I think you can have swave guys and flirty women who don’t come off as jerks. Just look at Gambit of the X-Men or River Song from Doctor Who.
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I like differences like that, but I’d be wary of making the female options seduction and social based while the male ones are strength and intimidation based.
There should be a mix, or it risks sending a bad message.
An example that springs to mind is from Morrowind. There’s that female Telvanni councillor who doesn’t like men, so male characters have to do a quest for her to get her vote, while females just get it straight away.
It shows something about the NPC instead of pigeonholing the MC into a gender-based stereotype.
The writer should also consider how non-binary MC’s might fit into it all.
@Szaal: Interesting. I don’t really have the same experience, but I probably go a bit out of my way to consume media with such male characters, and they are some of my favorites. 
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That was just an example. NB MCs certainly complicate it a bit, cross that hurdle when we get to it though I guess
How about something like this, as an example:
Target is hiding in an exclusive men’s club.
Male MC’s can get in as a client, female MC’s as a member of staff, and nb’s can chose either. On that path, they’ll all have options for both persuasion and intimidation.
Regardless of gender, they can also chose to go in guns blazing, or sneak in covertly.
All MC’s have options for talking, fighting and sneaking, and the talking ones have different flavours based on gender, but without stereotyping.
I also have no problem with seduction marks having set sexualities, but in the game as a whole, there should be equal options no matter the MC’s gender and sexuality (taking into account that bi/pan characters might have more).
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An exclusive men club =Women only entering as stafff. Sexism. Why not an option of disguise as men with enough subtlety and charisma?
Why not offer a man the opportunity of crossdress as a woman staff to seduce a known womanizer?
One thing i love from Cog is the fact that we here aren’t so tied by stereotypes. All that limitations 99% times are disguised stereotypes.
Edit and of course a man working as staff as male in a male club. You know 2018
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Without getting too off topic, maybe there’s no stealth stat. We’re hardly talking about completed games here. We don’t need to look for things to take offense to.
Who is taking offense of anything? We are talking about gender use in general. Is a civil interesting discussion about how gender only choices should be deal with. @irongateprobe If you don’t like anyone post just flag it.
@The_Lady_Luck @poison_mara that’s a creative scenario you guys have.
This is what I love with the community. Without intensive back-and-forth discussion, I don’t think stuff like this can come up easily.
In the spirit of contribution, I think I’ll try to spice the scene up.
Depending on the worldbuilding, NB MC may choose their preferred approach or have their choice locked to their biological sex.
For extra difficulty, cross-dressing female MC can get spotted by full-body check performed by the guards and is forced to go gun-blazing.
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I would prefer it if options weren’t genderlocked since it might lead to one gender being more advantageous than another, and I think there are already enough games where playing as a certain gender is penalized. But in the examples given in the original post, I have no problem with a “mark” having a specific sexuality. Also, I think a better alternative to the above scenario could be trying to flirt with the mark and failing because they’re not interested in the MC’s gender (and another approach could be tried afterwards) instead of automatically locking the option out based on gender. And of course, having plenty of other options besides the gender-based one would help a lot.
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That’s cool. Even if results are not optimal, having that’s options make games more rich and cool for role playing. And also makes people think a little out of the box.
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For context, alternate history post WW2 where Britain and a fair amount of EU are taken over by aliens
I was thinking sometimes in the 20th century, not a modern game. 
But, yes, I’d definitely prefer having all those options.
And I agree with @Szaal about added difficulty.
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Hoi.
Someone make this scene a reality, plz.
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Gotta say, I’m digging it
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There’ll probably be something like it in the urban fantasy/horror game I’m planning.
But that will be when I get around to write it, so maybe in 20 years or such… 
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I have to say that I really liked how “The Eagle’s Heir” dealt with this. There were different conversations and events depending on how you presented yourself, but you always got the choice beforehand if you wanted to present more feminine or more masculine. It also lets you play as non-binary and not a lot of games let you do that if options are genderlocked.
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Personally, just for me, I don’t mind if there are gameplay differences between the genders. Honestly I don’t even mind if playing as a woman gives my stat penalties, or extra obstacles to over come.
That’s just me though. I don’t really play CS games to win. I play them to feel something. Even if what I feel has to be upsetting, or a little unfair.
“Little,” is the key word there though. If big parts of the story are unavailable to one particular gender then it’s gone too far.
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There aren’t that many choice of games that come to mind that have this. On the one hand, if I have to choose between playing a man or playing a woman (if there isn’t a non-binary choice) I would love there to be little differences. On the other hand, if there is a non-binary choice and there are these little differences I have noticed that an NB MC gets treated like a male MC most of the time, which kind of bugs me to be honest.
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I don’t play to win I play to role play. However I am sick tired to being bullied, insulted and being treated differently because my gender in real life. And games media, tv . If you follow how many games and tv present us being a women is a biblical curse . Normally penalties in games for being women are so machist that causes mental pain. Like women -3 strength because well women are frail. +2 charisma because of boobs…
I am not even kidding in other choice page one wip was literally that. Of course all women choices were being a clear porno actress and male being an hormonal driven intimidating bully macho.
And i am a simple cis women so imagine the portraits of homosexuals pan… etc So each time I say a choice that separate gender … I think that here comes a Machist choice that would make a terrible assuming of what being x gender is. And you know what 99,99999% is exactly what is it. Here in cog there are really good exceptions but my principle is Author should asking themselves
“Why did you separate from genders in that choice? Adds something or do you did it in base to stereotypes that doesn’t add anything? Am I being equalitarian or I am creating a sexist experience?”
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While stat penalties are certainly going too far, I wouldn’t mind there being flavour text. I have played games that, in their mad scramble to make the MC as gender-neutral as possible, made the game feel weird. I get that you don’t want there to be a disadvantage to playing a woman, but if I play a certain gender I want the other characters to acknowledge that.
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