Palworld caught in gender row over its character creator
Pocket Pair's Palworld is caught in another this row, and this time, disgruntled gamers complaining about its inclusive character creator and lack of gender options.
24th Jan 2024 10:43
Images via Pocket Pair
Palworld caught in gender row over its character creator
Pocket Pair's Palworld is caught in another this row, and this time, disgruntled gamers complaining about its inclusive character creator and lack of gender options.
24th Jan 2024 10:43
Images via Pocket Pair
Despite Pocket Pair's Palworld soaring up the Steam charts, smashing concurrent player counts, and selling millions of copies in a matter of days, it's time at the top could be short-lived. The unofficial nickname of "Pokemon with guns" has stuck, and by the looks of it, Nintendo is circling like vultures.
If (and it's a big if) Palworld manages to escape Nintendo's clutches, it has other problems to contend with. The survival is already embroiled in copyright and AI scandals, and now, Palworld find itself caught in a gender row. Yes, inclusivity is apparently now a cause for concern.
How does Palworld's character creator work?
While the Pokemon-inspired Pals of Palworld are defined by either male or female, your player character isn't. It makes sense with Pals because you can breed them as part of your sadistic business empire - also being able to harvest their organs or sell them for meat.
Even though Palworld is effectively Pokemon for adults, players aren't getting down and dirty in Palworld, so why should gender really matter if you aren't trying to pop out kids of your own? The character creator is nowhere near as varied as something like Fallout 4, but there are still some basic options.
Instead of picking a specific gender, Palworld lets you pick body types. There are 12 presets to pick from, and while it's pretty limited, you can then customise them further with the likes of skin colour, arm size, and 27 different hairstyles. Although your character doesn't speak, there also different "voice" options for the noises they exert.
Palworld's character creator isn't exactly up there with Baldur's Gate 3, and while there's no roadmap for after the game leaves early access, Pocket Pair has hinted that it will create one based on player feedback. A more complex character creator seems likely, but for now, a vocal minority has a problem with what we've got.
It's Starfield's pronoun row all over again
Amidst accusations of Palworld being "woke" and that Japan (where Pocket Pair is based) is trying to push an "ideology", some are clearly pressed by the idea they won't be resigned to male or female. When the argument spilt over to Twitter, you can only imagine what a dumpster fire it became.
Asking whether you can breed players like Pals, the gender issue reared its head. One player wrote, "The player creator has that trash woke 'body type 1 or 2'. There is only two genders with a defined body type each. Thats a fact. The game clearly is making an error on that fact."
Another added, "Can someone please tell the Palworld devs that most American gamers aren't delusional and we very much want the male/female gender options back in our games? Seriously this is all a push from western devs to virtue signal for ESG scores."
In a hilarious twist, the Palworld devs seemed to claim that it's gone with gender-neutral presets of body types because "Americans sometimes want to make very ugly characters." See, inclusive and based. After the whole Starfield pronoun debate, it seems that character creators really are the biggest issue going on in some people's lives - go figure!
About The Author
Tom Chapman
Tom is Trending News Editor at GGRecon, with an NCTJ qualification in Broadcast Journalism and over seven years of experience writing about film, gaming, and television. With bylines at IGN, Digital Spy, Den of Geek, and more, Tom’s love of horror means he's well-versed in all things Resident Evil, with aspirations to be the next Chris Redfield.
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