VVVVVV

[Info Teddy]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/70300/VVVVVV/

The entry reads:

Contains overtly pro-LGBTQ+ messaging. According to the creator, the player character has an intentionally ambiguous gender and uses they/them pronouns. You can find those comments at the link below.

This has a grain of truth to it but there are a couple things I disagree with.

First of all, I couldn't find the link mentioned, I don't know if the list has a page of sources or something like that. Just for future reference, the part about the player character (Viridian) having an intentionally ambiguous gender is true and you can look at the translator notes to verify this:

https://github.com/TerryCavanagh/VVVVVV/blob/8b62bb1d6541dfd5f02870dc5eef53c571b281e8/desktop_version/lang/README-translators.txt#L179

But at no point in the game is Viridian ever referred to with pronouns, nor do I think the creator (Terry Cavanagh) ever said that Viridian's pronouns are specifically they/them. Terry might have referred to them with they/them pronouns and some external documentation (VSIX wiki, etc.) might do so too, but you wouldn't see that in-game. In fact the translator notes say to avoid referring to Viridian with pronouns at all if possible.

So given the difference between subtle and overt, I don't think it should count as being overt pro-LGBTQ+ messaging. If anything it doesn't even rise to the level of being subtle. When I played the game for the first time, I automatically assumed Viridian was male and referred to them as such, and I didn't even realize there was nothing to indicate Viridian's gender. I think that was the intention of making Viridian's gender unspecified. Not to push some sort of pro-LGBT message (although if it matters, Terry Cavanagh is definitely pro-LGBT) but to make it easier for the player to embody themselves as Viridian.

[› Furin]

That's a good point.

I agree. I will change the game's review to informational.

As for the link in question, that would be this one:

https://github.com/TerryCavanagh/VVVVVV/issues/863

Specifically, the following excerpts:

Verdigris, Vitellary and Vermilion are male. Victoria and Violet are female. Viridian is deliberately unspecified - when translating cutscenes, if at all possible, try to avoid specifying their gender, even if that leads to some otherwise awkward phrasing or requires the use of some cutting edge grammar tricks in your language.
...
Viridian is a classic hero - unphased by danger, never worried, always completely certain that they'll be able to fix everything.

Edit: Actually, after checking the review, the link in question is the one I provided in the comment below, not this one. This one still gets you there, you just have to scroll down to the comment.

2nd Edit: Now the curated review links here and I've added the url to the github page to this game's review in the Google Sheet.

[› Furin]

You can get to the excerpts directly with this link:
https://github.com/TerryCavanagh/VVVVVV/issues/863#issuecomment-1314097742