I don’t get this question? If someone had to pick between a fleshed out character and shallow one made to fill a quota, obviously, they’re going to pick the former. It’s like asking, “would you rather read a good story or a bad story?”
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Sorry @AChubbyBlackCat but these questions sound rather biased, and seems to rely on false dichotomies, making them difficult to answer. 
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You can’t actually know if a character only exist to check boxes, unless the creator has specifically confirmed it, even if you suspect that to be the case. Considering some people seem to see any inclusion of minorities as a purely political box-ticking issue, and I have seen few if any authors confessing to doing so, I believe we are missing a lot of the data necessary to conclude if anything more is going on than bad writing or biased readers…
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Characters only written to check boxes would be boring and inauthentic, and I probably wouldn’t want to read about them, as I’d want characters to be included because the author wants a diverse cast, telling diverse stories. (Also, this is not something I see being done? Could you maybe point out some specific characters who you consider purely box-ticking? 'cause it’s not really a problem I run into, anywhere, i think.)
On the other hand, if being non-box-ticking means they’re all white cishet 16-30 year olds with no disabilities, then I probably don’t want to read that either.
So, considering I’m still not sure anyone is writing purely box-ticking characters, and writing a diverse “box-ticking” cast with fleshed out personalities and character arcs is not only completely feasible, but also constantly being done, I fail to understand what the use for the question is?
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Generally if they talk about being a minority as soon as they’re introduced to me in IFs. Or if said said on the summary of a book.
They are yes. Both biased and hard to answer.
I see this more in like movies and tv shows, especially when you see the producers loudly proclaim how they have X or Y in their cast for the first time.
I’m curious. Another thread was talking about a topic of how to write X and some of what people said led me to think about this question.
Ah, yes, I didn’t think of movies and tv shows. They do tend to have very flat minority characters, though I guess it’s an improvement over not having them at all? (And bad writing is a general problem in visual media.)
I’m not sure how much is adding token characters, and how much is the higher ups not letting the creators make more fleshed out stories for them. Though we’re way past the days of the Hays Code, it’s still slow, slow progress in Hollywood.
And PR and marketing are horrible practices, doing horrible things, and the bigger the company, the worse it gets.
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Yeah, sorry I didn’t clarify that. My bad. I haven’t seen the check off box characters in CoG or HG stories, or demos. It’s in movie and tv shows where I’ve seen it.
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There is a certain subgenre that is ridiculously popular among young adults and adolescents, but which also seems to elicit very strong opinions from its readers:
The urban fantasy/supernatural academy.
In terms of novels, we have Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, Charlie Bone, etc.; in terms of animes, we have My Hero Academia, Little Witch Academia, RWBY, etc.; and in terms of games here at COG/HG, we have Community College Hero, Keeper of the Sun and Moon, Blackstone Academy of Magical Arts, etc. While romance is obviously a major component for many people, the setting and lore is the most important factor in all such stories.
I’ve always been fascinated by the “magical education” itself, but most frequently, this seems to exist mainly to facilitate the adventure/mystery plot of such stories. I’m curious… is this simply to make the story more interesting (which it obviously does), or is it basically a requirement at this stage?
On a scale of one to five, how important do you consider an adventure/mystery plot to be to the urban fantasy/supernatural academy subgenre?
- 5 — Such a plot is essential to the subgenre.
- 4 — Such a plot is expected, but an author can leave it out (at their own risk) if they want to.
- 3 — Such a plot is very common, but I don’t personally care whether it’s present or not.
- 2 — Such a plot is very common, but I think it’s becoming overrated and the other elements of the subgenre should get more focus.
- 1 — Such a plot is very common, but I wish it wasn’t and that authors would find a different one already.
0 voters
Note: A different plot could be something like slice-of-life, or action/adventure that’s actually supported by the institution’s curriculum (rather than occurring outside it).
I mentioned the other elements of the subgenre in the poll, so it would be remiss not to address them while I’m at it. (This list is far from exhaustive; it represents all the elements of which I could think while writing this post. The descriptions themselves are also succint, i.e. not comprehensive.)
- Education: Any knowledge gained that doesn’t involve stuff like combat or self-defence. This typically introduces and expands upon the lore of the setting.
- Training: Any knowledge gained that does focus on stuff like combat or self-defence. This might be optional, depending on the story, but it’s usually not (especially if the usual mystery/adventure plot is present).
- Society: Any social issues that relate to things like politics, tradition, or discrimination. This represents conflict (or any development, really) arising from the differences in culture and social status of the main characters.
- Identity: Any social issues that relate to intra- or interpersonal interaction. This… is actually pretty difficult to distinguish from “Society” completely, since it refers to the differences in personal ideology and experience of the main characters.
- Investigation: Any plot development that occurs due extracurricular activity. This is the typical mystery/adventure type plot that arises from the MC(s) stumbling upon something related to the antagonist(s) and subsequently snooping around and foiling their schemes.
- Assignment: Any plot development that occurs due to curricular activity. This could be similar to “Investigation” in that the academy actually initiates/facilitates the MC(s) intervention in the antagonist(s)'s schemes, but it could also just be other official missions or projects.
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Romance: This… doesn’t need an explanation.
I actually included it under “Identity” initially, but I made it into a distinct category as an afterthought to spare myself needing to face many complaints.
Which of the following elements would you want to be prominent in the plot of a story in the urban fantasy/supernatural academy subgenre? (In other words, the story needs to make a big deal out of it. “Education”, counterintuitively, is usually the least important element.)
- Education
- Training
- Society
- Identity
- Investigation
- Assignment
- Romance
0 voters
I would personally love to see more stories in this subgenre that don’t involve defeating an antagonist, instead focusing purely on the students and their struggles. However, I don’t know how viable that would be for authors — hence this post! I’d have made a separate topic, but given the polls, I suspect it’s best to leave it here. Nevertheless, I’d still be delighted to hear anyone’s thoughts on the matter!
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It’s not realism that matter in a story. It’s coherence.
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Honestly, this is a great poll to know about! Thank you for making it! Not only is it fun to do and see what others think, it can be a source of reference to know whether people prefers one thing to the other. Good to keep in mind for future writings! 
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Okay, so I’ve always been a bit curious about this;
Would you play a CoG or HG game that have no ROs?
- Yup, I would.
- Nope, I would not.
- Depends on some factors actually.
0 voters
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if it doesnt have romance, it better let me play my gender at least. And it better be good darn story lol
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I don’t agree about the gender part, but I absolutely agree about the story part. I don’t have any problem playing any other genders.
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been playing games since the atari, thats a long time of ‘Dudebro’ games . In my old age, I wanna play as my gender…
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You’re a waaay lot older than me. I don’t even remember about the Atari despite it being the first console in our house 
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Poke with cane Watch it, you little shit! Lol I could make your ears bleed with zillions of stories that start with ‘‘In my time…’’ 
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I’m not necessarily the type to avoid a published title because there’s no romance (though I do avoid WIPs with no romance, for some reason), but like… okay.
The majority of IF titles are in genres and settings that I largely hold little to no interest in: fantasy, superheroes, science fiction, and either ancient, medieval, or otherwise significantly pre-modern times. These genres/settings in traditional media either bore me to tears or just do nothing to peak my interest, for whatever reason. Certain genres being heavily mixed in (like horror, psychological thriller, or some genre-mash I’ve never seen before) or damn good political intrigue can change my mind on occasion. But seriously, in pretty much every other fictional medium, I like my settings contemporary and my stories realistic. And this genre and setting preference largely applies to this medium, too.
However.
I always make exceptions for a decent playable romance. Idk what it is exactly… I have similarly always made exceptions for romantic visual novels, too. I don’t play IF as myself, but I love reading my OCs interact with new characters in circumstances I would never dream up, and I love reading them fall for people. So like, if an IF doesn’t have romance, I’m probably gonna play it as ‘myself’.
And if that’s the case… well, I’m very, very picky about what interests me! 
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I personally would play a game with no romance, but, it seems sometimes I tend to search for something that does have, because its kind of the only way I can have some kind of intimate interaction with someone, most of the times (I think) we search out there what we can’t have in out lives (like being a vampire hunter, fight monsters, explore non existing places, or places that simply we can not visit for real). Not always, but I don’t imagine a game that portraits a similar life to mine being attractive to someone, less for me.
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Hmmm, it’s not so much that I won’t read stories without RO’s, and more that the promise of romance-to-come can motivate me to keep reading through mediocre writing, info dumps, lack of a proper plot hook, and choices that either lack satisfying options or are so confusing that they make me want to rage quit.
In other words, romance makes me give a chance to games I’d have otherwise stopped playing after the first scene. Also, I rarely see the types of narratives I enjoy around here, without any romance included.
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and writing romance is so much fun… 
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Speak for yourself there 
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