For variants like shogi, xiangqi and possibly makruk, on a couple of occasions we discussed using gettext localization to change the names of clock/menu items/announcements (Black, White). I think this is really too cumbersome, which is why we never did it. Also unknown variants would still be labeled as Black and White. I think what we really need is two new flags that if are used, override the hardcoded names. That way so localization isn’t broken by default. Something like -variantFirstPlayerName -variantSecondPlayerName.
What do you think?