For example have ladies you play Lords Aswick Infinity Sea series ot Trenches of Somme? How does gender lock male in game make you feel? Does distracted from enjoyment does not allow you become attached to the MC. Or do enjoy more for another reason. I would really like to known your thoughts.
So I’m nb and I refuse to play any male-locked interactive game. Female I’ll allow sometimes.
I’m so tired of male marketed, male based games that suckle at the patriarchal nipple. I am not only extremely bored by male locked games but I guarantee I can find you another game that did the exact same thing but with a bigger budget.
So much stuff is based around, marketed to, and designed with cis men in mind and I am tired and it is not getting my time nor my money. Immediate disinterest; I do not even attempt to enjoy it.
Female I can get along with. There’s a lack of female characters and female empowerment and wish fulfillment in fiction, especially gaming, so playing as one, while it doesn’t particularly fit me, is something I enjoy, creating a character that is unique to that world.
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I can deal with it if the story is good enough, it just won’t be optimal for me. I’m a woman and I like playing female characters in my games if at all possible. That game called “Fallen Hero” allows you to control a male puppet as your alter ego and, even though I attempted it at first, it just didn’t feel… right… with me. Its like something in my brain goes off and says “no, thank you”.
The most peculiar thing in all this is that I have no problem whatsoever playing games like Half-Life or Doom (whose protagonists are male) but RPGs like Elder Scrolls or Fallout or even interactive text games like CoG, I always go for female and really dislike the idea of being male.
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Know what you ladies want a game gets an ability to choose my gender I will choose male but some of my most beloved games Are gender lock the female leads. The Cat Lady the Longest Journey. Putting gender Choice into the game for them just gender choice can ruin to experience for me. For example I actually enjoyed playing as a woman a whole lot more in the choice of romance man cuz it just felt more natural to me. Now if the gender choice depending on the time . Or the field you want to go for that could be interesting. For example let’s say there was a game that took place Tang china playing as an official vs a low ranking concubine to the emperor what is the equivalency of being a secretary or Imperial eunuch versus lady-in-waiting. Or for those perspectives would be very deeply different stories but all revolve around the imperial court. Avenues of happiness and to power and to love are very different depending on those positions. That’s interesting non-arbitrary use of gender. At the same time if a game is good I’m going to enjoy gender locked or not.
I am a role player first so I have no problem to play gender locked games. Like lord or Guns. However, I prefer could choose being female or create my own characters. I am tired all that white man fixed characters is so boring… Always the same.
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I have an issue playing gender-locked games. For a long time I decided I just wouldn’t spend my money on people who wouldn’t give some players the chance to play as a woman (Are there any released hosted games that force the player to be a woman?) or as someone nonbinary.
After some time I bought Mecha Ace, and fell in love with Cataphrak’s writing. From there I purchased Sabres, despite my reservations, and adored the universe. Cataphrak does an excellent job with his writing, and his works are some of the few I will straight up purchase without caring about reviews for. The lack of a female MC is undoubtedly my least favorite part of playing his games, as I have to disconnect myself from my character in a way I don’t for most other games, but the universe makes it worthwhile.
It’s not the end-all for me (I loved Gaslight), but it disappoints me every time I see it, especially from authors who show themselves to be fantastic writers.
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It doesn’t bother me if the game is gender-locked. I want to play an interesting character, not as an exact copy of myself. A well-written MC should be relatable to most people regardless of the MC’s gender, background, or even species.
Besides, men and women aren’t so different. If it was impossible to relate to another gender, Harry Potter wouldn’t have got so popular (a lot of the readers were girls).
If people think stories with male MCs are all the same, they’ve read bad stories. It’s good to focus on writing your character as a person, not as a stock representative of a gender. Design the personality, background, and goals first, then choose the gender. That way you’ll avoid turning the characters into a collection of boring cliches and stereotypes.
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Then you should give @Goshman shot I take if play Golden Eagle? Which is gender lock series at least currently that game change in fourth or five game in that series for all I known. I’d recommend that you give her a proper shake my friend.
Also who doesn’t love Gaslight it’s like the Sherlock Holmes game always wanted and it does romance for both sexuality is very well.
If It’s gotta be a crime not to love Paul’s writing.
So true it like watching good movie or reading good book. It’s all based on the Creator’s chops if they can make the world interesting and you invested in the character then you’re going to get invested. Who does not like Breaking Bad.
Text games like this one have to be beyond brilliant for me to play to male-locked. I if want to experience a man’s story there is no shortages of stories out there, which is better, longer and more emotionally full-filling simply because they allow for better protagonists. Male protagonist are everywhere, I don’t need them in my roleplay.
The only genderlocked to male I enjoyed (and that is because as a litterature student) is the homage to Sherlock Homes. I tried the first of the infinity series, and though it is well written it bored me, because of who I had to play. It is just not for me and so I have not touched a gender-locked game since. The game really have to sell me that the story have to be from a male perspective and I have pretty high standard for have when it come to text-based.
Depending on which phase I am in, I also really want an nb-option. Currently, I am a bit alianated by my physical gender and it bothers me if a game assumes me feminine. The lack of an nb-option is not something which can make me pass over a game, because I know I swing back again, but it can make me pause untill I swing back to feeling like a woman again.
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I said give another chance I wasn’t in love with it the first time. when I was able to sit down and actually appreciate it I got invested. This series is a very slow burn to. As you slowly see the main character grow and change over the years. Between the two games there’s already 12 years have gone by and there’s 3 more books to go. Another turn off about the game it’s not a power fantasy that could be unappealing for some. The Deep you got the harder of the choices are and worse burn you’ll be. At the same time to you though if you’re not a fan of like the Sharpe series or other such like it. The first two may not be your thing. Fair games from getting the vibe of is it going to be like a turmoil version of a Jane Austen novel. Except you’re most likely the the destitute patrician.
speaking of non-binary. would you consider a eunuch castrated at a very early age would affect their perspective of the development of their selves gender and sexuality. And the classical perspective they were neither gender they’re a between.
I agree with @DreamingGames that there are a lot of other games with male MCs. I like being able to create my own MCs and shape them to be similar to me and that’s why COG and some other role playing games are great.
Although, I agree that some of the games with gender flipping seem more written for males (or females like CoR) and that could also break someone’s immersion, so I do understand why some games genderlock, but I would not play/enjoy a COG male gender locked game.
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Enjoy Guinevere for the most part the only thing that bothers me is how they spur the importance of Christianity in that time period.
So, funnily enough, I hardly ever play female MCs. As a result, genderlocking in games usually isn’t a problem for me.
The reason for this is mainly because I played a lot of sort-of “make up your own adventure games” with my friends when I was very young- we’d be spies, assassins, knights in shining armor, queens who were shoved into the real world by an evil warlock who wanted to take our crowns (this one got pretty much our entire kindergarten class involved and went on for some time, it became quite the epic fantasy that we’d all get together to play during recess and/or lunch)- and thing was- nobody wanted to play the male roles.
Sometimes these were the knights in shining armor (who usually fit more into the “damsel in distress” categories rather than those doing the actual saving), but more often than not these were the villains- the evil warlock or the spies’ archenemy. When it came to who would play these men- nobody wanted to take up the mantel. So, I volunteered.
And after a while it pretty much became an unspoken rule that I would play every male character in our games as well as my main female hero.
Thing is- I loved playing the villain (ironic, since I can never bring myself to play a villainous path in any of these games), I loved devising drama and being the mastermind behind the death of the heroine’s parents and stealing the crown. I grew a lot closer with these male villains than I ever did with any of my female heroes, just felt like it was more interesting, because they were nothing like me.
I found it harder to slip into the character the more I made them like myself, since it was more like I was just playing pretend instead of actually feeling that this character was the one doing these things.
It was funny, but when I did a play in middle school much later, I got cast as the cat in Cinderella, who is classically male. The drama teacher asked if I was okay playing a male role. I really didn’t care, I just wanted to act. And if the role was male? Who cares? I sure didn’t.
So, long story short, which gender I play as doesn’t really matter to me. I always go with whatever I feel fits the character I’m playing. Whether that character is female, nonbinary, male… well, it changes depending on the story. They’re different people tailored to the story I’m reading, not me in the story itself.
Which is kinda why I don’t play female MCs all that often (not to say never, I just play MCs of other genders more), sometimes they tend to feel too much like me- which, ironically, makes it harder to get into the story. If any of that makes any sense at all.
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While being genderlocked as male does irritate me at times I can let it slide if there was a reasonable excuse, for example if it would require the author to rebuild an entirely different story for femc, history etc.
Otherwise I spend the whole game wondering why and this breaks immersion a bit.
I agree with @DreamingGames however, unless its exceptionally good, I would be a little hesitant in purchasing it out of disappointment.
CoG games is pretty much the only place I can enjoy such a diverse range of genres and roles while still getting to play as female. So i expect quite a bit out of most of the games produced.
The gender of the MC may not be of the utmost importance but it certainly does help me feel good that my gender is recognized in a medium that is primarily male centric.
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I’m sorry that my collection of approximately 60/87 video games with male protagonists are all bad stories, along with about a bookshelf of male protag novels I threw away about four years ago.
But I’m not because they are. Not to say having a male MC is bad, but you can smell the patriarchal stench on a good amount of games and movies and books that work in this manner.
Stories that are written by cis men tend to fall into this “default” of degrading tactics or writing of female or nb characters that is painfully obvious, whether or not the main character is female. But it is certainly more noticeable if the player is a woman, noticing the sore lack of women in a story.
Sex sells, women dying to advance mangst, fridging, slowly phasing out strong women to let male characters grow into a main character role (Trinity syndrome), forced romantic interest, rape jokes, tomboy vs girly character stereotypes, and just… badly, or at least unsatisfyingly written women. The Bechtel test is the absolute lowest bar and yet barely anything passes, let alone getting me started on the Mako Mori test.
How many women written by men describe themselves, and mention their breasts? Literally no woman I’ve ever met goes “I’m relatively slim, tall and dark-skinned. My arms are toned from years of hard work on the farm, and littered with slight, fine scars. My breasts aren’t that big but they’re perky and get the job done”.
And then don’t even get me started on trans characters. Oh, I’m so happy for representation on one hand, but it’s so stereotypical and bland on the other hand. Vito Russo test? Please.
I can play genderlocked games if they have a defined character. But in games that offer you the chance to define almost everything else about them, not having a gender option for your playable character just… irks me pretty terribly.
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Have you ever read the Dune series? Or gave SoIAF a proper shot?
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Didn’t like either. Found them alright at places, but ultimately not feminist, or at least not notably so as to be enjoyable. ASOIAF fans tend to be divided, but Dune is generally seen as more conflicting and old-fashioned.
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Nope. I checked out Gun of Infinity when it was W.I.P, but nope, nope, nope. Infinity manage to hit all my generic fantasy protagonist points.
- Man (Though, that he doesn’t have to be white or straight is a plus. Just not enough of it.)
- Military. (Really not my thing.)
- The most boring of privilige situations.
- I am more interested in the other characters than the protagonist, which unlike book an movies are death to me in roleplaying, because that breaks my connection to the character. (Since I am now playing for their good ending and not my MCs).
I have read the above story before. I have read it a hundred times before and watched it in movies. And it is better written, because books and movies can make a protagonist which have more personality and passion than a game-protagonist can get. (The is not the writers fault. I really do think he is one of our best writers. But our media have a limitation and that kills it for me.)
It is also not written as an Austen novel, because Austen where pretty concerned about women and their situation. You cannot take the woman out of an Austen novel.
As for the eunuch. I would side-eye a game that say that an eunuch would have to be NB, but I generally do consider that an interesting perspective and I would definitely be open to play one as NB,. (Or just play one, because that is an interesting and not often considered perspective.)
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Do you need a commentary on a lot of different things and the characters evolve and change and the long series of course I do try to ignore his son’s continuation of it. You got many different characters in many different variations and I do notice especially later on the series it’s very female-centric. Have you ever read Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse Sandman by Neil Gaiman or ocean at the end of the lane by him as well?
No. I did read a bit of Neil Gaiman’s works a while back though. I shall look them up. Thank you!
EDIT: Oh wait! I totally forgot that I heard so many great things about Sandman and totally wanted to buy it years ago! My dad used to collect comics, maybe he has a copy stored away…
Here’s basically a simple explanation of what I think of ASOIAF; good, but lacking and a bit iffy.
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