As an amab person, I hate how often nb is automatically assumed to be afab so I really like it that some WIPs like After Dark recently let me choose my agab. I really want to hear other people’s opinions on this if this is something more writers should do
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I’ve written a couple of games where a nonbinary PC can choose AGAB or leave it open (Honor Bound, The Earth Has Teeth). Both of them are not very gendered settings. Then there’s another project I’m working on that’s set in the real contemporary world, and in that one the PC chooses because we wanted to emphasise the more gendered setting.
I think the main thing is that I don’t want a choice of agab / anatomy to funnel my character in a direction that doesn’t work for them. Especially if explicit scenes are involved which is often where responsive text comes up, but also in descriptions of how the world sees them or what the game is assuming they look like. If I don’t know the author or how they’re going to handle it, it can make me wary that the game is asking “what are you really”.
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Honestly, I like the choice. Even when/if it doesn’t have an effect on the story.
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i would honestly only care to have the choice if it actually added something to the story/ added flavor text or something. otherwise, throwing in choices like that irritates me bc it feels like the author is just going ‘HERE DAMN’. a lot of IFs tend to just ‘here damn’ enbies in general
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I feel unconscionably old asking, but I tried to search for what this means and couldn’t find anything - what does that mean in this context? 
lol my fault i shouldn’t have expected everyone to understand what’s going on in my head. it’s like when someone gets continuously pestered for something and gives in just to get the other person off their back. ie; adding an option to be NB but having it only matter on the character creation screen bc it’s never brought up again. something i love about your games is that you actually put thought and effort into making every identity the MC plays as matter. so thank you for that !
i think i somehow forgot to ping u @HarrisPS
@raywilson you explained it WAY better than i did lmfao so thank you anyways
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im pretty offline these days but i believe “HERE DAMN” is a twitter-type phrase/meme that roughly comes from some Person A requesting/demanding something, and then a Person B replying back like “here, damn!!!” so they did give Person A what they asked for but its done in a way where it suggests that Person A is being dramatic/excessively demanding/generally annoying, and Person B doesn’t much appreciate whatever request they have.
i think the “HERE DAMN” vibe in this context is like. an author grudgingly ceding part of the narrative/text to NB characters/players but pretty clearly only doing so to appease readers enough to keep them from complaining about a lack of representation. for example, an another allowing a point for a player to choose their PC’s agab, but doing so in a way that’s clearly just to get readers “off their backs” and not because they actually care to include queer/NB gender considertions for the sake of inclusion in the narrative.
also omg sorry @loomy i didnt see u typing im on mobile. but yes!!!
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Essentially for the reasons you gave (though luckily haven’t noticed that in a game; that’s more an irl concern for me), yeah firmly like the option. An addition I prefer is the inclusion of if you’ve done any physical transitioning i.e. hormones, since like that’s pretty important for how one would look (such has having tits or I suppose for transmasc people having the option for facial hair) or otherwise be treated, instead of having the option and it just assuming like you’re physically “cis” and happen to use they/them, as seems the most common default by far.
Funnily, had just made a comment on a new story about how much I liked the option of if you have breasts and that setting how strangers gender you. In essence I think that’s kinda what I want for the average story, though I do really like the option to specifically pick what kind of trans and how trans (this wording is joking) I am, and I consider all of that absolutely required if there’s gonna be explicit sex scenes and such (and it isn’t always acknowledged, unfortunately[1]).
come to think of it I would say yes that’s where I see the assumption of being AFAB consistently appears, so can definitely say I’ve seen it in games ↩︎
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I agree with you 100%, it is annoying, and I know lots of NBs who would love to have agab options available
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@ElliWoelfin I entirely agree about the physical transition side of things, I would love to see acknowledgment of the changes that can happen via accessing gender-affirming healthcare (whether that’s medical, magical, whatever’s present in the setting). Especially in explicit scenes where, yknow, it may become relevant.
@loomy @raywilson Thank you for clarifying! I get what you mean (and massively appreciate your kind comment @loomy, I try my best but am always interested in improving!)
Goals, truly… 
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I actually dislike it when a game asks you to choose an AGAB. Like HarrisPS said, I do have a concern that the game is just asking me “what are you really,” and I also think it’s not the best way to navigate trans/NB representation in a game. If I choose to be nonbinary but also select AFAB, the game may assume my character hasn’t had top surgery or bottom surgery. NSFW scenes may include very gendered, sexualized terms to refer to the MC’s genitals - I feel like I’ve seen this in some games where choosing to be transmasc essentially just gets you the fem MC sex scene with pronouns switched up and vice versa. Sort of echoing what ElliWoelfin said, I find it a lot more helpful and natural if the game instead prompts me to choose my anatomy (and especially what I’d call my anatomy) before any scenes where that becomes relevant. Then AGAB is taken out of the picture and I instead can imagine any sort of transition my MC may have had. Spices of the Heart takes this approach which I very much appreciate!
Kind of an aside, but AGAB is also a purposefully narrow way of defining people’s anatomy. The term was coined by intersex people and is intended to point out how our sometimes diverse anatomy is assigned simplistic, gendered labels. So when an otherwise queer-friendly game prompts me to choose my AGAB I can’t help but cringe at the binary being re-instated onto non-binary characters. Obviously there are exceptions, and a game can have a setting where this binary is important and necessary information for the plot, but I’m mostly talking about games where that isn’t integral.
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Since your AGAB would affect how you’re perceived by others in the story, I think that choosing your AGAB would create a more realistic experience as a trans person, especially in stories with more gendered settings. From an immersion perspective, the more information the game has on your character, the more it can tailor to it.
I agree with @ElliWoelfin about the inclusion of any physical transition your character may have gone through; often, I’ve seen games treat nonbinary protagonists as having all the physical characteristics of a cis person of their AGAB, just while using they/them pronouns. A possible way of helping avoid this would be for games to offer further choices regarding gender and presentation for character customization. For example, the player could be asked for gender, AGAB, physical characteristics, and pronouns. This would also be to the benefit of cis people who have physical characteristics not adhering to their AGAB (for example, a cis woman who got a mastectomy because of breast cancer).
Overall, I’m absolutely for games asking for nonbinary protagonists’ AGAB, as long as they handle the subject respectfully.
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