Are gender-locked protagonists an instant deal-breaker to you?

Game Development Writing and Content
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Sometimes I think self-inserting means something very different to me than it does to almost anyone else.

I’ve never once found a game I couldn’t play as a self-insert. I’ve played Sabres of Infinity as a self-insert - it wasn’t particularly satisfying (my character was basically the Major-General from The Pirates of Penzance, without the confidence and charisma), but I did it. I’ve played All-World Pro Wrestling as a self-insert. The character is written as so many things I’m not - an athletic, highly sexual male - but that didn’t stop me playing him as much as possible as things I am: modest, serious about the work I love, commitment-minded. If anything, I found it harder to picture myself enlisting in the military or voluntarily playing a competitive sport than to picture myself as a man.

For me, self-inserting is about my values, my interests, my talents, and my weaknesses and faults - not my vital statistics. My self-inserts do share my vital statistics, of course, as much as possible, but that’s not what makes them me.

Maybe it’s because my life has been shaped far more by my disabilities than by my gender or even my asexuality, so even when I play an asexual woman I’m constantly bombarded with reminders that someone like me couldn’t really be the hero of this story. Maybe I just didn’t get the memo in my formative years about what I was supposed to be defined by. I am spectacularly good at not getting proverbial memos.

Don’t get me wrong, I love what CoG has done for representation. I love being able to see a woman as the hero of any kind of story, from a romance to a war drama. It brought me so much joy when I began to see options to play an explicitly asexual character, and even more when writers started to realize “asexual” didn’t necessarily mean “aromantic” or “sex-averse.” There’s still something in me that wants to cry sometimes, seeing those options: aching for the young woman I used to be, trying to be something she wasn’t in a world that told her at every turn something was wrong with her; rejoicing that maybe the day will come that no one ever has to feel that way again.

But when it comes to making me feel as if I could be the hero of the story, a demisexual woman slashing through the enemy ranks with a battle axe and slaying the dragon with a single powerful blow does far less for me than a straight guy who saves the day by remembering some obscure bit of lore he picked up when he slipped out of a noisy party to chill in the library. Because although neither character is a perfect reflection of me, the latter comes closer to what I feel really matters about me.

My point in all this is not to say that my way is “right,” or even better than anyone else’s. (I don’t even play self-inserts most of the time.) But I do think it’s important to bear in mind that what we all bring of ourselves to these games is different. Not only is self-insertion not the only way to play, it’s a variety of playstyles in its own right. Some seek a power fantasy, other the catharsis (or angst) of seeing themself as a tragic hero. Some play themselves as they truly are, others as they wish they were. And what elements are essential to be able to look at a character and say “yes, that’s a reflection of me” aren’t going to be the same for every player.

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Yes

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Sort of? I tend to play more male-leaning characters, cis men, trans man and nonbinary AMABs. I often find games locked in a gender to be… lacking in story, both male and female locks.
Also a thing that I tend to see with female-locked romance IFs is that your character, always or most of the time, is confined to extremes… a shy innocent girl who turns into a blushing mess whenever a RO just breathes or a GirlBoss™ in a bad teen drama sense of the term. Not that there’s something wrong in playing or wanting to write those types of characters! It’s just not for me, I prefer being able to leave “gender conforming roles” when locked in male or female… also I tend to have a higher bar for woman characters… the trauma of badly written girls in media haha.

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While I have a very different view compared to you and I never really self insert as I want my characters to not be me just like your mc and the Infinity Saga mine also shares some of the traits of the modern major general he has low soldiering but high charisma and very high intelligence so he mostly managed to use a combination of, planning, quick thinking and bluff and manipulation to string together a fairly impressive military career. He’d still lose in most duels however.

Now as to the topic I usually only bother with games where I can play male and gay, it is what brought me here in the first place, those opportunities. Fully premade protagonists can also be a turn off for me but semi-set characters like the Marshall and Whiskey in Bacon’s games as well Sidestep work well enough for me too if the story is interesting and the writing is good.

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Not only am I okay with gender locked games, I think I actually am pleased to see them at this point. That’s because the gender locked games I’ve played, particularly Donor and Infinity, are significantly better than the average non-locked title.

Of course locking itself doesn’t magically make a game better, but I would postulate that an author with the vision of the MC and the will to lock gender against the potential negative reaction likely has a more coherent and powerful story they want to tell.

Note: I don’t play Heart’s Choice due to the couple I tried being… not great. So this is only considering CoG / HG titles.

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As I said, I don’t usually play self-inserts either. The exception is when I’m beta testing, in which case my first playthrough is always a self-insert so I don’t have to put effort into creating a character while I’m getting a feel for a game that’s still rough around the edges (and because it’s helpful in making concrete suggestions to authors, when I know exactly what I would do in a particular situation but they haven’t given me the option to do it).

When I’m just playing for fun I start by asking myself what kind of character I want to experience this story as, and as I play through the first chapter or two, I create my character build accordingly while also allowing the story to shape my understanding of who my character is. I don’t go out of my way to make my characters as different from me as possible, and since I happen to be a dreamy bookworm who likes to read about cerebral and creative pursuits rather than a dreamy bookworm who gravitates to vicarious action and adventure, it’s not unsual for me to play a character with whom I have a lot in common, but that just makes it more fun exploring the ways they aren’t like me.

As for my Dragoon, he had zero Soldiering and single-digit Charisma, so it’s probably a (rare, small) failure of imagination on Paul Wang’s part that he made it out of basic training without getting murdered in his sleep for being a colossal git. I’d love to try a high Charisma/high Intelligence playthrough next time, though. :slight_smile:

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Yea, I only play as guys in story heavy games. I’d be down for whatev if it was a fighter, FPS, or multiplayer game.

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My reason is same. But I did get into RPGs, crpgs and other IFs due to ability of playing women as I prefer. Other genres titles are as you pointed out. Hence, why of late, I tend to only buy specific titles with my preferences.

I can only do immersive titles now as well. Those that allow me to escape. (Exception is when I storytell instead of others doing so.)

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Absolutely. I won’t pay for a game that is male MC locked, I will play it if it’s free. I’m just more comfortable playing my gender.

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Honestly not at all! It really always depends on the plot as to if I’m willing to play it or not, the first game I bought was Study in Steampunk and that’s genderlocked male and it was brilliant - I don’t go into it expecting to play myself and don’t really want to? I’ll default to the same-ish character and go female in selectable games but I wouldn’t cut myself off from a great game just because I’d have to play a lad.

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Yeah

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Absolute deal breaker. Which is why I don’t like Heart choice games because 75% are genderlocked to female.

Probably out of topic but Love interests being genderlocked to the opposite gender also a deal breaker which is why I don’t play and never interested in popular game/wip like Path of Martial Arts and etc.

I am probably the minority though.

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You’re not alone on the gender locked LIs.

I only go to wlw myself. There are two that I know want mlm only. I got few Hearts ones only. Titles that are locked straight only, I avoid.

‘Gender-locked woman’ also, ‘opposite only LI’
Nope! If last part isnt true, depends on story and other things. Just cause its got wlw doesn’t make it automatically good. Ran into that a couple times.

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It depends on the story, but I have little interest in playing games that are male-locked for PCs. The only exceptions for me, which other folks have mentioned, have been Study in Steampunk and the Infinity series, and I think it was a case of setting and mechanics being enjoyable enough for me to move past the genderlocked protagonist.

My main draw for these games and stories has always been the opportunity to play dames, and ideally, dames that get to smooch other dames.

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In short - yes.

Detailed why

Eh, this is not easy to explain due to my bad english, but I will try. Considering that in text-based games I’m looking for something that I miss in regular video games, namely the variability and individualization of characters, and especially how strongly the game and its world react to players settings, dialogues and decisions, the answer is yes, with few “ehhh maybe” for locked male MCs.

For me, it would have to be a very, VERY cool and fascinating story to make an exception, or something special in whole narrative, so that I can say “OMG this author is literally doing what I want to read”, and even in that case genderlocked female MC may be meh, just not my cup of tea. In general, In text-based games Im looking for something in between of variative CRPG and interactive book, a game that really sees your character, and as example for an rpg this is Pathfinder WOTR, not Final Fantasy. Both are nice, but in their own ways, and I prefer the first one. For example, I can try out the types of ROs in the second (third-fourth-you get it) playthrough that I usually ignore, just for curiosity/fun/maybe an alternative POV, but the main character, whom I can’t customize even at such a basic level, is a big no.

Im not into classic roleplaying as preseted character, I like games which gives me some variants for my char, and then reacts to which I picked, not just let you set some parameters and then never mention it, as if you pick a huge two-meter-tall menacing brawler and no one cares, even village chickens gives a zero fuck about you, and village kid will ask you search for their teddy bear just because why not, this intimidating criminal looking guy exactly who can do this. Yeah, that absurdity may be avoided with preseted character, but they may not match my own feeling of some details of MC, and thats all, all vibe ruined and become not so fun. This is the reason why I drop or didn’t play at all a lot of RPGs, despite the fact that I really love this genre. After all, I’m reading an interactive book, I came here specifically for a variativity (in the context of a story, of course, not like I want medieval-fantasy dragon wizards in cyberpunk hi-tech setting), interactive books that runs on pure imagination (and narrative with “you” all the way) makes it much more immersive than a regular rpg, so the options for MC may really determine if I want to immerse myself in this story. Not in self-insert way, though.

I hope you really can understand that think-mess above, I just dont know how explain this better. Sorry for possible brain damage :'^)

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Personally, i dislike any female gender locked games, i never play them if I can’t be a man, regardless of how good game is.

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I only play male MC…

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Kinda but it does all come to the premise of the game

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For me, I try to self-insert myself into the story all the time, imagining myself as the main character/another alternate version of me. Don’t really care about their appearances or age too much, but if I can’t play as a male, whether they’re cis, gay or bi, it becomes a deal breaker.

Can’t get into any stories or games that has a female gender-locked protagonist, it just doesn’t feel right/its not something I myself can comprehend/imagine because i’m a guy.

I don’t think it’s gender dysphoria either,“where a feeling of discomfort or unease that can lead to significant emotional and psychological distress” but playing as a female character just doesn’t ‘resonate’ with me.

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