I Like Hosted Games More

I havent encounted many games with a genderlock recently, but I avoid them all like the plague. They occur because the author has a story they want to tell, not a game they want to be played.

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I bought the one based one Pride and Prejudice since it’s the first female genderlocked one after so many male genderlocked ones I thought that in itself deserves some support even tho it still has it’s flaws (only male ROs). And I gave a chance to some of the male genderlocked ones (Study in Steampunk and even the first game in the Infinity series), but it just isn’t my cup of tea no matter how well they are written.

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There’s already a thread for this and it’s been discussed to death. Can we please not have another debate on authors who genderlock a game not caring about their reader base here and take it back over to this one if you feel like talking about it further.

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My problem with that was not the gender-lock but that the choices and characters were infuriatingly inconsistent. For example, Darcy DOES NOT dance with anyone unless he knows them enough. Yet very early on he will be completely willing to dance. The MC can say to themselves they want nothing more than to dance with him, yet at the first opportunity all the choices are varying degrees of insults. Thus the best way to play is to read the book, and choose accordingly.

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I did not wish to imply that gender-locks do not care about their readers. The Infitity trilogy is an example of one that does. I just find that by choosing to limit something relatively personal and meaningless, other choices are going to be limited in the same way.

I actually was in contact with CoG really early on, but since I already had a finished concept and I got the feel that they wanted to have more input right from the start, I never pursued that option further. I have designed games (and been an editor) before, so I felt confident I could make it work without an editor (hello hubris :sweat_smile:). Economically I was arrogant enough to think I had a good shot at surpassing the guaranteed payment that CoG gives out, and after that there’s no difference in income. Also, I knew I wanted to break some of their design guidelines, so… :slight_smile:

That being said, I have got the BEST of help and support from them. Seriously. Far more than I expected, and I am super happy with our relationship. Couldn’t ask for more, they even let me add a save function right away :heart:

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Is there really that many male gender-locked hosted games though? Of 108 games I count nine which I know for certain are male locked, five of which are either Infinity games or part of the Great Tournament line. I don’t honestly think that’s overdoing them, and while I think there’s only one female genderlock (Miss Bennet) we know there’s more on the way so… :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

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I think it’s more about the ratio than the actual number. There are also some stories which are sort of “softlocked” to a particular gender, where while it offers a choice the writing itself seems written specifically for a specific gender

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I like them both!

Though at times there are little things in Hosted Games that I found made the experience more enjoyable. Simply because the author was/is an active forum member here and can get direct feedback from us continuously, since day 1 even, if they so desire. This can result in games being more tailored to us while they can get additional insight on things that can be fixed before investing too much. It’s refreshing!

(and also not as intimidating as giving feedback to a full-time author, you dont really know their writing style and whatnot beforehand there)

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The Infinity series
The Great Tournament series + Swamp Castle
Doomsday on demand series
Lords of Aswick
A Study in Steampunk

And more on the way probably.

As far as i can see… perhaps i am mistaken, but there aren’t male genderlocked games on the way actually…

However, there are actually quite some female gender locked games on the way … if my memory serve me correctly :slight_smile:

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Pretty sure I saw several male genderlocked WIPs… Did those get abondoned?

Anyway I think things’ll start to get more fair when there’ll actually be more female genderlocked games released and not just “on the way”

I don’t think there are male genderlocked wip recently :slight_smile: honestly… :slight_smile:

Personally, i don’t think it is about fairness… this is all based on the author’s creativity and their freedom of choice, sometime author write a game or story out of their own hobby and interest… hence, it is not fair for us to tell them what is right or wrong as well :wink:

But @Jacic was right, let us go back on the topic about HG and CoG in general :slight_smile:

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Then maybe I’m just being selfish for feeling frustrated about not being able to play several interesting looking games…

Okay, you and @Jacic are right. Sorry about the derailing.

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Lol… don’t think like that, you are not selfish for expressing your opinion :wink:

Last i check, none of the future release of HG and CoG seem male genderlock…
You will be able to play all of them…
By the way, @Jerieth Life of Mercenary, which based on Great Tournament universe is not genderlocked as well :slight_smile:

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As others have said more eloquently, it really comes down to what you want. CoG has an enjoyable, popular basic structure that insures more uniform quality, but at the expense of fencing in authors a bit. HG titles make up some of the absolute worst CYOA offerings, and yet also some of the best, because they are a much more pure method of creation. They also are the place where you see the limits of what ChoiceScript can do really tested. Not always in a good way, but often an interesting one even if it is not a success. So which you prefer may just come down to whether you prefer exotic and unknown experiences or well-made and familiar.

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Didn’t know about Doomsday but that’s still only a small number of hosted games to all of them. I can understand the fact of wishing a game that interests you would include your gender - I would have given Courting a chance if you could play Darcy or Bingley as well as Elizabeth - but frankly if the writer has a specific story in mind which they feel only suited one gender, then that’s their decision, whether it’s male or female only.

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Actually, I just realized something: it’s Apple vs. Android. You know what you are getting with an iPhone. It’s a bit homogenized but the quality is undeniable. Whereas phones using Android run the gamut from clunkers to machines that put the offerings of Apple to shame. It’s about as good a corollary as any. Ironic as it is to compare CoG to Apple given that Apple pretty much hates everything about CoG and does little to hide it.

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Why does Apple hate CoG? What’s not to love about CoG/HG?

I assume it’s something to do with the fact that the stories were all separated until recently, unless it’s something I don’t know about? :thinking:

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