Topline
Starfield, a new game developed by Bethesda Game Studios that’s set to release this week, lets players select their own pronouns, including they/them, which has provoked some extreme reactions from video game streamers—and online ridicule and memes from others who feel the pronoun selection isn’t a big deal.
Todd Howard, Director and Executive Producer at Bethesda Game Studios, introduces ‘Starfield’ during … [+]
Key Facts
Starfield, a first-person role playing game set in space, is playable on PC and Xbox Series X/S and is set to release to the public on September 6, though some who preordered early access have been able to play the game since last week.
While creating a character, players have the option to select their desired pronouns—he/him, she/her or they/them—which can be changed at any time.
The option has provoked anger from some streamers, including HeelvsBabyface (a streamer with 344,000 YouTube subscribers), who went viral on social media for an expletive-filled rant in which he laments that Bethesda Game Studios inserted their “ideology” into “everything we love.”
Chief Critics
Streamer The Act Man, who has 1.8 million YouTube subscribers, criticized HeelsvBabyface for being “on the verge of crying because Starfield lets you pick pronouns at the start of the game,” calling the issue “superfluous” because he “cannot recall a single moment where my character’s pronouns were brought up.” Hutch, a Twitch streamer with 360,000 followers, called the negative reactions to the pronoun option “wildly unhinged,” noting the selection is simply “a single button press to clarify your pronouns in Starfield.” Streamer Keffals, who has 52,000 Twitch followers, ridiculed reactions that urged politics to be kept out of video games, noting that Bethesda’s other games are political: “I can’t believe bethesda would make starfield political by adding pronouns. I’m only going to play their other games like the fallout franchise which is about the social and political implications of nuclear war and is not political whatsoever,” Keffals posted.
Contra
HeelvsBabyface defended himself in a YouTube video titled, “Man ‘Cancelled’ For Having Opinion on Internet!!” in which he doubled down on criticizing “the gender ideology and intersectionality that’s been rammed into every solitary facet of our entertainment, from video games to TV, film, comics, etc.”
Tangent
Some social media users drew comparisons between Starfield and Hogwarts Legacy, another video game that faced controversy and boycotts because of its association with J.K. Rowling, the Harry Potter author who has become known for making comments critics perceive to be anti-trans. Hogwarts Legacy also faced criticism for including a transgender woman character named Sirona Ryan, whose name attracted criticism for allegedly sounding masculine. After HeelvsBabyface’s Starfield rant, The Act Man accused him of hypocrisy, posting a video in which HeelvsBabyface urges people boycotting Hogwarts Legacy because they think it “goes against your ideology” to “man up.” HeelvsBabyface responded to this criticism in his YouTube video, stating he was actually talking about how he would not “bow down to the intersectional woke far-left ideological mob that wanted to cancel it.”
Further Reading
Starfield pronouns: how to change your character’s name and pronouns during the game (Video Games on Sports Illustrated)
Starfield: Early Access, Launch Date Game Pass and Everything You Should Know (CNET)
‘Hogwarts Legacy’ Video Game Controversy: Boycotts And J.K. Rowling’s Comments On Transgender Community, Explained (Forbes)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/conormurray/2023/09/05/starfield-gender-controversy-some-gamers-go-viral-and-face-ridicule-over-extreme-reactions-to-pronouns/