Gay (lesbian) or bi & pressures of society

General
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hello everyone.

i’ve been lurking these forums for a while, and everyone here seems to be helpful, talented, and well-read. :wink: for example, i’d learned that one of the top 5 things that the die hard fans dislike about cogs is that the MC never has to go to the bathroom. :smiley:

my question today is of a different variety (but thanks for reading so far!), although it is also concerned with realism.

would you rather play a game where romantic interests should be:

– romancable ™ regardless of MC’s sexual orientation (all bisexual)?
– straight / gay / lesbian?

the reason: it doesn’t matter if the mc likes both girls or boys. at least 2 potential romantic characters like ONLY girls or ONLY boys. This cuts romantic options by making it dependent on your sex.

but would that not be more realistic? whether we like it or not, our sexual life has a significant impact on how our lives unfold (Freud would approve).

it would look like this:

ri (romantic interest) 1. homosexual male.
ri 2. heterosexual male.
ri 3. homosexual female.
ri 4. heterosexual female.
ri 5. a sapiosexual Artificial Intelligence, who will only romance you if your INT is high enough. :smiley:

this means there are no bisexual characters NPCs in the game per se. however, if the MC is a bisexual female, she can romance ri2 and ri3 (and ri5) but not ri1 or ri4. if he is a bisexual male, he can romance ri1, and ri4 (and ri5).

heterosexual males would be able to romance ONLY ri4 and ri5.
heterosexual females would only be able to romance ONLY ri2 and ri5.
homosexual males would only be able to romance ri1 and ri5.
homosexual females would only be able to romance ri3 and ri5.

still with me?

or:

all interests except of ri5 are bisexual (there are no sexual taboos in the sense we know them in this society), and you can romance whoever you want.

what do you think?

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I feel like this may already be a topic somewhere, but I’m not completely sure, so I’ll bite.

My personal opinion on this is that characters should be as much like actual people as possible, and actual people have sexualities that sometimes don’t include whatever the MC is. Of course, it’s entirely possible that the story just so happens to involve a lot of people who are bi- or pansexual, but statistically it’s not that likely.

As a player, it can sometimes be a little disappointing that some particular character is not an R.O. on a playthrough because of their romantic inclinations (dammit, Dorian!), but I certainly respect the decision to do that on the part of a writer, and you can always do a different playthrough. The other option runs the risk of being kinda… I dunno, creepy pandering a bit? Again, a collection of four bisexual people as R.O.s is totally possible, but the way this comes off sometimes is that they’re more “MC-sexual” than actually bi or pan, and that just weirds me out.

Plus, it’s cool to represent a greater diversity of people in the cast of a game, and that includes some diversity in sexual orientation as well.

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Heya, thanks for chiming in. If anyone knows of such a thread, I hope they’ll post a link. I admit I did not search the forums before I typed the question. :blush: peace.

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I’ve got to agree with Kurokiku. It would make sense for maybe one character to be bi or pansexual, but giving the characters established sexualities would be more realistic.

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I prefer the PC’s to have a specific sexuality or at the least a sexuality that can be changed only with certain choices…

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i hear you. but what gender would that bi character be?
that’s where the dog dug, like Gorbachev used to say.

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People always want what they can’t have. Then again I’ve never seen the unrequited love angle in a choice game yet… seems an interesting idea.

As a flexible Sort myself I can understand wishing your crush felt the same way. which unfortunately isn’t always the case.

So I can understand pandering to preferences. But there are more than a few stories where it’s way to easy and unnatural feeling relation ships. All sunshine and rainbows but no real relationship gay or straight is without its rough spots.

So I’d be happy if all characters were romance - able as long as it’s crafted in a away that you invest emotion into it. Just don’t make it easy.

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I agree with @Snoe. I really prefer games in which everyone is bisexual. The whole point of games is to be an escapism. What’s the point if you’re just going to give the players a brutal reality slap? As for replaying as a different gender, that just breaks the immersion completely for me.

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Honestly I’m lost here. Give me a tldr?

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Thank you for your thoughts!

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Would you prefer the characters you can romance in a game to be different depending on your gender, or would you rather have the option to romance anyone you want?

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I’m always pro-choice when it comes to CoGs. I, personally, always tend to play heterosexual characters so I wouldn’t use the option, but if anyone else wants to why stop them.

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Good point. :slight_smile: The reason for them would be that the characters can be more fleshed out. A homosexual female and a bisexual female would have very different lives. For example, my partner said once that bisexual women often settle with men because of society’s pressures (it’s easier that way), and that made me think how interesting it would be to explore something along those lines.

But, like Snoe mentioned, this may be somewhat disappointing to others, and the primary goal of any game is to be fun IMHO. :smile:

And besides, my partner is writing that IF book already. :wink:

Thanks for your help, everyone.

Peace.

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I like games where you can romance everyone but I think it is a mistake to consider that everyone is bisexual, Though a lot of people hate it I prefer the term playersexual, in that the only sexuality the NPC romance options have is to be attracted to the main character. So, for example, in my playthrough of Dragon Age Inquisition Cullen would be gay (goddamnit let me have my knight in shining armor Bioware!) but in another players game he is straight.

I understand that isn’t realistic, but I play games for fun most of the time, not realism.

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@WordCowboy
Will these characters have other purposes in addition to being ROs, like being rivals, specialized team memebrs etc.?
If yes then it is better to give them a straight/gay/lesbian orientation because this would give them more depth.
If no, then you should make them bi/MCsexual, then the players would have a larger pool of ROs to choose.

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I don’t really mind either way…My only annoyance is when characters’ orientations start looking too trope-y. One of these days, I want to see a game (or book) with fixed orientations where the male bruiser is gay, the female bruiser is straight, the pretty boy mage is asexual, and the quiet little librarian is bi.

I’ve also liked the way a few CS games have let you pick not only your own gender and orientation, but also the gender of other significant NPCs. Lost Heir: Fall of Daria and Mecha Ace come to mind here. The latter does recommend randomization the first time playing it, though, and that was also an interesting option.

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I would say it depends on the story atmosphere, setting, and the characters personalities. so really it could go either way but for the most part I think it should be at least semi-realistic. for example in a medieval setting you’ll probably find many more heterosexual people than you would homo/bisexual.
(this is kinda unrelated, and maybe its just me, but I believe that the sexual life is more impacted by the life of the character rather than the other way around, so there’s that.)

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You’re quite right historically speaking. With the rise of Christianity same sex relations became stigmatized.

While before then, it was likely more prevalent but wasn’t spoken of in polite company. Rome and Greece are good examples of this though I’m not sure where it falls in other ancient civilizations.

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I’ve always been of the opinion that romancable characters should have a fixed sexual orientation regardless of the players gender or chosen orientation in the game, because that’s more realistic. Want to romance that NPC? Tough luck, because they’re only attracted to guys, and you chose to play as a girl.

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It would be cool to have games add some gay or bi NPCs, but I no want the author to feel that they really need to add them if they themselves do not feel comfortable on adding it. No want to force them that be bad and I don’t want a game to add that feature if the gay or bi NPCs are just forced into the game for fan service.

Don’t really know why people are pressuring the gays or bi people. I mean where I am we don’t really give a care. Someone can shout they are gay or bi and we just say so what? Do no where else, but where I am we really don’t care. But I think it is a different matter for trans.

The WIP Drágóneer I think the author of it said somewhere on his/her thread that NPC’s has some preference and the MC can’t romance everyone if they are straight or bi or gay? Not 100% sure of that thou. I haven’t found any other game that says the NPC will only like/love you if you are male or female yet.

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