I think the best is let it open and balance but if player wants explore let choose from all spectrum without choose for him her their in base to stupid gender stereotypes. And always been sane safe and consensual. I don’t know why people shows this as not natural or creepy. Is something very natural
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As the thread shows it’s a learned sociological thing. I haven’t checked what carlos linked, but it looks like something that might explain it better.
In short, people are taught through society that is has to be dominant male/submissive female.
Its devastating.
That’s why genderchoice is important, just like spending a lot of time polishing the story flow.
I know it from some games and I see it in my own writing that sometimes you can take a good guess what gender someone has. Sometimes.
Cause unlearning some stuff can be tricky.
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Tell me I am a cis woman that because it was the best school in the zone I went to a catholic hard core nun ruled school. A school that when i entered with 3 years old just have started to accept a mix education with males.
Well the education they gave me affect me hard. With all that i will never fi d someone else who love me because I was not behave like a proper real women. To with 12 said that a girl who asked a date to a boy is a women of sodom a prostitute…
So yeah, I would never let me or let someone else treated like shit because someone else stereotypes. Let’s players choice and don’t never assume behaviors.
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I´ve got a question, I´d like to know, if it is important for transgender-people, when they coose their gender in a cog to have the trangender option, or if it is ok, just to choose the gender one wants to be?
I´m planning to make the genderchoice only for cosmetic purpose, characteristics can be choosen the way the player likes.
Well, please don’t ever make a gender option just “transgender”. I see it so often on surveys and such and it’s well meaning but insulting. Trans men are men just like cis men are men. Trans women are women just like cis women are women. If you want a nonbinary option, just write “nonbinary”.
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To be honest I don’t care about gender that much, I sometimes play as a male and sometimes as a female so I would still play a gender locked game.
I still like a choice though, it allows you to roleplay a character better and identify with it.
That’s why I don’t like games where there is no choice but the game uses neutral pronouns because it kinda ruins roleplaying for me and makes me think the character is myself.
I’ve seen a number of comments (i think here on the thread too) about how some trans peeps like if they can pick a trans option and it gets positively acknowledged.
It’s an everyone their own thing i reckon.
And of course it requires the author to do good work.
Oh, yeah, that’s completely different.
Like,
- Cis woman
- Trans woman
- Cis man
- Trans man
- Nonbinary
is very different and much more respectful compared to
- Woman
- Man
- Transgender
If a cis author wants to write a specifically transgender PC option, though, I think they should find trans readers to give feedback and make sure it’s not written badly.
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Its important to me, but if a game is that good then gender doesn’t matter to me.
One example would be the game " coming out on top." I am not guy but I played that game so much.
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Gender choice is always important to me, because I have several different characters (males and females) and sometimes I want to try all the paths. Having some stories being gender-locked limits my potential to explore my own characters, and besides what if the game’s options diverge at some point?
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Regarding Gender Choice : It honestly depends on the story and setting/world of that story.
For example the Infinity Series, it was depicting a setting world on the cusp of industrialisation and also reminded me a bit of how the World Wars affected Gender Roles (shortage of men resulting in more women working).
The gender choice being locked in that series works because it is a part of that story and helps build a few storylines.
In other stories gender does not really play a role so in my view it becomes ridiculous not to have a choice in the matter.
That being said one thing I would like to point out that annoys me, particularly in stories that are set in real world history or even based on real world history (Genuine Fantasy settings and Future settings are not included) is that gender should play a role in the story more then it does in most of the stories here.
If your setting is basically Pride and Prejudice era then a woman being able to shoot and walk around in trousers should be extraordinary and treated as such (both negatively and positively). Your PC should not get a free pass without consequences.
Similar issue with same gender romance in such (historical) settings. Keep in mind I am not advocating removing the choice of same gender romance but rather having the setting / culture affect that romance. The romance should not be removed, but the setting’s prejudice should be something that the characters struggle against and overcome.
In short : I want gender and romance choice in those settings but I want those choices to MATTER. If a player chooses to play a women in a basically Victorian era setting there should be restrictions and consequences when player goes against them.
I fully grant that this might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I end up feeling it takes something away from the setting if the world is basically mediveval age with modern age sensibilities on gender.
Histories were dead but people are living, histories were already as shit as they were when they against women, so…I just hope when at least in fictitious novel games written by morden people women could be treated as equal as men even in historical settings, that’s some necessary liberties I think…
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We need both. But in real history case, a female mc MUST rise above the other males.
And while we are at it, historical settlement can be hard for a lot of community. Gay people, feminine male (I don’t like that designation), person with a different skin color, religion…
Human was (and can still be, 
) stupid in a lot of way.
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Was there not already another thread for this(might be confusing it for the few thousand that exist)?
But pretty sure there was a main one not too long ago that wasn’t from about two years ago, where it covers all the same ground as always and treads absolutely nowhere new.
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As I said, for me it depends on how much the setting of the story is set in the “Real World”.
If the setting is more historical fantasy then I have no issue with equality between genders.
If the setting actually depicts a Real World Time Period then I would like it to depict a real world time period both the good and bad bits otherwise why set it in the real world at all?
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The female or any minority character would have a lot more to struggle against so in that sense their rise would be more heroic.
Regarding the rest of your post I somewhat agree on it being hard but my point or desire is that the story reflect RL time period warts and all. Otherwise you just get a romantic / fantasy view of the time period without all the bad bits that make it real.
Not to say anything against you or assuming something about your Person. This view is often shared by white cis males, which is understandable, because for them that would be a rather unique point of view, but this realism looses a lot of its uniqueness when you are a person that feels that unequality everyday. As said above this is just a reminder why people might feel different about this, Not to judge your view or Person.
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Well I actually agree.
I may be a bit of a masochist, but I really like when my characters suffers for what they are and for their ideal… I like when they crawl on the floor bleeding and wheezing in pain… and in the end when they fianlly stand up and win.
Like Seiya in saint Seiya… 
And it’s best when I can win without violence, with just my brain and comprehension. Discussion. I like to forgive my nemesis (really like the final of doctor who season 3).
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Depends on the setting. A statement sharing similarities with “have a proper session zero.”
No worries about offending. Instead of white put in Asian and you’d be correct.
That being said I do hope you understand that I am not asking for this ‘realism’ in most settings just those in real historical eras.
Having such settings be accurate is part of the charm and draw for me. Let me put it this way : I am one of the people who still gets annoyed at Marvel Thor (both Comic and Movie) not being a Red-Head …
I prefer accuracy to base material / story / myth unless there is a very very clear division towards fantasy or setting change. For example IMO Romeo and Juliet should be played by Italians if it is set in medieval Verona but can be other ethinicities if the setting is changed to modern day New York for example.
This tends to put me against and for both sides in the race/gender debate depending on which story or myth we are talking about.
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