For the ‘asexual’ part at least I think I prefer it presented as an explicit thing rather than a ‘yeah you can skip the romance subplot if you want’.
13 Likes
I particularly like pursue men, women…etc phrasing, but I’m biased because it comes very close to the exact wording I use to describe my own sexuality.
1 Like
Personally, I don’t see an issue with the first phrasing, but that’s possibly because I’ve been here for so long, it’s subconsciously something I’ve accepted. I suppose saying the more open end quote might convince new readers to give COG/HGs a try, but like I said, I have no qualms with the original, regardless of my sexual orientated preference in game.
I fear that more vague means there are no gender checks, and relationships will be written as hetero but accessible to everyone, so I’ll get to be “the woman” in any interaction.
Not that the normal description means my fear isn’t the case, but it sounds like more thought may have gone into crafting romances with gays, trans, etc actually in mind.
No guarantees either way, of course. Just psychology in marketing.
2 Likes
I generally like to see if a game is ace-inclusive. The ability to pursue no one doesn’t tell me anything in that regard, so I don’t find it particularly useful.
Edit. I’ve mistakenly voted for the option I dislike. My bad.
3 Likes
I think just “Pursue men, women or both” is just fine, I feel like people will just have to draw their own conclusions/discover for themselves whether that means you can be gay or not, and the “no one” part I would say is completely unnecessary, considering no story that isn’t romance focused would really force you in to romance, and if it’s a romance story well… you’re probably not gonna read it in the first place if you’re not interested in romance.
Just what I would do though, in the end I feel like it’s just up to what you feel fits your story better, because it really doesn’t matter that much, regardless of any preference from the reader.
1 Like
Is it just me, or has it been looking like people who are LGBT (ace included) have been much likelier to vote or express support for the “gay/straight/bi/asexual” phrasing? I mean, I don’t know the identities of everyone commenting and voting so I’m hesitant to make generalizations, but as far as those I am aware of, this seems a pretty marked trend, and I think it would be worth noting if, on average, we as a group are saying that explicitly noting these identities is useful and inclusive for us.
If I’m wrong about this supposition, then disregard this, but if I’m correct, I think this should carry some weight.
Though I would be interested if there’s any suggestion of a phrasing that would be more explicitly nonbinary-inclusive while also explicitly including multiple orientations. (Though it might not be possible to do so concisely… the English language is not always ideal at these sorts of things.)
I do think using a word like “romance” rather than “pursue” would help. I don’t really like the conceptualization of romance as some sort of chase.
I have no interest in having to discover whether I can be gay in a game. This is something I would need to know before I spend any money on it. (If it’s not explicit, I’ll check code to see if I can figure it out, but a lot of people won’t take that bother.)
It happens. It’s a valid concern. People who want to know for sure if they can be asexual are reacting to games where that’s definitely not included.
Choice of the Rockstar, for example, always sticks the main character into a romantic relationship toward the end, whether you like it or not. (I don’t think this was done very well, for multiple reasons.) There’s also Psy High—which I overall do like—which does not force you into a romance, but does force you to declare attraction, and also includes a scripted crush on another student, so it really doesn’t allow you to play an asexual character, which I consider a significant flaw in an otherwise excellent game.
11 Likes
I kind of personally wish they would stop use the word asexual until they get the difference between ace, aroace, aro and just not interested in romantic plotlines.
So I prefer the second.
2 Likes
Good observation.
And I agree with your replies that I absolutely am not going to pay and then go exploring to find out if there’s a romantic opportunity for me. This is kind of a microcosm of the larger cultural phenomenon where the groups that usually get what they want don’t really need to think about “what if” they weren’t getting what they wanted.
As a logical person, I prefer an explicit description of what is included in the game. I at least want to know, even if there isn’t an RO for me. I’ll still play games with great stories or that don’t have romance at all. It’s just a turn-off to be excluded if I’m hoping or expecting to not be. It’s part of market demographics, even if you’re not into the gender awareness political movement. Money talks.
I see a lot of liking and not liking terminologies that don’t necessarily need to imply what posters think feel like they imply. I could be a player pursuing an opportunity for romance in a game even if I’m playing a demure character that needs to be pursued. “Romance” as a verb may be better if people are actually inferring a nefarious intent to “pursuing”. It might also be good set up a CoG/HG lexicon. Someone just posted variations of ‘ace’ that I’m not familiar with. I wonder how specific terminology needs to be to describe what an author saw fit to write. Would one term to describe a situation where “you can have a perfectly rich play-through with only platonic friendships” cover all the ace bases? I honestly don’t know, and wonder how many authors do. Coming up for a term describe “you can have romances with male ROs that don’t force you to assume a traditionally feminine role” would cover anything I’d be looking for without having to have nuanced definitions of the difference between bi and pan.
It may be asking for too much to think we could come up with 5 or 6 terms that would sufficiently describe RO variations. But, it might be an interesting thought exercise.
2 Likes
‘play as gay, straight, bi, or asexual’ is what I’m used to see . if it isn’t there I’m gonna assume there is no gay . then I just skip the said game .
3 Likes
Yeah, it’s reassuring to see that it’s there. And it does make me feel a little like “why don’t people want to see the word ‘gay’ there?” 
“Ace” would be short for “asexual” and “aro” for "aromantic; “aroace” would be both. So someone could be interested in romancing another character but want it to be written as a nonsexual relationship; someone else might not want any romantic involvement at all. Zombie Exodus: Safe Haven has the full complement of these (came with a patch at one point). I don’t know of any other games that do so explicitly, though I’d be interested if there are.
5 Likes
So, I’m aroace and rarely go down romance routes in games, but I prefer the “pursue men, women…” despite the problematic phrasing of “pursue” because I’m not exactly sure how to phrase nonbinary attraction and the words gay and straight don’t seem to encompass that.
2 Likes
“I wonder whether the writer of this story thinks I’m a human?” said no one, ever.
1 Like
I was about to agree with this. But then I realised that what I was about to say as a reason to agree didn’t sound all that right.
So I guess that requires a longer reply than I originally intented; there are already games out there which used sexual orientations as an advertisement material and while I played it it feelt more like the PC is bisex, instead of lesbian which I would prefer. If I play as a lesbian then I’d like the male ROs instantly made unavailable right when I choose the orientation and not for the game to ask me if I like some female character then it offering me to like a male character if I choose so. (uh, I think The Martian Job is an example for what I mean). Meaning the old advertising method isn’t 100%-ly right for all of these games.
I didn’t play the newest game yet so idk how this is handled there. But if it makes me also feel like the advertising does, actually what I previously mentioned as a problem then that’s okay bc the advertising didn’t promise me more than what I got.
Edit: Since we are already at the topic kinda, then please don’t advertise games with romance if it’s done really half assedly in it. Like one choice regarding whom you want to pursue and after the game acknowledged your choice then the whole romance thing disappearing from the game to the point the player even forgets about it until the one or two sentences about it in the epilogue.
4 Likes
My gut feeling is to go with the “pursue…” option, which is possibly because I’m nb. In that I don’t feel like belonging to ANY camp and my existence is more of a state of being that I’d like to define in a granular way, instead of having clear labels that limits the definition of what it can be.
Other people in the LGBT spectrum probably don’t feel this way, though, and I understand that perfectly.
Also, as someone who’s a romantic ace, I really, really wish people would stop using ‘asexual’ to mean ‘no romance ever because you don’t want to have sex, right!?’ Romantic aces kind of get pressured about that often enough in real life…and I don’t think the aros want themselves conflated with ‘no sex ever’, either.
(Caution: humor)
I think as far as romantic taglines are concerned I’d like to see something like…
“This game is super fun for X reasons!”
Because I find that sort of thing super attractive.
My response to that would be…
Oh. Yes. Talk dirty to me.
To which I would love to read…
“A minimum of 40 hours of gameplay!”
Then I would be all like…
Oh baby, you know it.
And once I read more of…
“Management! Base-building! RPG! Deep, engaging narrative!”
Then I would be smitten and be completely like…
I like “play as gay, straight, bisexual” etc because of the orientation specificity and it’s what I’m used to. The other way is fine too though, especially if it’s a dating focused game - it seems quite typical for dating sims to highlight the genders of the characters you can romance.
3 Likes
The tricky thing about the “both” in the second option is that it can be interpreted as having the possibility of poly relationships.
1 Like
I would completely agree with you if it wasn’t already the norm. The majority of stories do have that choice, and the majority of non-romance focused stories do not force you in to romance.
I just don’t think this is something that should be up to the reader, as I said in my post. I think it should be completely about what the writer believes fits their story the best. Generally you will have those choices… but if you don’t, the writer should perhaps, if they feel like it, specify this.
2 Likes
In my games, I don’t even have variables or choices for sexual orientations. I just let players romance whoever they want or romance no one at all. I think it works smoothly, and thus far I’ve had no complaints with that method. So in my games’ descriptions, I just put “Romance men, women, both, or no one at all.”
5 Likes