Pronouns???

[HollyJollyPaca]

A noble thought, and it seems like it would be easy, but likely it's not as the game is a decade of spaghetti code and all those limits.

The biggest issue will be language and not just the difference between Japanese and English regionalisation - but over the entire game including the database - where it's encoded likely as a binary. And when we are talking of this, please don't forget that all that data you carry gets transmitted to everyone. We are removing belts in 6.0 to give a few more rings, that's how tight it is.

And, in terms of language, how would you deal with わたし vs おれ if you only think in terms of English's He/She/Them and don't take into account the absolute jigsaw of Japanese pronouns that account for age, context, gender, social standing...?

Then bring French and to a lesser extent German into the picture, which are both gendered languages, and the grammar can become a dog's breakfast. You end up needing to say "Hi, my name is XXX, my pronouns are X/Y/Z, and they should follow the grammatical rules for masculine/feminine".

This is a really good point. Both coding wise and language wise seems to be an obstacle sadly. :C

[Shibi]

This is a really good point. Both coding wise and language wise seems to be an obstacle sadly. :C

It is an obstacle. I feel for our French Canadian friends, who see English's fairly gender neutral syntax, and even if they use the pronoun "iel" or "ille" (a mix of il and elle and maybe close to our non-binary they/them) Or even words like "ul", "ol", "ael" or "ele" or "on" and they find that most people don't know how to use it in a sentence.

https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/gender-n...tral-1.5259027

We are somewhat lucky in English to have the non-binary they/them as English adapts fairly well, but a lot of people still have difficulty with this in the singular, as most people grew up with it as a plural word so have a new mindset to form.

So a phrase like "This is Jean, they like to go to Costa del Sol with their boyfriend Frederik" vs "This is Jean, he likes to go to Costa del Sol with his boyfriend Frederik" works for many people, but will grate like fingernails on a blackboard for some - and not just because they are gormless attack helicopters, but as it's bending English in new ways.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

It is an obstacle. I feel for our French Canadian friends, who see English's fairly gender neutral syntax, and even if they use the pronoun "iel" or "ille" (a mix of il and elle and maybe close to our non-binary they/them) Or even words like "ul", "ol", "ael" or "ele" or "on" and they find that most people don't know how to use it in a sentence.

https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/gender-n...tral-1.5259027

We are somewhat lucky in English to have the non-binary they/them as English adapts fairly well, but a lot of people still have difficulty with this in the singular, as most people grew up with it as a plural word so have a new mindset to form.

So a phrase like "This is Jean, they like to go to Costa del Sol with their boyfriend Frederik" vs "This is Jean, he likes to go to Costa del Sol with his boyfriend Frederik" works for many people, but will grate like fingernails on a blackboard for some - and not just because they are gormless attack helicopters, but as it's bending English in new ways.

I think the latter part specifically is what causes a lot of issues for many of us not dealing with the question of pronouns in our personal life.

When taught in school that they are plural use, and having used them that way for 30 odd years, it is not easy for many to adjust.


I imagine that the younger generations will have less issues with that.

[TarynH]

When taught in school that they are plural use, and having used them that way for 30 odd years, it is not easy for many to adjust.

I still remember talking to a dispatcher once, trying to explain that one person committed a crime. And every time I said "they," the dispatcher would stop me and ask if it was more than one person. We went through this exercise four times. Me explaining it was one person, and saying "Then they took off down the street." And the dispatcher responding "They? Was it more than one person?"

[Iscah]

I still remember talking to a dispatcher once, trying to explain that one person committed a crime. And every time I said "they," the dispatcher would stop me and ask if it was more than one person. We went through this exercise four times. Me explaining it was one person, and saying "Then they took off down the street." And the dispatcher responding "They? Was it more than one person?"

Honestly that's being over-picky in any case. Someone can easily use "they" to refer to a single person they (as it were) didn't see very well or couldn't recognise the gender at a glance.

[TarynH]

Honestly that's being over-picky in any case. Someone can easily use "they" to refer to a single person they (as it were) didn't see very well or couldn't recognise the gender at a glance.

Oh, it was extremely over-picky, and was starting to annoy me during the call. lol It just goes to show that pronouns can be very confusing to some people. Expecting everyone to conform to using them/they immediately, shows lack of patience and understanding. That's not to say some people purposefully misgender others, but most of the time it's simple confusion with language, or teething issues.