A new update for Jagex’s Old School RuneScape has gotten fans upset as it not only removes traditional male/female sex from its character creator, it also forces mandatory pronoun usage on players.
A new “Diversity & Inclusion” update for Old School RuneScape was released today that removed the 20+ year old MMORPG’s biological male and female sexes from its character creator, as seen above. In their place are the options “Body type A” and “Body type B.”
The game also now has mandatory pronouns for player characters where they must choose either He/him, They/them, or She/her. The last major “Diversity & Inclusion” change made in this update is that all facial hair styles can be used on either body type.
It’s worth pointing out that any major updates or changes to the game require at least 70% of players voting to approve it – however – both game integrity updates and the above “Diversity & Inclusion” updates are mandatory and not voted on by players, and cannot be vetoed by the community.
Another “Diversity & Inclusion” update released earlier this summer altered a long-running and fan-favorite “kiss the frog” event, which had players kiss the frog “prince” or “princess”, just like the fairy tale. Now, players pat the head of the frog and acquire both the “prince” and “princess” parts of the Royal frog costume.
The same update also censored the Ethereal Man or Ethereal Lady with an “Ethereal Being” during Lunar Diplomacy, although its physical appearance will reflect the player’s “body type,” again, which is clearly based on biological male and female sexes.
Many games have been removing traditional biological sex from both character creators and even prewritten storylines, like Square Enix’s Dragon Quest III HD2D Remake and even Nintendo’s Pikmin 1+2 re-release.
Old School RuneScape is available and free-to-play on Windows PC (via the official website with Mac support, and Steam), Android, and iOS.
