Actually, the Arthurian legend is thought to predate Christianity in the British Isles.
On subject though, I am someone who gets very bored of genderlocked protagonists. The setting and writing has to be very strong for me to enjoy it, like Gaslight. If a WIP or game has a genderlocked protagonist in a setting that is rarely explored, I will give it a chance, but if it’s something like “play a white dude in the Medieval era!” I will not even look at the work.
Edit: I am ok playing women and nonbinary characters though. We don’t get enough representation and I will do what I can to support us
Then your not going to like Lords Aswick but it does give you some moments to really break the norm all this for the error came in but honestly it’s also during that point of the game if you bet wrong you can be royally screwed pun intended.
It grew on me but yeah I wish you were able to develop the characters background more even in the letter just reflect about himself where he came from or why he’s on the front. Maybe that was the point he was supposed to come off a little blank State a generic like so many of the Lost Souls that died on those fields. Ironically a few more character development in them during the brothel scene and how you react response with that. And by the end of the game you’re only 6 months then but you’re a hardened veteran and depending on how well you did a NCO.
Arthurian legend ended up getting Christianised, it didn’t begin that way.
Also there’s not one true version of Arthurian stories, it’s a whole hodgepodge of so many different fan-writers over centuries, each changing and adapting the story, adding their own characters, writing their versions of others, changing the things they want to. Adding in Christianity, stripping away other elements.
I remove the Christianity of my own version of Arthurian stories too. But I do like the old ways and new ways themes so I use those, without directly referencing Christianity.
I think @jeantown’s take is extremely interesting.
And hmm my favorite male-gender-locked game is Study In Steampunk ( I’m actually amazed by how many times I’ve replayed it and I’m always like ‘ok I’m gonna try romance someone that’s not Finch this time round’ and I literally fail each and every time xD) .
I did love Aswick, as well, though. There’s also Sabres/Guns of Infinity.
I tend to avoid gender-locked unless I find the premise interesting enough. Fun fact: I actually put off playing A Study in Steampunk BECAUSE of the locked gender, but I’m glad I came back and played it for real. I have learned to give games like it a chance, but I prefer to choose my own gender, mostly in order to play both sides. I lean more towards girls because I am one, but I occasionally go for males or non-binary depending on the games.
Certainly. I really enjoy Guenevere and I’ve played my share of otome games as well. My preferred Commander Shepard was always female and I made sure to switch around the box art of my copy of ME3 so she was front and center. I was also really excited to see Emily was going to be a playable protag in Dishonored 2. I inevitably end up playing a lot of women characters in play-by-post RPs I frequent as well, so much so that I’m frequently assumed to be a woman myself.
I 100% refuse to play as a male or a hetero romance. If i want a story about a guy or a straight girl I’ll pick up a book, if I’m playing a game then I want to relate to the character.
Usually I prefer a genderlocked game with a female character, but I don’t have problems playing as a male character since the story really, really catch my attention. My real problem is that the most part the games I play, in general, lacks representation, because every game I play with male characters they have to be cis, white and straight.
The 3 gender lock game/series allow for homosexuality One gentlemen/Doctor in Victorian like setting Other is Earl in hundred year war/war of roses scenario and the last one is the Dragoon officer son and heir of a borderline bankruptcy heavily in debt baron in a weird Regency setting. All from positions of privilege white cis but possible not straight and given their social position if they’re going to have to handle their sexuality or lack of in a very delicate and discreet way and may have to cave the social pressures for the sake of family. Which can lead to Fantastic writing. Of course the Dragoon Saga incredibly slow burn series. It’s going to be five folks we just got done with the second the character now is finally returning home from being gone from it for 12 years.The romances you don’t get any of them until the second game and many of them cannot be pursued too deeply nor all there preferences revealed.
I often play a female protagonist. The fact that Guinevere was gender-locked female didn’t bother me in the slightest. I’ve played the game dozens of times through.
Actually, the Arthurian legend is thought to predate Christianity in the British Isles.[/quote]
Um, no. The Britons in England and Wales who Arthur is credited with leading against the Angle and Saxon invaders in the late 5th and/or early 6th centuries had already been to a considerable extent Christianized as part of the Roman Empire, even if the completeness of that Christianization is open to debate due to the lack of surviving written records. I think what people find confusing is that in the larger scheme of things Arthur, if he existed, was little more than a temporary roadblock to the Saxon conquest of England, and the Saxon conquerors themselves didn’t convert to Christianity until the 7th century.
No one really knows how it began. The first stories didn’t get set to paper until several hundred years later. They might well have begun as heroic tales of a Christian military leader (“dux bellorum”) defending his people against Pagan invaders, or maybe he was some half-forgotten Celtic deity, or maybe he started out as something else. We really don’t know.
I actually haven’t ever played as a female in a choice of games or Hosted games game, and I’ve played almost all of them. I also always choose the homosexual relationships. Not quiet sure why. So when I get genderlocked as a male doesn’t bother me.
I feel like I get so many options to play as a female on Choice of games, that I don’t mind occasionally playing gender locked games.
There is also something different reading a story as a male protagonist, than playing video games as one. When I read, I can pretend that I’m the MC, even as a guy, but with video games I never play as a man(exception being Torment) because it’s hard to immerse myself in the story.
Yeah, I get it I myself can only really connect to a gay man, which is what drew me here in the first place the chance to play gay protagonists, not sidekicks, not the comedy relief (we are increasingly getting those parts on mainstream tv now, but gay protagonists are still almost non-existent outside of programs specifically aimed at us), but the protagonist that was a big deal for me. And the games here show the gay romances as much as the straight ones, it’s not just an “informed attribute” of the character. In the games of my youth I mostly tended to ignore the romance or click through that stuff as fast as possible if it was non-optional.
Still for me the disconnect is still less with a male protagonist, even if he is locked to straight.
For me to play a female character the game has to be either really good, like Seven Kingdoms, or still be good and cater specifically to some of my other niche interests, like “Beast in the Castle”.
Even then, had that game allowed it, my widow character in Seven Kingdoms would likely have been a transman.
Both of those things are true, and yet now that I’ve played enough Bioware and Choice games that allow me to play a gay male protagonist it somehow feels even more suffocating if I’m not able to do that. Though as I mentioned above really good games or those catering specifically to some of my other niche interests can help me get over that.
Yeah, but 99.8% are straight male protagonists. And of the remaining .2% most are asexuals married to their jobs, not gay or bi.
Which is how I feel about being locked to female or straight male, If the premise of the game and its reasons for doing so are good enough I’ll let it slide.
Agreed.[quote=“FairyGodfeather, post:27, topic:22475”]
It was a lot more disturbing and damaging than even that.
[/quote]
True, if it had happened to me, I probably would have killed myself even sooner than he did.
Yes, but again, I set the bar higher for them in that they have to be really good, like Seven Kingdoms, or just good and cater to my niche interests.
True, for Choice games I have become to expect that gay male will be available and there has to be a really good excuse if it isn’t.
Yep, same way for me when it comes to playing female characters.
I am cis male and having the protagonist genderlocked as male immediately lowers my opinion of a game. In many cases, the game partially redeems itself in other features, but my opinion is worse nonetheless.
Personally, as a somewhat on-off writer in my spare time, I absolutely dread writing from a separate gender perspective, because I don’t know how women, or for that matter, transgender people think, are their values the same, would they approach the same situation in the same way, etc. If I write it wrong, then I become an objectifying bastard, if I don’t write it, I’m an male chauvinist.
One of the things I fear is writing another character with the wrong mentality, like a high schooler with the mentality of a college goer, or a soldier thinking in a manner so detached it seems psychopathic, when I’m trying to make him a normal soldier. Hence a lot of my work is basically locked away to be discarded later.
You know, there’s this thing called asking for help…
Bitterness at the cis hivemind aside, there’s not really MUCH you can screw up on if you follow the Vito Russo test on your LGBTQA+ characters and, if you’re unsure about something, ask for help and experiences on a trans/gay forum.
Same with women. You could just… ask women what would they do or how would they respond to this, or ask them to check over your work to see if its demeaning or not. Follow like, the Mako Mori test and feminist writing tips.
Same with mental disorders! Honestly. If you’re that scared, it shouldn’t be so hard to just… swallow your pride and worries and ask around! We’re a pretty open forum, for one, so if you “stay in your lane” and remember that you are here to listen and question gently, not to challenge or to dispute the experiences of these people, you should be fine. Usually we can tell if someone’s trying to learn or just trying to start a debate, anyway.
Truly! I’m here if you want to PM me to practice or ask a bit!
It’s generally more helpful to approach it not as ‘what would a woman do/think in this situation?’, but ‘what would Jenny, a female police officer who knits in her spare time and has a phobia of clowns’ (for an example off the top of my head ) do in this situation?’
Write characters first and foremost and make their actions gel with their individual personalities.
People are people no matter whether they’re male, female, or whatever. The major differences come into place because of society or more detailed things like romance. If you give the option for a female to cry in a situation because they’re female, it would probably be a good idea to give the male the same option because humans can cry. I know of very few things that are solely male or female aside from maybe some biological things which are ignored in most stories anyway.
