Traditionalists will say "he". If you are writing a paper for a university professor, this is probably the way to go.Koumei wrote:Which is the correct one to use in English when referring to a specific sentient creature (as opposed to "If anyone enters the area, he or she must Save vs Fiery Doom) that is neither male or female? Do you use "it" or does English default to male in these cases?
( Of course the last fucker I got into a game-related gender-pronoun argument with helpfully citied AD&D 2nd edition as their reasoning for this usage. And I think I've made my feelings clear that whatever the subject, NOT doing it the way 2e did is an improvement.)
People trying to actually sell their game product to a mass market tend to use "he or she" or occasionally "they". If you are writing commercially, this is usually the way to go.
People trying to sell their game to insecure teenage boys will use "she". If you are writing for White Wolf, you must do this.
( I think I've also made my feelings clear about White Wolf's editorial quality. See page XX for details. )
I would personally rewrite it as either the safe "Anyone entering the area must Save vs Fiery Doom" unless the style guide let me use the 2nd person to get away with "if you enter the area, you must save vs fiery doom". Both of those are gender-neutral, grammatically correct English without either screaming "Hey lookie here, see this I'm using gender neutral language! Arn I not just so progressive with it!?"
IMX, most of the people trying to prescriptively impose new gender-neutral 3rd person language on English usage are saying "I have severe conflict with traditional gender roles as a key part of my identity" and you should probably treat such people as you would treat people who you know to have post-traumatic stress disorder.
