I would call it ‘premade’ instead of ‘canon’ or ‘default’.
Personally, in the projects where I do this, I make multiple premade options, to make it clear that none of them are the ‘true’ version of the MC.
But I just make them for the players who don’t want to bother with customization. I don’t really see how they solve any of the problems around gender-locks?
Oh hey you’re right I didn’t see that he was proposing that as a solution, it’s not a solution, just a way to make things more interesting for people who want to customize.
I think presets are a great solution, especially if the player can still modify them. Not everyone cares for their MC’s appearance but the solution - to me at least - is not to get rid of them or allow the player to skip them.
One of the things that bothers me about regular CRPGs with customized protags is the non-entity-ness. This ‘empty shell’ syndrome. The world doesn’t react to your appearance, doesn’t remember your responses and at least tracks your actions if it’s a good CRPG but rarely has opinions about who the MC is as a person.
That’s why romance always requires a lot of ‘adding your own details’ to me and I can see where some people come from when they mention how it could feel like empty fluff because PC could be anybody and look like anybody. At the same time some romances I could never get into because they were written with a specific MC in mind (sorry Astarion, vampires suck anyway) and the only traceable characteristic PC had was not to my liking (in case of Astarion you have to lean into being a trusting wide-eyed doe after he attacks you (the 2nd time!)).
IFs can provide that immersion. At the cost of everything else, graphics, gameplay that is more than choices etc IFs can give you that dimension where you feel that the world sees the MC.
Premade works too, though i was thinking more in the context of how dragon age handles its default world states. the “canon” dragon age origins character is a female dalish elf rogue with no romances who made certain specific plot decisions.
Moreso in the sense of “if i was writing this as a novel rather than an IF the canon protagonist would be male with this hair color and this eye color, but since its an IF ill still implement the intended character, but allow for some customization of them, and allow for completely original characters with the same degree of depth should the player choose that”
That is exactly what I would want to avoid, since it tends to really alienate the readers who would like to play a different MC.
It’s totally fine to have a defined character in mind while writing your first draft, if that helps it get written easier.
But if you have a customizable MC, all versions of them need to be as valid and equal as the one the author might imagine themself. And even if you have the same amount of depth to a custom character, you’d need to be really careful not to give out the impression that your ‘canon’ character is the ‘real’ MC.
No the female dalish warden is not the canon warden. She´s the default. There is a huge difference.
Bioware world state default is not designed for what is the most interesting world state or what bioware would like to continue fort with. It is designed to have the least amount of impact going forth, so that new players get the least amount of worldstate shenanigangs.
In plain words - the default protagonist are deliberately the least interesting they can be. If someone wants to canonize the mc (and I am with @The_Lady_Luck and agree that you should not.) then do not choose the deliberately as boring as it can possibly get option.
I’m wondering here, what would be the preferred method of avoiding that if you have a non-interactive version of the story out in the wild as well? Like, if it’s based on a book, or has a comic version (which would also come with a canon appearance as well)?
Not to mention that the default is different in DA2 and DAI. But I believe the canon here refers to the non-game-material? Books and stuff.
That would be tricky. I’d suggest keeping the protagonist as they are but make them an NPC and.create a new character that has to deal with their choices which is who.the MC of the CYOA version is.
As far as I’m concerned, it’s not a complete dealbreaker, but I do admit it makes me far more likely to not try the story.
I tend to give a bit more leeway to genderlocked female stories, though, on account of usually being so because they want to explore what it would mean to be a female in whatever world the story takes place, which can be done well. Genderlocked male stories tend to be so because of historical reasons (for instance, playing a soldier in a historical or semi-historical setting where being a female would be hard to justify), which, while definitely a valid reason, makes for a less compelling argument in my opinion.
If it’s genderlocked to male then count me out. I’m sick of that still being forced on the player in majority of games, and it’s uncomfortable for me to roleplay a guy.
Nah.
That’s a fairly broad scenario, and I think the answer depends on a lot of the specifics.
If we are talking the author’s own, modern book/comic, with deep personalization and clear descriptions and such, my personal suggestion would be that they just don’t.
It would serve them better to either make their IF adaptation with the already established MC, or make a different story set in the same setting (perhaps with some overlap in characters and plotlines) with a different, customizable MC.
If I, as a reader, came to the closely adapted game from already knowing the original work, I wouldn’t feel comfortable changing the MC anyway, even if I could, because I was attached to the original character from the book/comic. And on the other hand, if I started with playing the game, I wouldn’t want to read the book/comic afterwards, because that would feel like having my own experience of the story and character, as played in the game, and my attachment to it, invalidated.
Others might feel different.
There are exceptions, of course.
If someone got the chance to make an official Marvel IF, the MC could pretty easily be made customizable, since there’s a long history of different versions of the same characters existing in different plotlines, and the whole multi-verse thing even existing lore-wise.
Most of the IF adaptations that seem to work are either quite loose adaptions, or they are based on works in a style where the the MC doesn’t have that much characterization anyway. Or, there are already so many adaptations, in many different styles, that the character has pretty much become a trope of their own over time (like Sherlock Holmes, etc) that no one bats an eye at seeing them being changed significantly.
Sometimes it’s all three.
I avoid most of the if’s that non-binary exclusive and all genderlocked ones. Yeah, even though I mostly prefer to play as a man, I avoid male genderlocked if’s. I’ll be more open to try something gender nonspecific/nb-locked. If I wanted to read or play as some genderlocked character’s - I would’ve just read some usual book or play some video game.
I’m here to have a choice and to have a good time. But that is just me and my preferences and standards, cause I’m tired of gender conformity/norms. Have enough of this in the real life. Pretty sure everything will find it’s audience, so if you want to write certain way - do it.
And I think its better to say "I write it that way because I want to’’ rather than make excuses and lists of reasons. In case of exclusion enby’s\trans characters and protagonists better to say “I don’t know how to write that” or "I don’t want to’’ instead of making justifications about breaking immersion in setting and etc.
I always play with female MCs and I don’t mind games locked by female MCs for whatever reason.
If it’s locked to a male MC I’m a little disappointed but if there’s an attractive male RO I’ll buy it.
@Nocturnal_Stillness A good question to have, albeit I am quite late. Personally, I don’t mind games with genderlocked male mc because that’s what I play as, and its totally fine if the game is gender variable(as it gives my fellow female players the chance to enjoy it as well).
I find it a little disheartening when the authors decide to lock the gender to female in romance based games. Whether its the itch or the heart’s choice label(a shoutout to @leiatalon for giving male mcs a representation under the heart’s choice), there are def some good games out there but it totally breaks my immersion if the pc is a female. I want to self insert and i believe IFs as a means of escapism, and it’s very uncomfortable for me to imagine myself as a woman.
If i just wanted plain erotica with hardly any thought to the RO’s personality and immersion, there are options available for me(especially Japanese games), but there are very few games when I want to enjoy the romance with or without some sexy scenes. I find it kinda unfair…(I don’t know how many otome games I have scrolled past to search for a good romance based game that atleast has the option to be a male + has atleast one good female RO)
Other than that, it’s your right to write the games the way you desire. If you want to genderlock a game, it’s fine and you will find an audience that loves that specific choice.
Some people also expressed about wanting to shape the personality of their character. While I do love customization and it feels nice to define my character, I am also perfectly fine with playing a pc with a set personality or motivation, especially if there are justified story reasons for this as its enjoyable to imagine myself in that situation and roleplay as that specific personality or character(only if I am given a choice to portray my gender).
One more issue I would like to address is there are many if games that offer a choice to choose the gender of the PC and the ROs. But they fail to write it properly. I have played a few ones that promise a male mc but a few minutes in the game and it surely feels that it was written with a female mc in the mind, breaking the immersion when I am just starting to enjoy the story. And that saddens me more than when the authors admit the mc to be female because atleast the latter are straightforward and don’t waste my time. So it’s also kinda a skill issue. Do what you are most comfortable with and what your heart desires, and as I said, you will surely find the right audience for you :).
Good luck!
This is what the criticism against Falrika the Alchemist is almost always about: A gender-locked female MC. But I was confident that I could do her justice, and the way I wrote her left no room for a gender-flipped MC. I just had to stick to my guns.
How so? I can’t think of anything she does that couldn’t have been done by a male character.
For what it’s worth, authors who write female-genderlocked games probably feel similarly uncomfortable imagining themselves as men, or at least not comfortable enough to write romance from a man’s perspective.
Leia Talon is indeed amazing, but if you haven’t already done so, you may wish to check out games by Frances Pauli and Fay Ikin as well.
The way she speaks and narrates things make it wholly impossible to imagine her as male, even with gender-flipping on. I’ve designed her after a typical Atelier series protag, who is more often than not a female.
I always play male MCs and don’t like games with gender locked both female and male. As for fMC. Because I avoid protagonists in IF games who are the same gender as me. It’s, uh, complicated, don’t ask.
As for MMC. It would have to be a really unique plot to interest me (I’m generally picky). Unfortunately, all the mMC games I’ve seen were focused on stereotypically male themes - war, ruling a city/kingdom, being some kind of knight, warrior who has to kill monsters, combat sports.
I’ve noticed that there’s a lot more variety in games with fMC. You can find WIPs where you’re princess, slices of life, where you’re a kpop celebrity or actress, about being witch, harem-themed. I’ve even seen a sci-fi where fmc was secret agent.
I haven’t played CoG/HG games that are genderlocked to male. I kinda don’t care how awesome or masterful a story is, if I can’t play as female then I’m not playing as myself. I might still play a male genderlocked game, don’t get me wrong, but it’s with the understanding that my immersion will be broken every time a character acknowledges me as male or uses he/him when referring to me. And with so many CoG and HG games available… I don’t feel the need to scrape the bottom of the barrel (so to speak) and pick up games that are genderlocked to male.
I honestly would be okay with playing a game where the female gender is an afterthought so long as I have options for my pronouns (absolutely needed) and setup (only needed in romance). I’m less put off by my MC having a “male” voice or whatever, but I assume this isn’t a common experience for those of us who play as female. Barring something like a scene that mentions the MC has facial hair or something that feels truly dysphoric - that would bother me, as a cis woman.
I feel the need to mention that this is because CoG and HG games ask of its players to self-insert and play as themselves. I am one such player that views this as the genre where I self-insert, and one of the things I need to be able to self-insert is to play as female. Otherwise, I’m roleplaying as a male character, which I don’t feel the need to do when there’s so many CoG and HG games where I don’t need to roleplay and I can just play as myself.