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Ultima seriesHistory question about Ultima 3's gender options(7 posts)(7 posts)
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Posted August 24, 2018
Ultima 3 did something that hasn't been seen in any other entry in the series before or since; when choosing a new character's sex, there are three options. If you press "O" (not zero) when asked to choose a new character's sex, the game will give the character a sex of "Other" (and in the Amiga version, with the mouse-based character creation, the option isn't even hidden). This option didn't change the gameplay at all (the game doesn't have any reason to use this information, as there are no cases where pronouns are used, and each class has only one sprite regardless of gender), but it was a nice touch IMO.

My question is: When the game was released and people found out about this feature, what was the reaction? I would be interested in knowing both about the reaction of the general public, and about the reaction from LGBT gamers (particularly transgender and gender non-conforming players) to this feature.
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Posted August 25, 2018
When I was playing Ultima 3 originally after it was released I knew about this option. It made no difference.
Posted August 25, 2018
Same here. It meant nothing, possibly because, at that time the internet hadn't appeared, nor had it and social media moved everyone into contending ideological camps.
There could have been a big storm of outrage somewhere, but it blew past me unheard if there was.
Posted September 02, 2018
Garriot was getting enough negative attention from other stuff in the original trilogy (killing, stealing, the box art of Ultima 3 certainly didn't help either) that ultimately caused him to create Ultima 4 in the way he did, that I doubt anyone noticed or cared enough to make a big deal of it.
Posted September 14, 2018
avatar
dtgreene: Ultima 3 did something that hasn't been seen in any other entry in the series before or since; when choosing a new character's sex, there are three options. If you press "O" (not zero) when asked to choose a new character's sex, the game will give the character a sex of "Other" (and in the Amiga version, with the mouse-based character creation, the option isn't even hidden). This option didn't change the gameplay at all (the game doesn't have any reason to use this information, as there are no cases where pronouns are used, and each class has only one sprite regardless of gender), but it was a nice touch IMO.

My question is: When the game was released and people found out about this feature, what was the reaction? I would be interested in knowing both about the reaction of the general public, and about the reaction from LGBT gamers (particularly transgender and gender non-conforming players) to this feature.
Back when this was released, male and female were the only genders people ever referred to; if anyone felt differently they hid it from the public. Consequently, I always assumed the O (referred to in the manual, btw, so not hidden) was for fun, or maybe for role playing a Fuzzy, whatever that was supposed to be.

I don't recall anyone making a fuss about it, unlike the game cover. Around that time there was a TV movie that also negatively portrayed youthful AD&D players as not having a solid grasp on reality.
Posted September 15, 2018
I think the O was related to the fuzzies.
Posted September 15, 2018
I was rather young at the time, but I believe I always assumed it was something like a hermaphrodite (the concept anyway, I wasn't aware of the specific word at the time).
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Ultima seriesHistory question about Ultima 3's gender options(7 posts)(7 posts)
(7 posts)