I know this isn’t really your area of expertise, but you are probably in a better position to know than many commentators on the subject:

The explicit or implicit point of many people who argue against using male pronouns to represent persons of unspecified gender is that such usage CAUSES sexism in readers.  Do you know of any published studies than show that to be the case?

When I write or translate rules, I choose a sex for the “lead actor” in the rules’ personal pronouns, and stick with it.  Players who interact with her in examples will be the other sex for extremely simple clarity.  The reason I choose this over the “his/her” or “their” options is simple readability.  Sure, a male reader may be offended that She is supposed to do something with Her cards, but I find it’s easier for the mind to digest.  ...especially if the group is learning the game together and someone is reading the rules aloud.

My real preference is to write rules in the forbidden second-person voice.  If you are reading the rules, it’s as if they’re talking to you.  Understanding who is supposed to do what on your turn is a bit easier.  If you are reading the rules aloud to a group, each feels like you / the rules are speaking to them, rather than about some arbitrary female/male players.

My favorite use of personal pronouns, though, is in Blue Moon.  The cards being written in a first-person voice is genius.  I read the card aloud, so when it says I do something, it’s abundantly clear who does it.  The only difficulty I have with it is that I am so accustomed to reading “you” or “target player” in other games, that when silently reading the cards in my hand, I very occasionally misinterpret a card at first scan.  Otherwise, I adore it!

Jay,

That is a really interesting question.  I am confident that some would scoff and say that there’s no way that reading “he”, “him”, and “his” all the time could taint a reader’s perspective over time.  I think it would be fascinating to see the results of just such a study, because I think rote is a very valid way of infusing knowledge and belief.  Even input from yourself.  For example, I think we can screw something up, and come up with a plausible (but not entirely true) excuse, then fixate on that excuse so much that we actually have convinced ourselves it’s true.  So, yes, any studies on that sort of thing, Valerie?

For the record, I preferred (d).

A is correct, D works, especially if the rulebook is written informally.  If you’ve been using She/her previously, B works for me, too.

How about,
“A card is discarded from each deck,”
or
“A card is discarded from each player’s deck,”
or
“Discard a card from each player’s deck,”
or
“Each player discards a card?”

Argh, there isn’t a good way!  :)

I am glad that the “controversy” didn’t slow up the rules going to the printer!

I would like to take this time to interject a request I sent many months ago here to “Ask the Publishers a Question” but have to see or hear anything since. It is similar in theme to the ideas of universal language for games.

As a amateur designer on a budget, I am extremely interested in developing an established set of symbols for all games to indicate the rudimentary actions, mechanics, and formulas often used in games. Things like card drawing, bidding, converting 2 red blocks for 1 blue block, moving the meeple 2 regions to the left, etc. could all be done in a universal symbol chart.

There are 4 reasons I think this would be a great thing:

1) cheaper to make games (the artwork ain’t cheap)

2) games will be easier to learn ("I’ve seen that before!")

3) games will be easier to teach ("Any time you see that it means draw cards equal to the printed number in the box.")

4) easier to translate

The knocks against this is that publishers would have to adopt the system and that games could lose some of their uniqueness. One publisher may not think that the established symbol for draw is clear enough. So many publishers, so many opinions. How could so many people agree. Who decides what? Who has the time to make the symbol set?

I think that individual publishers could do what they like as far as choosing to adopt a symbol set but if one were adopted I think it could help the hobby grow. Publishers could always individualize the accepted symbols to the game to keep it unique anyways. I think there are many people that would love to take up the task given the opportunity.

Anyways, I’d love to get opinions on this and I am sorry if this thread theft. It was intended as added discussion.

Style Guides grow and change, just like Dictionaries do, but even more slowly. I would expect in 10 years that option D will be the preferred usage in many style guides.

Be cutting edge, embrace option D now!

I will also note that that’s American style Guides.  British style guides (eg Fowler) are perfectly happy with D.  As was Shakespeare.

I prefer A,, then D.

Boo on D! I’ve seen enough instances of the singular “they” being confused with the plural “they” to swear it off forever. I prefer Nathan’s method in which one gender takes the starring role within the main text of the rules, and the other gender is at the forefront in the examples. This system reserves the use of “they” for when you are referring to a group and not an individual, in addition to allowing you to write clearer examples of play since you can contrast “she” and “he” easily.

English has two gendered pronouns, so use them to good effect when possible!

Eric

Of course, the best solution would be to stick with languages that simply don’t have this problem. Therefore I propose that from now on all board game rules should be written in Finnish. There, problem solved!

In any case, I really dislike his/her and s/he.

William, that’s a great idea!  I think that is something that we (you, I, and everyone else) should define as a community.  While there are far too many variations for the standard to cover all the bases, most games just use the basics, as you imply.  “Play a card from your hand” and “Draw a card” for instance… Anyway, look me up on boardgamegeek, and send me a geekmail, so we can start this!  (Sorry, I tried to do the same, but I was unsure which of the three William Baldwins you are!  I’m the only Nathan Morse [so far].)

Eric, thanks!  ...and Mikko, that’s a great idea!  Hee hee hee.  Suomi, the new ludo lingua franca....

How about Players each discard a card from their deck?

I am still wrestling with this at the moment. I still have some tentative s/he and his/her which I really don’t like at all, but I’m having trouble finding a better solution.

Examples are easy ... alternate genders.

Melissa, it would have to be “decks” since “players” is plural.

For example:
Driver, start your engine.
Drivers, start your engines. 

This isn’t confusing for the drivers because they each only have one engine in their car.  In Dominion, each player only has one deck, so it should be fine.  But a player who isn’t quite sure yet about the distinction between the draw deck and the discard pile might wonder if he (not they!) actually has two decks (and should discard one from each of them).