The following is an expansion thread on the recent gender-lock thread that was created. I thought that it would be valuable to try to gauge opinions in a more consolidated way through some polls. Originally I was intending to just make a comment but it would be very easy for said comment to end up flooded in the sea of discussion and lost, thus the value in making a separated thread.
The focus on the thread is to try to gauge some information regarding the significance of gender locking in terms of gameplay experience, willingness to purchase etc.
Poll 1: How significant is the main character being gender-selectable to you?
Basically, how much does having the ability between playing a man/woman/nonbinary character play into a game when you look into it? How much do you tend to value it?
- Essential - I do not feel comfortable playing a game with locked gender.
- Important - I really prefer to have gender selection as an option, but it is not a deal breaker.
- Moderate - It factors in for me for sure, but it wouldn’t really qualify as important to me.
- Insignificant - I can play to what is available, so it doesn’t really matter that much to me.
- Nonfactor - It doesn’t matter at all to me.
Poll 2: How much would a game being gender-locked impact the likelihood of you purchasing it?
- Heavily - A game being gender-locked would heavily impact my willingness to buy it.
- Moderate - A game being gender-locked impacts my interest, depending on if it locks me out of my preferred gender.
- Moderate - A game being gender-locked impacts my interest, depending on if it substantiated enough in its reason for gender-locking or if it plays into the story.
- Lightly - A game being gender-locked would matter to me a little, but not really that much over other factors when determining if I will buy it.
- Not at All - A game being gender-locked doesn’t matter at all to me.
Poll 3a: How would being a gender-locked female Main Character impact your interest?
- Heavily Negative - It would lock me out of being comfortable playing the game.
- Moderately Negative - It would make it harder for me to be interested, but if the story, setting, or characters are interesting enough I can look over it.
- Neutral - It doesn’t really impact my opinion or interest at all.
- Moderately Positive - I am interested in seeing more games that are locked to this gender.
- Heavily Positive - I would be much more likely to be interested in playing a game locked this gender.
Poll 3b: How would being a gender-locked non-binary Main Character impact your interest?
- Heavily Negative - It would lock me out of being comfortable playing the game.
- Moderately Negative - It would make it harder for me to be interested, but if the story, setting, or characters are interesting enough I can look over it.
- Neutral - It doesn’t really impact my opinion or interest at all.
- Moderately Positive - I am interested in seeing more games that are locked to this gender.
- Heavily Positive - I would be much more likely to be interested in playing a game locked this gender.
Poll 3c: How would being a gender-locked male Main Character impact your interest?
- Heavily Negative - It would lock me out of being comfortable playing the game.
- Moderately Negative - It would make it harder for me to be interested, but if the story, setting, or characters are interesting enough I can look over it.
- Neutral - It doesn’t really impact my opinion or interest at all.
- Moderately Positive - I am interested in seeing more games that are locked to this gender.
- Heavily Positive - I would be much more likely to be interested in playing a game locked this gender.
Poll 4: How would being gender-locked into being cisgender impact your interest?
I am debating adding the opposing side but I also don’t know if I want to know the answer 
I removed the positive options because being cis is kind of the ‘default’ assumption, so implying you want to ‘see more games where people can’t be trans’ is a little… oof.
- Heavily Negative - It would lock me out of being comfortable playing the game.
- Moderately Negative - It would make it harder for me to be interested, but if the story, setting, or characters are interesting enough I can look over it.
- Neutral - It doesn’t really impact my opinion or interest at all.
If you see any valuable poll questions missing for this discussion please do feel free to let me know so I can add them to this post!