Have you had trouble with gender and ACNH?

[apeisland]

I really like ACNH but something that makes me sad is the fact that once you choose your name and gender you can never change that again. Have you had this problem too? Do you think they might solve that for future games?

I luckily entered my nickname instead of my legal name, so it doesn't matter that I don't use that name anymore because it is not in the game. However, my partner has their deadname as their name and they are divided between restarting the island and losing all progress or staying with the deadname and being misgendered by all villagers... it is sad to have to make that choice.

Have you been in this situation? What have you done? Did you keep the island or did you restart?

In my personal case, I am nonbinary and had to choose a gender. What I like about this forum is that I can just say I am nonbinary and, unlike in real life, people won't read me as my agab because they don't know it...however, I had to pick a gender in the game and I always think about it when I connect with someone from here. It is also weird to me that villagers talk to me using gendered word sometimes and I don't know what happens with captain if your character is a boy but I don't like it when he flirts with me as if I was a girl.

I don't think they'll include a non-gendered option in future games but I am hoping they will add the possibility to change names and/or gender in an already started game. What do you think? I really like how all characters wear all types of clothes. Many male villagers gift each other dresses and then they wear them and act really happy about it. I think this is a step that would make sense in the overall philosophy of animal crossing and I am hoping to see it in following updates.

EDIT: apparently you CAN change gender !!! I am just dumb and didn't find the option.

 

[Hsn97]

No, I’ve never had this issue to be fair. I think AC does a good job at being inclusive with allowing all players to use whatever hair style or clothing they like. I guess they could also add an option to change the name and gender later in game. Maybe they’ll add that in the next instalment.

 

[apeisland]

No, I’ve never had this issue to be fair. I think AC does a good job at being inclusive with allowing all players to use whatever hair style or clothing they like. I guess they could also add an option to change the name and gender later in game. Maybe they’ll add that in the next instalment.

I agree with you ! That is why I think it makes sense that they may do it too!

 

[Introspective Onlooker]

I really like ACNH but something that makes me sad is the fact that once you choose your name and gender you can never change that again. Have you had this problem too? Do you think they might solve that for future games?

...But you can change your sex in NH. You're able to do it the same way you're able to change your character's eyes or skin tone. As for having a permanent name — I'm not sure if we're ever going to be allowed to change it without a nickname superseding it in terms of how villagers address you.

I luckily entered my nickname instead of my legal name, so it doesn't matter that I don't use that name anymore because it is not in the game. However, my partner has their deadname as their name and they are divided between restarting the island and losing all progress or staying with the deadname and being misgendered by all villagers... it is sad to have to make that choice.

Restarting from scratch, I find, would be far too much of a hassle just for villagers "misgendering" your partner and a name they don't use anymore. Speaking of misgendering, I think it only happens in certain languages; English refers to gender as "style", and villagers use gender-neutral pronouns towards you. It's only a problem in languages that operate on gendered forms of words and such.

In my personal case, I am nonbinary and had to choose a gender.

Again, if you play the game in English, the game doesn't refer to gender at all. Nintendo of America probably did this to make non-binary people feel inclusive, despite the choices present still being only the only two options to choose from.

Have you been in this situation? What have you done? Did you keep the island or did you restart?

No, at least not in New Leaf or Pocket Camp. And New Horizons completely removes all restrictions that would've been placed on your character in any of the other games. It was an issue in the older games because you were severely limited to what top your character wore and the hairstyles that were congruent to your character's sex. And you couldn't change your face, later on. NH is actually a pretty big step in the right direction in terms of character customization.

 

[Croconaw]

I haven’t, personally. I’ve chosen to play as male characters for as long as I can remember. I’ve used them in Pokémon and Animal Crossing games, along with other games where you have to choose a gender. Even on my first Animal Crossing game when I was very young, I chose to play as a male. I just chose Croconaw as a name because my real name is strictly feminine, and it wouldn’t make sense for a male to have it. This is from the perspective of a biological female.

 

[-Blue-]

I haven't played in a while, but the villager's don't address your villager as a she or he correct? They always use your villager's name, a nickname, or mention them as they/ect. At least that is what I thought.

 

[apeisland]

...But you can change your sex in NH. You're able to do it the same way you're able to change your character's eyes or skin tone. As for having a permanent name — I'm not sure if we're ever going to be allowed to change it without a nickname superseding it in terms of how villagers address you.

Restarting from scratch, I find, would be far too much of a hassle just for villagers "misgendering" your partner and a name they don't use anymore. Speaking of misgendering, I think it only happens in certain languages; English refers to gender as "style", and villagers use gender-neutral pronouns towards you. It's only a problem in languages that operate on gendered forms of words and such.

Again, if you play the game in English, the game doesn't refer to gender at all. Nintendo of America probably did this to make non-binary people feel inclusive, despite the choices present still being only the only two options to choose from.

No, at least not in New Leaf or Pocket Camp. And New Horizons completely removes all restrictions that would've been placed on your character in any of the other games. It was an issue in the older games because you were severely limited to what top your character wore and the hairstyles that were congruent to your character's sex. And you couldn't change your face, later on. NH is actually a pretty big step in the right direction in terms of character customization.

Thank you for your answer! We didn't find the option for changing gender ! We will look for it again, we probably didn't look well enough. Our native language is Spanish and we like to play in our mother tongue so you get gendered in many conversations! I hadn't realised it wasn't like that in English.

Post automatically merged: Aug 14, 2022

I haven't played in a while, but the villager's don't address your villager as a she or he correct? They always use your villager's name, a nickname, or mention them as they/ect. At least that is what I thought.

In spanish they do ! I didn't realise that wasn't the case in english.

 

[-Blue-]

In spanish they do ! I didn't realise that wasn't the case in english.

I see, I've only ever played it in English. Well I play all games that way. When you go to pick your villager as boy/girl, the dialogue states it as 'Choose your style' and not 'Choose your gender'

 

[Chris]

I'm non-binary and used a gender neutral nickname from the start to avoid this becoming an issue. If the timeline had been different and I was still going by my dead name when ACNH came out, then I would definitely have restarted the game when I abandoned the name.

Gender was instead replaced with 'styles' in New Horizons and you can readily change between them using a mirror.

 

[Mutti]

I’m new horizons you get two images of people while changing your appearance in the mirror nintendos vision of “boy/girl” In this game your able to change it whenever you want.

This is new as in older games once you’ve selected a gender its unable to be changed soo a good step forward.

 

[apeisland]

I'm non-binary and used a gender neutral nickname from the start to avoid this becoming an issue. If the timeline had been different and I was still going by my dead name when ACNH came out, then I would definitely have restarted the game when I abandoned the name.

Gender was instead replaced with 'styles' in New Horizons and you can readily change between them using a mirror.

That is a very good idea ! I actually didn't remember how it was called but it is cool they did that. It makes sense that the problem only appeared then in languages with gendered morphemes.

Post automatically merged: Aug 14, 2022

I’m new horizons you get two images of people while changing your appearance in the mirror nintendos vision of “boy/girl” In this game your able to change it whenever you want.

This is new as in older games once you’ve selected a gender its unable to be changed soo a good step forward.

That is great! I hadn't used a mirror before and I didn't know!

 

[Introspective Onlooker]

Thank you for your answer! We didn't find the option for changing gender ! We will look for it again, we probably didn't look well enough. Our native language is Spanish and we like to play in our mother tongue so you get gendered in many conversations! I hadn't realised it wasn't like that in English.

Hopefully you were able to find yourself a mirror where you can change it. If not, there's one you can craft which doesn't ask for a lot of material. I understand that masculine and feminine morphemes usually go after the "el" and "la" nouns respectively, so I can imagine my character being referred to with male pronouns and such in Spanish, despite having no problem looking anything but male. I play the game in Japanese, and even though I'm still learning it, I understand that villagers don't use pronouns much in that language.

 

[Belle T]

I have to wonder if there's some sort of coding mishap that would break the entire game if they allowed the player to change their names. This is obviously very petty and not important compared to the problems other people might have with it, but I used my real name when starting my island because I couldn't think of a proper gimmick, but now that I have thought of one, I can't really do it. Well, I suppose I could, but not to the fullest extent. The most frustrating thing is that I'm pretty sure you can do this in Pocket Camp. Admittedly, Pocket Camp is a much more basic game, but the only thing I can think of that's keeping New Horizons from doing the same would be online functionality.

The same goes for the island name. Places change their names in real life, and you can change the name of various buildings in HHP, so why can we not change the name of our island in the base game? I don't even consider myself one of those people that demands that the game allow you to change every single facet of your island to match your specific criteria. I think the game forcing you to commit to certain decisions is a part of the experience of playing the game. It's just that there are some aspects that I don't understand why those items specifically have to be permanent.

It's not a big deal to me at the end of the day. Just a very curious thing.