Respect

Hello Lizzy,

first of all congratulations on your victory and thank you for your feedback. I hope you know that the intention of this text is not to be disrespectful towards anyone. I will forward this of course and see what I can do!

Thank you Sasri that would be fantastic. Of course I realise that no disrespect was intended, but I think you can see where I am coming from. As I say I have brought this up before, but I didn't know if it had been acted on as this is only my second win.

duplicate thread. original is under suggestions/criticism

Did you specify your gender when you got your account?

(Ok to be honest, I saw the header, "respect" and I was gonna troll this thread. But after reading your complaint, I realized that, yea COW pretty much assumes you are male. And even though the game is right 97.6% of the time, it seems kinda succy.)

Sasri wrote:

Hello Lizzy,

first of all congratulations on your victory and thank you for your feedback. I hope you know that the intention of this text is not to be disrespectful towards anyone. I will forward this of course and see what I can do!

Adopting the singular "they" would have the winning announcement thus:

"Much too long have hunger and war reigned. Much too long have amateurish and self-obsessed leaders suppressed their people. This morning things have happened that will change the world for ever. BusyLizzy gained a long lasting victory in their struggles for control! Their unbeaten military skills as well as their great political influences and superior economical management were the key to this inevitable victory. In every single town people are on the streets, cheering and shouting, lying in each others arms as they know, better times have begun.

In the name of the WH and the peoples of the world: Thank you BusyLizzy!"

I know, it sounds awkward in this particular paragraph. That's because of the particular third-person singular, past-participle tense of the singular "their" following the plural past-participle tense of "self-obsessed leaders....their".

If the coding, that inserted the player's name, could be repeated where "his" currently exists, it would repeat the player's name and avoid the pronoun altogether.

However, I might be more inclined to reword the winning blurb to something like:

"Congratulations [player name]! After a long and arduous war, filled with hunger and despair from the peoples you have struggled to liberate, you have defeated both petty warlords and cunning despots to rise victorious! No longer will the people suffer under the domination of those you defeated. Your unwavering determination and military, diplomatic, and economic skills have proven your fitness to lead the world in a new era of peace and prosperity. It is in recognition of your accomplishments and the assurances your superior skills offer that the people you now lead fill the streets in a world-wide celebration of your victory today."

This example avoids the gender pronoun issue by using "you" and "your".

I like your version better, I Patton.

Frankly, I don't care if The Washington Post adopts the "singular they"; it's poor man's English, and a solution for a problem that they are too lazy to solve by using the proper gender pronouns, which is how we arrived where we are in the first place. If one makes an issue of the use of the generic masculine pronouns in the name of gender equity, then one cannot complain when the same gender equity requires you to do the extra work required to comply. And the wacky "xe" pronoun promoted by some of the sillier elements of the LGBT community is an abomination on the language of Shakespeare.

There are creative solutions to these issues that are in keeping with proper, grammatically correct English, but they usually require some additional thought and effort to address.

Lol I must live in another world, I have never heard of this "xe" pronoun, I will research it. I just know it is wrong to use a feminine name and then use "he". It also feels like an undervaluation of achievement to have this error put in a message of congratulation, but only of course if you happen to be female, if you are male you will have a correctly worded message.

As said above this is not difficult to correct, so I hope it will be. However I have brought this up before and was mocked, accused of being over sensitive and called a lesbian (which I thought was all a bit unnecessary), also it was not thought important enough to act upon. What am I supposed to read into that?

I have also seen support from some forum users and the Community Manager, so I am not alone in my views. I don't play many computer games and it is honestly the first time have come across this issue which made me think it was deliberate and not an oversight.

I thought I had left this game with a bit of a bad taste in my mouth, but yesterday I was playing a very old version of Monopoly (1960s) with family. I noted that the player was assumed to be male through out the rules, but there was a disclaimer saying this was the case. I thought we had moved forward a long way since the 1960s, maybe I am wrong. I was prompted though to return to look at the forum and I am glad to see some sensible suggestions.

I just looked up the xe thing. I can see why some may want it, but I prefer to be recognised as female. Although I usually sign myself as Miss sometimes I use Ms as I don't think people always need to know my martial status.

When I am unsure of the gender of the individual I am referring to I like to use she/he/it.

This contracts nicely to s.h.it and works quite well in the plural form when referring to a collection of individuals of unknown gender, just call them all s.h.its.

Never had a problem with this in the work place although my wife doesn't like me using this kind of language at home.

Marion, Somehow I don't think sending out the first diplomatic message in Players League with "Dear, S. h. it's," is going to win you many friends. Looking forward to that first diplomatic correspondence with you. Though my dad (RIP) used to call me a little stinker, which may have a similar connotation....so maybe it will work.

LOL

It will be a great "filter" to separate out the folks having fun in life and the ones who weigh their poop each night.

FAN THEORY! COW is populated by vegetable people who are grown on plants, hence they have no need for gender and call each other 'he' cause it was one letter shorter for the god of the COW universe to type.

They/Their is actually only to be used with multiple subjects, "Tim and Jane? Yes, they got their bags."

"Kelly said they left their bag at their house." Does not imply single target. Kelly must have been referring to secondary subject, or it is a grammatical error.

Xe, as stated above, would be the best move to make:

"Kelly said xe left xir bag at xir house."

WiseOdin wrote:

Xe, as stated above, would be the best move to make:

"Kelly said xe left xir bag at xir house."

BB, don't you know this thread's topic? Respect the OP by butchering the Queen's English.

WiseOdin wrote:

Respect the OP by butchering the Queen's English.

God save the Queen.

Reminds me of the (female) officer who demanded I call her "sir" not "ma'am". Claimed I was being disrespectful. She was right. We routinely would use Mister and Ma'am to junior officers who had not a clue about the Navy.

Her: "Petty Officer, you shall refer to me as "Sir" not "ma'am"! "

Me: "Yes sir, ma'am"

My Chief about had a hernia trying not to laugh out loud.

Somethings you have to earn, not demand.

Lizzy, I suppose you don't live in France? This is drenched so deep in their language, and impossible to root out I guess...

A group of men = "ils" (literally: "he's")

A group of women = "elles" (literally "she's")

But now:

A mixed group of people = "ils"

A group of 4 women and one man = "ils"

I'm also wondering how you feel about terms like "mankind", "A small step for man", "craftsmanship", etc etc etc...

Please be aware that I'm not ridiculing you, but the man/woman fight in language goes SO much further than one message in a computer game... sure, it must be disappointing, but please don't take it so seriously, and don't waiste a programmer's hour fixing this that he could have spent enhancing the game!

F. Marion wrote:

Reminds me of the (female) officer who demanded I call her "sir" not "ma'am". Claimed I was being disrespectful. She was right. We routinely would use Mister and Ma'am to junior officers who had not a clue about the Navy.

Her: "Petty Officer, you shall refer to me as "Sir" not "ma'am"! "

Me: "Yes sir, ma'am"

My Chief about had a hernia trying not to laugh out loud.

Somethings you have to earn, not demand.