Why is there a neutral gender?

[takkaria]

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!

That would only be a reasonable response if
a) they had socially transitioned from male to female or vice versa and
b) the game was asking you to identify yourself rather than your character.

On a), there are people who fill the spectrum between male and female, so it's not a given. On b), it's straightforwardly false. But it does make me wonder.

In particular, it makes me wonder if transgender people are any more likely than anyone else to choose a gender other than their own, and thus how likely people in general are to choose their a gender other than their own. I suspect the answer to the latter is that there is a general bias in favour of one's one gender, and I suspect the answer to the former to be no.

To substantiate my suspicions, I looked at a random 50 characters on the ladder. 14 were female - the rest were male. I suspect that reflects the demographic of players of the game at least somewhat, so it suggests there's a bias in favour of choosing your own gender when playing a character. I find this curious in a game where you can be a different species and carry hundreds of potions in one backpack. Gender seems to be pretty sticky. And maybe the fact that the gender choice has no gameplay difference contributes to that, too.

</researcher-mode>

[Nick]

Don't worry, I already hate everybody

Oh, I see - and you're trying to make it mutual

[ekolis]

Don't worry, I already hate everybody

[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.

[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!

[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.

[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.

[ekolis]

Shouldn't you be Quendum then?

[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.

[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.

[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...

[ekolis]

So what kind of tiles does a neuter character use?

[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.

[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 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.