I recently wrote for my first game, Defense Grid 2, by Hidden Path Entertainment.
When I turned in the script and got notes back about structure, there was one that stood out. “Make sure not to use gendered language to refer to the player. We want to make sure that everyone feels included.”
Let me just point that out again. We want to make sure everyone feels included.
You know how hard that was to accomplish? I had to swap out one word. One. Word.
But it reminded me to think about it with everything else I wrote for them. Mind you, I’m someone who usually does, but it was so easy to fall into the trap of repeating tropes that I’d heard and internalized. All I had to do… it was so simple. I just had to think about making sure that anyone could find themselves in the character.
We want to make sure everyone feels included.
It’s not hard.
. . . now I want to know the word . . .
“sir” to “Commander”
Before I came on the project, they’d decided to refer to the player as “commander” because it was gender neutral.
Had not thought of that (not a gamer).
I can see the benefit of one set of dialog independent of how a player might construct their character. Thanks.
You could have said, “But in Star Trek ‘sir’ is the proper response to both men and women who outrank you.”
But that’s assuming you didn’t care if you got fired.
Even if it weren’t for the gender stuff, I think “commander” is a better word than “sir” because it tells you something more about important about the character. There are those who like to think that gender neutral writing is automatically bad writing, but in the hands of a good author, it can actually be better writing and (as you pointed out) it’s not that hard to do.
I’m impressed with that stance. Bought their game, wrote them a letter telling them so.
Thanks for spotlighting this. 🙂
I love the Defense Grid games, and now I just love them a little bit more.
I’m impressed that they made inclusion a priority, and grateful to you for recognizing that we can internalize some attitudes about gender. Both of these things make me optimistic. The trolls will NOT win…
Bioware has done a good job with this approach as well. In their Mass Effect setting, the protagonist is known mostly as “Shepherd” or occasionally “Commander Shepherd.” In the Dragon Age franchise, they’ve used different gender-neutral names for the protagonist. “Warden,” “Hawke,” and in the soon-to-be-released next chapter, “Inquisitor.”
They also took the more-bold move of making all of the options for romance with the protagonist’s companions available no matter the protagonist’s gender. That opened up a variety of same-sex options, but also meant that protagonists of either gender had opposite-sex options for partners as well.
That’s not true bar one circumstance – the only time that’s true is if you have a plain, unenhanced Dragon Age 2. If you install the DLC with Sebastian, you gain a (platonic) romance that is only available to the female PC. But no other BioWare game (Mass Effect 1-3, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age: Inquisition) has an ‘equal’ balance of romance options.
And putting into context of Dragon Age 2, it seemed like an unintended benefit of just how ‘streamlined’ the game was.
I was mis-remembering the romances of DA: Origins with my comment, that installment featured two gender-neutral romance options and one each for male and female wardens. So “balanced” in number at least.
(And I must not have ever tried romancing Sebastian with a male Hawke in DA: 2.)
Still a nicely inclusive portion of their games.
Beautiful. I will have to look into this game. 🙂
Unexpected convergence… I played this game and I listen to writing excuses.
Did you mention the game on the podcast?
Great job on both.
I honestly can’t remember if I mentioned the game on the podcast.
Some people have finaly noticed that girls also belng in the tree- house club.
WOW
You write for my favourite Tower defence type game 🙂
I am looking forward to the DLC that it is in. Do you know when it will be released?