I don’t think that’s accurate. CoG wants it to be possible for players to do so, or at least for them not to be held back from doing so by being forced to play a particular gender or sexual orientation, but I’ve never got the sense that it was expected I do so, or that I was playing the game “wrong” if I didn’t. I wanted to roleplay. And I didn’t know this at the time, but the founders and partners of CoG have all been fans of roleplaying games - that’s actually how most of them met - and so have many (most?) of their best writers. I’m certain they would no more seek to trap me in a box of “should” than behind a wall of “can’t.”
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Fair enough, perhaps I used my own experience and saw it as more common than it actually is?
Though there is a portion of the general IF audience who like the ability to self-insert into a roleplaying world, if that makes sense? I know I’ve gotten feedback where a few players said they wouldn’t do something and I made a new branch for their experience. The wording of it made me think that they were self-inserting
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It depends on the content of the Story. For example in the infinity saga whilst the MC is genderlocked it makes perfect sense. Moreover there’s still male RO’s. Which for me is perfectly understandable gender-locking by Paul. Other games on the other hand…
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I know I can use “I” and “my MC” interchangeably, without self-inserting - to me, the MC is me in the same sense a TTRPG character is its player.
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That’s not really self-inserting. On their first playthough (which is often also their final playthrough) readers usually make choices they would agree with because they want to feel like a good guy/gal and have positive interactions with characters they like. It’s also why “evil paths” in video games are rarely anyone’s first choice—hardly anyone wants their first experience with a world to be a story of a morally repugnant bastard whose disagreeable choices make that world worse.
Of course, some of these readers might be self-inserting, naming and styling the MC after themselves, but most likely won’t go that far. Many stories don’t even allow that kind of characterization—it’s not like I can make Sidestep or the Dragoon Officer into someone as boring and ordinary as my IRL self. It’s just a specific playstyle that some games may accommodate and some players may appreciate having access to.
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I guess I’m confused as to why genderlocking is such an issue for so many readers then? If they’re not self-inserting, and don’t have a comfort issue with a story referring to “you” as a specific gender outside of that player’s gender, then why is genderlocking a deal-breaker for so many?
Not trying to be pushy, I was just under the impression that a lot of the people who don’t like a genderlock outside of their gender were self-inserting or usually try to see themselves as the MC or relate to them
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I definitely didn’t mean to imply that self-inserting was an inferior play style, and it definitely isn’t uncommon at all. But it’s not superior or universal, either, and creating a game that lends itself more easily to roleplay than self-insertion is a legitimate design choice.
A lot of people who avoid genderlocked games do self-insert.
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I don’t really self-insert but I sometimes avoid gender-locked stories too, imo I find that stories with gender-locked protag tend to be less interactible in general than what I’d have preferred in a cs game… I might try the demo and be convinced otherwise though.
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Well for me it is an issue because in text based games have it easiest on a texhnical level to make a gender changeable mc.
If I want a male mc I can pick up almost anything and easily find it.
If i want a female mc i have my books and my otome game and vns where they are in abundance.
And non-binary mc locks are a crapshoot, because they might accidentily give me dysphoria through no fault of the author. (The curse of being fluid, I never quite know where my gender triggers is today, unless they get pushed).
As i have said above, genderlocking basically make the if compete with everything else could be doing instead. It is not an impossible hurdle to overcome, but it has to be one heck of a hook for me not to go… but I could just engange with that other thing instead. Since I have abundence of stuff I wanna do and little time to do it .
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Well in my case it’s just very strong gender dysphoria 
For most people I know in real life, I’m a “cis woman” and thats why, at least in IFs, I want to be a man; no matter if I’m self-inserting or not haha
That’s why female gender-locked IFs are a deal-breaker for me, at least
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For me, it’s also gender dysphoria. Putting myself in another character’s shoes is usually no problem, but in second person format… the ‘you’ really gets to me, and I have to put it down.
Then I have a friend who is a cis woman who just refuses to play any game where she can’t be a woman by proxy. She finds it frustrating to not have the option regardless of design choice, and so there are books I love I know she’ll never touch.
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Don’t worry about the criticism if you know you’re doing your best. There will always be some people who will criticize your work(although don’t ignore a constructive criticism), and there will always be people who will support you. I likely won’t be able to try it for obvious reasons but I wish you a very good luck for your game! 
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Yes, I understand their position. That’s why I never blamed them. Although it does make me feel sad that I am unable to enjoy what they write. But as i stated in the last paragraph, genderlocking is still better than force writing a gender you’re having problems with, because I can safely skip instead of engaging then getting slapped with the reality. And thanks for the suggestions! I will definitely check them out.
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I self insert, so I only play/read stories that allow me to be female. I don’t mind that there are genderlocked male games (I think writers should be allowed to write their stories how they want to) I just don’t play them.
I am also old enough to have grown up having to play loads of video games that were always led by male characters…now that we (usually) to get choose (the games I play, anyway) I’d just rather not go back. 
Does that make sense?
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I make characters and play/read stories that I find interesting, genderlocked or not. No lock is the best of both worlds of course, but TBH out of locked stories I prefer male ones for a couple of reasons:
A) “If I have to stare at the ass for hours, it better be ass I like to stare at” argument works for text mediums too, metaphorically;
B) There is a bias in IFs and other text-heavy interactive stories like VNs: female protagonists prioritize romances, soul-searching and conversations with inner voices, male protagonists shoot shit, fight stuff and go on adventures, and I prefer the latter to the former.
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Disco Elysium
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I am a woman and I play as male MC. I have bad experience with female genderlocked games so I don’t try those anymore. Also it is more fun for me to play when I can be attracted to MC. Besides it adds distance between myself and MC (I don’t want to self insert).
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I have only self-inserted once, in one CSG. What I like is the option to play as a girl, even if I don’t choose to take it in that playthrough.
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RHETORIC [Medium: Failure] Yeah, well, but you know what I mean. Right?
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Adding onto this, I understand genderlocking when not doing so adds significantly to the workload, but I disagree with genderlocking because that story is “traditionally” female or “traditionally” male. It flies too close to gender essentialism for me.
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