Okay, I guess it’s my bad here for going with the presumption of innocence then. The only thing I definitely remember is the some Microsoft exec apparently refused to allow gay relationships on the Xbox at the time.
2 Likes
Thanks for the honest reply. It certainly wasn’t my intention. I’ll get some more opinions on how to approach it. My initial thoughts were if someone was born male or female they’d possess traits of that gender which is what the ros would be attracted to.
But if that’s problematic I’ll have to come with a better option. Thanks again for replying.
Thanks I’ll post something in a minute.
edit: its been posted now.
1 Like
Hi, I read the thread but not all of it, and I noticed that genderflipped ROs seems to be disliked?
On my game all characters except 2 are non-flippable characters, and some of them are RO genderlocked.
However, I was planning to have 2 characters being the gender the player chooses as the one he is attracted to. For example if player likes females, these 2 characters will be female.
If the player states that he is bi or asexual the gender of these characters can be “selected” once the player meets them face to face.
But these two have other things besides their gender of course, so it’s not like I’m adding them just so that the player is going to bed them.
So would this be a bad idea?
2 Likes
When I was doing my WIP, I spent a lot of time thinking about this, and I came up with a rule that I’d follow that maybe other people would agree with, and that’s if you have 4 or less ROs, then playersexual and/or gender-flippable is probably the best way to go. When you have more characters and more options, then I’m a little more okay with set genders and sexualities, although in these games, more choice is usually better.
3 Likes
I generally like to play as a bi/pan character with a strong preference for the same sex.
When I started playing the games here, I used to choose bi as my characters’ preference, but after a few instances of the games deciding to make RO’s opposite gender when I did so, I switched to always chosing gay.
It did feel a little like bi sometimes meant “straight, with the added ability to romance people of my own gender, if I want”, more than attracted to two or more genders to varying degrees.
5 Likes
saddest bit? I sometimes wonder if the bi-erasure in part stems from pure resignation in the face of how much extra work according text would be. 
3 Likes
Laziness one of the strongest forces known to humankind. 
1 Like
almost as strong as spite…
1 Like
@MeltingPenguins Just laziness here. Lots of and lots of laziness. lol 
But to just say based on what you mentioned above about that irking you I dont like the story assuming things like that, but for me writing my stories I have a cast of characters and i choose them to be in different stories and they have set features including sexuality and I will not waver on that point. Thats just me.
Granted my stories have huge casts…
I don’t think it’s inherently a bad idea, and I think it is definitely possible to make it work (especially in a story with fewer ROs/characters, so that they can be fleshed out more). If you want to write your story that way I think you should totally feel free to, and it can be useful just to make sure the player character, whatever gender/sexuality, will have a couple characters that they can choose from.
Throughout the thread I’ve been trying to defend the author’s decision to not do these things, rather than criticising the idea of choosing to do them. I think you can make it work. 
WRT asexual characters, I’m super excited to see that becoming a more common choice for PCs! One thing I have noticed, though, is that some stories seem to use “asexual” as shorthand for ace/aro – or offer the player a choice between “gay, straight, bi, or asexual” rather than a choice of “gay, straight, bi,” and another choice to be asexual or not. They aren’t mutually exclusive categories! It would be super rad to be able to play a character of whatever orientation, and have the same ROs, but still be asexual and have a non-sexual romance.
7 Likes
I believe there are some options to pursue a romance without sexual activity (none come to mind at the moment, of course) though I can’t speak to how those play out since I’ve never gone through them myself.
I’ve mentioned this when beta testing (although I am on both the ace and aro spectrums so I’m hardly the best voice for it), and several of the newer games definitely do allow for ace romance sequences. I haven’t tested them extensively, but I know Heart of the House has some very nice ace-but-not-aro options, and I think at least one character in @Havenstone’s Rebels is on board with an ace-not-aro PC.
I don’t know of any aro-but-not-ace romances, at least ones specifically stated to be so, off hand, which is sort of a pity.
But come beta test, if you can and you’re not already, and add another ace spectrum voice to the mix? :D I find a lot of authors, when I ask for specifically ace or specifically aro options, often say something along the lines of, “Oh. I hadn’t even thought of that. I can do this-and-thus for this game, but I’ll think more about it for my next title.” Which is fab.
6 Likes
Would love to beta-test and I’m sure I will do! I am still poking around here a little bit and getting more familiar with things; I’ve been a long-time CoG player but I’ve only made an account on the forum because I was super in love with Rebels and wanted to talk about it, lol.
(Although I haven’t played through the ace “option” on Rebels, interestingly-enough, since I knew pretty much from meeting Breden that I did want to romance them & the ace option implies that I’m not interested. 
Will have to do so!)
3 Likes
I tend to have most my chars bi/pan. Currently writing outlines for the monosexual npcs (feel free to hop to my game’s thread if you have questions or drop me a pm)
But yeah, still wondering who thought it a good idea to have no-gender-set chars turn into an opposite of what the mc is. It’s literally one choice-tree more to give the player the ability to pick (granted it also takes some fiddling with the prose…but eh)
1 Like
I think one reason may be some people finding choosing NPCs’ genders immersion-breaking. I’ve had not a few complaints about this with my current WiP.
3 Likes
The issue with a follow up tree to ask people choosing a bi option to pick a gender is that then some bi people feel like they’re being asked “but which gender do you ACTUALLY like,” and then as @Fiogan said people tend to lose immersion when asked to choose individual character genders instead of an overarching question
I’ve seen authors who have a variety of gender flipping characters have them have default genders (a blend of male and female, not just leaving them the “opposite” of whatever the MC is) to go to if the MC identifies as bi/pan, which feels like the happy middle ground, but maybe I’m wrong?
4 Likes
It’s really tricky, yeah.
I’m fiddling with making a couple of chars random in my game, do you think that’s a decent path?
I wonder if it’s possible to avoid pronouns altogether and just go with names?
Yeah, I think that’s a fine way to go. Tbh as long as it’s not heteronormative I’m generally okay with whatever way a game likes to determine genders of NPCs, so other people might have different opinions.
Do you mean random as in “differing default genders I already picked in case the player is bi/pan,” or as in “characters who change gender each playthrough”?
2 Likes