Tell me the details as they come up. It’s jarring to have a whole paragraph dedicated to a single character’s appearance (ala Wayhaven style), especially when you consider the genre of a story. If it’s a romance, I don’t mind it. But if it’s not romance heavy, then it’s a bit jarring.
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An actual thing someone has had the gall to write and publish:
“This person couldn’t be more your type. You know exactly the kind you’re most attracted to, the offbeat energy and unique characteristics that make your knees weak. Whoever this person is, he/she/ze possesses all the vibes and charms you love most.”
Nothing could ever be worse for my tastes than something like this. Write a person. Draw a picture of them with your words. Create an actual identity for me to get to know and decide if I like them. If you give me nothing to work with you will inspire no sentiment from me, and if you force me to be attracted to your nothing, you will inspire my passionate distaste for them and you as their author by extension.
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Ah! So I made the right choice by putting the option “idgaf about details, I’ll just imagine whatever I want” 
OK yeah, they took it to an extreme 
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I feel like clarifying my answer in the poll since I’m not entirely agree with it. I chose “as much as possible, even if it’s not relevant. If there are pictures of the character, even better.” I agree with the first part: when I’m reading, I like to imagine everything in my head like a movie, that’s why detailed descriptions of the characters help me to image them as best as possible. If I don’t have enough details, I can’t imagine characters fully, because I don’t want to assume things that may end up being incorrect.
Detailed descriptions in the middle of a scene can feel forced and break the flow of the story too much, so perhaps putting less relevant features of the characters on the stat page instead is a better solution.
As for pictures of the characters, I don’t really need them, because visualising descriptions in my own head is part of the fun of playing text-based games.
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I don’t mind a lot either way, as long as their actions and personality are described with clarity. I think I lean towards “I want details about their appearance that are relevant” but relevant/irrelevant would depend a lot on context. Sometimes different PCs might note different aspects of the character, which can inform what’s important to the PC as well as what’s striking about the NPC.
It can definitely go too far in the direction of over-description: I would rather have some gaps for me to imagine than be distracted by irrelevant reminders about someone having blonde hair, for instance.
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The fewer details the better, for me. You can describe them down to every mole on their body and my brain is going to picture whatever it wants, based on the rest of their character build. And it most likely will disagree with the physical description, lol. If I told authors how I picture their characters, a lot of times they’d probably have a fit. 
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While I think more detail is better (though certain details might trickle out of my brain and get replaced with headcanon, oh well), I’m not a huge fan of pictures of ROs and especially not Artbreeder portraits. I actually kind of despise most Artbreeder portraits because I’m very familiar with the program and I know just how possible it is to get interesting and realistic portraits with it, but every collection of generic same-face Artbreeder-made portraits tells me less than a solid written description would. Hard pass on those. Similarly, unless you are/hire a really talented artist/designer for your portraits, they all tend to feel flat and samey to me; the dynamism of the character’s written personality rarely shines through and I have a hard time reconciling the two versions of the character.
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I think my real preference is a whole range between these two, though I picked the first if it has to be one or the other. “Relevant” is a bit subjective, for one thing. I like to have some notable details to latch on to, which can make it easier to remember the character, but it doesn’t need to be many… a general idea plus one or two things that stand out can paint an image without the visualization turning into adjective soup.
I’d also favor having the descriptions quite near the character’s introduction, so I don’t suddenly get jarred by finding out I’ve been picturing them wrong (unless the appearance actually changes, like an injury or body modification or getting older or downloading their mind into a new body or whatever) but not necessarily in a single dump… spacing some vivid descriptors throughout the introductory scene provides a nice balance.
But I really am amenable to variety!
(also pleased to discover that quoting a poll works)
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I visualize what I’m reading so I prefer when ROs are described in detail. It feels more real and grounded than just a product of my imagination. Even when I don’t find this description attractive it is better than no description. I will erase some details I don’t like anyway. I think I’m good with imaginary shaving after all practice I had.
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I prefer the chance to pick how my MC looks especially when given the option for body size. I like a game lets my MC rock the Dad Bod look.
I guess it’s because I see alot of games including video games where the MC is ripped, 8 pack abs etc. Or is the perfect height and weight. There is nothing wrong with that but I like to see more representation of different body sizes
I’m more self conscious about my dad bod because of all that.
My wife keeps telling me how sexy she finds my dad bod so that is definitely helping change my mind set of seeing myself as unattractive
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Same. I am an actor, so I self insert and like to “cast” my celeb crushes in RO roles according to personality. No authors have ever described Jemaine Clement or Pedro Pascal in any of their stories, soooo I’ma just stick em in where i need em. 
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Fight scenes?
- Fight scenes that are short but provide little detail but basically a ‘normal’ fight.
- Fight scenes that are long provide much detail, but less summarizing
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voters
another
- more choice
- more text
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voters
oh and if you could, vote for your favorite RO in Pushed WIP Pushed (Thriller, Romance, Combat) | Full Gameplay Chapter 4 Released! |🥳 - #54 by love4tae
1 Like
Fallen Hero is a series that has done combat well IMO. Meaningful choice- some choices made long before the fight having an impact along with choices made moment to moment. Things move fast, tension remains high, you don’t slog through the blow-by-blow but you still have an extended experience where each choice feels like it has a large impact on how the fight progresses cumulatively rather than having a single choice determine the outcome. Good descriptions and good amount of choice along the way.
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This is overthinky type of question, but:
What are your preferences for genderselectable RO names? Now I bet that’s not something a lot of people think about but I suspect once something is different people notice.
To better illustrate what I mean:
- 1 Sarah/Sebastian
- 2 Sarah (gender neutral)
- 3 Sarah/Zane
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voters
1 - That’s the standard in HG games and WIPs right now, a name that’s different but starts with the same letter. Usually accompanied with slight changes to the appearance.
2 - Another solution is to just have a gender neutral name.
3 - The pros: underlines that female/male version of the character goes further than description. The cons: it might be confusing/new in this space.
And out of curiosity: how much should gs characters appearance change?
- No change between counterparts
- Slight change to indicate gender - taller height for men, longer hair for women etc
- Completely new look
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voters
More authors are playing with slight personality changes in gs characters and that made me think: having genderselectable characters that are different adds value for replayers - and doesn’t matter for players who’ll play once. It’s definitly a cost increasing indulgence but you could say its more confusing to have characters who’s name and appearance are 100% the same and the only difference is gender (or sexuality if we are going playersexual route on top of it).
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On the gender selectable RO names, I prefer slight variations on a similar name for the following reasons:
-
There are only so many names generally recognized as gender neutral and if one character shares a name with another from a different choicescript game, I’m always going to be thinking about them. Alternatively, if the name is typically associated with a particular gender (in your example “Sarah” is generally considered a woman’s name) it gives the feeling that there is an “intended” gender for that character.
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In cases where the name is entirely different, my brain can’t equate them if I replay and make them a different gender. There is a whole science to character names, mainly that having two characters who’s name starts with the same letter and are of similar length will be confusing to the reader. I think the opposite might also be true where having drastically different names might make it difficult for a reader to consider them the same character. This could be done for interesting effect if you want to make the characters distinct based on gender to make them feel like separate characters (iirc there have been a few IF that have done that), but generally would be confusing if you’re just gender flipping the RO.
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I think it’s helpful for the “feel” of a name be consistent. Arabella and Aloysius, or even Letitia and Walter, might feel like they could be the “same” person. Yolanda and Matt not so much, perhaps. Writing it out now, I think I prefer there to be something linking them together somehow, whether that’s the first letter, or just having the same name.
In Elite Status the way Emily Short dealt with a couple of gender-selectable characters, Felicity/Felice/Felix and MJ, was that the characters dressed differently, spoke about their experiences of gendered expectations and roles differently, and in some cases different options and scenes opened up. (Male MJ had done circus skills when travelling which resulted in branching to different scenes to female MJ.) I found it interesting, and I think it worked there because of the game being set in the real modern world and engaging with those enforced roles and expectations.
I’m happy with small appearance changes generally but I don’t enjoy the kinds of changes that are mentioned in the poll when they reinforce gendered beauty ideals: if there are appearance changes, I enjoy it a lot more when I see a male version with longer hair or a female version who’s taller, or whatever. Or just for them to be the same regardless. In text, the way characters’ bodies are described - if clothed, at least - is unlikely to be wildly different: outfits or accessories might diverge more, or maybe hairstyle. So I would probably pick “no change” if I were to pick one of those options because those particular changes aren’t ones that I get excited about.
I don’t think so, but obviously everyone has different relationships to gender and appearance.
I’ve sometimes seen writers say they want their gender-selectable characters to be completely different, entirely separate characters and I feel that ends up having the most effort for the least reward; I think in those cases it’s probably less work to create different characters for players to interact with.
But as usual, if something grabs me and is executed really well, I’m happy.
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That could balloon 4-5 RO’s into 8-10 and all the opposite gender counterparts would have similar roles. I think that would be a lot more work than just adding flavour text sometimes to differentiate them.
But it depends what they meant by that ultimately. Just how far that separation goes.
I try to focus on what the character is doing in the story more than what gender they are or what they look like.
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Honestly, if it’s possible for the character to turn into a completely different character, but still occupy the same ‘slot’, that kind of implies to me that their impact on the plot is purely as a love interest rather than being fully fledged as a character 
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I kind of disagree, but I understand different people will think about these slots differently.
Different character, different style - same role.
Different character, different style, different gender - same role.
Are these characters the same? No, but they are: Hannibal Lecter and John Watson. And that’s how I like to think about it.
That might a difference in philosophy regarding the character-driven approach. I think characters should decide a lot of things, but if they don’t do what they are in the story for they should be ‘fired’ .
I’m sure this is confusing to read, I’m sorry.
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I don’t think this is exactly the same situation as what @izzily or @HarrisPS were describing. To use Watson as an example, their appearance and behavior vary by nature of adaptation, but 1. they remain consistent within their own retellings and 2. they share elements that remain universal across their character: they are always the doctor companion to Sherlock and always more level-headed and people-oriented than Sherlock. That’s very different from “this character is gender selectable, but if theyre a man then they’re a stoic and stocky baker, and if theyre a woman than they’re a petite acrobat with a bubbly personality.” Extreme as that decision may sound, I’ve seen similar concepts batted about on the forums.
Oh I just know the overlap between peak Sherlock fandom and burgeoning Hannibal fandom was going crazy back in the day with this idea.
1 Like