When I was a kid, the characters in games were almost always male. In the first two Pokemon games Red and Blue, you could only play as a guy. Pokémon Crystal in generation 2 is the first one where you could choose to play as either a girl or a boy.

At the time (early 2000s), these two options were something that was praised as being inclusive, but today is seen by many as restrictive and a bit outdated.(Perhaps because it reminds us that we humans are a two sexed species?)

Another thing from the past that differs from games today is that gender was the first choice you made when creating your character. Today it's either something that's never explicitly mentioned or something you choose at the end in terms of what pronouns your character should have.

Some examples:

Animal Crossing New Horizons

Animal Crossing is a game series where you move to a new town full of anthropomorphic animals to befriend. You can fish, collect bugs, decorate your home, get to know the residents and more.

When you create your character in the Japanese, Chinese, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Russian and Dutch version of the game, you choose either “girl” or “boy”. This choice only determines whether the characters in the game will refer to you as he or she, and has no influence whatsoever on what hairstyle or clothing you can choose for your character.

In the "international"/English version of the game, you instead choose: "style" (a concept that has become more and more common in Nintendo's English game versions) with only two smple illustrations with no text to guide you. A short-haired person and one with a ponytail. In actual gameplay the choice means nothing because regardless of what you choose for "style", you can dress your character exactly as you want. The difference from other version of the game is that characters in the game will always refer to you with "they/them" pronouns regardless of your “style” choice. The game received praise from most gaming media for its inclusive spirit.

Hogwarts Legacy

Hogwarts Legacy is a game based on the Harry Potter books, written by JK Rowling. In the game, you start as a student at Hogwarts School of Wizardry in 1800s England to learn all about wizardry. That is, over a hundred years before Harry Potter's story began.

When you create your character, you are faced with a bunch of different characters to start from. Their gender is never mentioned, so you go by appearance. In the next step, you can decide details such as hair, eye color, voice and more. At the end of the character creator, you choose whether you want to be "Witch" or "Wizard". It is never explicitly mentioned that it is precisely "male/female" that you choose because the choice is independent of the body or voice you have chosen.

Even so, the game retains an important detail from the Harry Potter books. The boys cannot go up to the girls' dormitory. The stairs leading up there then turn into a slide. If you choose Wizard (regardless of body type) you end up in the "boys" (it's never explicitly stated) dorm and can't go up to the "girls" (also not explicitly stated) dorm.

Unlike Animal Crossing you cannot wear all types of clothing. It seems to be tied to the female/male body type and not the choice of wizard/witch. (I might be mistaken) The game also forces the player, just like in Animal Crossing, to be referred to with genderless pronouns.

“This is the new student. THEY’re so talented.”

“Wow. You’re such a GENTLEPERSON.”

This is extremely illusion breaking since the game takes place in 1800s England.

Since all the dialogue in the game is voice-acted, one could imagine that this choice is entirely due to economic reasons. After all, it will be much cheaper to record a voice clip with one type of pronoun instead of two or three. But that hypothesis falls apart when you realize that the majority of the dubbed versions of the game still refer to one as he/she.

Just like the evil wizard Voldermort in the Harry Potter universe, gender has become "the thing that must not be named".

Baldur's Gate 3 and Starfield

Baldur's Gate 3 is a game based on dragons and demons. You choose between different classes and magical races and then set off on a grand fantasy adventure.

First you choose between a few different body types which are obviously "male" and "female". But instead referred to by numbers. After that you select "Identity" and can choose between Male, Female and Nonbinary/other.

The same applies in the newly released and large space game "Starfield" from Bethesda.

There you first select body type "1" or body type "2". (again, very clearly male or female). At the end of the process, you name your character. There you can also change your pronouns.

In both of these games, the automatic setting for pronouns is what you think it should be based on body type. But it is frustrating that the body types have to be named with anonymous numbers because it becomes too problematic to say that they are linked to "male" and "female".

What both of these games are basically saying is that gender is mainly something to do with identity and feeling and not your body.

Sims 4 is a game that did extended gender options in a relatively realistic and non-obtrusive way. When you create your Sim, you first choose Male or Female and then if you want you can access an optional extra menu to control pronouns, whether your sim can get pregnant, and so on. The main settings still reflect material reality and how the majority of us view gender/sex.

Because of this whole “trying not to make sex/gender a big deal”, In most new games, all dialogue is exactly the same regardless of what gender setting you make. One could argue that it is something positive. Which it is to some extent! However, I feel that sometimes you lose realistic and interesting stories. Not least when it comes to same-sex romance.

In the farming game Stardew Valley from 2016, at the beginning you simply choose between a male or female character. In the game, you can have romances with some of the game's inhabitants. When I went on a date with the cool soccer guy Alex, he said:

*"When we first met, I was instantly drawn to you. It was confusing… I’d never felt that way about anyone. I kept telling myself "you can’t have these kinds of feelings or another guy". But my heart was telling me something else.”. *

It was a very small detail based on the choice of gender I made at the beginning of the game that made the game feel grounded in reality and reflected many of my experiences growing up as a gay man.

If the same scene had been played out in one of today's games, Alex probably would not have reflected at all that I was something other than just a sexless person to whom he could of course be attracted.

I feel that many games today lose credibility, immersion and so on in an attempt to be inclusive for the benefit of a very small group of players. Or simply to avoid being lynched.

Has anyone else had these thoughts?