Even if the pronouns are never used?
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I feel that letting people define their PC’s appearance also serves to solidify their own imagination.
Most people are going to imagine their own thing, but if someone isn’t using a detailed OC, letting them pick the eye colour should indirectly solidify their own imagination of the PC. Like after picking the green eye colour, they are subconsciously reminded that the PC in their head has green eyes, as opposed to just assuming something ‘default’. Not to mention, it can help create a seperate space in their imagination for the PC if you provide unique options (tattoos, heterochromia etc).
You can relate it to the actual story too. For example, I made it so that an RO likes the PCs eyes if they are blue because her mother had blue eyes—may seem weird here but makes sense in the story, and another if the PC has a specific name (from the list instead of inputting) and lean body because it’s similar to her favourite novel character.
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My issue is not the detailed choices of customization is how really badly are implemented nothing immersive and well crafted with lore and all that.
99% is LET’S GO TO CENSUS 800 CHOICES IN A ROW WITH NO CONTEXT
The really good games make those choices a well crafted choice that is integrated into the lore and text. Tin Star has a very long detailed description of how your character can be. However it is funny, witty and integrated into the plot. Even stuff how is your character horse.
Havie had a great customitation included very deeply into the world and story.
But the Census list is a deal breaker for me if the writer can’t ever been able to do a good intro with good choices and make it feel natural their game is not for me.
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I have been known to forget what appearance I had picked for the character, and getting confused halfway through the game when it’s referenced and doesn’t match what’s in my mental image, so if you do that I feel it’s best to also show it on the stats screen somewhere!
Don’t tempt me, I have enough on my plate. 
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Don’t worry I forget 100% all those choices as well and in the few instances some is quoted I am confused about them as the choices had not context when I chose them.And 50k later I had another image of my character.
I firmly believe that choices should be spread organically all over the text and asked when are important
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I guess it’s because I have been reading both IFs and traditional novels for a long time. I have a strong imagination and mental image of my PCs—hair colour and length, eye colour, body type etc; though I do not care about RO descriptions at all and just imagine what I want there.
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I mean I don’t really visualize things at all when I read, most of the time, so I don’t build that kind of mental images. It has nothing to do with imagination (or reading history, I’ve been reading a long time and it hasn’t emerged) and everything to do with how your brain works.
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On the topic of character creation options, I find that what really matters is that the options are characterful and evocative. My favourite example is in Avatar of the Wolf. You only choose two aspects of your appearance (hair and skin) and there are only a handful of options for each, but wow are those options evocative! “Dark, intricate braids that trail down my back”, “Shaved short with whatever sharp implement is within reach”, “tattoos proclaiming my clan all but cover my shoulders and arms” - that sort of thing is infinitely more interesting than “your hair is brown/black/blond/red/white, short/shoulder-length/long and straight/wavy/curly”.
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I think the pronouns should be used. I can’t think of a story or situation where the MCs pronouns aren’t used, unless the author is specifically trying to make it ambiguous. But I don’t know why an author would make that choice.
I also prefer an integrated character customization. But I don’t mind starting with a list. It can be pretty clunky trying to fit all the variables into the first chapter or even the first scene, especially if you do first person.
I also make a version of myself that works well with the story, so I don’t really have that problem. But I like having all the information in the stat screen, so I can definitely see where you’re coming from.
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It isn’t so unusual to write a game in which characters don’t talk about the PC in the third person in front of them using their pronouns. (I’d find it stranger if other characters were constantly talking about my character as if they weren’t in the room!) I wouldn’t think it was odd unless the author was tying themselves in knots with sentence structure.
But it is important to include a choice of pronouns whether or not they’re referenced otherwise people will think the game is assuming their pronouns are something other than what they’re picturing.
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Really? I can’t think of many situations where someone’s referred in third person when they’re present and viewpoint characters are, by the nature of being viewpoint characters, usually present. 
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All the character customization in my story matters 
. I’ve always been someone who enjoys extensive customization because it makes me feel more immersed and connected to the MC. I like coming up with different ways to make the customization fit within the narrative. Like if MC has defining features, like tattoos or scars, it can lead to them being identified if they don’t cover them up properly. Stuff like that is what I love about IF 
. So many possibilities.
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I also like character customization, although I prefer it to be referenced maybe not often, but often enough, because like @LiliArch I don’t/can’t create mental visuals (all thoughts are just inner narration), so having the flavor text from my eye color or height choices pop up every here and there helps me feel both like my choices have some weight, albeit small, and also as a reminder.
It IS fun when one choice will lead to it’s own flavor text when others don’t (i.e. silly flavor like you and your RO both have green eyes and they demand someone judge whose eyes are greener). Just because, as a serial replay-person, finding those lil’ tidbits are like CANDY.
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I definitely don’t think it would come up very often, but not once? Not even in an introduction, like “this is MC, she’s/he’s here for…”
I just think it’d be weird if nothing ever makes any reference to the gender of the MC. It doesn’t have to be the characters themselves, but I don’t think it should be ignored in every possible place where it wouldn’t be in real life.
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It depends entirely on the writers style. In mine come really often as I tend to include scenes when player can earsdrop npcs talking about the player or letters etc intel player can spy by choice. Other writers prefer change point of view to ro to player can know their feelings that way
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In Creme de la Creme I didn’t reference the PC’s pronouns very often, but I don’t think there’s much difference in weirdness between “I can’t believe Florin just ran off with ${pc_him} like that!” and “I can’t believe they just ran off together like that!” which is a paraphrased example of one of them.
I think we just have a different sense of what would sound weird, though, which is OK!
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I’d just say “this is [MC], our [role]” or “[MC] here is here for [customer service subject]” without thinking twice unless I’m doing a deliberate attempt to include mentioning pronouns there (when the speaker is letting the listener know what the introduced person’s pronouns are). But anyway, I said “many”, not “any”. And I wouldn’t find it so weird if it just never comes up in a story, depending on the story of course (not every story includes introductions, for example) and the most cases I’d just use the person’s name or title anyway, because that’s what I do IRL. (Granted, Finnish pronouns are way more fluid.)
Note, I never said the gender (or gendered titles) wouldn’t come up.
Ah, yes. I can understand this.
I can, to some degree, but in most cases it’s a conscious effort with very little payoff that still comes up as a very vague expressionist blur, unless I’m actually attempting to draw an actual picture. (Sometimes something random just pops up, but it’s usually also mostly referencing something I’ve seen already. Like the time when my brain insisted to visualize a book character’s one-room home as our living room.) My thoughts are mostly a combination of inner narration, feelings, and wordless essence, I don’t know how else to describe it.
We’ll see how confused I get readers when I come around writing an MC whose thoughts are like that!
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Yes this is pretty much how I’d describe it, too. I can do like, photo recall for a few brief seconds, but creating my own scene in my head or visualizing a character? Nope!
I think in general, how people think and visualize things, subconsciously affects how they write because they focus on different things that they think are evocative mentally. But seeing it through someone else’s eyes would be fun imo. 
re:pronouns
I totally thought I could be the kind of person who didn’t use many pronouns at first because I was terrified of multireplace, but quickly found out I am not. I still don’t use many, but I’ve come to accept that I enjoy NPCs calling the MC gendered names on occasion.
Well, no, but it requires having pronouns being defined, which was more my point. 
There are still plenty of moments of “don’t touch him” or “why can’t you be more like HER”, but yeah.
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Gendered names are not pronouns though.
Aaannnnd now I want to do pronoun customization the Finnish way. Every group has their own pronouns for everything, in every grammatical case! And they conflict with other groups’ ones half the time! Wonder how that’d land. (Better save it for a story that takes place in a culture that has a suitable language though.)
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UPDATE: Chapter 3 and 4 are now live for the demo!
CoGDemos
Have fun! Any feedback is appreciated, but especially ones targeting:
1.) Grammar issues
2.) “Error 5” (I think I have an infinite loop in chapter 3, but I can’t locate it)
3.) Any issues or suggestions you notice regarding chapter 3 and 4
Feel free to leave feedback here:
Thank you! 
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