Before my time, but there was this poll from 2017 that showed 56% of voters being male. It would be interesting to see how demographics have changed. Is the forum still 86% under 30-year-olds? Maybe we should have our own census.
Feelings about genderlocking seem pretty stable, though. If we strip the responses to the genderlocking polls to their essence (No, I would never; Yes, I would; Maybe), it seems like there’s an enduring trend of it being an absolutely terrible idea, monetarily speaking.
i can’t play a genderlocked female game like… ever for the same reasons i couldn’t play a male locked game that has like a forced straight romance, that’s not me saying an author shouldn’t do it cause i’m 100% all for the authors doing whatever they want with their stories and i’d rec it to people interested but for me personally it’s a solid no. which sucks big time because a lot of otome/dating sims have female main characters and i’m just sobbing in a corner lol
Oh my god i would throw what little money i have left at that so fast lol
In a game where you play as the parent/guardian of a child/teenager, would you prefer to have to specify if the kid is your biological offspring (as opposed to adopted, or your dead ex’s child, or your unavailable sister’s child, etc) and have the game bring this up from time to time, in big or small ways?
Or would you rather that it’s kinda just glossed over and kept vague?
My own assumption would be that the majority of people would prefer the first option, but I’m interested in seeing whether that is true.
And of course, if you’d never play a game where you’re responsible for a child, this question is not meant for you.
This is based on very little experience because I have not played very many games where you’re a parent, but I think would enjoy it either being that the PC is the child’s non-biological parent or guardian in canon, or for it to be a choice one way or another.
Have either of you played the When Life Gives You Lemons slice-of-life WIP? You can play as raising your much younger sibling, rather than your biological/birthed child in that one.
When I woke up, I did have the realisation that it might be a little redundant to ask whether people want more options for customization with reactivity
And I’ve been thinking about it throughout the day, and I’m actually not sure keeping it vague would even work for the story I’m considering, since I would want the MC’s backstory to be somewhat set.
Here’s something I’ve been wondering. Often in games we’re making decisions about what to do, but other times it’s more about what to say and the scenes focus in on conversation. When it comes to playing through any given conversation, what’s your preference:
Long sprawling conversations (~5+ choices in a row)
Conversation with some notable back and forth (~3-4 choices in a row)
Snappy plot-driven conversations (~1-2 choices in a row)
0voters
And for that matter, what’s your preferred level of conversational granularity? There seems like a big difference between picking every single line you say, and the norms in RPGs and visual novels where there might be small scene or a long sequence where your character speaks but you don’t pick the dialogue.
I want to choose almost every line of dialogue I say
I prefer to choose conversational directions, leading to small sequences back-and-forth that I don’t have to pick out.
I want to read a whole series of exchanges between my character and NPCs between each choice I make
For the second one, I almost chose wanting to choose almost every line of dialogue, but that would get exhausting. The problem is, I don’t trust authors to pay attention to character builds at all, so you end up with whiplash between the character you build and the character the author writes. But, if they actually let us choose the direction of the conversation, it should work well enough.
The first question is about the length of the conversations. I gave the number of choices as a sort of indicator here. But if you want an example then:
Snappy conversations, consider some of the sequences in Crème de la Crème: in a lot of the classes and confrontations, there’ll just be one or two choices to be made and then the scene moves on, with the story containing lots of short scenes and character interactions (but also with some longer ones!)
Back-and forth, consider, say, some of the sequences in VtM: Night Road such as when you first speak to the Prince in Tuscon. The conversation scene can spread over at least three choices as you decide what information to share, and you find out more about what’s going on.
Long conversations - There are at least two ways of doing this: in Heroes of Myth you sometimes have the opportunity to ask for further information, lawnmowering through a bunch of different conversation topics. I seem to recall in Creatures Such As We has some chats that go on for many choices in a row.
The results are pretty conclusive! Most people say they prefer conversations where they can spend a bit of time back and forth, but don’t have to pick literally every line of dialogue.
Would you be interested in reading an IF where your MC is already married from the beginning?
No dating, no relationship drama, no break-up, no other ROs, just an established, functional relationship with a gender-chooseable spouse, who has some level of customization, but is fairly pre-set, and who is an important NPC in the story.
It would depend a lot on the spouse character’s personality and of course the rest of the story, but I would like this in principle. (And wouldn’t mind potential relationship dramas whether they resulted in breakups or getting through it stronger on the other side.)
I could only play a game where MC had a spouse in the past, but they are dead now or they got divorced. I like having choice when it comes to that important things like romantic relationships.
I’d be all over this. One of my biggest complaints about all of these games is the lack of healthy relationships and the “us against the world!” thing instead of endless angst, getting together at the end, and always being the LI vs. the MC.
Granted, I say that, but if the spouse wasn’t appealing, I still wouldn’t play it. Because that’s another one of my beefs with these games, that all the appealing characters are always the absolute worst paths.
This is my only worry. There are so many toxic and abusive relationships in IF that I wouldn’t be on board with one that we’re cannoned into from the outset. All the tsundere/yandere fans are overrepresented, and those of us that see that sort of thing and start running in the other direction all too often get left out in the cold. Also keep in mind that a smiling, jokey person can be just as abusive and awful as a grim and glaring one if you do this please. It is not pleasant to always be the butt of someone’s jokes or the victim of their pranks.
As someone who did just that in one of my stories (My Malaka Viking Story), drama is a good tool to use, to explore a couple’s point of view, their belief, their resistance, what matters to them the most, what are they willing to do, how far they will go, what sacrifice they can live with…etc etc etc.
A story where everything is happy and dandy is utterly boring. Peoples grows from adversity and challenges. It doesn’t have to be Nasty, and screeching, yelling and what not. But they need challenge of some kind.
I wouldn’t play a game where my romance while exist, and is there at all time, only get a few lines, or the only lines they got were toward others, or you are never in the same room with them, or the narrator is always sending you in separate group…
I’m like…have you met gamers? If we get a romance in a video game, we gonna drag said romance everywhere…all the way to Hell and back.
