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Andorian Gender

SystemSystem Member, NoReporting Posts: 178,019 Arc User
edited February 2012 in Controls and User Interface
They're just male and female now. What happened to the mentions of zhen, shen, chan and thaan?
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited January 2012
    I'd love to hear the reason for removing this. As if male and female isn't a thing most human beings with basic visual comprehension can distinguish by, oh, age 4.

    "I think it's a female, it has TRIBBLE, but I dunno, her shoulders a smidge wide... Gee I wish they'd label this clearer."
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited January 2012
    As an avid Andorian player and fanI agree, they should go back to the 4-genders.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2012
    Well I'm glad at least a few people agree. I just think that the four genders was a defining aspect of Andorians, and at least helped push a non-human centric view of things into the game.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2012
    I admit to being a tad rusty on my Andorian culture, but...what's the issue? You've got two female genders and two male ones - outside observers wouldn't exactly be able to tell the difference unless they asked or something, and if I remember seeing the character creator correctly, it labels both male and female with both of their Andorian equivalents (basically mix and match). Ultimately the reason we only have two comes down to MMO homogenization, but I admit to being curious as to what exactly the distinctions are between the separate genders.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2012
    If you recall it was only the species description which related the four genders. I suspect some player's were asking that the UI be modified to permit the player to actually choose from zhen, shen, chan or thaan. Despite two of the four would appear virtually identical. Which would mean the first screen for Character Creation UI couldn't remain generic across species.

    Which, IMO, is exactly what should be done. Make it more Trek from the start and more fans appreciate the effort.

    However, we will always be reminded that we share our computer game server with parents who don't want to explain broader gender concepts - even if just within a scifi setting - to their teen or pre-teen as the child makes his/her first STO character. :rolleyes:
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2012
    Joshmaul wrote:
    I admit to being a tad rusty on my Andorian culture, but...what's the issue?

    The issue is that the UI used to say "Female (zhen, shen)" and "Male (___, ___)" (probably got those wrong). Now it doesn't, and just has Male & Female. There is no good reason for what is basically a step backwards.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2012
    Felderburg wrote: »
    The issue is that the UI used to say "Female (zhen, shen)" and "Male (___, ___)" (probably got those wrong). Now it doesn't, and just has Male & Female. There is no good reason for what is basically a step backwards.

    Oh, it IS gone. I do remember them being there...hmm, I wonder why they were removed?

    The male genders are chan and thaan, BTW.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2012
    I think they changed it because it wasn't canon.

    "In non-canonical novels by Pocket Books, Andorians have four sexes: zhen, shen, chan, and thaan. In function and appearance, zhens and shens are largely female, and chans and thaans approximate males, with shens and chans the more androgynous of the pairings."

    Bottom of page.
    http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Andorian
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2012
    I think they changed it because it wasn't canon.

    "In non-canonical novels by Pocket Books, Andorians have four sexes: zhen, shen, chan, and thaan. In function and appearance, zhens and shens are largely female, and chans and thaans approximate males, with shens and chans the more androgynous of the pairings."

    Bottom of page.
    http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Andorian

    They use resources from novels all the time. The Luna class, for example, isn't canon in the hard sense, yet they included it. There's no reason why they couldn't use the gender terms.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2012
    I think they changed it because it wasn't canon.

    Considering this game does occasionally rely on certain aspects of the novel canon and comic canon (Countdown, in particular, establishing Data as captain of the Enterprise, the supernova that destroyed Romulus originating from the Hobus system, and bits from the novels, like establishing Donatra as the Empress of the Imperial Romulan State, etc.), that argument's not exactly as binding as you'd think, given that - other than the destruction of Romulus - everything after Nemesis is subject to interpretation.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2012
    I think they changed it because it wasn't canon.

    "In non-canonical novels by Pocket Books, Andorians have four sexes: zhen, shen, chan, and thaan. In function and appearance, zhens and shens are largely female, and chans and thaans approximate males, with shens and chans the more androgynous of the pairings."

    Bottom of page.
    http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Andorian

    It doesn't have to be canon though. The Luna-class starships are taken from the non-canonical novels; the Spiral-wave disruptors we now have on Cardassian ships were solely taken from the DS9 tech manual. So what was the issue with using this Andorian reference to four sexes from the books?
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2012
    It might not have been 100% canon, but it was a nice touch. Maybe Cryptic thought it was too confusing for the average F2P players brain?
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2012
    That, or possibly CBS didn't want that. They are rather at the beck and call of CBS it seems, no?

    Maybe they don't want to muddle future use of the Andorians in TV shows and movies by muddying the waters now in this game. Maybe they said "drop that part"...

    Just a thought.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2012
    CBS would have had to approve it in the first place for it to appear at all. So I don't think it's a CBS thing.
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