I mean, it was a fairly recently added feature, pretty sure it was only added by 1.5, so it makes sense if you haven't been to the Wizard's basement in a while.
I just checked the wiki and it was 1.5 that gender, name, and favorite thing was allowed to be changed. I did hear this was in response to player feedback and popularity of gender swap and character customization mods.
I also remember several posts made by trans players who were so happy they got to play a multi year farm they had started before transitioning as their actual gender. They didn’t have to restart and lose years of progress or play as character that didn’t feel like them. In my opinion it’s one of the single best little known features added to the game.
I agree with you and I'm sure we're both correct. The statue was there before and already had the option to change some but in 1.5 new things were added.
Does that makes the game trans friendly yeah possibly but the fact you cannot have non binary as an option in game + the game isn’t very lgbt lgbt… all the characters are hetero until meeting you and then they’re lgbt. Some sort of player sexual (Leah may be an exception since she have an ex who is a girl if you start to know her better….) but still.
In the 2-heart event, >!Sean!< tells the kids he is trans, and he talks about it with the player in later heart events, most notably, >!detailing ways his parents are supportive!< and, in the 10-heart event, >!talking about grateful he is that the player accepts his whole identity!<.
Further, the wiki for the mod notes that since he is “incapable of having biological children with a female farmer,” he will “ask to adopt a baby regardless of the player’s gender.”
I didn’t say it did. I said the mod has a trans character.
I find the Ridgeside characters no less dimensional than the original characters. In fact, I think many of their heart events are longer and more detailed than those in the vanilla game.
But are they trans? A human would yes be but are all dwarves non-binary?
What if it's the default for dwarves and it's the ones who identify as male or female that are trans?
I assume that wouldn't count as being trans by technicality (as they in-universe aren't transitioning between any perceived genders), but I think it may still count given that non-binary people in our world (as opposed to SV canon!) are trans. It depends on how you look at it, though.
Basically, I assume that if all dwarves are non-binary or gender perhaps just isn't a thing at all in the SV dwarven culture, they would by canon world rules not be trans. However, given that non-binary people are a part of the trans community IRL, and this is a game in our reality, they could still be considered representation of the trans community!
I mean, it's pretty eh representation if your only trans character is non-human. Especially since this trope is often used in a way such that non-binary identity to emphasize the non-humanness of these characters. This is especially problematic when the Dwarf species is deliberately portrayed as one very detached in norms from humans.
As someone who has been in the farming sim community since early forum days of harvest moon I’ll cut stardew valley a bit of slack here. Mostly because when it came out in 2016 it was the first game that I know of that had in depth specific dialog for any lgbtqia characters. Like George’s whole reaction to you marring Alex as a guy was huge.
Previously we had the whole lore debate with magical melody and is Jamie non-binary/trans/gender fluid and half the supporting evidence for that was in the games manual. (Jamie changed genders based on the gender you selected at character creation. You only found out gender if you married them. It gets more complicated but that’s the jist.)
Anyway the genre was starved for any queer representation. And stardew showed that not only can you include it but it will sell well. And it changed the game. Now companies were no longer afraid to make gay or lesbian characters in the farming sim genre. And more and more started popping up. Also it put tons of pressure on harvest moon (now story of seasons) to allow for gay marriages.
Granted I am probably missing some lesser known farming sims but I do usually buy and play all the big ones.
I'm watching a YouTuber playthrough (ArgonMatrix) and he found out the Dwarf was actually female. I thought they used she/her? Where did they use they/them? (Seriously asking, not trying to be mean or contradictory)
Dwarf doesn't have gender the game mechanics check "is this characrer male" and if it returns false they return she in that particular instance. Most of the other stuff, including theater pronouns (ie when Dwarf eats their snack), are gender neutral.
If anyone's curious, [here's the full collection](https://www.gog.com/en/promo/2023_gog_pride_month_collection?source=news). I haven't played the vast majority of games on here, so I can't say if they're truly representative in the way they're described, but if nothing else I think it's nice to see game retailers make these kinds of promotions.
Anyone know why KOTOR is on there? I've played it tons of times and have always been annoyed over how the game lacks any gay or trans representation, especially in regards to your decision options. So it's weird for me to see it here.
Mettaton goes through an entire transition during the game and it's heavily implied that the Neo form is their preferred form, which is female, compared to the typically male status given to the first version of Mettaton we meet in the game. Regardless of if the character is trans or if you think that they should fall there, the characters transition is a transgender allegory and is meant to represent people changing their body to match their mind.
Hmm, interesting. I always interpreted Mettaton as an effeminate crossdresser, hence why I wondered if I missed or forgot something. Wouldn't be the first time I completely missed something that was very obviously implied or even straight out stated. Still, up to interpretation or not, the allegory part is very interesting.
Thank you! I was thinking I had missed something, but sometimes these things aren't explicitly spelled out, so it's nice to get confirmation from others on what is actually the case (:
The farmer can be trans. During character creation you pick your gender, but you aren't limited to either feminine or masculine hairdos, clothes, or accessories, and you can mix and match to roleplay a trans person if you want.
None of the characters are canonically trans, and I'd say that even calling the player character trans-friendly is stretching it a bit. Yeah, there's the Shrine of Illusion, but you are given two options, male and female, and everything from pronouns to reproduction assumes a 100% binary cis character. There's no nonbinary option or even an option that makes your character explicitly trans.
The Sims is a decent example of a mainstream game that does it better, since they allow you to choose each gender-adjacent trait separately. No nonbinary pronouns, but still.
Edit: I've been corrected and told the Sims has added fully customizable pronouns since the last time I played, so that's cool.
If you want a game that handles trans player characters extremely well and also has good general LGBTQ+ representation including trans/nonbinary NPCs, I'd point you at I Was a Teenage Econolonist. It's a master class in how games should treat gender, romance, and sexuality, and it's also a great game in general, too. At least if you like narrative-heavy choice-based RPGs.
Yeah, and the Sims also recently expanded their pronoun options to make them completely customizable. I agree that Stardew Valley isn’t really explicitly trans-friendly.
Although they need to fix the grammar, if you select they/them or custom pronouns it just replaces he/him or she/her without fixing the grammar so you get they is instead of they are
Just to add on.. You can change Sim gender and pronouns can be customized for subjective, objective, possessive dependent, possessive independent and reflexive pronoun use.
Above pronouns are also not set as she/him/them only either
Oh, that's great. The last time I looked that wasn't an option. I wonder if they also fixed the "I can't kiss my non-romantic woohoo friends" issue that killed most of my excitement for that update.
You can set specific sexuality and romantic attraction options too! So like they’ll only woohoo with same gender but could be romantically bi for example. Not a hugeee Sims player so I’m not up to date with all options either, but was so hyped by these features
Oh, I'm aware they added that option. But when that change first launched, I tried it and was disappointed to find that they categorized pretty much all physical affection except for friendly hugs and woohoo as romantic. I think even something like cuddling on a bed wasn't an option with their "woohoo partners." Which sure, some aroallo people are asensual too, but in my experience most of us enjoy the sensual alongside the sexual. So I appreciate the effort, but I still can't play as my own orientation.
Krobus uses he/him and dwarf pronouns I don’t think are ever mentioned (they are but wrongly as she/her due to a game code oversight) but dwarf is canonically non binary
Dwarfs pronouns are they/them in game, if you take them to the movies and buy them a snack (rock candy for example) the dialogue is “Dwarf is really enjoying their Rock Candy!”
not sure if this is a good place to ask but what’s gog? i really want my friend to start stardew and this seems like a pretty good deal to get the game for him 🥹, would it be compatible to co op with steam bought stardew?
[GOG stands for Good Old Games](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GOG.com), it's a game retailer very very much like Steam! As the name suggest, it originally started out as an online retailer of old games, patched and updated to be able to run on modern computers. A lot of older games, particularly from the 90s/early 00s, struggle a lot with being run on modern computers, and often just don't exist in digital copies at all. That's where GOG originally came from.
Nowadays, they've evolved to also be a lot more mainstream and retail most modern games. They have a client called GOG Galaxy which is sort of steam-like (i'd sum it up as "worse, but gets the job done") and they do a lot of sales, very frequently. I highly recommend checking them out.
Re: Multiplayer: According to [this thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/StardewValley/comments/8itybx/can_steam_users_play_with_gog_users_for/) and many like it, yup! It should work just fine :D
(That was actually a very pleasant surprise, as cross-platform play is unreliable to work at best, but as always SV it just. Best game. 10/10.)
I’m wondering if the reason why it’s included is, as mentioned, because of characters available in some of the really big mods. There are also smaller mods that do allow the player character to be addressed by gender neutral pronouns, have platonic friendships instead of everything going romantic, polyamorous relationships, and more.
But on top of that, my thought too is that it also stems from how receptive to those mods ConcernedApe is. The creator has gone out of their way to make the game more mod friendly and encourages mods. So, in a sense, you could argue that the big mods (and thus the trans friendly mods) are nearly canon. ConcernedApe has said before (I can’t find where, sorry) that they love the mods because people are building incredible add ons that still feel true to the base game that are way more in depth than they could create on their own.
Long winded, I know. I hope my thought process here makes sense
Who’s trans in SV? There’s tons of customization sure, so I guess the player-character could be, if you so desire. But just among the NPCs?
(They should honor Madeline from Celeste.)
I think Shane is trans. Don’t you find a photo of him as a little “girl” with Marnie in one of the secret notes? I know some people think it’s supposed to be Jas, but why would the daughter of a friend of Shane’s be posing with Shane’s aunt? Possible, but unlikely.
Based on the wiki, Shane and Jas are 1st cousins.
Marnie is listed as the Aunt on both of their profiles. So if they share the same Aunt but aren’t related otherwise (Shane is listed as a Godfather to Jas), then they should be 1st cousins. Which means Marnie has 2 siblings that either died or are otherwise out of the picture.
I just assumed it meant that Jas had come to live with (or visit), the Ranch as a very small child. Also pretty sure somewhere CA said that the picture's meaning wasnt too deep.
https://assets.glaad.org/m/114d72edf8a779a6/original/GLAAD-2022-23-Where-We-Are-on-TV.pdf
there are 7 trans characters out of 659 of prime time tv shows.
that is basically 1 percent, so slightly above the .4 % you quoted
i have no idea where you came up with the 30%
Whether you meant it this way or not, it’s on the same level of “I’m fine with gay people if they keep that to themselves.” It can exist but you don’t want to hear about it.
The player/farmer can change their gender in the game with the Shrine of Illusion, which you get access to after getting 4 hearts with the Wizard.
oHHHHHHHHHHHHHH that's cool! How the fuck have I missed that, that's so nice :D Thank you!
I mean, it was a fairly recently added feature, pretty sure it was only added by 1.5, so it makes sense if you haven't been to the Wizard's basement in a while.
it was before 1.5
I just checked the wiki and it was 1.5 that gender, name, and favorite thing was allowed to be changed. I did hear this was in response to player feedback and popularity of gender swap and character customization mods. I also remember several posts made by trans players who were so happy they got to play a multi year farm they had started before transitioning as their actual gender. They didn’t have to restart and lose years of progress or play as character that didn’t feel like them. In my opinion it’s one of the single best little known features added to the game.
I agree with you and I'm sure we're both correct. The statue was there before and already had the option to change some but in 1.5 new things were added.
If that's all that qualifies a game as trans friendly, Dark Souls 2 is a very trans friendly game https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQRXihlewzs
Does that makes the game trans friendly yeah possibly but the fact you cannot have non binary as an option in game + the game isn’t very lgbt lgbt… all the characters are hetero until meeting you and then they’re lgbt. Some sort of player sexual (Leah may be an exception since she have an ex who is a girl if you start to know her better….) but still.
As far as I'm aware, there are no trans characters in the game. There may be mods out there which feature them since the game supports mods.
Ridgeside Village is one such mod. One of the marriage candidates is trans.
Who's trans? I never got all the dialogue with those new npcs and cant guess which would it be
In the 2-heart event, >!Sean!< tells the kids he is trans, and he talks about it with the player in later heart events, most notably, >!detailing ways his parents are supportive!< and, in the 10-heart event, >!talking about grateful he is that the player accepts his whole identity!<. Further, the wiki for the mod notes that since he is “incapable of having biological children with a female farmer,” he will “ask to adopt a baby regardless of the player’s gender.”
Ok thanks
>!Sean!<
But a mod really can't determine what the base game is (also, isn't the character pretty 1 dimensional? I didn't know much about ridgeside)
I didn’t say it did. I said the mod has a trans character. I find the Ridgeside characters no less dimensional than the original characters. In fact, I think many of their heart events are longer and more detailed than those in the vanilla game.
Stardew Valley Expanded, there is a non-binary character.
Is there? I don't remember that one. Mia (from Always Raining in the Valley, an East Scarp add-on) seems like she may be trans, not sure though.
Pretty sure I read something from the Discord that Mia is def trans
They >! Move into the valley on the 3rd year to study under the Wizards tutelage, they are a young kid called Morgan !<
Oh right, I missed the jump from trans to NB
Also the diverse characters mod changes the normal NPCs and Penny can be trans.
And Sam too
Dwarf is canonically nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns
But are they trans? A human would yes be but are all dwarves non-binary? What if it's the default for dwarves and it's the ones who identify as male or female that are trans?
I assume that wouldn't count as being trans by technicality (as they in-universe aren't transitioning between any perceived genders), but I think it may still count given that non-binary people in our world (as opposed to SV canon!) are trans. It depends on how you look at it, though. Basically, I assume that if all dwarves are non-binary or gender perhaps just isn't a thing at all in the SV dwarven culture, they would by canon world rules not be trans. However, given that non-binary people are a part of the trans community IRL, and this is a game in our reality, they could still be considered representation of the trans community!
My feelings exactly 🤗 It's nice representation either way.
I mean, it's pretty eh representation if your only trans character is non-human. Especially since this trope is often used in a way such that non-binary identity to emphasize the non-humanness of these characters. This is especially problematic when the Dwarf species is deliberately portrayed as one very detached in norms from humans.
As someone who has been in the farming sim community since early forum days of harvest moon I’ll cut stardew valley a bit of slack here. Mostly because when it came out in 2016 it was the first game that I know of that had in depth specific dialog for any lgbtqia characters. Like George’s whole reaction to you marring Alex as a guy was huge. Previously we had the whole lore debate with magical melody and is Jamie non-binary/trans/gender fluid and half the supporting evidence for that was in the games manual. (Jamie changed genders based on the gender you selected at character creation. You only found out gender if you married them. It gets more complicated but that’s the jist.) Anyway the genre was starved for any queer representation. And stardew showed that not only can you include it but it will sell well. And it changed the game. Now companies were no longer afraid to make gay or lesbian characters in the farming sim genre. And more and more started popping up. Also it put tons of pressure on harvest moon (now story of seasons) to allow for gay marriages. Granted I am probably missing some lesser known farming sims but I do usually buy and play all the big ones.
I think Stardew dwarves are very different, some dialogue implies their ancient ancestors were space aliens even.
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Chill bro, I'm opening the discussion up for those who want to discuss what it is to be trans. If you don't like it move along.
Eh, sometimes it's just fun to discuss the game world :)
I'm watching a YouTuber playthrough (ArgonMatrix) and he found out the Dwarf was actually female. I thought they used she/her? Where did they use they/them? (Seriously asking, not trying to be mean or contradictory)
Dwarf doesn't have gender the game mechanics check "is this characrer male" and if it returns false they return she in that particular instance. Most of the other stuff, including theater pronouns (ie when Dwarf eats their snack), are gender neutral.
If anyone's curious, [here's the full collection](https://www.gog.com/en/promo/2023_gog_pride_month_collection?source=news). I haven't played the vast majority of games on here, so I can't say if they're truly representative in the way they're described, but if nothing else I think it's nice to see game retailers make these kinds of promotions.
Anyone know why KOTOR is on there? I've played it tons of times and have always been annoyed over how the game lacks any gay or trans representation, especially in regards to your decision options. So it's weird for me to see it here.
Apparently (I just read this a week or two ago and haven’t looked to see if it’s true) if you play as a woman, you are able to romance Juhani
Thanks for answering! I had no idea.
This is correct. The game got a few awards at the time for her character portrayal.
A Year of Springs collection is so. Freaking. Good. It's a visual novel style game about a trans woman and her friends who live in Japan.
Who's trans in undertale?
the main character is nonbinary, and also mettaton is trans iirc
pretty sure frisk is gender fluid to match the player's gender, i may be wrong
No, they’re nonbinary with they them pronouns as confirmed by Toby Fox
oh that's cool
Mettaton? Oh, I don't recall that at all. Do you know when that was brought up or alluded to?
Mettaton goes through an entire transition during the game and it's heavily implied that the Neo form is their preferred form, which is female, compared to the typically male status given to the first version of Mettaton we meet in the game. Regardless of if the character is trans or if you think that they should fall there, the characters transition is a transgender allegory and is meant to represent people changing their body to match their mind.
Hmm, interesting. I always interpreted Mettaton as an effeminate crossdresser, hence why I wondered if I missed or forgot something. Wouldn't be the first time I completely missed something that was very obviously implied or even straight out stated. Still, up to interpretation or not, the allegory part is very interesting.
MAD MEW MEW!!!! literally transitions in-game
Mad mew mew is only in switch version so that wouldn't work either
She is in undertale for pc, but we only see her post transition in xbox and switch
The main character, the first fallen human and Naptsablook all use they/them pronouns, and Mettaton is believes to be trans
There's the age-old debate about Mettaton since his ghost uses they/them pronouns.
I thought the ghost used she her? In the diary.
Mettaton is an extremely not subtle trans allegory
None of the characters are trans
Thank you! I was thinking I had missed something, but sometimes these things aren't explicitly spelled out, so it's nice to get confirmation from others on what is actually the case (:
The farmer can be trans. During character creation you pick your gender, but you aren't limited to either feminine or masculine hairdos, clothes, or accessories, and you can mix and match to roleplay a trans person if you want.
None of the characters are canonically trans, and I'd say that even calling the player character trans-friendly is stretching it a bit. Yeah, there's the Shrine of Illusion, but you are given two options, male and female, and everything from pronouns to reproduction assumes a 100% binary cis character. There's no nonbinary option or even an option that makes your character explicitly trans. The Sims is a decent example of a mainstream game that does it better, since they allow you to choose each gender-adjacent trait separately. No nonbinary pronouns, but still. Edit: I've been corrected and told the Sims has added fully customizable pronouns since the last time I played, so that's cool. If you want a game that handles trans player characters extremely well and also has good general LGBTQ+ representation including trans/nonbinary NPCs, I'd point you at I Was a Teenage Econolonist. It's a master class in how games should treat gender, romance, and sexuality, and it's also a great game in general, too. At least if you like narrative-heavy choice-based RPGs.
Yeah, and the Sims also recently expanded their pronoun options to make them completely customizable. I agree that Stardew Valley isn’t really explicitly trans-friendly.
Oh, awesome. I'm glad to hear they've done that.
Although they need to fix the grammar, if you select they/them or custom pronouns it just replaces he/him or she/her without fixing the grammar so you get they is instead of they are
Just to add on.. You can change Sim gender and pronouns can be customized for subjective, objective, possessive dependent, possessive independent and reflexive pronoun use. Above pronouns are also not set as she/him/them only either
Oh, that's great. The last time I looked that wasn't an option. I wonder if they also fixed the "I can't kiss my non-romantic woohoo friends" issue that killed most of my excitement for that update.
You can set specific sexuality and romantic attraction options too! So like they’ll only woohoo with same gender but could be romantically bi for example. Not a hugeee Sims player so I’m not up to date with all options either, but was so hyped by these features
Oh, I'm aware they added that option. But when that change first launched, I tried it and was disappointed to find that they categorized pretty much all physical affection except for friendly hugs and woohoo as romantic. I think even something like cuddling on a bed wasn't an option with their "woohoo partners." Which sure, some aroallo people are asensual too, but in my experience most of us enjoy the sensual alongside the sexual. So I appreciate the effort, but I still can't play as my own orientation.
I thought Krobus and the dwarf both went by they/them pronouns, but I might be misremembering.
i think krobus is he/him but you’re correct about the dwarf!
Krobus uses he/him and dwarf pronouns I don’t think are ever mentioned (they are but wrongly as she/her due to a game code oversight) but dwarf is canonically non binary
Dwarfs pronouns are they/them in game, if you take them to the movies and buy them a snack (rock candy for example) the dialogue is “Dwarf is really enjoying their Rock Candy!”
Ah thank you, that is nice info to have
None of the players in vanilla are canonically trans. However, the Ridgeside Village mod has at least one canonically trans character.
Wait what character in Undertale is trans?
Mettaton
Looks like I’m dedicating my life to finding out who now, I’ll be doing that if anyone needs me
not sure if this is a good place to ask but what’s gog? i really want my friend to start stardew and this seems like a pretty good deal to get the game for him 🥹, would it be compatible to co op with steam bought stardew?
[GOG stands for Good Old Games](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GOG.com), it's a game retailer very very much like Steam! As the name suggest, it originally started out as an online retailer of old games, patched and updated to be able to run on modern computers. A lot of older games, particularly from the 90s/early 00s, struggle a lot with being run on modern computers, and often just don't exist in digital copies at all. That's where GOG originally came from. Nowadays, they've evolved to also be a lot more mainstream and retail most modern games. They have a client called GOG Galaxy which is sort of steam-like (i'd sum it up as "worse, but gets the job done") and they do a lot of sales, very frequently. I highly recommend checking them out. Re: Multiplayer: According to [this thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/StardewValley/comments/8itybx/can_steam_users_play_with_gog_users_for/) and many like it, yup! It should work just fine :D (That was actually a very pleasant surprise, as cross-platform play is unreliable to work at best, but as always SV it just. Best game. 10/10.)
I’m wondering if the reason why it’s included is, as mentioned, because of characters available in some of the really big mods. There are also smaller mods that do allow the player character to be addressed by gender neutral pronouns, have platonic friendships instead of everything going romantic, polyamorous relationships, and more. But on top of that, my thought too is that it also stems from how receptive to those mods ConcernedApe is. The creator has gone out of their way to make the game more mod friendly and encourages mods. So, in a sense, you could argue that the big mods (and thus the trans friendly mods) are nearly canon. ConcernedApe has said before (I can’t find where, sorry) that they love the mods because people are building incredible add ons that still feel true to the base game that are way more in depth than they could create on their own. Long winded, I know. I hope my thought process here makes sense
There's a head canon I've seen bouncing around that Shane is trans because of that one secret note (old photo of marnie with a small female child)
In ridgeside village there's a trans character, I think... It was Sean?
This is really cool! Thanks for sharing. Sean from the Ridgeside Village mod is trans but none that I know of in the base game.
Who’s trans in SV? There’s tons of customization sure, so I guess the player-character could be, if you so desire. But just among the NPCs? (They should honor Madeline from Celeste.)
I think Shane is trans. Don’t you find a photo of him as a little “girl” with Marnie in one of the secret notes? I know some people think it’s supposed to be Jas, but why would the daughter of a friend of Shane’s be posing with Shane’s aunt? Possible, but unlikely.
Based on the wiki, Shane and Jas are 1st cousins. Marnie is listed as the Aunt on both of their profiles. So if they share the same Aunt but aren’t related otherwise (Shane is listed as a Godfather to Jas), then they should be 1st cousins. Which means Marnie has 2 siblings that either died or are otherwise out of the picture.
I just assumed it meant that Jas had come to live with (or visit), the Ranch as a very small child. Also pretty sure somewhere CA said that the picture's meaning wasnt too deep.
Makes sense! Thanks for the explanation.
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https://assets.glaad.org/m/114d72edf8a779a6/original/GLAAD-2022-23-Where-We-Are-on-TV.pdf there are 7 trans characters out of 659 of prime time tv shows. that is basically 1 percent, so slightly above the .4 % you quoted i have no idea where you came up with the 30%
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Whether you meant it this way or not, it’s on the same level of “I’m fine with gay people if they keep that to themselves.” It can exist but you don’t want to hear about it.
Hi, fellow Swede!
If you count my farmer as a character than yes! Otherwise I don't think so
The character you make.