I brought it up more as an example to a story with a male protagonist written by a woman. If books count then I could have brought up Harry Potter or Frankenstein too? Not sure I’m even making sense here anymore. Probably I should really put down the phone and go get some sleep already.
The impression I had was that a M/F game just hadn’t been contracted yet. It’s early days, we haven’t even had one released!
That aside! Often in these discussions, “gender mattering” seems to mean “replicating real world marginalisation”. In this thread it’s been suggested that Moonrise could incorporate transmisogyny (which baffles me), and elsewhere on the forum I’ve often seen people saying essentially “I want gender to matter in the game. Being a woman should be a harder time”.
Which, OK. Not my cup of tea, generally, but no one’s saying “you’re not allowed to write this”. (See the Infinity series, which is deservedly doing excellently!)
What I wonder is, does that have to be the limit of it? I wonder about the possibilities for creating games where gender or orientation matters, and it’s more complex. Being a male character navigating a traditionally female space where he’s not privileged - this could even be set in the modern or historical real world (bonus points if he doesn’t end up outshining all the women). A court intrigue game where the norm is queer polyamorous families with a rigid inheritance system, but then someone’s murdered and chaos breaks loose. Being a minor male consort to a crown princess and father to her child, but now she’s getting married to a prince and you need to figure out how you fit in (that’s based on a story I started once, heh). A setting where magic is connected to your gender and gender isn’t assigned at birth, and exploring what happens with the magic when genderfluid people use it.
There are lots of ways to make gender “matter”, whatever that means to you, and they don’t have to involve real world marginalisations. I’d love to see it being explored in a wide variety of ways!
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i would seduce the husband, of course
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Glorious! 
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True but we have had mods basically saying none are planned and things like ‘I don’t know what a M/F game would look like’. As long as the discussion to ensure some M/F games (or at least games where the romance characters are all female and you can play as male) for HC continues then that’s fine. Jazz Age and Dawnfall are likely to help in the meantime.
Those Pyrex* ovenware roasting trays are damn heavy. And those huge ceramic mixing bowls, sheesh, try holding one of them up in one hand and the drying cloth in the other 
If I’m fair, one of my two is a middle-aged detective with a social life (well, she’d call it that) and, if I’m fairer - in B1 at least - she doesn’t save very much at all. … …
… What’s that … Ah yeah, fair play, the other one’s a little bit less normal 
You have no personal interest in drag like many straight men (although it is always interesting to point out reality show Drag Race’s large straight male audience) but you obviously cannot speak for every living straight man–and you don’t. Even the origins of drag involve straight men. Drag Race UK started airing recently and has a queen who’s dating a girl. Another drag competition, Dragula, featured Disasterina, a queen who is married to a woman and has a kid. Drag is just an art form–you put on the makeup and do a little dance. There’s no requirements beyond the desire to do it. And Drag Star specifically emphasizes this.
not everything is everyone’s cup of tea (there are plenty of people who can’t be bothered or can’t stand some of my favorite aspects of character customization), but being able to choose your MC’s race is not racist. That doesn’t make sense. So when you’re playing a video game that has character customization, is being able to customize skin color racist then? Maybe it feels weird to you personally, but there are a lot of people who 1) enjoy being able to choose a physical appearance or background that resembles themselves and 2) who don’t play these games as only themselves. Character customization serves multiple purposes and I think it’s most important function is getting the reader invested in their character at the story’s beginning and assisting them in picturing their new MC. It’s not–at all–racist or ‘political Americanism.’ lol it’s just race, it’s a thing that exists (mainly as a social construct, but yeah), and it’s just another one of the most basic aspects of a person’s identity alongside things like gender. sorry if i’m straying off-topic, i’ll make sure not to go further.
exactly this
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But that does not mean, that those games where never published, they just stated that no one yet wanted to make such a game. The way you worded it, sounded a bit like even if there was a M/F game, it would not be published, so you might consider your wording, since I think I know you well enough, that this was not your intention.
@BGL I won’t say much to your comment, because it would not be helpful. Only one thing, Drag Star is not about being gay, you can be a straight man. It is just dressing and performing like a woman, or as a man, if you were female. It has nothing to do with the sexual orientation. And before you ask, I am female, straight and white. So yeah I can play a straight Drag King in the game if I want, so yes this game is for everyone who likes a little fun, glamour and drama. I understand that it may be nothing you like, but it is quite unfair to the game to generalize that all straight men could not have fun with this game.
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That’s cool, I think I’ve lost the translation somewhere too (I need more sleep as well). All I meant is there is a difference between a character lock and a pure gender lock. If anything character locks are far easier to write regardless of their/your gender. You don’t have to think “What would any person on the planet do in this situation” just “how might character X react given their traits and backstory?” It focuses the story a lot!
Interesting fact: The three HG’s I can think of off the top of my head that have a single character locked protagonist are Steampunk, Oedipus, Miss Bennett. All are famous figures in their own right and have preset backstories. The first two are male characters written by women, Miss Bennett is a female character written by a man. If we’re going to include Slayer of evil which is close to a character lock, that’s another female MC written by a guy. I’m waiting for Donor to be finished with I think is a great game with a female character lock. If anyone wants to see how locking the protagonist can potentially make a game more interesting by giving it a very particular feel to it, check out just the first few lines of the ifcomp game “Zozzeled” which has a character locked female protagonist. Sometimes a particular character is chosen as the focus of the story just because the author finds them interesting to write about.
Last I heard they hadn’t had one pitched to them yet I think? Indeed it’s early days, I think they’re open to M/F games being developed in the future 
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Great Tournament is also character lock, where protagonist is a farmer’s son and sent by his father to become Sir Robert’s squire
Edit : Vampire House as well, where protagonist is preset as a super natural hater who has to seek refuge in a Vampire Family , the family who the protagonist throw stone at
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Yep that’s what I meant! Exactly 
Also there are a bunch of non locked ones with varied love interest genders in progress, which I’m also looking forward to!
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That wasn’t my intention no. I was just saying there has been one or two mods who have suggested a lack of understanding over whether a M/F focused game for Hearts Choice is possible or what it would look like (presumably like a F/M game but from the opposite perspective). Hopefully they can find some writers who are comfortable and willing to do such games for the future. 
Sorry if the wording seemed off there.
I know if I was planning on say writing a romance focused game with all female romance characters and at least the option of a male protagonist, as a male writer I would want to ensure with female beta readers that the female characters seem legitimate, even if it’s a game that is not necessarily for them. 
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Here is an interesting article that shows this community is not alone in its push towards diversity:
As you can see by the following quote, this shift is years in the making:
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So if you made a game you wouldn’t make any female character on it at all? What about people with experiences you don’t have? People of other countries, religions, cultures, fantasy stories (such as wizards that never existed) etc; do you think sharing gender with them is enough for you to know their mindset? Because not all men or all women think alike either.
What about animals as well? Nobody here knows their mindset either.
I’m not sure I understand. How does that make it “political” to have a person of a minority in a story? If a story about you took place in your country it would be alright, but if it happened while you were on another country then it’s “political”?
I don’t think anyone here is trying to prevent you from writing it, more like sharing their personal opinion if they would play or be interested in a game with genderlocking. You are free to make the game, but they are also free to choose if the game interests them to want to play it.
Being free to make it is one thing, it being popular and successful is another entirely.
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The second question asks the reader of this supposed story if they are justified in criticizing an author for writing the non-male gender locked game.
For instance, if I wrote a game and I choose to lock the gender to female because I wanted to or because I can would you be justified in criticizing this decision or the reason behind this decision?
That’s what it’s asking.
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Not critize, but I should be allowed to Tell an author that the genderlock is the reason I would not buy the Game. But as @Cari-san does I only post those statements here in the Forum, Not in a review in the store Sites. Here an author might only profit from mentioning that, but in a review it might damage the games Reputation, which I do not want.
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Fair enough. The original question didn’t mention where the criticism would be happening.
I personally wouldn’t tell the author that because if they made a decision like that I’d assume they’re already set in their ways and wouldn’t be open to persuasion.
The only reason I would chime in to criticize the gender lock would if the author depicts the locked MC as a bad stereotype but then I’d be criticizing the depiction not the decision itself.
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If it’s an established author that would be a fair assumption that they knew the job was dangerous when they took it, but if it’s a new author you really should consider mentioning it. Somebody new to this place won’t necessarily know all the pitfalls that can cause a story to repel readers, and a casual remark about how genderlock is perceived so negatively here (which is not how it is a lot of other places, as people have mentioned) could help them out tremendously. Every author has the choice to genderlock, but one thing readers like yourselves can do is make sure it’s an informed choice. It’d be a crying shame for someone to get blindsided by these reactions. I don’t think that’s ever happened, but hopefully it never will, either.
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Fair points.
I get the feeling that a frequent forum goer would also know it’d be swimming with the proverbial sharks if they wrote their first WiP to be gender locked as well.
Although I do wonder if the criticism would be equal across all authors, new and well established. Probably.
I hypothesize the main difference would be that well established authors might be able to better word their decision for a gender lock since they’ve been immersed in the forum culture longer and would know what language not to use.
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