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.
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.
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.
There wasn’t an option for “I never choose female RO’s and I’m indifferent to if there are any”. I don’t actively dislike their incusion, but am not particularily appreciative either.
yea same. i think i’ll keep from voting cause I 1) play as original characters, not myself most of the time and 2) i’m pansexual so if I do romance based on my personal preferences, it’s only ever about who interests or woos me, I don’t consciously choose any genders more than others
@AChubbyBlackCat i get a big fat immersion break every time I can name my MC whatever I want but then the parents’ names are John and Mary Named relative characters always feel very defaulted towards demographics I’m very far removed from
For me, I have to usually HC around it. Names like John or Mary work well for me because they are names that can easily come from anglicizing a name, or are traditional enough that I can imagine that the people who named them wanted to try using a name that would “blend in”, as it were. It becomes harder when the names aren’t really “standard” for that sort of thing, like Mackenzie, Sage, Aidan, etc. It can also be awkward when I end up with a name for an NPC family member that’s something like Declan Abdulbaki.
But it’s sad we have to always do that. White players don’t usually have to find a reason why their name is Adam and their sister’s name is Dilireba, or Nazaret, or Soo-Jung. I usually prefer static names, but I definitely relate to people wishing it was a variable.
well said, those names are better examples of how named NPCs can break immersion. i will add that even common anglicized names don’t work well for me though I can’t quite recall, but was there a WIP on here that let you choose if your MC was an adopted child? it wasn’t plot relevant or anything but something like that would open the door for me to feel like i can actually play as myself. totally possible i’m imagining that tho lol
Adding onto this… it’d probably be a better exploration if you did a deep dive and categorized the types of ROs and then compared their popularity. Probably can’t capture the answers for these types of questions in just one poll. This sounds more like a research project than anything else.
Well, apparently I can’t vote because I’m nonbinary. 🤷🏻 But if there is any use for my answer, for me the important thing is the ROs personality and not gender (I’m pansexual). Or well I guess I usually go for the nonbinary and/or trans ROs and I don’t like supporting games that don’t have them.
This is something I’ve struggled with in naming the MC’s family members in my game. My strategy so far has been to choose names that appear across several cultures (like Maya), but that can only take you so far! The MC in my game isn’t a completely blank slate, so it’s canon that MC’s family (if they are recent immigrants) has integrated into American culture and might therefore use anglicized names. Still, it’s not a perfect solution.
This is a really interesting work around that I hadn’t considered before!
So I guess it’s time for my own poll
What do you think about having the option to be adopted in a game?
I would like to have this option even if it has no impact on the story
I would only want to have this option if has an impact on the story
I am neutral about this
I would not want to play a game with this option at all (please tell me why!)
0voters
I’d love to hear what more people think about this!
I’m adopted so I’m already favorable towards adoption because of that. Regardless if it has an impact on the story or not, I’d say for me the biggest impact it has on me is internal. Not external. So if I wrote a story with adoption as an option the impact would be internally focused instead of external.
The reason I chose to keep it anonymous is so that they can feel free to vote however they are without fear of backlash. As for it being representative, I also took this on the Subreddits. Which would at least give us an idea of the different preferences of the 2 groups. Ideally, I could have data from all IF pieces and see which were more popular. I was personally not gonna do anything with my upcoming piece, but like I said people were saying that one was more popular than the other, the supporters of one were simply more vocal, especially on one platform over the other. So I wanted to see which camp was closest to the truth. I didn’t care which one was correct, I was simply curios, and then share my findings to authors that deal more with romance. Not just the numbers, but the reasons as well.
Phone and desktop. I like phone for on the go and desktop when I want to read the code.
That’s understandable, but what would you consider to be your main platform of choice? Like, what if you were only allowed to use one forever?
I also use my mobile and my laptop for reading. However, I would vote for laptop/desktop since I usually read when I’m fully set up: seating on a chair in my home and playing some reading music.
Named relative characters always feel very defaulted towards demographics I’m very far removed from
I can’t quite recall, but was there a WIP on here that let you choose if your MC was an adopted child? it wasn’t plot relevant or anything but something like that would open the door for me to feel like i can actually play as myself. totally possible i’m imagining that tho lol
Regardless if it has an impact on the story or not, I’d say for me the biggest impact it has on me is internal. Not external. So if I wrote a story with adoption as an option the impact would be internally focused instead of external.