Stardew Valley Fans Are Calling For More Pronoun Options

04.10.2023 - 21:13 / thegamer.com

Stardew Valley is getting a brand new update at some point in the near future, as creator Eric "Concerned Ape" Barone has been teasing upcoming additions to the game via his personal Twitter account. There are plenty of things that fans are excited about, but the game's queer community thinks that this final update is the perfect opportunity to fix a problem that has existed since launch.

At the moment, Stardew Valley only has two pronoun options to choose from in the character creator, which is slightly baffling considering how much the game has become a haven for queer gamers. Having put up with the lack of pronoun options for 7 years now, one fan by the name of Atmos Fierce has decided to do something about it, and has started a petition to try and get Barone to fix the "incredibly disheartening" gendered language in the game.

Related: Stardew Valley's Continuous Updates Are A Testament To Its Greatness

You can find the petition on Change.org, which calls upon Barone to include more pronoun options for transgender and non-binary players so that "everyone can feel represented". Fierce mentions that while PC players have the option to download the incredibly popular 'Gender Neutrality Mod' to fix the issue, players on different platforms like console are forced to be misgendered, which is "causing feelings of dysphoria".

"When starting a new farm you are tasked with creating a character, but there are only two gender options to choose from," says Fierce. "This excludes non-binary players from fully feeling represented in their gameplay, forcing them to select between being referred to as he or she throughout their entire gameplay experience."

"For many trans and non-binary players, the gendered language in the game can feel incredibly disheartening, and invalidating, causing feelings of dysphoria when misgendered while they are playing. 2SLGBTQIA+ players deserve to see themselves represented to the fullest extent in their game."

It's seems like Fierce isn't the only person with this opinion either, as at the time of writing, the petition has managed to gather over 1,600 signatures, and looks to be well on its way to meeting its 2,500 signature goal. There are also quite a few people in the petition's comments, explaining that they use they/them pronouns and would love to be addressed properly in a game they love so much.

Here's hoping that Barone sees this petition and adds more pronouns in the 1.6 update, because he's said mutliple times that it's going to be the last the game gets so he can turn his attention back to Haunted Chocolatier. It doesn't seem like it would be that much work, and it would be great to see the requests of so many people granted for the game's swan song.

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