I will say I kind of get annoyed at this. Not really on principle because I am all for inclusivity but on some games it’s legitimately hard to tell which one I’m picking and I don’t personally want my character to be trans (male voice, female body) in most games. In Avowed the character selection screen has your character in clothing that kind of obscures the body shape and I was like “are there boobs on this one? I can’t actually tell.” I’m apparently bad enough at this where I usually have to use the clothing off button if there is one to conclusively tell the difference. Helldivers 2’s “Brawny” and “Lean” are pretty good but those characters are in heavy armor and either one could plausibly be either biological sex. Baldurs Gate 3 uses the terms “masc” and “femme” which is less confusing but that game also lets you do any combo of muscles, voice, titties, and genetalia you want, which kind of eliminates the whole confusion in the first place since it’s all customizable. I totally get not wanting to label things but I am dumb and just want to know what I’m picking.
If you can’t tell does it really matter if you accidentally use voice 1 with body type 2? (I don’t really see why it would but I realize that my experience is likely quite different)
As an enby I personally do prefer the body type being labelled by a number or letter rather than a gender when I try to make a character I can identify with. My favourite is to have a body with sliders for body shape options but that isn’t viable for a lot of games and does make it difficult to make good looking characters.
Also in Baldur’s Gate 3 the body types are labeled 1 and 2 (+3 and 4 for those with strong/not strong variants) It’s only the disguise menu (and I believe the game files) that call it masc/femme.
Well like I don’t want to get surprised if in the game I take my armor or clothes off and there are boobs there, especially in games where there’s not an option to change later
Like pretty much any game made before like 2020? It is only pretty recently that any games added the option to change that, and some games still don’t have the option.
My issue is that bodies are much more diverse than “male/female”. The most common form of sex confirmation surgery (IIRC) is cis men having breast tissue removed. (Assuming clothing isn’t baggy and hiding them) if you can’t tell the difference then there isn’t a big enough difference for you to care, and both of them cover some of both birth gender’s typical body forms.
Basically, male/female isn’t accurate and can be an issue with some players. A/B isn’t helpful but at least isn’t problematic.
Oh yeah, you have a good point. For example, unlike games like bg3 and cyberpunk (to some extent), some games use “body type” but your character is still recognized as either male or female depending on which you choose, so there’s no point in NOT using “male or female”.
My annoyance with the Oblivion remaster is more that, from what I’ve read, this “body type A/B” change does not make a material difference inside the game, as NPCs still refer to your character as male/female. As a trans person my opinion is, either meaningfully rework how gender is handled in the game or just leave it alone, players know what to expect when playing an older game. This UI-level change actually just muddles player expectations.
I will say I kind of get annoyed at this. Not really on principle because I am all for inclusivity but on some games it’s legitimately hard to tell which one I’m picking and I don’t personally want my character to be trans (male voice, female body) in most games. In Avowed the character selection screen has your character in clothing that kind of obscures the body shape and I was like “are there boobs on this one? I can’t actually tell.” I’m apparently bad enough at this where I usually have to use the clothing off button if there is one to conclusively tell the difference. Helldivers 2’s “Brawny” and “Lean” are pretty good but those characters are in heavy armor and either one could plausibly be either biological sex. Baldurs Gate 3 uses the terms “masc” and “femme” which is less confusing but that game also lets you do any combo of muscles, voice, titties, and genetalia you want, which kind of eliminates the whole confusion in the first place since it’s all customizable. I totally get not wanting to label things but I am dumb and just want to know what I’m picking.
If you can’t tell does it really matter if you accidentally use voice 1 with body type 2? (I don’t really see why it would but I realize that my experience is likely quite different)
As an enby I personally do prefer the body type being labelled by a number or letter rather than a gender when I try to make a character I can identify with. My favourite is to have a body with sliders for body shape options but that isn’t viable for a lot of games and does make it difficult to make good looking characters.
Also in Baldur’s Gate 3 the body types are labeled 1 and 2 (+3 and 4 for those with strong/not strong variants) It’s only the disguise menu (and I believe the game files) that call it masc/femme.
Well like I don’t want to get surprised if in the game I take my armor or clothes off and there are boobs there, especially in games where there’s not an option to change later
I’ve never actually played a game that didn’t have the option. I suppose that’s fair then.
Like pretty much any game made before like 2020? It is only pretty recently that any games added the option to change that, and some games still don’t have the option.
My issue is that bodies are much more diverse than “male/female”. The most common form of sex confirmation surgery (IIRC) is cis men having breast tissue removed. (Assuming clothing isn’t baggy and hiding them) if you can’t tell the difference then there isn’t a big enough difference for you to care, and both of them cover some of both birth gender’s typical body forms.
Basically, male/female isn’t accurate and can be an issue with some players. A/B isn’t helpful but at least isn’t problematic.
Oh yeah, you have a good point. For example, unlike games like bg3 and cyberpunk (to some extent), some games use “body type” but your character is still recognized as either male or female depending on which you choose, so there’s no point in NOT using “male or female”.
My annoyance with the Oblivion remaster is more that, from what I’ve read, this “body type A/B” change does not make a material difference inside the game, as NPCs still refer to your character as male/female. As a trans person my opinion is, either meaningfully rework how gender is handled in the game or just leave it alone, players know what to expect when playing an older game. This UI-level change actually just muddles player expectations.
That’s just lazy tbh. Kind of the worst of both worlds.