Does sexual orientation/sexual preference need to be defined at the beginning of the game?

[TSSL]

@MockTurtle

I also think that sometimes the way it’s asked can be kind of weird. Most of the time it’s something in the lines of “Are you looking at the boys or at the girls, or at everyone?” or they’ll ask you “You used to date a… guy / girl / I’ve dated both boys and girls”.

I think sometimes I can even find those particular examples a bit offputting… I wouldn’t want to assume that every character who isn’t asexual must therefore be checking people out, or that they must have exes, too… I guess I just don’t like it when those questions assume more than they really have to

On a job application, yeah, I think asking that would be pretty inappropriate unless you’re applying to a dating show or something

@MockTurtle

and then I’ve seen some of the players complaining that the game was “forcing” X gender onto them. But most of that type of comments were kind of… homophobic, and I would not make a design decision based on what might offend that kind of people.

Agreed… I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen a guy* complain about a male character “hitting on” his character when it was just a mild flirtation or even the faintest hint of a crush this is the same attitude that creates danger for gay people in real life.

(*No, I’ve never seen a woman complain about this )

@catorrina

The only other reason it’d be necessary is flavor text-- so you don’t drool all over a guy when you’re into girls, for instance.

This is the way it works in Zombie Exodus: Safe Haven, which has been mentioned it gives more detailed and rather, ah, steamier descriptions for characters based on orientation… stuff like muscles…

@rinari

I think I will stick to not asking at all in the beginning and letting the readers decide through their own romantic pursuits or through conversations they may have throughout the story, organically.

That sounds perfectly reasonable. Honestly, I don’t mind either way, as long as the game won’t make assumptions either way… y’know, describing someone as being attractive to my character (which, you really shouldn’t assume anyway), etc.

You mention coming up in conversations in the story, and I do think that can be nice, depending on the dynamic of the story just in terms of character interaction, since sometimes you might see a scene where someone’s giving a wink-nudge “aw, you’d be cute together, aw, is he your boyfriend, aw, you lucky guy ;)”
Or, in terms of characters hitting on people, being able to say “sorry, I’m not into women” would be natural… and I think it could even be rather cute to have some bit of dialogue where a character’s trying to find out if you have compatible orientations I’ve never seen that in an interactive fiction before.

@rinari

This brings me to another, somewhat related question–how do you feel about keeping characters gender-locked, and more specifically, of a certain sexual orientation themselves? I find myself torn. In my head my characters are canonically straight, gay, bi, or asexual, and while readers may want to pursue them, it may just not work out. The object of their attractions may not swing that way, and spending time with them may open up a completely separate path that leads to friendship, but not romance. I find this to be the most “realistic” approach.

I usually like having defined characters, as long as that doesn’t mean you’re giving gay guys and/or lesbians a rougher deal… I have seen pieces, not in ChoiceScript, but elsewhere, where there’ll be some plethora of hetero options, and then one gay option, and that just really feels unfair. As long as the orientations are balanced, I have no complaints. (I might be disappointed, but, well, that’s how it goes.)

A corollary of this is that, if you only have a few romance options, best for them to be bi. If you have enough that everybody gets at least a little choice, that’s all the better.

It’s not just a realism issue… representation is key as well. It’s nice to have gay characters around who are acknowledged as such. (Granted, you can also do this by having gay characters who aren’t romances. Or both. Both is good ) This is also worth noting for bisexual romance options as well… it’s nice for them to be acknowledged as bi. It’s… not uncommon for bisexual romance options to only ever express heterosexual interests and backstory, apart from the main character, which… is fine for any individual character, but, when you take these characters as a pattern, it tends to make it seem like they’re be written as essentially hetero, with the gay option being tacked on.

There’s also the option, if you want your romance options to be available regardless of gender, but still have some individuality in orientation, to just represent them as having a preference. As long as you avoid the pitfall of making it seem like a gay character can be “cured,” just showing a character who’s mostly been into same-gender relationships but could potentially fall for the right opposite-gender person is the way some people are (and the other way around, too).

I’d also like to double-like everything @HomingPidgeon just said. All important points, and well-said.

While we’re linking threads, this one has a lot of good content about gay representation in choicescript games, including the issue of romance options.