Minecraft Creator Originally Intended For "Steve" To Be Genderless

Markus "Notch" Persson wrote up a blog recently about the issue of gender in Minecraft. Persson's original intention when designing the game was to have the player character be entirely genderless. He regrets adding a goatee to the character and the name Steve came from a joke response when someone asked him about the character.

Persson also wrote about the gender of the animals in Minecraft, saying he intentionally designed them to be ambiguous. Persson wrote, "Cows have horns and udders (even if I’ve later learned that there are some cows where the females do have horns), and the chicken/duck/whatevers have heads that look like roosters, but still lay eggs. For breeding, any animal can breed with any other animal of the same species."

Persson also stated that the genderless nature of all the animals and characters in the game makes them all technically homosexuals. "Also, as a fun side fact, it means every character and animal in Minecraft is homosexual because there’s only one gender to choose from. Take THAT, homophobes!"

You can check out the full blog by clicking here.