This is something which people have strong (and strongly divided) opinions about. See similar discussions on:
I prefer gendered characters or acknowledgement that my character is third-gendered. I prefer the same extension to companions as well; gender flexible companions never translate well to me.
So, I was musing over Choice of Games and how you frequently get to choose a gender, and the games will gender-flip the love interests so that they’re of your chosen gender. I absolutely love how playing with gender in that way changes my own preconceptions of a character. It also makes writing simpler.
I was also thinking about Black Magic, who is the ultimate player-defined romantic interest since you can choose both gender and appearance. I did actually find comparing Black Magic to current …
I think where most romances fall flat is that we have to have interesting characters who we care about first, before we care whether they fall in love or not. CoG games seem particularly bad at this, since writers feel the protagonist and characters have to be so customizable that they become interchangeable people. No one does or says anything unique or endearing, or is particularly interesting, they mostly advance the plot (there are a few exceptions here).
Characters have to have their own g…
I’m one of the readers (and writers) who doesn’t mind genderflipping characters, like most of the responses so far on this thread. But you’ll soon hear other voices.
Write what satisfies you.
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