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<blockquote data-quote="wingsandsword" data-source="post: 8040140" data-attributes="member: 14159">A lot of things people might take offense at today, would have NOT been accepted if done a different way in the 1980's or 1990's.I remember a High School English teacher lecturing our class (circa 1995) on why &quot;they&quot; as a singular pronoun instead of &quot;he&quot; or &quot;she&quot; was inappropriate and they'd strongly mark down any paper that tried to use a gender-neutral &quot;they&quot;. . .and that you MUST use &quot;he&quot; when describing someone if you don't know their gender and that &quot;he or she&quot; or &quot;they&quot; are outright wrong.Using &quot;he&quot; as a generic singular third person pronoun was the linguistic norm until the 21st century, to the point that schoolteachers still actively taught it that way.&nbsp; A generic singular &quot;they&quot; would have stood out like a sore thumb.&nbsp; As I recall, a lot of works in the 1990's had a generic disclaimer that using the pronoun &quot;he&quot; was not intended to presume gender. . .because it was still generally accepted as the generic pronoun instead of &quot;they&quot;.As for the issue of the game focusing on white European cultures. . .that was the general presumption of not just D&amp;D, but a lot of fantasy in general, that it is essentially based on Western or Central Europe but with monsters and magic (and polytheism).&nbsp; Think of foundational fantasy works like Lord of the Rings, that no doubt were on players minds when they played that had that presumption.&nbsp; A highly diverse fantasy setting that wasn't firmly rooted in assuming a pseudo-European setting would NOT have been what players were expecting.&nbsp; Players were certainly open to &quot;foreign&quot; settings, but &quot;Magical Western Europe&quot; was still very much the assumed default.There have been small but notable changes to language and culture in the 42 years since AD&amp;D 1e and 31 years since AD&amp;D 2e was published, and D&amp;D reflects the language and culture of those eras.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="wingsandsword, post: 8040140, member: 14159"] A lot of things people might take offense at today, would have NOT been accepted if done a different way in the 1980's or 1990's. I remember a High School English teacher lecturing our class (circa 1995) on why "they" as a singular pronoun instead of "he" or "she" was inappropriate and they'd strongly mark down any paper that tried to use a gender-neutral "they". . .and that you MUST use "he" when describing someone if you don't know their gender and that "he or she" or "they" are outright wrong. Using "he" as a generic singular third person pronoun was the linguistic norm until the 21st century, to the point that schoolteachers still actively taught it that way. A generic singular "they" would have stood out like a sore thumb. As I recall, a lot of works in the 1990's had a generic disclaimer that using the pronoun "he" was not intended to presume gender. . .because it was still generally accepted as the generic pronoun instead of "they". As for the issue of the game focusing on white European cultures. . .that was the general presumption of not just D&D, but a lot of fantasy in general, that it is essentially based on Western or Central Europe but with monsters and magic (and polytheism). Think of foundational fantasy works like Lord of the Rings, that no doubt were on players minds when they played that had that presumption. A highly diverse fantasy setting that wasn't firmly rooted in assuming a pseudo-European setting would NOT have been what players were expecting. Players were certainly open to "foreign" settings, but "Magical Western Europe" was still very much the assumed default. There have been small but notable changes to language and culture in the 42 years since AD&D 1e and 31 years since AD&D 2e was published, and D&D reflects the language and culture of those eras. [/QUOTE]

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