Hi,
I’m creating a game with a few possible ROs, three of which are human and two of which are shape-shifting spirits who technically do not have any biological sex. I want to be able to give all players a welcoming experience, so all the ROs will have the potential to be attracted to the Player Character regardless of gender. (I hope this will save me some coding too.) The Player Character is also a spirit, but can be male, female, agender, nonbinary or gender fluid, and choose from a range of pronouns (I’d appreciate any guidance about what pronouns people would like included, as I might find it difficult to introduce an input option for them).
The ROs are not there as just potential ROs, and can have entirely non-romantic relationships pursued with them, be it a friendship or a fierce rivalry. They’re essentially the main supporting cast, and the Player Character can choose where their allegiances lie with each of them (and whether those allegiances shift). The romances will also not really include anything sexual, as the game is kind of PG-13 and I’m not really interested in covering or “reaching” that side of things, as the case may be.
What I’m worried about is the way I have currently planned to handle the ROs’ genders, and the implications I might unintentionally give off. I had planned for the human ROs to be gender-selectable from male, female or agender, as I found I really liked games like Midsummer and Tally Ho! where you could select ROs’ genders (this is also where I got the inspiration for the “player-romantic”-oriented ROs approach, as I really liked the way the game asks you how you feel about specific characters as opposed to giving you a definite question about your sexual/romantic orientation, which I found kind of jarring in other games). Please note this is their gender identity, and I’m not really planning to touch on anyone’s biological sex, so it’s kind of up to player interpretation. They’re also all kind of androgynous in the way they present regardless of gender/pronouns, at least how I imagine them, although each is androgynous in a different way, if that makes any sense.
However, for the spirit characters, I was planning for one to be nonbinary/agender and the other to be genderfluid, but I’m worried that by only including non-human characters as explicitly and canonically nonbinary/genderfluid, I might create an implication of those identities being “other”. Especially in a game where - potentially - all the human characters could be of binary genders. There will also be other spirit characters who identify as binary genders, but they will be more side characters, and I’m aware it doesn’t really help nonbinary representation.
I do imagine the spirit characters’ identity as spirits to be bound up with how they experience gender, but I don’t want to erase or discredit the experiences of real-life people by implying that it’s “the reason” that either of them identifies that way. I’d appreciate any guidance and advice from anyone who identifies as agender, nonbinary, genderfluid, or genderqueer. As far as I’m aware, I know that’s a collection of terms, some of which cover a lot of different things or overlap, but I’d like to get as many opinions as to make an informed decision.
Thank you to anyone who can help.
