Board Game Arena

Following on from Change in-game pronouns from his to his/her or their or use the player's gender, could these improvements be extended to use they/their instead of he/his where a player’s gender is unknown? As a native English speaker, this is the formulation of words that I’d expect.

When playing with female friends new to the site, it’s a bit weird and jarring to see them referred to as “he”, and it has provoked a few tired sighs and eye-rolls from those female players.

I agree!!

If you don't set your gender then you can't really get upset if a computer misgenders you.

Giordano Bruno 1974 wrote: ↑24 August 2020, 12:29 If you don't set your gender then you can't really get upset if a computer misgenders you.

Who would want to have to wade through the settings when they just want to get playing straight away?

mavit wrote: ↑16 September 2020, 13:14

Giordano Bruno 1974 wrote: ↑24 August 2020, 12:29 If you don't set your gender then you can't really get upset if a computer misgenders you.

Who would want to have to wade through the settings when they just want to get playing straight away?

Me.

The responses above would equally serve to explain why the default choice was "her/hers" for everyone unless specified otherwise. Would you be comfortable making that change, and if not, why not?

I just want to make sure everyone here is aware that board gaming is a hobby where MANY women have had a lifetime of unwelcoming experiences already.

In that climate, a site assuming you are male unless you say otherwise is not "just a bug". It's not innocuous. It communicates a message of indifference to whether women here feel welcome.

I realize that defaulting to "them/their" may require additional work since these pronouns are plural instead of singular. However, there is a lot of value in offering that as a choice anyway, because some women have found that it doesn't always go well to reveal their gender in male-dominated spaces on the internet, and have good reasons to prefer not to. So that work would have multiple benefits.

I hope you'll consider this point of view.

I can't see why we can't have "his / her" as default to be substituted with "his" or "her" if the player has set their gender.

It's not ungrammatical, it doesn't misgender anyone but allows people to have the correct possessive adjective if they want.

Oh, the discussion above did not look to me like it was about choosing between "their" and "his/her". It seemed to be saying that "his" is being used by default.

The games I play "their" is used by default.

"his/her" was the most common at first. Some devs use "their" as default.
Some translators changed "his/her" to "his" due to the 'automatic change' mechanic linked in the opening post.

It varies.