The thing that define the ace experience for me, is the lack of sexual attraction. So what I want to see in games, when I choose for my character to be ace, is simply that the game don’t describe my character feeling sexually attracted to people.
Same thing with an aro character, about romantic attraction.
I’m personally completely fine with NPCs flirting with my aro/ace characters (it should be a separate setting, to turn that off), and I still want to have the option to engage with romantic and even sexual content, if I feel like it (though it would be really nice if that content takes the character being aro/ace into account).
For me, I usually find it best when the MC still has the option to increase their own comfort level if I want that as a player. Like if I choose to be ace but my feelings vary, it’s nice not to have the door already closed if I decide I’d like to initiate a kiss.
That said if the initial choice to set a sexuality is framed in a way to indicate the MC is completely ace/aro, then that should serve as a full opt-out for playersided initiation and those shouldn’t appear.
For me, I’d say that it overall depends on whether you’ve specifically let the player pick where they are on the spectrum of romantic and physical attraction upfront. Speaking from experience it’s kind of brutal to code the exact nuance of the various labels and it’s probably better to treat the choices as setting the base levels of both attraction then allow the player to have initiative.
THIS!! I’m an alloaro, so already that makes stuff complicated when trying to play someone like me (which is why I… don’t . I haven’t found any games that allow me to do this without getting like. Locked out of all relationship paths because they’re romance-only and thus missing out on some great character stuff because I guess friends can’t be vulnerable??? It’s gotten better and Platonic Paths are much more common now though, haha)
The ideal scenario for me is that the choosing of sexual/romantic orientation for an MC doesn’t mean you’re barred from the choice of pursuing romantic or sexual relationships. In the ideal scenario, it simply takes into account that you aren’t attracted in that particular way, and the flavour text surrounding that is changed accordingly. Then again, I know coding for flavour text can be a hassle, and if it acknowledges that, then you definitely have to acknowledge the: “Hey! Let’s have a convo about what this relationship looks like and what our boundaries are/what we Are to each other, considering your orientation!”, but… I dunno. It would be really cool and special to see stuff like that, haha.
I do wholeheartedly agree with the ideal of separated ace aro stuff. I must admit I am sort of biased given that I play every game as basically just someone who can be attracted to people but just doesn’t really pursue any relationship and focuses on the plot.
But I am unfortunately hedging by bets in seeing proper separated ace and aro implementation as coding it sounds like quite a pain, quite a lot of variables to change over an entire book with a variety of characters.
But the whole not seeing deep content because being aro or ace also locks you out of things you’d have as a platonic friend is something that does rub me the wrong way in some books. I like helping people with their problems if I like them. I shouldn’t need to want to get into their pants to find the problem.
I think with aro/ace, I prefer if its just a choice when you initiate the romance or relationship. Like you pick how far you want to take it, anywhere from conventional relationship stuff to “I’m sexually interested in you but I don’t want to date” to “I’d love to date you but don’t want to go further than kissing/handholding”. I think its a cleaner way to handle the ROs on a case to case basis, without locking players out of choices before they know any of the characters.
Thankfully lol. I know it must be a pain to have to write different versions of the same scene based on whether the characters are flirting or not (on top of having to deal with other branches and variables), but games where you can have equally meaningful interactions while being only friends will always have a special place on my heart. Sometimes I just want to get to know the characters better without actually having to flirt with them.
Some games have a toggle option that once activated lets you know which skill or trait is going to be checked in each choice (e.g. by adding an [agility] or [charisma] in the option)
When this option is available do you usually:
Turn it on
Turn it off
It depends
0voters
And when the toggle lets you know which options will lead to your MC flirting with someone or to a romantic scene in general?
Ngl, I always turn them on. I read choicescript games to destress not play “what do I think the author thinks a stoic/honorable/sneaky/etc” character acts like. I’ve learned the hard way that a non zero amount of times, I have a very different interpretation of what an action is than the author does and it screws over my playthrough.
A few authors I’ve played enough of their games that I trust that they have a consistent idea of generally what choices lead to which stats but some authors can be inconsistent, especially when two stats are similar, a recent game comes to mind where I gave up trying to figure out the difference between “Stern” and “Honorable”.
Also because sometimes sarcasm doesn’t come through in the choices so I’ll pick a choice thinking its literal and uh… say something I didn’t intend to.
What dreamofeden said especially in games where there are many stats that get check and there are no chapter to chapter checkpoints. If there is not a option to see what the choices are in said games then I just read the code along as I play to make sure no misunderstandings happen otherwise I’m ok with restarting at a checkpoint if I feel a run is ruined.
I’ve used this in Night Road and Book of Hungry Names where the stat checks are more complex than simply testing one stat. Otherwise I don’t tend to (but I also don’t tend to look at stats very often).
Romance-related toggles aren’t as common as skill-related ones, I think. Off the top of my head, only two games I’ve played that had romance indicators had them as a toggleable option.
One of the benefits of romance-related toggles for me is that it helps to include platonic physical affection. I really like it when friends act affectionately, but I never know for sure if the option will be romantic or platonic. The recent example of that was in WIP “Drink Your Villain Juice” (which has the romance toggle): there was an option to hold one of ROs hand platonically, which I would never have picked if I didn’t know that the option is 100% non-romantic, since I wasn’t interested in the romance with this character, only in friendship.
I turn ALL the toggles on
The amount of times i’ve tried to be funny/sarcastic but it turns out the mc was being downright mean or kind/complimentary and it turns out the mc was flirting is too damn high
I have a question about MC voice/personality (with an example). The MC would have a voice built up from cumulative choices that would result in a choice and responses like this:
Example with 5 voice types:
“You have everything packed?” he asks.
I’m ready. Not yet.
Text if you chose I’m ready:
[SILENT] You throw your pack over your shoulder and nod.
[TIMID] “Yeah”–you toe at the dirt before glancing around the room for anything missed. “I think that’s everything.”
[POLITE] “Ready,” you say, tossing your pack over your shoulder. “You have everything you need?”
[HUMOUR] You lob your bag over your shoulder–“guess we’ll find out,” you say with a smirk.
[BRASH] You throw your pack over your shoulder and give a quick kick to what’s been left behind–“about time. Let’s get out of here already.”
Text if you chose Not yet:
[SILENT] You shake your head and return to your packing.
[TIMID] "Oh, uh . . . " you toe at the dirt before glancing around the room–“not yet. Should I hurry?”
[POLITE] “Not yet,” you say as you pull the last of your clothes from the dresser–“I have a few more things to pack.”
[HUMOUR] You glance up, unfolded clothes strewn across the floor behind you–“yeah. I’ve chosen to forsake clothes. All I packed was a toothbrush and twenty pairs of socks.”
[BRASH] You glare, armful of unfolded clothes bundled in your hands–“do I look ready?”
Not every choice in the story is like the example above. There are also more detailed choices that allow the reader to break from or reinforce default voice. I’ve been using this method to minimise the amount of choices with 8+ variations of the same/similar result.
So, with that said, here’s my question: when the MC speaks to other characters, what voice/personality trait(s) do you want to shine through? Thanks!
Edit: Sorry! changed the poll to allow multiple choices. My bad!
I can’t pick just one–I play different types of MCs, depending on how the mood strikes me when I play a game. From the options, though, I’d play everything but callous/cruel and timid/jittery. I don’t like playing outright cruel MCs or timid ones. Love the rest, though!
I’m fond of the sarcastic/playful MCs and that’s the personality I choose for most of them (and the one I picked for the poll) but the silent and serious options sound interesting too.
I picked other. Several of your categories could overlap for me. A taciturn person can be many of the more silent/reticent options. Also, there is nothing keeping a quieter person from being polite, or a well-spoken person from being quiet. I’d be interested to see how the answers come out if we can choose more than one option (I’d have four to pick then, instead of just "other ")
I had no choice but to pick other because I don’t typically have just one set MC for every game lol;; I tend to build MCs around who I am going to have them romance, or who i think would fit the setting if there’s no romance.
. I haven’t found any games that allow me to do this without getting like. Locked out of all relationship paths because they’re romance-only and thus missing out on some great character stuff because I guess friends can’t be vulnerable??? It’s gotten better and Platonic Paths are much more common now though, haha)