I’m less interested in how my character is perceived than in how I’m able to respond to how my character is perceived.
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Re repetition, I would rather have dialogue summarised in the option and then have it written out in the response. It doesn’t have to be reflective of personality scores like the below example but that’s how I’ve been doing it recently to add flavour:
#I tell her it may not be academic, but she needs to learn to help others.
@{(hb_rebel > 50) "Don't come at this with assumptions about what learning is," you say. "There are plenty of things to learn here, like doing right by other people."|"You're all working for the same thing," you say. "Learning to work together and be part of a team is vital, whether you're in a formal class or not."}
The attractiveness poll is interesting - I think I’m not too bothered about having a customised attractiveness scale unless it’s a game about the mental/emotional state of being attractive or unattractive, and I think a scale like that can raise more questions than it answers because the way in which someone might seem attractive can vary so wildly even without bringing in personal tastes. So I think having something more detailed descriptors could work better in a game context… but I think it becomes more interesting if as Aletheia says there can be ways in which a PC can interact about it.
For example: someone admiring how strong a rugged/intimidating PC is, and the PC getting to go “actually I like being looked after too” or “it can be hard being seen as invincible” or something, or a PC who’s delicately beautiful being able to express that it’s frustrating to be underestimated and they’d like to be appreciated for other qualities. (it wouldn’t necessarily have to be interacting about frustrating things, those were just what popped into my head)
If attractiveness isn’t a big part of the game, I don’t think there’s really a need for it to be stated. Generally I find it more fun if my love interest says something admiring about something they’ve observed my character doing or saying, rather than about a detail about what my character looks like, because that’s more of an active thing and feels more interesting.
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Oohh, this is an interesting poll! All my characters are very attractive. It’s cool if the game includes MC’s attractiveness customisation - I like it when my MCs are canonically attractive and it’s mentioned in the game, since I always headcanon them looking like that anyway. I wouldn’t play a game in which MC is canonically unattractive, I’ve had enough of being ugly irl. 
Yesss, me too, me too! 
While all my MCs are very attractive, majority of them are not attractive in a conventional way that corresponds to their gender’s beauty standards. That’s why when a game refers to my feminine male MC as “handsome” I want to pull my hair out, it’s so immersion-breaking! 
It would be great if more games allowed us to choose if the MC is feminine/masculine/androgynous, and it would help with the unfitting adjectives problem.
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I think the polls suffer from assuming that attraction is solely physical. Beauty does not always equal attraction or attractiveness.
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I think that should depend very much on the specific RO. Some would care more about physical attractiveness than others.
Generally, I am more comfortable with it colouring flavourtext and less important NPC interactions, than having a big influence on romance mechanics.
Personally, I like those better too. They give more control to the reader, because they include things like the MC’s vibe and presentation insted of just some arbitrary scale of attractiveness. When you just choose attractiveness, the game then still have to make an assumption about what that means, and what specific words to use.
There would be even more control in just letting the reader specify the exact term they want and don’t what, but I did a coding test for that recently, and it was pretty frustrating, both to code and to actually implement and work with.
I can definitely see the fun in that.
Yeah, could be a very interesting part of it.
Both in the little, immediate reactions, and also in whether the game lets you do things to try and counteract some of the consequences of the MC’s appearance.
That’s part of reason why I prefer the second choice set. It lets you specify whether you want your character to be seen as cute, beautiful, or rugged, no matter their gender.
That the polls focus specifically on the more physical parts of attractiveness, doesn’t mean there’s an assumption that that is the only form of attraction that matters.
Or that the games can’t have characters be attracted to other parts of the MC.
Maybe my attempts to keep the language neutral has given the wrong impression.
My curiosity this time was very much about people’s feelings in regards to how the games tend to handle the issue around the MC’s looks.
Generally, I have noticed that the vast majority of games tend to fall into two categories:
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All MCs are treated as physically attractive, with some ROs and NPCs actively commenting on this or reacting to it. Great if you want your MC to be good-looking, but can also be a little annoying, especially if you would prefer playing a more ‘plain’ character.
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The MC’s looks are not really discussed, which gives a more neutral feel of the MC being average looking. It’s nice that it makes less assumptions, or at least draw less attention to its assumptions, but it can be annoying if you’d like your MC to be considered attractive. Especially so, if the game talks a lot about the attractiveness of all/some ROs.
I added being treated as unattractive as an option to that poll, because I was curious about whether that was something people would like in a game.
The two first polls are ways that I have seen games try to give the reader a choice in the matter. Sometimes well implemented, sometimes less so.
I was curious how many people are actually interested in the different options.
I am not saying that these are the only, or even best, ways to give the readers that choice, and would like to point to the game Merry Crisis, as an example of a game that in my opinion does a very nice middleground between the two.
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I’ll be honest, I rarely like it when any MC of mine is considered attractive (especially if it’s without the player’s input)
I’m sure plenty of people like (or, at least, don’t mind) to be described as good-looking in these types of games, but for me it just takes me out of the immersion somewhat considering how I actually appear in real-life (you know, an ugly, short, obese man); I know we’re meant to be roleplaying as someone who’s not ourselves, but I can’t help it.
If given the choice, I’ll opt to be ugly (if I’m feeling generous I’ll maybe choose to be average-looking, but that’s as far as I’m willing to go).
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I’m more in favour of the MC having a choice of preset types of appearance with specific gameplay effects applied, rather than attractive/plain/unattractive. For example, you can look shifty, or like a vet, like a girl/boy next door, like a runway model, etc., and it affects interactions with some NPC’s which can help or hinder your missions (like in “It’s Killing Time”).
The most recent example would be Whiskey 4: your chosen looks and gender can unlock a fling with an NPC (or lock you out if you don’t fit his type physically), which I think is very neat.
Or just do it for flavour text like in Heart of Battle.
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I read “like a runaway model” and was wondering how that looks like 
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Considering how many games love to tell me how X and Y is Drop dead Gorgeous no matter their gender? Please, Let me be the one everyone drool over for once!
Bonus 
if I get the ABS and I get to Flex!
Maybe something like this? Lol
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Slightly dishevelled and unkempt from being on the run, but still hot)))
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In games where you can create an avatar for your character, I do tend to make them as pretty as I can, but that’s only because I like looking at pretty things. If I could choose I’d prefer that the world reacted to them as average-looking (unless I’m specifically creating a beautiful MC for in-game, character-based reasons).
In text-based games I usually imagine my characters as being nondescript. It’s especially fun when an RO declares that my plain MC is lovely; I then get to decide whether that’s flattery, or they’ve noticed something my MC never has, or it’s a sign of true love. 
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How? just curious…
If someone starts babbling about how surpassingly beautiful Average Jane is, it’s gotta be love. Or macular degeneration, I suppose, but I’m a romantic, I prefer the first explanation.
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Nah, I get it…
I make poetry about ABS, and coffee…for fuck sake. My romance better get it I’m being Mushy 
Well…Mushy about the ABS…for coffee? That’s Devotion. The kind of 1st love that goes under your skin and never leave…
Sigh dreamily Sweet Sweet 
how I love thee 
WAHAHAHAHA I love it
I much prefer the second poll, because there are multiple different ways a person can be perceived as attractive, and I don’t really like the idea of the ROs like. Not having preferences as to what they like in a person, and instead automatically finding you (un)attractive. Besides, I have a secret love of the “Just Some Guy” trope, and my MCs are usually as average as I can get them (unless its a setting where the MC is special or has lived an uncommon life for some reason, and in that case I’ll suit them to the worldbuilding as best I can. Which is most IFs, so it’s nice when I get to play the slightly smarter-than-average Joe every once in a while.)
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Something I suspect why people favor the second poll over the first poll. Could be wrong. It goes back to choice.
Usually, the choice/option to be above/average/below for physical attractiveness is something that’s mentioned once (in the beginning) and never touched on again. Whereas if someone is charming, you usually keep having the option to be charming throughout the book.
The author is acknowledging your choices by having NPCs comment or be attracted to your MC based on your choices.
Which you touched on! I shoulda scrolled all the way through the thread! 
1 Like
Another poll about character appearance! When presenting you romantic interests in a interactive novel…
In how much detail do you want ROs to be described appearance-wise?
- As much as possible, even if it’s not relevant. If there are pictures of the character, even better.
- I like when a character is described in detail. Especially if the appearance complements or contradicts the personality.
- I only want the details about their appearance that are relevant.
- I can manage with general details to imagine them. That’s enough.
- I prefer their appearance to be ambiguous or open to the imagination. I like for there to be gaps that I can fill.
- I’d like for their appearance to be as little described as possible, let only their actions speak for them.
- I don’t care at all, too much or too little, I’ll just imagine whatever character I want.
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voters
Personally I prefer when they are not described in great detail bc the more I know the more they deviate from what I’m inclined to (in most cases) Just like in real life (but like, with personality lol)
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personally, I wouldn’t care, because my brain has a will of its own. You can say ‘Carol has black hair, with brown eyes and of average build’ and brain go ‘She looks Hot! Insert Here Asari’
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I have no idea which one to choose, since I’m fine with most of them
I don’t want to read three paragraphs of info-dumping about the character’s appearance, but I do like there to be at least some details, to ground them into the world. Anything in between is fine.
Any descriptors should be given early on, though. Don’t tell me halfway through the story that the character I met three pages in actually had blue eyes all along.
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