I haven’t seen a thread relating to this so…
Feel free to share your ideas on unique and clever ways to ask players’ genders.
As a writer I HAVE TO avoid direct characterization as much as possible. I can’t just say “Hey, what’s yo gender kid?” In Choicescript games, I’ve seen very clever ways to ask this question, but I can’t think of clever ways to do it myself.
I’m also afraid of confusing the player. For example, my favorite is from Choice of Romance (I think. or maybe it’s one of the vampire games…). In that game, the player is asked whether they want to bow or curtsy in greeting. It’s clever but it might be confusing.
Here’s what I’ve come up with for one of the games. [Please don’t take my cervitaur idea. P.S. It’s about cervitaurs]
Do you think this is straightforward enough or will or confuse players? Also, should I rewrite the third choice?
(oh an P.S. I’m not against non-binary peeps, but my fam [aka parents] are conservative and they’ll see my game. [I’ll add more options when I’m about ready to publish])
No confusion here, it’s quite clear (as was that choice in CoR), though I personally wouldn’t have used “dum dum” in the 3rd option. There are more sophisticated ways to point that out without insulting the players’ intelligence)))
[quote=“EmperorHeartless, post:3, topic:28600”]
I think it’s the player choosing that option and calling the narrator a “dum dum”[/quote]
A poor choice of words on my part, sorry. I was talking about how having this particular expression in a sentence makes the one using it sound.
I think it’s a nice way of making the choice. I like it when authors can make it seem natural without simply asking, even if it’s something like: “It was a little baby (gender)”. One WIP I enjoy used three variations of the same statement: “Credentials, miss” or “Credentials, sir” or “Credentials, please” for those who prefer neutral terms.
Lol, those choices look pretty good and it can be pretty hard deciding on how best to refer to the player and other characters. However…I kinda think it doesn’t really matter with the whole gender identification unless it really has to do with that directly. Wouldn’t it be better to allow choices without necessarily locking genders and let that be the player’s choice, including non binary options. I might wanna be a girl moose, or deer with nice antlers
I found this and yeah, some species actually do have antlers in both genders. I’m trying to say, maybe it’s better not to associate looks only with gender.
O-M-Goodness
Thank you!
That’s a really good idea. I thought that I had heard about female deer with antlers but then something else made me think there weren’t any. thank you x100
I’ve changed it to this: (Please tell if you have a better idea for the wording.
I love @JimD 's online dating profile creation in ZE:SH (assuming that hasn’t changed since I played it!). I wouldn’t say it’s the most original idea, but it does an absolutely cracking job of maintaining immersion in the game.
This is definitely something I would like to see more thought and experimentation with though.
