I’m not gonna spam Interest Check, so I think this thread is better for asking my stupid questions
Would you enjoy fighting against a big monster with tons of health?
Exemple: in Magic the gathering Shandalar, once you have won against the AI. The final boss is a huge dragon.
It is a card game lol and no, I never won against him.
Let’s say you are playing a choice of script game, and you have the story part but also a part where you get to get in a ring and fight opponents like this one, until your health goes to zero.
Would you enjoy it?
Yes! As long as I have a chance to win!
Yes! But make it a Brawl, winning isn’t a priority for me
For one thing, I’d love to see more eloquent orc barbarians. Nerdy orcs who spend more time in the library than in the training grounds. Orcs who are known for their finesse and roguish charm. Down with stereotypes!
I chose that option because I find that reading about the characters outside of the story itself makes me biased and I won’t be able to judge how well they are fleshed out in the story. It’s worse if they have portraits and I form an image about who they are even before I start reading the story. It makes giving the author meaningful feedback a lot harder because I would be judging the characters (unwillingly) based on their description in the forum post and not by their actions/descriptions/interactions within the game.
1/ We have a gender-locked game but the Love Interest is the gender you’re interested in…
2/ And a game with LI whose gender you aren’t interested in, but you can choose Protagonist Character’s gender.
Which one will you choose?
To put it in simple way:
Option 1:
Pros: The LIs are what you want
Cons: The choice of PC’s gender is lost
Option 2:
Pros: You can choose your gender
Cons: The LIs are not what you’re interested
I don’t mind PC’s gender, as long as the LIs are the gender I’m interested in
I don’t mind LI’s gender but I have to choose PC’s gender
I don’t mind the gender as long as the story is good
0voters
By the way, would you play a game with only one gender LIs? (examples: a game where you can only date hot guys or a game you can only flirt with girls…)
I only ever go for female ROs, so I wouldn’t mind only having females as options, but I do feel that, generally, games with both as ROs and have a “friendship” system at the very least for anyone you are not interested in are more immersive.
What about genderlocked games with a female PC and either exclusively female ROs or a combination of male and female ROs? I can think of several games that fit that description.
If forced to choose, I’d definitely go for the first option. Speaking as a straight man, having the option to choose my gender would be a rather redundant feature if all the ROs are going to be men (as I’m never going to choose to play as a man in that scenario because gay male romance doesn’t interest me whatsoever).
When given the choice (at least on a first playthrough anyway) I do tend to play as a man, but I’m not averse to being gender-locked as a woman if the romances and overall story are good (Guenevere springs to mind, for example, as I find the roleplaying options in that story to be interesting). As long as there’s a woman involved (whether playing as one or romancing one), I’m all good (so male/female, female/male, female/female would interest me, but not male/male).
Honestly, both of those choices would result in me not playing the game. I’d be slightly happier with the first option, though, because the game’s description usually states up front that gender is locked, so I get a warning in advance. Finding out that none of the ROs interest me usually only happens after I’ve bought the game and played awhile, which is quite a disappointment.
Speaking as a gay man, pretty much my entire gaming experience before discovering CoG was either “play as a man but date women” or “play as a woman to date men” and never “actually play as someone like myself”, and I don’t particularly want to have to go back to the bad old days. I guess I’d be fine with a game where all the ROs are male, though, as long as I did get to choose my own gender.
Since the “desired” RO gender always depends on the individual preferences of the MC I’m currently playing (usually queer in some way), there are technically no “undesirable” RO genders for me as a player. Thus, the real downside of Option 2 (my choice), for me, would be the inability to play as someone who can be attracted to more than one gender.
Also, I do prefer choosing my MC’s gender because that significantly increases the likelihood of being able to play as a trans MC.
Reviving this topic because it occurred to me that my post didn’t really belong in the Interest Check thread. Mods can split/merge if they think I chose poorly.
Since the subject came up a few times recently, I’m curious regarding the forum’s opinions about older and/or variably aged MCs. Once the MC is older than their teens/very early twenties, suddenly the range of possible ages that suit the plot becomes much bigger.
When choosing the MC’s age:
Prefer vague age.
Prefer vague age, but with hard upper/lower limits.
Prefer to choose from age ranges.
Prefer to choose from exact, explicit ages.
0voters
Vague age: refer to the MC’s age as little as possible, giving the most possible leeway for roleplaying.
Upper/lower limits: the MC’s age could be anywhere within a range with hard limits, e.g. referring to events in the MC’s past or to the relative age of NPCs.
Choose from age ranges: choose whether the MC is in their 30s/40s/50s, etc. as appropriate to the story.
Choose from specific ages: choose whether the MC is 36, 48, or 60, for example.
Follow-up: what qualifies as an “older” MC?
Any MC who is out of school/university.
30s and older.
40s and older.
50s and older.
I won’t be satisfied until I can play an MC who’s at least 60.
For me it depends on whether the age impacts the story. If the age matters then I’d prefer to choose it, but if its not going to come up then I’d prefer it being vague. But honestly I don’t have a super strong opinion on the matter. I just thought I’d explain my vote.
What does “older” mean in this context? I’m starting to wonder that if someone celebrating their 30th birthday is considered “old” then maybe I’ve already aged out of any CYOS demographic.
This doesn’t have to be the MC’s age but, personally, I’d like to see more Judy Dench and Maggie Smith-aged characters in stories. Specifically, late middle-aged (60+) and elderly women (70+) generally being badass like their male counterparts typically get to be. I think movies are getting better with this but these kinds of characters are mostly missing from video games and interactive media. That I’ve noticed, anyway.
I noticed MTG being mentioned in this thread which reminded me of one of my favorite characters. I love her because she presents as a kick-ass elderly woman:
When I was playing around with ChoiceScript story ideas a couple years ago, if I was going to introduce romance, my plan was to have the RO’s age range be selectable upon meeting (20’s–60’s), much like being able to select gender upon meeting.
My middle-aged MCs would not be interested in romancing ROs in their 20’s but probably would be open to romancing an RO in their 60’s. Conversely, some players may appreciate the opposite, being able to romance characters who are younger than their MC rather than older. As long as every romanceable character is a consenting adult it could be fun and interesting to play around with age ranges in this way.
Well, “older” is the comparative form of “old”. Notably, it is not the same word, because “older” derives meaning from context. If I wanted to imply that 30 (an age younger than myself) is old, I would have used the word “old”. But I didn’t. I used the comparative word. What’s more, I posted an entire second poll specifically to address the question of “what counts as older”. But if you’re determined to put words in my mouth, there’s nothing I can do about that.
