Why is there a neutral gender?

[T-Mick]

Pretty sure that only vanilla has it, and it doesn't mean anything. What was the rationale here?

[Derakon]

Why shouldn't there be a neutral gender? Gender identity is a very thorny issue and my general attitude here is "people should be allowed to call themselves whatever they like". Given the sheer variety of different identities (e.g. "male-to-female pre-op trans"), though, "neutral" serves as a convenient "decline to specify".

[clouded]

The question is why does the game have you choose a gender at all. It is a pointless extra keypress during character creation, if you want to imagine yourself as one or the other, then you can do so without the game asking you about it.

[DaviddesJ]

I think the reason for specifying the gender is to fill in the blanks in the character biography that the game automatically generates. Some of the terms there depend on your gender.

Whether that's a good or bad reason, I don't know.

[Patashu]

The question is why does the game have you choose a gender at all. It is a pointless extra keypress during character creation, if you want to imagine yourself as one or the other, then you can do so without the game asking you about it.

It matters when tiles are used, and the tiles distinguish between genders.

[DaviddesJ]

I'm pretty sure the gender selection existed long before tiles, so that wasn't the original reason, although it is certainly a current reason.

[ekolis]

So what kind of tiles does a neuter character use?

[PowerWyrm]

Pretty sure that only vanilla has it, and it doesn't mean anything. What was the rationale here?

Some variants could have races that have no gender. Like golems and such...

[JohnCW9]

Pretty sure that only vanilla has it, and it doesn't mean anything. What was the rationale here?

Vanilla doesn't have it least the ones that I played.

[Quendus]

Vanilla doesn't have it least the ones that I played.

It's a recent addition (version 3.2 or so). I started using this option as soon as it was available.

[ekolis]

Shouldn't you be Quendum then?

[fph]

Do the "titles" based on class and level change according to gender? If they are taken directly from the edit files (p_class.txt), it seems that the answer is no. So you'd still get for instance "Ranger Lord" for a female character.
From a quick glance, it seems that the history in p_hist.txt is completely gender-neutral, too ("You are the only child of...").

(This is based on the edit files published on this site, which refer to 3.1.2v2).

So, apart from tiles, it is not clear to me whether the gender is used at all in the game.

[Magnate]

So, apart from tiles, it is not clear to me whether the gender is used at all in the game.

I think it only affects height and weight (which themselves are not used).

The answer to the OP's question is that the neutral gender was added by one of the devs who feels strongly about gender identity issues and was peeved by having to choose between male and female. As Derakon notes, 'neutral' covers a whole lot of alternatives.

[ekolis]

The answer to the OP's question is that the neutral gender was added by one of the devs who feels strongly about gender identity issues and was peeved by having to choose between male and female. As Derakon notes, 'neutral' covers a whole lot of alternatives.

I'd think that transgendered folks having to identify as "neutral" would just offend them even more... What do you mean, "neutral"? I'm not a fixed dog!

[Derakon]

I suspect you should avoid trying to guess what transgendered (or otherwise genderqueer) people think about different options. This is a touchy subject, and it's easy to make enemies.