Transphobes are doxxing Stardew Valley fans after they asked the game developer for pronouns
Transphobes are doxxing Stardew Valley fans after they asked the game developer for pronouns
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On the request itself: based on extracted XNB files, I think that the game currently handles the MC gender in a really, really simple way: pick one text string if the character is male, else pick another string. Adding pronouns sounds like a deceptively large amount of work, and odds are that it would require at least some rework on how the game interprets text strings, in a way that might even affect languages where this is not an issue (like Turkish and Hungarian).
So if I were in CA's shoes, I'd probably compromise by letting the player pick a non-binary character, and use "they" for that character; that would affect mostly English, perhaps Mandarin*.
On the doxxing and harassment: do I need to say that this is fucking awful for those people???
On CA's silence: CA is notably silent and non-combative even on things that affect him directly; such as when the Android players were harassing him because of the delayed 1.5 version. Don't get me wrong, I do think that he should publicly condemn the current events (it's the morally right thing to do), but this might take a while.
*among the languages supported by the game, I believe that this is mostly an issue only in Mandarin and English - because neither has grammatical gender, but both have gendered pronouns "hot-wiring" to the social gender. This is certainly not an issue in Hungarian or Turkish (no grammatical gender + gender-agnostic pronouns), and odds are that it isn't a big deal in Japanese (where people generally drop the pronoun).
I am not sure on what I'm going to say, but I feel like in the Romance languages and Russian, due to the existence of grammatical gender, there's an "intuitive" understanding that the word forms that you use do not need to match your gender identity, both are separated things. I'm saying this because both non-binary Portuguese speakers whom I know simply... well, they use the feminine and done? So it's probably not a big issue. I'd like input from non-binary speakers of those languages though; since I'm not non-binary myself it's possible that my view is incorrect. Also, if pronouns are added to the game, I'm interested on how it would handle gender agreement.
As far as I know (not kuch actually) there are some tries to slightly reform German (DoktorInnen and alike), and maybe even Spanish where in a group with mixed males& females you'd target them with male pronoun and seemingly that makes some people sad.
It's indeed not an issue with Hungarian, although I've seen a party invitation online that decided that it needs to be inclusive, so the spoken language should be English, and THEN they complained about pronouns. Weird.
That German "capital I" is close to what I'm asking about, but not quite - I'm focusing on agreement, when the form of a word (typically an adjective) is dictated by either grammatical gender of another word or social gender. Specially when dealing with a single individual.
This might be easier to show with an example. From the PT dialogue files:
- [Abigail, if the player is male] "Você não se sente sozinho na fazenda?"
- [Abigail, if the player is female] "Você não se sente sozinha na fazenda?"
- [Translation, for both] "Don't you feel lonely in the farm?"
Note how the form of the word changes from "sozinho" to "sozinha". Other Romance languages and Russian are the same deal in this; German too, with some caveats (if it's a predicative you use the base form).
In this situation, and casual conversation, what do non-binary people feel comfortable using? The two whom I know simply use -a, but that's a sample size of two and heavily biased (both speak the same dialect of the same language in the same city).
I'm asking this in this context because:
- The game addresses the MC directly, as an individual. As such, groups aren't a concern here.
- For nouns (like Doktor/Doktorin/DoktorIn), it's somewhat easy to plop a new string with the gender-neutral version. Agreement however is dynamic.
- At least from what I have seen (remember: small and biased sample), those written conventions like -x* or -@ are mostly only used when the person is trying to bring this topic up, nor on everyday language. And only when writing (while SV's dialogues are supposed to represent speech).
*the other user there did mention -x, but if I had to take a guess it's just some Anglo trying to pull out a "chrust me". I'm saying this based on their example - "Latinx" with a capital L (an English spelling convention) and using an adjective that is 90% of the time used by Anglos to lump "all those Latin Americans" together regardless of their local identities. (It sounds as silly as some Brit or Surinamese identifying oneself "as a Germanic", you know?)
[Sorry for the long reply. Also, thank you for your input! :D]
Thanks, I learned a lot :)
So it's probably not a big issue. I'd like input from non-binary speakers of those languages though; since I'm not non-binary myself it's possible that my view is incorrect.
I'm only a native Romance language speaker (Spanish) who is both an ally and an amateur wordsmith.
Due to this, I'll not pretend to go into any depth of why you're wrong per the zeitgeist of Spanish youth today, but will instead give you the more or less settled informal solution (The RAE isn't likely to add it officially):
Latinx.
I’m only a native Romance language speaker (Spanish) who is both an ally...
Full stop here. I'm asking them, not you.
Even if you wear their shirt you can't wear their skin, I'm asking about this shit for people who feel it in the skin, you're being patronising and erasing their voice for the sake of your "GIMME GOOD BOY POINTS! I'M AN ALLY, SEE?" slacktivism.
Yes. You have successfully read my mind. This is entirely in line with me as a person and how I have presented myself online.
I hope you're proud of yourself for your insight, it was my pleasure to be your Judas this morning.
I see why you need to ask on here instead of outside in your community.
Edit: Forgot to add, no need to engage further. Consider me silenced, enjoy your discourse.