Programming verbs for gender-variable characters

Game Development Writing and Content
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So I have been working on my game and I came across a serious problem.

One of the characters is a gender variable character and they could either be female or non-binary. My problem is that non-binary pronouns require plural verbs such as “say or walk.” Of course, I could just program in variables but I feel like there’s a far more efficient way to program it.

I have checked out the code of other games such as:

@{player_verb says|say}

This may be the solution I have been looking for but what are the rules and is there even a page for a code like this in the wiki?

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I believe you’re referencing multireplace, documented here.

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Thank you! I appreciate the help!

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The ChoiceScript Wiki also has an entry on multireplace.

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Here’s a bit of insight.

*set nb true
@{nb say|says}

One question, though, does singular they is treated the same as other singular pronouns? They eats, they kills, they sings.

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Singular they takes the same grammatical form as plural they, so sentences would go “they drink,” “they code,” “they write,” etc.

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Have it that the player can pick if they use singular or plural verbs (I met people using they/them and others with singular verbs) . thus making the code in the end look thus:

${they} @{plur say| says}

or somesuch

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I’ve never encountered the usage of they with a singular verb form, but offering a write-in choice of pronoun and the selection of whether it takes the plural or singular verb is also something I’ve encountered in WIPs before (not sure if in a published game).

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For my current project, I’ve created a set of variables for NPCs who may be non-binary, so that I can have sentences like:

Darcy frowns at you. "You're wasting your time," ${darcy_he} say${darcy_s}.

If Darcy’s pronouns are he or she, then I do the following:

*set darcy_s "s"

If Darcy’s pronouns are they, then I use

*set darcy_s ""

I also have darcy_es (for cases like “she pushes/they push”), darcy_is, darcy_has, darcy_heis (he’s/she’s/they’re), darcy_hehas (he’s/she’s/they’ve), darcy_him (him/her/them), darcy_his (his/her/their), and darcy_hers (his/hers/theirs).

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Here is the current, official guidance by the American Psychological Association on using singular “they” - (primary hints: 1) use plural verbs and 2) “themselves” is used more than “themself” at this time as it relates to reflexive singular pronouns when using “they.”)

https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/grammar/singular-they

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