Why are there so many HGs genderlocked to male?

I think you’re right on this. And I admit that I might have a bit of a hair trigger on this subject - I read it as an aggressive statement against people making such games at all rather than a statement of personal preference as a consumer.

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My two cents? Because I realize that I haven’t actually stated an opinion up to this point.

Sometimes when gender is locked, there is a clear point and end to it, ala the Infinity series. Many times, there isn’t, and the point is basically to trim the branches a bit. In the latter case, if you do so in a game that is already rather linear, I see it as a fairly lazy design decision.

But the fact of the matter is, the author intended it that way. I will vote with my wallet, as I always have, but I will not otherwise pressure them to change. Why? Because in the end, it’s their work. And unless their work is actively hurting others, or advocating harm in its contents, I have no say in trying to change it. I can express disapproval, or give constructive criticism for what I want them to improve upon. But outside of concrete actions like refusing to buy a product, there’s only so much you can do.

I know that, as an author, I get visions in my head. Visions that the truth of my projects may never live up to, but visions all the same. I can cling to them, irrationally and obsessively, my own dragon’s hoard. This vision often blinds me to what I’m doing wrong, and I will adjust both my project and my vision accordingly – if I am convinced that I’m going down the right path. But in the end, I will never accept the idea that my vision as a whole is invalid. And I’m sure more than a few authors, including the authors of the thirteen or so genderlocked books under the HG label, would say the same.

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If that was the intention I’d like to apologise

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You know you could just ask @idonotlikeusernames, if it was of ill intent before doing the trigger. :stuck_out_tongue:

We all have to keep things from turning personal - question a person’s intent, really is not productive but bringing up a possible interpretation up for discussion is more productive, both in keeping it non-personal and keeping the discussion on topic.

It is the law of supply and demand, the majority of people who buy these games are men, also we must emphasize that writing a game genderlock is much easier and faster than one that is multi gender, once the novice authors realize that and the great work that implies to create multi-gender games then they abandon their proyects, this is about money, it’s a business after all, or at least that’s what I think.

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No I don’t mean you should question someone’s intent, but you can wonder about it, try to understand what they mean. Before jumping to any conclusions.
That’s all I was trying to say really. All in good faith.

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You can think this all you want but if you review what I posted in the past within this thread you will see the truth.

If it was about supply and demand, all your gender-locked shooters and such would be abandoned and more Candy Crush types of clones would take their place.

You realize that Activision/Blizzard made more money off of ingame purchases in these game services then they made making games for entitled teen males, right? We are talking about billions of dollars - so it definitely is not about the money.

PCGamer article of four days ago.

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Respectfully, are you sure of that? I think you’d find that COG’s audience is not 90% male.
If you’re referring to other games, you probably need to have a re-read of this thread: re self forfilling marketing, under represented in stats/hidden female gamers (yes I’m another one who has masqueraded as a male because I don’t like being propositioned, heckled or offered anatomy pics when I’m just trying to play a game.)

also we must emphasize that writing a game genderlock is much easier and faster than one that is multi gender, once the novice authors realize that and the great work that implies to create multi-gender games then they abandon their proyects,

Again, I have seen this brought up a few times in this thread that it’s the author being lazy or trying to save time. In some cases I would again disagree. If the only difference you’re making to a story is to wack in a gender variable at the very start and avoid gender loaded language, it actually adds very little extra time to a project. (Ones that go out of their way to include differences are another story.)

this is about money, it’s a business after all, or at least that’s what I think.

Again this is variable. I know I for one, would be better off taking extra shifts at my work in terms of $/hr earned, but I enjoy writing so I do it. Sometimes it is about how the author sees their story playing out.

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Maybe most autors are men. That’s the answer, if there were more female authors then there would be more games oriented to women

I don’t think this is the case since from the State of the Company 2018 thread, quoting Jason’s list of top selling games for this type of medium under Hosted Games:

Summary

All of them were with gender choices. If majority are men buyers shouldn’t genderlocked HGs should be part of the top 10? But I might be wrong since most of these games are quite old compare to the gender locked games?

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Most of the male locked authors are male. (In fact I think if you take out the “character locked” rather than gender locked ones (yes I’m still pushing that distinction :slight_smile: )) You’ll find they’re all male to my knowledge. BUT there is a very decent proportion of female authors on both HG and COG. They’re just not writing female locked stories as commonly. (I might add that one of the male locked authors has said there’s a female locked game planned so there’s no reason to say that male authors wont write female chars.)

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I only give my personal opinion, maybe I’m wrong, I’m just pragmatic and realistic, I do not try to offend anyone :slight_smile: I apologize if you’ve felt offended by me.

I’m not at all offended :slight_smile: Just letting you know my 2c. Many people aren’t aware, particularly with forum names often being as ambiguous as they often are.

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Ya - some are rumored to be dolphin people and anime characters… :two_hearts:

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Meh, I saw a CoG the other day in its wip stage called Office Romance iirc.
Was gender locked as female, regardless to say, I (a black guy) still played a game from a female perspective and was completely fine doing so.

Didn’t once think it was unfair that I couldn’t role-play as a male or anything. It’s not my story so I’m not gonna impose on the author that they write something catering to my needs.

If I can’t connect to a story because the MC’s gender, race, appearance, etc is too restricted to the authors vision then I just don’t buy the game and move on.

I’m not a writer myself, but I’m highly irked at the idea of limiting their creative expression, and even though the few posts I’ve read here seem harmless enough on the surface; I can’t seem to shake the feeling that there’s an attempt to shame authors out of writing gender locked games.

Seems more like a pile on of “this excuse is silly/stupid” then actual constructive discussion.

Yes, a historically based CoG is still a work a fiction, but clearly the authors intent is trying to make the historical aspect as immersive as possible.
That was one of my issues with a particular CoG that presented itself as a medieval russian fantasy(the name escapes me atm), it tried sooo hard to deconstruct social and societal aspects that it completely sucked me out of my immersive experience. Needless to say I did what I said above, and moved on to a different game, but I feel games like that were a result of threads like this.

It’s like they went through a checklist about what should be included in the game instead of just making a fun game based on their creativity, and not what everyone else wanted in it. The game has a pretty low score in the Google Play store atm.

TL;DR…not a fan of this topic, and what it could lead to authors doing to their stories.

That’s my take on the issue.

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Lords of Aswick series is generational Saga so the player can be at is different genders for example the first when your male the second one your gender lock as a female. And in very different rules the first one your night/Lord the sequel you’re a monk/priest what the nature of your office though you can actually become a much more powerful individual than your founder. I’m really curious How @Goshman is gonna pull off the female pope. That’s options on the table.

@Cataphrak is a damn good writer and it’s kind of the reverse of Teo series where he’s focused on a family throughout the ages Paul of hyperfocus on this individual Dragoon officer/Hidalgo By the time the series is complete your focusing on 35 years of this person’s life. By the end of the character could be young as 49 to 65. So you have to work on the role is not just an officer but eventually being a gentlemen of the blood Lord of Cortes and living in a country that is currently very unstable and mountain of debt in a very run down to estate.

It must have been something else - Office Romance says you are a temporary employee on his/her first day in the introductory post. The WiP is also not tagged as gender-locked.

The only gender-locked female WiP I am aware of is a vampire game recently posted. (other then Guenevere).

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That doesn’t mean what you think it does.