renoirdarkwind-blog asked: I know you're not a developer, but this is a question that has bothered me for awhile. Why do you continue to use "he or she" when referring to a player, when "They" is correct, unambiguous, and more inclusive?

The issue is a lot more nuanced than you might think. Correct, unambiguous, more inclusive. Let’s examine each one of those.

Correct - Editing is a very complex part of Magic. To properly do their job, the editors need tools. One of those tools is called the Chicago Manual of Style. It allows them to have a set of rules to allow them to be thorough and consistent. To have it be the most effective, they can’t pick and choose which parts to follow and which parts not to follow. Style guides evolve as society and language changes but it takes time.

Unambiguous - “They” can mean two things - singular they (meaning just one player) or plural they (meaning many players). We use both meanings on cards. The problem with using singular they is that we have no word to mean plural they other than “they”. While inclusivity is very important to us, it is not the number one function of temptating. The number one function is clarity. We’re a game. You have to understand what cards do. That means we can’t have one word with two different but very similar meanings. And as there is no other word for plural they, it is hard to use singular they.

More inclusive - One of our many goals since the game began was making the game feel more inclusive for women. Game playing has historically been more thought of as a male activity and when the game started we wanted to strongly express that Magic was not just a game for men which is why we used “he or she” rather than “he”. Another ramification on changing “he or she” to “they” is losing “she” in text on cards. While we have come a long way (our last big deep dive showed female players up to 38%), we still have more work to do and losing “she” would be us taking away one of our strongest indicators in text on the cards themselves that we want women to feel welcome playing Magic.

This isn’t to say that there isn’t strong reasons for using “they”, but the idea that it’s an easy no-brainier decision is simply unfair.