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Games as a medium for diversity.

In previous articles I wrote how the youngest consumers can become acquainted with (rainbow) diversity through toys, for example through Barbie, Lego or products from Fisher-Price and Hasbro, while GenZ and Millennials can indulge their inclusive passion through gaming. Apart from role models, references, and the use of the rainbow and other icons, some games also help players get started on inclusive language, gender identity, and subject pronouns.

It is and remains confusing that people can choose their own (because ‘personal’) pronoun these days – including to me, by the way. And the strange thing is that you don’t use it to address them (‘you’ just remains ‘you’ and does not become ‘they’), but to talk about someone.

So, it is a thing. This ‘thing’ also applies to games, but good steps are being taken in Angry Birds, Skyrim and Starfield, among others.

Starfield

In September ’23, Bethesda released ‘Starfield’, in which the player can switch between first-person and third-person perspectives at any time. It gives players the option to choose a pronoun, which is a first. Fortunately, it led to a few exaggerated reactions on the social media – so that got a gayly discussion going.

One player went viral for his laughable rant in which he claimed he was “dragged out” of the game because he had to choose his character’s pronouns once. “Do you want to get immersed in our world? Yeah well, guess what, f**king pronouns,” he shouted. “F**king gender ambiguity. F**king current-day California shit, because that’s all we f**king know.” Now, there’s a thing to worry about, but luckily California can take it.

The best thing about this outburst is that this person made a so-called ‘mod’ of the game (I had to look it up, but it means modification, where the game’s software is slightly adjusted). There was just one flaw in that genius design: the mod didn’t remove all the pronouns – only “he/his” and “she/her.” This means that ‘they/them’ became the default pronouns for all characters, making them all non-binary. I think that person was too f*cking angry to pay attention.

By the way, this happened on the Nexus Mods platform, which likes to host such mods: but this discriminatory (and, let’s face it, stupid) tweak was removed quite quickly. Comment from Nexus: “It is not a ‘political statement’ or a ‘choice for one side or the other in the culture war.’ We stand for diversity and inclusion in our community and while removing diversity is attractive to some, it does not promote a positive modding community.”

Or as one commenter noted, “We’ve gone from people freaking out about a 7/10 review score to grown men crying over pronouns in Starfield.”

There was also a minor controversy caused by a player on X, named The Gaming Christian (well…), who criticized the game for allowing a male non-player character (NPC) to flirt with a male player. This guy was ridiculed from all sides and reprimanded that he didn’t HAVE to flirt with this NPC. Elias Toufexis, the voice actor of the character in question, responded and clarified that the character was played as bisexual. Nuances, people!

Skyrim

There was also a lot of modding in the long-running Bethesda series Skyrim. Already in 2011 it became possible – in the official version – to marry an NPC of the same sex. This naturally led to some protests. Two fanatical modders tried to remove LGBT+ themes from the game, but another fan came up with a solution to combat that hate. This player, who goes by the alias Crithion, released the mod “Only Same Sex Marriage,” a modification that turns all of Skyrim’s romantic NPCs into queer characters. This version quickly became much more popular than the two hate models. However, Nexus removed all three versions.

Angry Birds

But the angry birds also dealt with this subject of pronouns. The Angry Birds franchise can only be described as a cultural phenomenon. The Finnish puzzle/action game (est. 2009) has seen billions of downloads worldwide, introducing the world to an adorable cast of feathered friends on their quest to steal their eggs back from the evil pigs. Poignant stuff… With spin-offs including a sequel, two Star Wars-based affairs and a double series of films based on the brand (starring Nicki Minaj), Angry Birds has become a hugely popular ‘brand’.

Earlier this year, the birds gave users a gentle but firm lesson in pronoun usage. “Personal pronouns are just words you can use to refer to people instead of their names!” read the Facebook post on the game’s official account. “Many languages have gendered pronouns, so sometimes it’s worth specifying which pronouns work for you!” (Fun Fact: Finnish itself has no gendered pronouns – but it does have 15 grammatical cases)

The same image was posted to Twitter, with the birds Stella, Red and a third character under their respective pronouns.

The friendly instruction concluded: “If you’re not sure what pronouns to use for someone, you can always ask! And if you make a mistake and use the wrong thing, it’s not the end of the world. Just apologize, correct yourself, and continue your great conversation. It really is that simple, folks.” Most of the comments under both the Facebook and Twitter versions of the post were wonderfully positive, with many thanking the page for “promoting respect” around the theme.

One particularly angry Twitter user (X-er?), who is reportedly “President Trump’s favorite author” and has the phrase “Alpha Male” in his username, wrote: “I just deleted Angry Birds from my phone. I call for a complete BOYCOTT of Rovio Entertainment and everything related to Angry Birds!”

I’m sure Angry Birds will survive that blow. Boycotts rarely have any effect (I’m not talking about Bud Light now…)

Postscript: It was recently announced that Apple has added a new option to the Contacts app in iOS17 that allows users to show what their personal pronoun is. To make the process as simple as possible, Apple has also included an explanation of the correct use of pronouns. Furthermore, Apple emphasizes that its privacy policy is observed: “Pronouns are only used on your devices by supported Apple apps. They are not shared with Apple or third-party developers.”

Conclusion

Reaching young people with expressions of diversity as an everyday matter is of great importance for normalizing all types of identities, characters and persons. And thus for achieving Respect in the customer journey. The generations that are interested in these types of games are usually the Millennials and GenZ. Although they are ‘originally’ open-minded and positively critical in the field of Inclusion, it is good that this is reflected in a playful way. In this way, society is reflected more realistically, also in games.

Alfred Verhoeven is a marketer and is in the final phase of his PhD research Marketing the Rainbow. He previously wrote for ILOVEGAY about Abercrombie & Fitch : The Rise & The Fall, Play the gayme: about SIMS and Candy Crush, Diversity in Toys, LEGO does the rainbow, Barbiemania, Bud Light and the 4 bln dollar woman, Dutch retailer HEMA loves everybody, Pronouns, About those rainbows, Alphabet soup, M&M’s and the lesbian invasion, Magnum and the lesbian wedding,  Marketing the Rainbow: the process and all that came before it, Sport and (un)sportmanship,  Why you need a supplier diversity program, BeNeLux LGBTIQ+ Business Chamber (BGLBC), From B2C and B2B to B2G and G2G (oh, and G2C), The Men from Atlantis, The other kind of cruising, Booking.com, Home Deco, Haters and trolls: the ‘letter to the editor’ of the 21st century, 5 Bizarre LGBT Videos, TRANSparency, Transgender persons as a target group, Matchmaking, 5 videos that went viral, From Representation To Respect, Cultural sensitivities and social involvement in marketing, 4 reasons to practice diversity and The Rules of Market Segmentation.