Holy shite…jumping down the YouTube rabbit hole to see more Taylor - THANK YOU @JBento
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Taylor’s great. Besides her YT videos (in some of which she displays AMAZING crowdwork), she also has two Netflix specials: Look At You and Quarter-Life Crisis.
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If by adventurous, you mean believing yourself invincible, then sure, I was more adventurous in my 20s (“What happens if I jump off a moving bus?” You end up on crutches for six months, that’s what). Now, I have sense (my mother might argue that, but she’d agree I have a lot more than I did in my 20s!), and my definitions of “adventure” have changed (no more jumping off busses or yanking the emergency break while going 55 mph to “see what happens”), but that doesn’t mean my sense of adventure has gone. It just means that sense of adventure isn’t based on the stupidity of a 20-year-old endorphin and adrenaline junkie.
But yeah, it’s my opinion. I just know that I wouldn’t go back to my 20s under any circumstances. I enjoy myself more now than I did then… except for the random backaches that come from nowhere (maybe jumping off busses?).
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Throughout my twenties, I volunteered together with a lot of women of ages between 50-80.
Gotta say, most of them led much more adventurous and interesting lives than I did, and it wasn’t just because I was dirt poor.
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The thing here is that when you’re older you typically have more to lose and have more responsibilities that you may not want to walk away from. Maybe you own a house, have a family, have a job you don’t want to or can’t abandon, etc.
I mean, when I was 20 I could have thrown everything in my life away to go on an adventure and I’d be out, what? A minimum wage job and maybe a couple thousand bucks worth of personal possessions? You could have walked in while I was working and went “Hey K, let’s go on an adventure!” and I’d have hopped over the counter and walked out on the spot. And why not? Everything I had was unimportant or trivially replaceable. For many if not most people, the older you get the less true that is.
What is this focus on “adventures,” anyway? Are we talking about going out questing for glory or something? Because a lot of my favorite games and stories aren’t about people setting out to go on adventures, they’re about people who were in the right circumstance at the right time. The PC of Professor of Magical Studies spends their time peer-reviewing articles and preparing lesson plans right up until the time comes that they’re perfectly positioned to help save the world. Is that an adventure? Is captaining a ship an adventure, or is it just a job, or both?
If you want stories about people in their fifties setting out to have an adventure for the sake of having an adventure, that’s probably not going to be terribly common. If you want stories about people in their fifties having interesting jobs and interesting lives and sometimes getting swept up in interesting things, that’s a lot more likely. But even that’s not because older people are less interesting, it’s because they tend to have established lives and responsibilities. But then, I’ve never understood the appeal of adventure for its own sake, at any age.
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I, on the other hand would greatly prefer being in my 20’s again to being my current age and would definitely have liked to have gone back, if I had the opportunity. Sure there have been some advantages to getting older, such as becoming(at least somewhat) wiser and being calmer emotionally. But I miss the feeling of having my whole or, I guess more correctly, most of my life ahead of me, having much more energy and having so many more years left of my life unless I got unlucky and/or far too careless.
I can understand that people who made some bad mistakes then are glad that’s all over. For me, on the other hand, most of my regrets about that time, except for one major exception and maybe a handful of small ones, are to due with the things I didn’t do or didn’t get the chance to do rather than the things I did. So, I’m more sorry that I didn’t have more time to explore and experience things before turning 30, than I’m about any mistakes I made then.
Of course there are two possible meanings of being in your 20’s again. One of them is being physically and, I guess(at least to a certain extent) mentally and emotionally in you 20’s without your life changing apart from that, but the other part is about sort of time travelling back to who and where you were when you were in your 20’s. I certainly would have liked to get the second option, particularly if I could keep my current memories and get a chance to “set things right”. But I think I also would have enjoyed if I just become like a guy in my 20’s physically again, even if that also meant becoming like I was when I was in my 20’s mentally and emotionally.
All of this are also important parts of the reasons why I enjoy playing an MC in (for the most part) his 20’s, even though I’m not in my 20’s anymore myself. I greatly enjoy the escapism of playing an MC who has his(for the most part) life ahead of him, where life is still full of possibilities and (usually) he has got the energy to explore, try and do more than a person in their 30’s or older can. I certainly don’t mind the opportunity to play MC’s in their 30’s or older. but that’s not really a must for me.
On the other hand, I don’t enjoy playing MC’s in their mid-teens and earlier so much, since those definitely are periods in my life that I’m glad are over( I do have some good memories from those times as well, but overall I’m glad I’m not “there” anymore. on the other hand would greatly prefer being in my 20’s again to being my current age and would definitely have liked to have gone back, if I had the opportunity. Sure there have been some advantages to getting older, such as becoming(at least somewhat) wiser and being calmer emotionally. But I miss the feeling of having my whole or, I guess more correctly, most of my life ahead of me, having much more energy and having so many more years left of my life unless I got unlucky and/or far too careless.
I can understand that people who made some bad mistakes then are glad that’s all over. For me, on the other hand, most of my regrets about that time, except for one major exception and maybe a handful of small ones, are to due with the things I didn’t do or didn’t get the chance to do rather than the things I did. So, I’m more sorry that I didn’t have more time to explore and experience things before turning 30, than I’m about any mistakes I made then.
Of course there are two possible meanings of being in your 20’s again. One of them is being physically and, I guess(at least to a certain extent) mentally and emotionally in you 20’s without your life changing apart from that, but the other part is about sort of time travelling back to who and where you were when you were in your 20’s. I certainly would have liked to get the second option, particularly if I could keep my current memories and get a chance to “set things right”. But I think I also would have enjoyed if I just become like a guy in my 20’s physically again, even if that also meant becoming like I was when I was in my 20’s mentally and emotionally.
All of this are also important parts of the reasons why I enjoy playing an MC in (for the most part) his 20’s, even though I’m not in my 20’s anymore myself. I greatly enjoy the escapism of playing an MC who has his(for the most part) life ahead of him, where life is still full of possibilities and (usually) he has got the energy to explore, try and do more than a person in their 30’s or older can. I certainly don’t mind the opportunity to play MC’s in their 30’s or older. but that’s not really a must for me.
On the other hand, I don’t enjoy playing MC’s in their mid-teens and earlier so much, since those definitely are periods in my life that I’m glad are over( I do have some good memories from those times as well, but overall I’m glad I’m not “there” anymore.
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When it comes to world building- what kind of magic integration do people tend to prefer in modern settings?
More like urban fantasy, where it’s the ‘real world’ with a secret society of magical people, or more like magical realism, where it’s a normal world with magic integrated in day to day life- no secrets?
- Magic is a secret.
- Magic is known about.
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Although I enjoy well-done magical realism, I don’t really think of it as fantasy per se, so I went with the hidden magic option. But I must admit I’d love to see more stories with magic casually existing in the modern world, not in a magical-realist way, but the way that it casually exists in a medieval or early modern world in some stories - urban high fantasy, if you will. Or a story set in a world in which secrecy has failed - maybe as a result of events in the story itself, but maybe it happened twenty-five years ago and there’s a generation coming into its own that’s always lived in a magical world, while middle-aged and older adults remember the revelation of magic as a traumatic breach in their understanding of reality. Maybe it was a hundred or two hundred years ago, enough time for everyone to just think of it as just part of life, and we could explore the differences it made materially and socially and culturally.
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Option 3: magic is known (people are aware of its existence) but it’s a mystery even for mages
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Let’s say that there is an obstacle in the way (take your pick from grumpy guard, incoherent madman, or chonky dragon) and you were given the classical choices: violence, stealth, and diplomacy.
Of the three, you’ve decided to take the diplomatic option. The game that you’re playing has a diplomacy skill, diplomacy stat, whatever it’s called in this iteration (talking, charisma, personality, charm, etc) to use for dialogue.
Currently, I’m struggling to think of a way to implement this diplomatic option because there are a lot of different ways that I can go about this. So, I’m looking for some input on what I should kick around with for now.
Favored Use of a Diplomacy Stat
- What I say should affect how much of the stat I need. Better choices means I need less stats.
- My stat should affect my options of what I am able to say. Better stats means better choices.
- A diplomacy stat should act as an alternative to going through a dialogue tree, like a “get out of jail free” card.
- It doesn’t matter; what it should be is consistent with the other stats to make using it balanced.
- Other (such as, not having a diplomacy stat at all and turning diplomacy into a puzzle).
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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!
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I almost alwats pick my gender in games at random so it really doesnt matter to me at all. Never understood why it would, personally!
I liked the last poll, regarding being locked as cis. I’m sure the results will be heavily unsurprising, but I like being able to give my opinion on that.
Initially in my transition it didn’t matter and I was just as comfortable playing a cis woman, just so long as I could be a woman I was happy, but nowadays whenever it’s explicit that the protagonist is cis it really bothers me almost as much as if the protagonist is locked to being male. Hell, being locked into being femme (like clothes being feminine, dresses/skirts, showing skin, etc) bothers me a ton. I’m sure this is an extreme minority opinion even amongst trans people, but since I so heavily identify with my transness it’s very important that I can at minimum headcanon being trans. I straight up have zero desire to be cis even irl, and like despite technically being a “binary” trans person (don’t like applying that label to myself as I feel it’s deeply inaccurate), were I AFAB I’d probably take testosterone at least for a bit to help fulfill my butchness (a major pillar in why this matters to me, as being butch is part of my gender identity and my transness is heavily tied to it).
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I am trans myself, but I’m in the nonbinary/agender/gender-nonconforming spec spaces so I am kind of used to being forced to play into playing men since the alternative is just not being able to play a ton of games that interest me in concept.
I really do think that if a game is gender locking, it shouldn’t be sex locking too (which is something people to talk about for sure. People have a large tendency to say ‘gender-locking’ when what they really mean is locking both gender AND cis/transness/etc of the main character.
I’d love some games that are nonbinary MC only, but I know we will probably never get those because the demographic just isn’t there (aka over half voting they would be pretty uncomfortable playing a nonbinary character. But I think there is a lot you could say and explore there.
I just wish games that lock gender would make gender a main theme of the narrative to justify why it’s locked in the first place. In my mind locking the MC out of having gender selection needs to have a sufficient boon to justify the cost of play-ability for a ton of people. It should offer an experience you couldn’t give the remaining readers without that sacrifice, I guess?
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Shit, yes. This is so confusing topic for me, that it makes me squirm. I never have know how to approach it.
The authors would probably be furious with me (I have often seen aggressive responses on Tumblr when someone used “she / he” for non-binary ro)… but when there’s a nonbinary RO in the game, I tend to perceive them, in my imagination, more masculine or feminine way - which gender, it may depend on the description of their appearance, what their name sounds like, or many other things.
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Honestly, same. It’s especially hard in a language without proper non-plural “they” - I have to gender people so it would not look extremely wonky as either female or male, there are essentially no systems for non-binary people.
So most non-binary people I know default to male, which is often assumed as the default gender in my language - thus, being non-binary is something masculine to me because people use male pronouns for ease of conversation.
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Sure, many non-binary people (and characters) falls towards one of the sides of the masc-femme spectrum. And some are more neutral.
But even if a non-binary character is very feminine presenting, it is still not okay to call them ‘she’ if that is not a pronoun they use. Same thing if they are very masculine. Misgendering is really uncool, and the author usually specify which pronouns each character uses.
I know I lot of AFAB non-binary people are tired of being treated as ‘woman light’ in real life, so seeing it being done to characters is pretty shitty. (Can’t speak for AMAB people)
So please, continue seeing non-binary characters as more masculine or feminine, if that’s how they are presented, but don’t think that makes them ‘pretty much a woman’ or ‘pretty much a man’.
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Yeah I mean, if a character uses they/them pronouns those are their pronouns - an author is reasonable in saying “can you not use she/he for them”.
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Dunno, I just think of them as men and women, forgetting about their nonbinary. Which is why I said the authors would probably be pissed.
I guess I used wrong term “tend to perceive them” here, although I had something slightly different in mind.
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