I apologise if this topic has been brought up before, I searched around a bit but couldn’t find any discussion that specifically related to the question I want to ask.
When you are reading a piece of at least fairly accurate historical interactive fiction and you have the opportunity to create any type of character you like, so any race, gender, gender identity and sexual orientation and so on, do you want all possible characters to be treated in the same way, or do you want the world to react with eventual negativity to the specific identity of your character?
If your character is met with racism or sexism or any kind of bigotry by the game world based on the choices you made when you created your character, does this help with immersion, or would you rather prefer to play a game without these types of issues?
Should all MC’s be created equal? Or should different MC’s face different challenges in regards to their identity?
To be clear, I’m not asking what kind of game world an author should write, just what you as a reader prefer.
I realise that this might vary by setting, hence why I limit my question to a game set in a world that would realistically have problems with bigotry and injustice. So escapism vs realism, and the eventual pros and cons of both?
In general, for myself, it really depends on what I am playing - the genre, setting. Does said racism, homophobia, sexism and transphobia have a good, solid reason to be there? If it does and it’s written/executed well, I have no qualms.
You’re opening up a floodgate. But personally I like a bit of realism if that makes sense, because it feels like it actually has an impact and a purpose. I know why a lot of people prefer the former, but being addressed and being a gay male or a black woman being addressed as such feels more immersive. It also builds you closer to your MC and will spice up things if your RO reacts accordingly. Just my opinion.
I’m pretty much open and can give a lot of leeway to the author. The only thing that’s important to me is that the author should know and is conscious of what they’re writing.
In other words, they have to understand what they’re writing and why they write it that way.
To be totally honest here: These types of threads usually get shut down and are heavily moderated, causing conflict within the community. I’m going to close it until a @moderators can look it over and determine if it should stay open.
In the mean-time, I will link a few relevant threads you should research:
