I don’t play games that don’t allow me to choose my gender and sexual orientation, unless that fixed gender/orientation is the same I want to play as anyway. (Which hasn’t happened yet, at least not in any of the published games.)
These are the choices that make these games worthwhile for me, the ability to choose something other than ‘male, straight’ and I find it a shame to take that away. Of course I know that it’s ultimately the writer’s story and all that, but as a reader who is really only focused on getting what they want out of the game? I honestly don’t give a crap about the writer’s vision or anything. I just wanna have fun. 
I think it would be a good idea to include the possibilities in the description, if only so people don’t have to bother with something that doesn’t suit them.
Are there games that tell you you’re going to be a straight male?
That’s… rather dispiriting.
No, that’s very dispiriting!
I understand both angles. As a writer, I find it difficult to write from a male point of view for example because I relate most as a female. I can’t really get into the idea or thoughts of being a male so my character might suffer in the process. So I get wanting to have a locked gender or orientation. You don’t want to write it if you feel like you can’t do justice to it.
At the same time, I also understand the viewpoint of the player. I, personally, almost exclusively play female protagonist or m/f choice video games. At some point, I got tired of the male protagonists, a lot of times a protagonist that felt like a placeholder so there was no reason that they couldn’t be female, so I stopped buying games with male protagonists. I have made exceptions over the years, but even with those exceptions, I can’t connect in the same way I can with a female. That saying, I have respect and understand a locked character when significant thought and detail is put into them. I just probably will not play the game.
So I get both sides. In the end, I think authors should be allowed to do what they want but players are well within reason to not play a game based on gender, orientation, etc.
White, male, and straight is kind of considered the “default” in video games as whole, which normalises those kinds of protagonists. Most AAA titles, for instance, will either imply, or portray their protagonist (or their default protagonist, if there’s character customisation) as someone fitting that mould.
My experience with CoG is that their line is that official works (at least) should always create a situation where the protagonist of any playthrough should feel just as “valid” as a protagonist of any other, regardless of race, gender, or sexuality.
Thanks @Cataphrak. Obviously I’m thinking about the CoG games more specifically rather than the video game genre as a whole. I have no idea whether @blackrising was responding to my comment (or even read it) and I don’t mean to make this about me – and in fact he or she sort of confirmed my hunch about wanting to choose what to be.
Nevertheless, it’s curious to write that I intentionally made my game gender- and orientation- neutral, with no choices at all, precisely so the player could have complete freedom to be who or what they chose; only to then see someone say that they won’t play a game that doesn’t have those choices because they don’t want to be made to be a straight male. Perhaps that assumption becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy?
This is brilliant! You just blew my mind!
I haven’t played Planetary Quarantine. I did like how it was done in Apex Patrol though (another game that doesn’t assume gender). I don’t think Eerie Estate Agent asks your gender either, does it? I think there’s a few other games that don’t.
Personally, I like it but I think it needs to be handled well and without assumptions. I actually prefer the no explicit choice as opposed to the awkwardness with which some games present non-binary options. But I know some people can find it alienating.
I’d say that there’s a difference between not having a choice and forcing the player to be a straight white male, and not presenting the choice and writing as if the protagonist could be anything the player wants.
Nah, I wasn’t responding to you. My response was just a general one for the topic at hand.
Why? I thought it was obvious that no one is gonna put as much importance on the writer’s vision as the writer himself. As a reader, why should I care about the writer’s intention or their feelings towards their story? The ‘author’ is a faceless entity to the average reader, a mysterious force that provides entertainment.
That is not to say that one can’t respect and accept the author’s feelings, but ‘the author has deemed it so’ wouldn’t get me to buy something when I’m not happy with the product.
You’re right, you shouldn’t care as a reader what the writer thought. All those hours spent in studying literature are absolutely useless because no matter how much teachers want you to put yourself in the mindset of an author and try to scry the “true meaning” from a paragraph of text, the reality of all literature is that it only matters how the reader understands or feels reading the piece. Absolutely, reading an entirely subjective affair depending on the beliefs and understanding of the reader.
That, however, has absolutely nothing to do with sexual preference or gender. Especially when you’re trying to surmise if the end product is good or not. According to your previous post you simply refuse to play a CYOA game if it did not conform to your idea about how the story should be handled or how open it needs to be - I might be misunderstanding the emphasis you have on this and if I’m doing so I apologize - and that strikes me as extremely narrow-minded.
If the writer has made a compelling story, set in a world where every choice you have (including the non-existence of a choice for gender or orientation) is based on something deeper in the societal structures of the world the story is set in, would you not be willing to go through that just because you were uncomfortable with the character you are handed control of?
Honestly what I’m taking away from your posts is the distinct stink of fanservice. If every story on CoG was designed to give the reader “what they want out of the game” every game would first of all never end up coming out and secondly have no content. It would just be fluff to entertain the masses.
I didn’t like how Heroes Rise handled the MC or inter-character relationships. I still bought and played the trilogy through. I didn’t particularly enjoy the character building for the MC in Slammed but the story was so good that I didn’t care all that much. In Choice of Broadsides the genderswap was rather jarring in my opinion but I still count it as one of the best games on the site. In Mecha Ace I thought the story was perhaps even a bit hampered because of the addition of gender choice for the main characters and romance interests and whatnot.
The point of that previous paragraph is that even if I don’t particularly relate to the MC, in many cases the story or other choices in the game are enough to keep me involved. Maybe I’m just more used to classical literature where I can get into the MC even if they’re not completely in my control, or maybe it’s just as simple as this; gender and orientation should not matter. At all. To anyone. I personally am not going to coddle anyone based on who they are or what group they say they belong to. If a story best provides for a male character, then it needs to embrace that and the reader needs to put themselves in the MC’s shoes and live with it. If the story best serves a female point of view, then that’s just as fine and male readers who don’t relate need to learn how to. Same goes for the rest of people hanging in between the binary genders. The same goes for people who are gay, bi, hetero, celibate or whatever.
Literature of all kinds, including CYOA-style games, is about going to another world and/or another time. Societal norms are a fluid thing and no matter how much you kick and scream as a reader, your views don’t matter to the world of the story any more than the writer’s intentions matter to the reader. If you’re not willing to make the effort to get sucked into the world of the MC, then you can always stop playing and try something else.
Unless it’s a clearly gratuitous and offensive piece of text, then you have every right to get up in arms about it. That’s just not okay.
This started off as a response to you @blackrising, but ended up as a general rant. Sorry about that.
I ask gender and orientation in my new games to serve or restrict specific content to those who want it. If a player does not care about romance, the player opts out when picking orientation. If the player wants to experience romance, the player picks the type(s). I find my first game unrealistic in that the main character and every NPC is omnisexual. I rather be realistic and tailor the experience.
This isn’t about respecting or accepting an author’s intentions or feelings; it’s about acknowledging an author’s intentions and feelings.
Cataphrak’s Sabres of Infinity is gender-locked, but Cataphrak explains that the gender-lock exists because of his desire to present the story in a designated fashion, which would be impossible if playing as a female character due to the existence of role restrictions within the Infinite Sea.
I may have been slightly discouraged by the inability to choose my own gender and role in this fictional society, but Cataphrak’s explanation behind the pragmatic reasons of his decision, coupled with the prospects of “visiting” such an intriguing world, softened my opinion and restored any interest that I may have lost.
I acknowledged Cataphrak’s vision of writing a story about a role-restricted society, which meant that I also acknowledged Cataphrak’s reasons behind gender-locking his game.
Abandoning a work of interactive fiction simply because there is no ability to choose a gender or sexual orientation, quite frankly, utterly simple-minded.
I would feel for Cataphrak if someone rebuked his story on account of being unable to choose a gender. With over 200k words composing Sabres of Infinity, that’s a good amount of work to dismiss on account of a missing game-play mechanic or two.
Also, +1 to Goshman! I loved reading that!
I haven’t had a chance to read every one of these posts, but I suppose it can’t hurt to offer my two cents.
As a reader and customer: I understand the idea behind not wanting to play a game where the sex or orientation is locked in a way different from my own. Ideally, I would like to think that I am flexible and open minded enough to play as the opposite sex or orientation, but the truth is that it can be a bit jarring for me. I have played games as the opposite sex, and I have been able to appreciate them. However, when I do this there is always a degree of disconnection between me and my character. In small doses this can be a good thing. I enjoy playing as a character a little different from myself. Unfortunately, sex and orientation tend to cause a degree of separation between me and my character that is beyond my ideal comfort zone.
I do my best to expand my horizons, but I would be lying if I said that I don’t have any hesitation when approaching games that don’t allow me to be my real sex or orientation. I would also be lying if I said that no game like this has ever scared me off completely.
As a casual writer: I understand the reasoning behind wanting to lock sex, gender, or orientation. In some worlds there are significant differences between how the story would play out for a woman or a man. This is often even more true if the character is part of the lgbt community. If you put a lot of thought into the world of your story, then changing it so that men and women are equal and gays are accepted openly may feel as if you are bastardizing the very world you created. Some stories can do this because the world is just a glorified backdrop for the story. Others can do it because it takes place in a progressive time period. However, if you see the story as one part of a much larger world like I do, then you will be much more hesitant to change it to fit the sensitivities of others.
Some people may see it as stubborn, but I don’t. It takes a lot of work to create a world and develop characters that can stand on there own. It also takes a lot of work to change characters and the world once you have done so. If a character or world is very well developed, then its layers are often interwoven with each other. Small pieces can be adjusted, but changing anything big can cause the whole thing to fall apart.
Final thoughts: After everything is said and done, I would encourage writers to allow choice of gender and orientation. However, I believe that it is also alright not to include such freedom if you feel it is necessary. Some stories are better because they limit freedom after all. Still, I urge writers to keep in mind that there are people who feel that swapping genders or orientations is too great a change, and suggest having some degree of flexibility towards these people if possible. (for example: Allowing a woman to disguise themselves as a man, or limiting sex but not orientation, or allowing the character to be gay in secret or asexual.)
I don’t think most people would be ecstatic about the compromise, but it is something at the very least.
I think that we’re in an awkward place here on the forums, where authors can actually read our opinions and there’s interaction between the audience and the writer. So saying things like the following paragraph actually gets personal.
To some extent I’ll actually agree with the sentiment. When I’m reading a book, or watching a tv show or movie, author intention doesn’t matter in the slightest to me. What matters is the end product. BUT I also think it’s rather rude to say directly to the author “I don’t care about your vision.” Since the authors here aren’t mysterious entertainment providing forces, they’re actual people who speak to us, who we interact with, and who get hurt when we say “I don’t care.”
I’m curious, if you don’t care at all, @Blackrising, what’s to stop you from going into the code of a game, switching genders/sexuality so that it matches your own vision, and then playing that way?
Personally, I wouldn’t do that. I just tend to avoid the games that don’t allow for the choices I want. Like you, I can respect the author’s work and feelings, while at the same time choose not to purchase a product if it doesn’t provide the choices I want.
What’s funny, FG, is that sometimes people do just that (copy the code and change it to suit their desires).
What’s obnoxious is when they screw up the coding, the game crashes, and then they send us error reports, as though we’re supposed to fix it.
Hahahaaa. 
Okay that is obnoxious. I do recall one person mentioned that they did that, well the changing the code, not the sending in error reports.
When I was writing Unnatural I knew I wanted the option for players to choose their own gender and sexuality but I wanted to avoid using a simple gender flip and wanted the choice to make a difference. I am aware male and females are basically the same but there ARE differences. You will not be punished for choosing to be female but the story will change slightly. Examples are in the very first Episode during the bully scene Craig treats a male MC different to how Sarah treats the female MC. The romance options are locked to certain genders because as @JimD said in an earlier post everyone being bisexual isn’t realistic. However one of the things that my game lacks and is something I hope to rectify is the opportunity for players to have a meaningful friendship. So sure if you’re a male MC Victor will never love you but he should still be able to respect you as a friend and colleague. Overall the differences between male and female are slight but enough that I hope encourage people to play outside what they usually play.
A future example of how they will differ is when it comes to Marie a female MC will have an easier time because she’ll respond to a big sister figure better than a big brother.
Funny enough I’m the exact opposite of blackrising. In fact blackrising’s statement is a good reason for why I do write the way I do.
I’m the creator and as much as someone else might like something I’ve created, I’M the only one putting any major time and effort into creating it and as such I’m always going to put my own “vision” first because if I don’t like it, then what’s the point of creating it?
Yeah, there’s always the money aspect, but even if one’s writing for a crapload of money (Which isn’t even the case here), I still feel you should be at least writing something that you yourself would want to read otherwise its just soulless.
I’m going to write what I want and how I want, and if the reader doesn’t like it, oh well. They can swear at me in the comments section and go find something else or better yet write their own story/game/etc.
This idea of entitlement that the reader is this entity that needs to be appeased is ridiculous. Writers should stick to their true vision not cater to the masses. You’re not going to make everyone happy anyway and personally I see no reason to bother.
So if the writer wants to lock the protagonist into being an Asian lesbian in a wheelchair, then they should go ahead and do it and not feel any pressure to not do so. I’m not an Asian lesbian in a wheelchair, but if the story well written and choice elements are good, it doesn’t matter to me that I’ve suddenly become one for the purposes of that story.
In fact I’d rather see more focus on a single well written “locked” protagonist rather than a bunch of cosmetic choices that don’t usually mean much in the scheme of things anyway. (Though I always applaud authors that actually DO make such cosmetic choices meaningful by having say playing as a female a different experience as playing as a male)
You’ve made my day with this!
(Shoves thousands of cookies in your hands!)