Recently, a heated online exchange took place between Elon Musk and Matt Hansen, the art director of the action RPG Avowed. The controversy stemmed from the presence of pronouns in a character menu screenshot from the game.
The incident began when former Blizzard employee and World of Warcraft team lead Mark Kern criticized the inclusion of pronouns in Avowed on his X account.
I'm drawing a line. I'm rejecting any game that has pronouns in it (and you grammar nazis know what I mean, stop being stupid). I don't care if the game is good. A message must be sent. Pronouns promote the woke mind virus and gamers must send a clear message.
Elon Musk supported Mark Kern's statement, adding: «Having pronouns in a fantasy video game is utterly unacceptable».
In response, Avowed's art director Matt Hansen sharply criticized Elon Musk for his comments.
I wanted so badly to make him mad with my game, and I can't believe it actually worked. Just wait until you see the default... Honestly, I am quite frankly giddy. I cannot think of a single person in the world I would rather irritate.
Some users quickly reminded Matt Hansen of his previous statements, where he expressed a preference for prioritizing Black artists.
Reminder to black artists out there who are looking for portfolio reviews or job advice: my DMs are open and you will always have my priority. We got too many crusty white dudes in this field, please let me help you replace me one day — I want to go back to living in the woods.
On X, users shared their opinions under Elon Musk's post about the situation.
«100%. Thank you Elon.Keep identity politics out of our hobby», — SWT_Channel.
«Preferred pronouns are just feeding the delusions of mentally ill adults who never grew up», — kangminjlee.
«It needs to end. NOW», — SmashJT.
«I agree with Elon Musk», — ILA_NewsX.
«Ironically it makes sense because using pronouns is some mentally ill delusional fantasy», — WallStreetApes.
As a reminder, Avowed is set to release on February 18, 2025, for PC and Xbox Series X/S. The game is being developed by Obsidian Entertainment.
It's worth noting that pronoun settings in video games are becoming more common. For instance, The Sims 4 allows players to choose pronouns like «they/them», «she/her», and «he/him» in the character editor. Players can also use custom pronouns by adding nominative, objective, and reflexive forms.