I am a role player so the faculty of choose is important for me. But I prefer a gender locked game with room for personality choosing and choose morality and goals; to the typical game who let you choose gender race and eyes but personality and motivations are set and writer is telling you each five seconds how he believes your character is and how much your love x character when i hate him or her. Two of my favourites games are gender locked but my most hated hosted is gender locked too.
Ah sorry. I tried to look, but apparently not in the right places. 
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This is all very interesting, and what you guys are saying makes sense.
I want to create a wide range of customization and fully intend do you to be able to pick your sexuality/appearance/(and yes as one of you mentioned, goals and motives). It’s also worth noting that I was going to lock it as a female, not a male, as a grand majority of you seem to want a female mc. It might be possible for me to alter the story slightly for a male mc but I’m not sure… More thought on that required. On the subject of genders other than that I’m open to it but I’d feel odd not showing the difference in some way and I have not put much thought into how they would be perceived. So again… More thought required.
If I did include other genders I might be required to give those mc’s a slightly different background in order to even the playing field. I assume nobody would have any objections to that but if you do I’m interested in hearing it.
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I like COG games because I can shape and create my character. I like to play as a female and determine my MC’s personality.
I will play defined COG MCs if there are multiple MCs.
I like logical games and if there is a gender difference, the games should be different for each gender or the game should be gender locked. Look at the examples of gender switching in the other gender threads that people thought were poorly done or poorly explained.
I say go for it! Especially if you’re going to lock the game female, and that it’s important for your story and world-building. Write the game you want to, that you’re passionate about writing.
I’ve played the majority of games provided by Choice of Games and Hosted games and can honestly say that the “gender” choice doesn’t really bother me, depending on the story.
If there is going to be a “gender” choice I believe that it should actually matter in the story, that it brings something different to the story that you wouldn’t have experienced as the other “gender”. What does that difference have to be and how major of a difference should it make, should be up to the author to decide. But if there is no difference than it, to me anyway, makes it a pointless choice.
You could write a story which never associates “gender” with the main character and just write concerning the characters actual characteristics, which determine who they really are. When it comes to interactive stories it seems that “gender” has become merely cosmetic and has no real meaning or purpose, except for the player to make a visual characterization of their character in their mind.
So, if you’re going to make it a choice, make it a real choice. Make the consequences matter, at least to some degree.
However, since you’re inclined to make a genderlocked game than it doesn’t really matter, does it? Just write however you see fit and ignore everything I’ve just written.
Honestly I enjoy stories with a “gender” choice and genderlocked games. What matters isn’t the availability of the choice, what is important is the story and world you create for our character to explore and how far we can explore it.
Peace.
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I’m never really bothered by gender choices in any kind of game, barring some exceptions I can’t really mention here. If I have to play female, okay. If I have to play male, that’s also fine. If both are available, I’ll probably play as both to see the differences (IE any Winter Wolf title). Limiting yourself based on the protaganist’s gender seems so pointless, why limit yourself to certain content or stories that only fit your preconceived notions?
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I make character-building choices based on the image of the character that is forming in my head. If I don’t have a solid idea of who my character is yet, I roll dice or flip a coin.
Because so many games want to define the MC’s gender and sexual orientation right away, I nearly always pick randomly because they aren’t meaningful choices to me. Rolling a die lets me get on with it.
Exceptions include games that are clearly written with a particular gender in mind (Choice of Broadsides, Affairs of the Court) and games that let the player interact meaningfully with the world before assigning demographic nomenclature (Tin Star and others). In those games, the choice means something to me.
If you want gender to be meaningful, the differences can still be small or cosmetic. For instance, I loved the way Tin Star let me choose how to greet people: with a straight handshake or a palm-down handshake. Gender performance doesn’t have to be entirely fixed. Little touches like that can help bring a character to life.
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Yes, yes it is. Trust me, it is very much. Especially if you’re writing a story with elements of romance. It might be a cosmetic choice but it helps provide an impression of quality. It takes quite a bit of effort to write a gender-free game as you pointed out. Hence, the fact that the game is gender-free can be understood as “the author is willing to go the distance for this game”.
And since gender is one of the earlier choices, the first impression goes a long way.
I personally use gender choice or sexuality choice as the necessary (but not sufficient) condition of a quality game. My selected titles are Choice of Robots, Choice of Alexandria, MetaHuman, Affairs of the Court, Choice of the Dragon; they (like most, if not all, CoG titles) provide the choices of gender or sexuality. Choice of Robots especially is my favorite because it keeps bringing up the effect of gender choice over and over again.
Concerning Affairs of the Court, I heard part 2 and 3 are less flexible in the matters than part 1. There isn’t much I can’t say for myself though, since I’ve just bought them in the sale and I have yet to play the latter two parts (I’m busy clearing the achievements of Choice of Alexandria atm). Regardless, I do have to keep in mind part 2 and 3 were not in the original plan and part 1 did provide these choices and excellently incorporating them into the story.
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I can’t get into games with gender-locks most of the time, and I can never at all get into games that gender lock me as a chick. Tbh I personally think that gender locking games of either gender means less character creation and more locking into a role. As choice of games are solely text based games where you choose what you do, I feel like gender locking is completely unnecessary and foolish as it is a sign of a bad choice game. I always choose guys in games as I am a guy irl and even in games that gender lock you as a guy I find it unappealing. These are games based on imagination, locking down anything makes the entire game weaker. There is often times little excuse for this as well honestly. I can counter any excuse you can think of
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Although I agree on most of your points I challenge you on that last sentence. Given that gender is important to certain story aspects and I plan on having multiple stories featuring Different mc’s within the same world which prohibits the way Affairs handles gender (simply switching roles between genders and romances ect ect), how would you suggest I implement gender choice?
Simple. From game too game, the last mcs gender has nothing to do with it. But besides that,you are crea ring your own world, it’s your rules and you can change whatever you want. I could give a reason on any of the choice or games that have gender locks could’ve easily not been that way, and easily I can tell you the limits of your story are nonexistent. But too implement that I’d need specifics to help you alot. Okay so maybe they will overcome adversity or be forced into the role, it all depends on context. But do u rlly want my help or are you just asking? There are exceptions to anything, and everything has its own reason. Be specific please.
Whereas I tend to be the opposite, I generally avoid playing female characters (in a paid, game,not the free demo’s on these forums, lol), unless your game is so good it sucks me in regardless, like Guenevere here, or the non-CoG game “Seven Kingdoms”.
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Incredibly important. The thought makes me feel bad, though. I shouldn’t base it off that, I’m missing out on what might be a wonderful story. I’m willing to risk that, though. I hate being forced to play a certain way. Relationships are very important to me these types of games, especially if romance is involved at all.
Personally? I prefer to be able to play a female character (sometimes nonbinary characters), though choice games are actually the only games where gender choice for me is a knock out criteria. I think it’s for two reasons: 1. The number of games which present (the choice) for a female character as protagonist is still pretty limited depending on the genre (And sometimes the advertisng of a game doesn’t even mention that chosing the gender of the protagonist is possible), so I would most likely miss out a bunch of games and 2. When it’s not a choice game the game mechanic often plays an as important role if not more important as the narrative (Just look at the number of games with terrible story that still manage to be funny because the story is not the main part of the game if we are honest).
Choice games on the other hand are somewhat build on story and immersion of the player, so it makes sense when at least for me that gender choice is more important for those games (And I also feel somewhat spoiled because games that don’t allow me to play my prefered gender are here quite the minority 
)
But on the other hand I also wouldn’t want a writer that wants to write a specific “gendered” story to change that because of pressure from the outside even when they are very opposed to it from a story stance out. Some stories work only with emphasize of gender and a gender locked protagonist. Even when people say “hey you just could change the way your game world is build” in the end that wouldn’t be the story the writer wants to tell.
And in the worst case you would end up with a rashly/unmotivated added choice that the writer hadn’t fun with (because it felt like betrayal on the own story) and the players neither (because the choice leads to consequensces that aren’t thought through and make no sense with the world building), though the worst case probably would be the writer abandon their project because of the frustration. (I have seen both cases play out).
If you say you want to write a story that only would work with a preset gender than do it. If it’s writen in an appealing way people still will play it. Just look at Guenevere and Guns/Sabres of Infinity which have a huge fanbase.
An alternative when you want to add a gender choice but don’t want to write a completely different game also could be to just swamp the gender roles at whole like Broadsides and Pendragon Rising do it. That could be a compromise when possible and if you feel comfortable with it. However I don’t know if you may want to use the game world you are creating in other games with different stories, that wouldn’t need a locked gender protagonist, too; in that case for the sake of consitency that option may also be less than optimal.
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I updated the original post, I’m still a tad concerned but hey, this is a labor of love and if it’s a little more laborious than I originally intended so be it, besides I think I have come up with some nice male equivalents to some of the drawbacks and advantages to being a lady. 
Some of the accomplishments rather easy for a female mc will be rather difficult for a male.
yes gender choices are important because the dialog can change depending on if your MC is Female or Male like romance and how your MC could possibly be treated differently than the opposite gender
the way people talk to MC should also sometimes be dependent on the MC’s gender so it adds more than just the same sentences but just changed from He or she
example
He looks at her with radiating passion
She looks at him with a radiating passion
same sentence just roles are switched
change to
He looks at her with passionate eyes
She looks at him with passion in her eyes
Honestly? Even if the forced gender was the one I prefer to play as, it’s an automatic turn off for me. It doesn’t mean I wouldn’t be willing to play it if I heard enough good things about it, but it’s enough for me to reconsider buying it off the bat. Restricting the player’s ability to choose the gender of the MC feels as if I’m playing the character the author wants me to play and not a character of my own creation within the world presented to me. Does that make any sense? 
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It depends on the story. Stories like Guenevere and A Study In Steampunk are two stories that I think do a good job smoothly implementing that whole “forced gender” thing. Other stories like Tin Star and Pendragon Rising I think need to have that choice; and I like how Tin Star actually reacts. I like to play as stoic females when I can, and when a stoic female walks up as a sheriff, everyone’s jaw drops and I just laugh.
So yea, I’d say it depends on the story.
If you write a story and gender stereotypes play a key part in them I’d say your best bet is to have a locked gender; it would ruin the story built around said stereotypes if you tried to adjust it to fit both genders. Now if gender doesn’t affect the story MAJORLY then I’d say feel free to let the PC flyyyy.
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For me, it depends on the story. I love how in the WIP, Broken Lenses, being female actually matters. I also like being ABLE to play a female.
Something I discovered about myself, that I’m really not proud of, but I think is something that should be pointed out (like I’m actually really, really ashamed to admit this) is that as a white female, I associate better with a white male character than a female woman of color.
That is something incredibly shameful of me, but it also sheds light on being forced to be a specific race in games. I’m definitely not a fan of being forced into a skintone in games, and if it’s “be forced into a skintone” or “have no skintone at all” I’d prefer not having a skin tone.
That being said…Being gender-locked wouldn’t COMPLETELY turn me off to a game, but when there’s a multitude of others that give me the ability to be female, I prefer the option of playing as the gender I am, you feel?