I mean all this discussion is well and good but ultimately it comes down to “I’m not including forty-eight romantic options.”
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And this is the reason why every RO in Fallen Hero is some level of queer. Besides, it’s a bit based on my experience, and there’s not really many people that identify as straight that I know.
That being said, none of the RO’s are really playersexual, there will be personalities/morals that’s more or less attractive to all of them.
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I don’t see the problem with playersexual ROs. Yes, it’s not very realistic, but realism is not the most important thing i ask for in a cyoa game. I don’t know about others, but i don’t expect much realism when i play a CoG/HG game.
Personally, i like when i have the option to pick ROs’ gender as well. After all, if there are 5 different ROs, why not have the opportunity to try all of their routes instead of just one or two that fit MC’s gender and sexuality. The author wins because they don’t have to include too many ROs and the player wins because they can enjoy each RO.
In a game where i’m an angel walking among humans, a villain with superpowers, dating a vampire or a hero trying to save the world i don’t think ROs being playersexual will make the story unrealistic and ruin my immersion anyway.
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I think there’s room for both, honestly.
I do find it weird when a character is a totally different gender on a different playthrough, though, because for me the point of these games is to navigate the same world as a different person each time. ymmv.
So…I just started my own CS game this past weekend, and holy crap is this more complicated than I thought it was going to be.
I am now firmly in the camp of having RO’s with fixed genders that are interested in the player character no matter what. It might not be perfect answer, but I really don’t think I have to skills to code an alternative.
I honestly don’t know how the people who have several RO’s that all swap genders can even do it. I have one small character that for…reasons…has to be the same gender as the PC, and it gave me a migraine. And she/he is only in the story for like 5 minutes!!
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I’m with you on that . Playersexual rulez…and everyone droolez 
I mean , whats important and realistic are their personality . Not who they are going to bed at the end . I don’t see a character switch personality…just cose he became Gay…or Hetero .
If a character is annoying , he is annoying! Switching his gender or orientation won’t make them more fun lol he or she will be a pain in the ass regardless .
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You get used to it. When I set the pronouns, I am using the code
${he} ${his} ${him}
and then just adding the first letter for additional character’s first name (like ${mhe} or ${phe} and after a while it becomes almost second nature.
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Just wondering what people prefer when it comes to romances in CoG
There’s already a thread on this topic
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Alrighty, thanks! Didn’t come up in the similar posts thingo
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Playersexual I suppose, if only since it gives the player the wider possible options (double if you can assign the gender of all romanceable characters). Set Sexuality is more realistic, of course.
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It depends a lot on the game, I think. If a game has a huge cast with lots of ROs I like having set gender and sexuality, so long as there’s at least one or two ROs available for every MC. It lets the ROs feel more realistic. But with a smaller cast I think having the RO be gender swapable is good but I would prefer an RO be implicitly pansexual over “playsexual”
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If there’s only one RO it’s not really a romantic “option”; they are the romance, and you either romance them or you don’t. I would say there should always be at least two ROs for any MC (assuming the game has romance; if it doesn’t then never mind), but I would say that it makes sense to have at least three ROs available for any MC before you start adding in canon sexualities.
That said, I am very much in favour of canon sexualities for ROs, if they’re added to increase LGBTQ representation, but it seems that far too often they’re added for completely unnecessary “realism”.
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Ah, you’re right, I should have worded that better. I was thinking along the lines of there should be at least one RO for each sexuality, like one RO is a gay man, one is a lesbian female, one panssxual female, etc, so there would be overlap. But, yes, I agree every MC should have at minimum have the option between three ROs. If your game only has three ROs then gender-swapping is probably the better idea, but if you have, say, 9 ROs then you can have set genders and sexuality without leaving anyone out.
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Note, if you do this, there is still an edge case where “his” doesn’t distinguish “her/hers” in cases like “I found her wallet. That wallet was hers.”
I personally rather like e/em/eir/eirs for coding because it covers all four possibilities and also is really convenient to stick a consonant in front of for specific characters 
Yeah, I would say definitely at least two (unless there’s literally only one RO in the whole game), and three if you can help it 
I mean, I’d be okay with an edge case with one gay, one hetero, one bi/pan male and same for female (as long as nonbinary main characters have more than one option 
), if the gay characters don’t get less attention than the hetero ones, but anything more than that and I’d go by the three rule
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I use
${he} ${him} ${hisl} ${hisr}
${hisl} = his, but on the left. Determiner.
${hisr} = his, but on the right.
There’s lots of ways one could approach it but I would definitely ideally want at least three romance options for each combined gender and sexuality, likely by having one character per preference who is specifically one thing - a straight male, straight female, gay male and gay female - and the rest would be available to both genders. But having a game with less RO’s where you can specifically define their gender and sexuality to suit your own (eg, Wayhaven) is fine. Or a game like Fallout 4 where you can romance any of them.
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Heya! So i’ve been lurking around these forums for quite a while now, and I haven’t really seen any straight RO in games. Sure, there are bisexual characters, pansexuals, homosexual, but there hasn’t been much characters that are exclusively heterosexual.
Just my thoughts.
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I guess this is because there are a lot of straight romances already in video games. My mother just finished Detroit: Become Human, and moving on to Heavy Rain I’m aware of just how little same-gender romances are represented, considering you can straight up kill the only gay characters - non-humans - in the former game, while simultaneously entering a straight relationship with one character.
Along with this, even Bioware, which until recently championed LGB characters (they seem to not care about the T, however) has many straight characters open for relationships. MLM, WLW and NBL… well, anyone but more importantly NBLNB don’t really get their fair share in mainstream gaming.
Besides, it’s more realistic to have gay or bi people flock together in a party, group or area, like they would in real life.
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There are a lot in fact there are like same quantity that gay one in most of games. In fact one of games nore famous here Infinity sea saga all romances so far are straight. Same all Cog have at least a straight romance.
I am straight and I am tired of all mass media has are STRAIGHT STRAIGHT…
And not only that a very limited machismo filled straight. I as woman has to be a nun shy blushing like a Victorian damsel waiting to a man jailed us and control us…
.In fact I hate all romances in most of media except Winter wolves cog and naughty dog. and Bioware of old.
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