Non-binary option for characters, please?

[Penthea]

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 wondering what words you want used instead of "he" and "she". "They" could be used but because it's plural this may give misleading story information depending on the context of what is being said. Another option is "it" but that's actually a very demeaning way to refer to a person. SE could replace "he" and "she" with "Warrior of Light" but that would end up looking like very unnatural dialogue as it is rare for people to constantly refer to someone only by their name or title. This is already a difficult thing to tackle in english, and it may be even more difficult for other languages.

And I'm sorry to say but my impression is that you're a minority among a minority. I have met a lot of people from the LGBT community offline and online, and I have only seen people either have a preference as to what gender they want to be referred as, or they don't care. I have yet to meet someone who specifically only wants gender neutral terms when referring to them in any manner. There may be more who are bothered by this than I think, but I can only speak from personal experience.

I'm not trying to invalidate your personal struggles but my point is I don't see SE catering to such a tiny percentage of their player-base. It would actually be a lot of work to change the dialogue for all languages to have only gender neutral terms in a way that makes sense for both the language and the context of what is being said.

I fully support the option you want to have, I just think it's extremely unlikely to happen given the amount of work needed for it and the tiny amount of players who would use this feature.

[BillyKaplan]

There may be more who are bothered by this than I think, but I can only speak from personal experience.

Your experience is as valid as anyone's, but it is limited to, understandably, your own experience. I know several people who prefer the gender neutral form and I myself abhor my native tongue because it's gendered down to the last element, I can't escape it to save my life.

It would actually be a lot of work to change the dialogue for all languages

Only if their system is stupid (not unthinkable given past experience!). They already do it for he/she, it's basically adding another item or two to the list of genders your chara can be, and another entry or two in the text that flag translates into. As far as actual work on the developers' side is concerned, it's really not that big of a deal - again, assuming a certain level of system already in place.
Of course, as mentioned, difficulty may vary based on what language we're talking about. For English at least, it's not that bad.

[Penthea]

Only if their system is stupid (not unthinkable given past experience!). They already do it for he/she, it's basically adding another item or two to the list of genders your chara can be, and another entry or two in the text that flag translates into.

For English at least, it's not that bad.

That's because "he" and "she" are both singular that this works so well. "They" is plural and depending on what is being said that can change the meaning of the phrase. The story refers to both groups of people and individuals together in phrasing very frequently, and replacing a singular word with a plural could very easily convey the story in a misleading manner. Simply replacing "he" and "she" with "they" can be done but it would definitely not result in an equally well told story.

[BillyKaplan]

it would definitely not result in an equally well told story.

I can argue that in a world where we ride and fight alongside dragons, are the champions of the God Mothercrystals, where we summon and fight gods, adhering to the gender binary also does not make a very well told story. You yourself play a catgirl.

To clarify, I don't have numbers here how many people want this, and I'm rather certain that unless there's a huge outcry, the devs won't place this high on their priority list even if they do implement this. But we know that not everyone on the dev team works on the same things and they have pulled rabbits out of their hat as far as small yet meaningful QoLs go. I just disgree with the use of 'they' being so groundbreaking in storytelling. Did you know 'you' used to be plural-only as well? And look at where we are now.

[Penthea]

I can argue that in a world where we ride and fight alongside dragons, are the champions of the God Mothercrystals, where we summon and fight gods, adhering to the gender binary also does not make a very well told story. You yourself play a catgirl.

I'm not sure how highlighting that I play a catgirl means that having a gender binary is bad for the story. My personal choice in race has literally nothing to do with the game's story. I knew almost nothing about it when I created the character.

I agree that having loads of sentient races should surely increase the chances of some among them having a biologically or socially non-binary gender system applied to them. FF already has a history of doing this with the Qu and black mage races in FFIX. However it was awkward as hell to see Quina constantly referred to as he/she because no one talks like that. But the point is SE have done it before and could do it again. Whether they want to or not is another thing.

I suppose it could be argued that ascians are gender neutral but they are referred to as the gender of the body they inhabit.

But none of this changes the complexity of languages. "He" and "she" are interchangeable because their use is almost identical, but "they" is something different. If SE were to address op's issue I would prefer them to actually do a proper job of making the dialogue work around gender neutral terms instead of replacing one word for another and call it a day. But this might mean voice acted scenes may become muted for players using this feature...and that would suck a bit : /

I just disgree with the use of 'they' being so groundbreaking in storytelling. Did you know 'you' used to be plural-only as well? And look at where we are now.

"John and Mary are having an argument. He wants you to take his side."

"John and Mary are having an argument. They want you to take their side."

Already in this simple phrase we can see that replacing male words with gender neutral words changes the meaning. In the first it says one person wants the reader to take their side, and in the second it says both people want the reader to take their side. The WoL is sometimes referred to in the third person by npcs, so the changes the word "they" can bring to a phrase could certainly change how the story is being told.

[Iscah]

I agree that having loads of sentient races should surely increase the chances of some among them having a biologically or socially non-binary gender system applied to them.

It’s already happened actually - though not highlighted, it’s explained in the lore book that the sylphs (being plant-based) don’t really have male/female genders, although have their own ‘genders’ of “everblooming” (labeled ‘male’ by other races and referred to with those pronouns, but producing both seed and pollen, equivalent to being female and male together) and “lateblooming” (‘female’ but not really by scientific definition, can’t produce seeds).

And of course it shows up in their genderless-pronoun speaking patterns of “this one” and “that one”.

Additionally the two times we’ve seen sylphs take ‘human form’, they go opposite to their nominal genders - Noraxia briefly appears as a (very gender-neutral) male Hyur if you detour into the main hall of the Waking Sands at one point; and Silbexio from the beast tribe questline who appears as female.

[Fynlar]

Won't happen. When you're picking male/female in almost any video game you are picking sex, not gender. Your character also isn't you; it's called a role playing game for a reason, so dunno why your fictional character being referred to with he/she bothers you in particular. Do you get bothered when your RL friends go by he/she?

[Fredco191]

Eh.
4567890

[Shurrikhan]

I can argue that in a world where we ride and fight alongside dragons, are the champions of the God Mothercrystals, where we summon and fight gods, adhering to the gender binary also does not make a very well told story. You yourself play a catgirl.

To clarify, I don't have numbers here how many people want this, and I'm rather certain that unless there's a huge outcry, the devs won't place this high on their priority list even if they do implement this. But we know that not everyone on the dev team works on the same things and they have pulled rabbits out of their hat as far as small yet meaningful QoLs go. I just disgree with the use of 'they' being so groundbreaking in storytelling. Did you know 'you' used to be plural-only as well? And look at where we are now.

While it's true that the court T-V blend (use of the plural for figures of authority, just as a monarch would be more likely to answer with "we" rather than "I" in explaining his or her verdict in the same era) has occurred twice in English, it's worth noting that that clear-cut situational use never caused any wide-spread ambiguity. In transition, it modeled perfectly use of "sie" in German. And after the transition, our indexes lost only the equivalent of "du", "vous", or "tú" forms, not any distinct plural.

I also don't see what any of those fantasy elements would have to do with adhering to or exiting social binaries. Until such a binary is an actual story conflict, such that a wizard cannot embrace magic until having blended the apparently female and male halves of its source, or realizing that they're actually the same thing, the two are absolutely irrelevant to each other. No matter how real or fantastic the setting is, unless social binaries are a part, one is not relevant to the other.

And while I certainly wouldn't mind the addition of a third gender option for our simple class flags, unless such a conflict organically fits the story... I don't want it. I have enough issues just with "It's Allagans. It's always Allagans," and "Sinister figures behind literally everything. People can't be 'evil' for normal reasons. Old Gods/Zodiark." I certainly don't need a "Cus n+2 genders" plot-twist forced in there.

On the other hand, give me a race in the Sharlayan Mystlands were believes literally bend reality, changing beastmen between various forms and abilities and, naturally, genders, and I'd probably love the hell of it just because that actually would be consistent: the point there would be how pervasive, how deep, how unlimited, that concept goes. But that wouldn't have anything to do with aiding gender or genderless immersion; it'd have to do with the story of those people in particular.

[Kuzulo]

You can already select the gender of the character.