The Czech Republic version of the Mass Effect board game will be changed. A representative of Asmodee has stated that the licensed board game will be released in the region with squadmates' pronouns removed, possibly as a capitulation to bad-faith culture war advocates.
The Czech Republic Mass Effect Board Game Release
The changes to the Czech Republic Mass Effect board game were revealed on the website Zatrolene-hry. In the comments section, Asmodee Czech Republic's Brand Manager, Michal, stated the following:
The subject in question regards the Mass Effect board game including personal pronouns for each playable squad member in the top corner of their character sheets.
At first this decision appears to be purely linguistic. The Czech language isn't the same as English as it uses grammatical gender with its nouns; and that's before local colloquialisms and cultural affectations are taken into account.
But the section in parentheses, saying they will argue with the publisher that they don't want pronouns put into the game, frames the act as confrontational.
It is a position strongly associated with a rise of entitled fandom-grifting culture war advocates. Ones that have been pushing back against the inclusion of gender expression terms in any creative work, claiming it is pushing back against a "woke agenda."
In fact, these advocates have review-bombed the game and harrassed the lead designer, Eric Lang, into deleting several social media posts.
Another user on the site asked Michal why Asmodee CZ is making this change. Was it being done to mollify a certain audience? A declaration of censorship or alteration to the original designers' vision?
Michal's answer wasn't exactly mindful. He stated that just as thousands of works have released in most recent years without pronouns, Mass Effect will be no different. Furthermore, their removal would have zero issues since "Liara is a female looking character, why would there be anything written under her?"
This example is dubious at best since in the world of Mass Effect, Liara comes from a monogendered alien race which, while feminine presenting, have diverse gender expression supported by the lore; hence her (She/They) pronouns in the board game.
Additional commenters spoke out on Michal's reasoning, citing the culture war harassment mentioned above alongside ongoing progressive trends. In response, Michal stated the decision to remove pronouns from the game happened before these issues came to light, saying the decision was practical and not political.
However, Michal's statements are undercut by additional posts and responses seen as aggressive. Responses that were deleted by the site's moderators.
While crude and full of discourse, it seems Asmodee CZ has made a notable decision on altering their release of the Mass Effect board game. A change that has, regardless of reason, has been altered from the creator's original vision.
