I wouldn’t want to have to pick the gender for every NPC, but it’s fine if it’s just one or two, like family or a childhood friend, or something.
But, I’m also completely fine with them being set.
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In my story, there are two possible NPCs (your pet house cat griffin and your ghost) that I considered, at one point or another, to be gender flippable. Eventually I decided to make the pet griffin locked to female in memory of my late cat and I’ve been considering locking the ghost since that character has their own set personality.
The reason why I pondered making these two gender flippable is because the MC is responsible for them in some way, so I figured giving the player the option to choose their gender would somehow mirror that responsibility. I think I was very tired and that sounds very convoluted now that I’ve written it out. 
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Chiming in to say that @The_Lady_Luck’s opinion seems to hold true in my experience with my WIP
In ACOM, players can choose the gender of their best, childhood friend. If Alex’s popularity is any indication, this doesn’t seem to be off-putting to most of my readers. So one or two characters like this probably won’t hurt!
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To me it’s always a huge risk because gender-flipping is a HUGE flag that the character is “romanceable” (unless said character is like, the MC’s sibling or something), so it’ll only lead to disappointment when the player finds out that said character is not, in fact, a RO.
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Readers: between the two choices of picking a pet and not having a pet in the story, what would you choose?
- I’d pick the pet.
- I wouldn’t pick the pet.
- Depends on the pet.
- Doesn’t matter.
0 voters
I’m struggling to come up with some key scenes that would be the alternative if you didn’t have the pet since the pet plays a small yet important role, so I think I might just lock the pet in the story. I know that might turn some people off, so I wanted to see what people think.
For everyone curious about the pet I have in mind, it’d be a griffin the size of a house cat. So something like this:
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Here’s your alternative scene:
“Say, I can’t help noticing that you don’t have a pet. What’s that all about? Do you not love all of God’s creatures on this fair earth?”
#“That is correct. I loathe all beings, large and small. Would you care to make something of it?”
#“How I wish I had the mental wherewithal to care for another being other than myself. But alas.”
#“Gosh! I guess I never thought of it.”
#“I used to have a pet. Then my nemesis thought of a good way to strike at me.” I flick away a single tear.
#“I like to think of you as my pet,” I say, embracing them.
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Oh sorry! The alternative scenes themselves aren’t about making the decision to have the pet or not. It’s related to those stories where dogs or cats will come wake their owners up if there’s danger around. Then again the obvious answer would be the alarm would probably wake the MC up instead of the pet.
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You could say it was left to the MC by a deceased relative? 
And the MC can choose to keep it or be trying to find someone else to look for it if they don’t want to?
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That or adoption. Either option works.
1 Like
depends on the character I’m playing with : )
but if THAT is the pet they’d have the option to pick I’d probably still make them get it I mean look at it! It’s just too adorable 
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Readers: do you prefer to select the name of non-RO NPCs (sibling, parents, relatives, etc.) or do you prefer if the names were preset?
- Yes, I prefer to select/input the name of NPCs.
- No, I prefer to have the NPCs’ names preset.
- Doesn’t matter to me.
0 voters
Related to a previous poll of mine. 
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On one hand, I’d rather the author name their own NPCs. But on the other, I imagine it would be frustrating if the family member has a name that doesn’t fit the ethnicity or culture you imagine your MC has. Or even if you call your MC something super out there and your twin’s called something real plain.
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@chloeab1 and I pretty much have the same thought process on this, and I’ll admit it’s something that’s bugged me quite a bit while planning one of my projects.
As yet, my current workaround is to present the reader with the…I hesitate to say that it’s canon name but I can’t think of anything better, lol. Well, anyway, the current plan is to introduce the sibling with that plus the option to choose a different name from a preset selection, just because I don’t want users abusing the ability to input things, lol. Welp, we’ll see how long I’m satisfied with that before changing things again!
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I voted for ‘prefer to select’, but it depends on the character in question.
I usually prefer to select sibling names (especially if there’s nicknames), but I think parents/friends/relatives are too much. Personally, the more customizable the character is, the more I would want to also customize their name.
If it feels more like the author’s character, and not someone I feel like I have control over (being able to select their gender and starting relationship with the MC for example), I actually like it better if the characters have their own name.
But I’ll name them anyway if you give me the option 
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Yeah that’s how I felt too! For some reason, naming the parents or other NPCs in games doesn’t make me feel more connected to them, it just makes them feel less real. And I don’t HAVE to name the sibling, I’ll be just fine either way, but, weirdly, naming the sibling always makes me feel a little more invested in them. It’s sort of like naming the baby in parenting simulator, but not exactly. In that game I would have been a little frustrated if I couldn’t name that NPC, but I know for Guenevere the author plans to have Guen’s potential children already named and that doesn’t bother me either. I really don’t know what the difference is, but there is one, for whatever reason. Maybe it’s just a matter of how established everything feels and whether or not that’s working for me in the context of the story.
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mh I don’t know man, I guess it depends… I usually prefer them to be preset because they feel more like their own characters, but there are SOME exceptions, like in the WIP “seven days in purgatory” (awesome WIP btw, full of mystery and eerie vibes) I really do like the fact that you can choose your character’s partner’s name… Then again, it wouldn’t work for just any story, but for some it does and I can’t really put a finger on why…
MAYBE it’s the fact that in SOME stories your character is already supposed to know the NPC (maybe from their childhood or their past, stuff that happened offscreen before the story takes place), so choosing a name that might already sound familiar for them yourself helps with the whole “we’ve known each others for a while” vibe, while in most stories the characters meet for the first time on screen, on the spot, and since everything is supposed to feel fresh about these new characters, a name that has been preset by the author fits better (because our character is not supposed to know anything about them yet, NOT even their name)… Idk, I guess this is how I feel about this
In short I guess it depends on the story!
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Many people made contradictory claims on if male or female RO’s are more popular, but none have tested this until now. I don’t care what the answer is just that we find out. Feel free to post your reasons why, but please be honest. I will not judge you on anything except honesty. you can PM me if your reason is embarrassing/rule-breaking I will keep your identity anonymous. Even if the reason is obvious (such as your sexuality.) That is useful data, which will be used so we authors can better understand our audiences, and make better stories. So there are no wrong answers.
Female
- I dislike the inclusion of female RO’s
- I am neutral to the inclusion of female RO’s
- I never choose female RO’S, but I appreciate their inclusion.
- I usually don’t choose female RO’S, but I appreciate their inclusion.
- I usually choose female RO’S.
- I always choose female RO’S.
0 voters
Male
- I dislike the inclusion of female RO’s
- I am neutral to the inclusion of male RO’s
- I never choose male RO’S, but I appreciate their inclusion.
- I usually don’t choose female RO’S, but I appreciate their inclusion.
- I usually choose male RO’S.
- I always choose male RO’S.
0 voters
(Can’t change the error about usually not choosing female, sorry.)
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It might be interesting to know forum members’ preferences, but I’d caution not to take the results here as representative. If you’re looking at it from a purely commercial standpoint, then the preferences of the handful of us who are forum users are not necessarily going to translate to bigger markets like Steam, Google Play, etc.
And then, I’m not even sure it’s a good idea to take an approach of “OK, female ROs are more popular so I’m going to add 3 more”. It could work, I guess, but if those characters are less fleshed-out than the rest and just there because you’d thought having them would make the game more popular, audiences are bound to notice.
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Building off of what Myrtle said, I would also suggest an option for being 50/50 with LI genders. As a bisexual I do not “usually” choose male or female LIs, I just pursue according to my own tastes irregardless. I don’t keep track of who I choose enough to say I usually do one over the other.
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In an ideal world unless there’s a valid reason otherwise, I tend to either prefer games with gender selection so I can opt for female ROs or if predetermined ideally three female characters that are compatible with male MCs. Not saying it’s a deal breaker if otherwise but as a straight male player I think three female romance options is the sweet spot for me and certainly what I would aim for if I was designing a game myself.
1 Like