completely missing in the Japanese versions because it isn't needed seeing that the WoL is refered to as 英雄さん, Hero-san. Granted in the MSQ the WoL certainly is refered to as 彼 or 彼女, he or she at times.

All in all I think the whole debate is very unfair. This is a Japanese game and they simply don't have the same sensibilities as westeners in this regard because their language just doesn't work the same way English does. Demanding to be catered to from another culture in that way is perplexing to me.