That is pleasantly enlightening thank you for that.
@Jacic my friend you’re writing a gender locking with your Oedipus game. Which is damn interesting and I respect you for it. And similar to The Odyssey there is strong female characters and weak one. But I noticed in your telling of Oedipus most if not all the women that the player interact with are in some position of power from something did you do that purposely?
I’m not at all trying to argue otherwise. I just think that, if you’re going to critique something based off the existence of a genderlock, you should provide actual reasons why the genderlock shouldn’t exist in that specific title. That’s how any form of criticism works, you provide evidence to support your claim.
Now, it’s been years since I read the Infinity series, so forgive me if I’m misremembering things, but is it not forbidden for women to hold military rank? Is the whole society not built upon hierarchy and male dominance? How can you argue that putting a female in the place of the male MC would not require a rewrite of the entire game? Just about every interaction would change.
If not, then something else has to give to allow you to play as a woman. The world and culture itself would have to change to justify giving a woman an important rank in the military. And that is interfering with the author’s vision and story they want to tell, and effectively telling them you’re not allowed to write about a world without gender equality.
I didn’t say it was ridiculous to disagree with me. I said it was ridiculous to expect authors to rewrite an entire game solely because the story they’re trying to tell wouldn’t work from a female perspective.
Men and Masculinities: SAGE Journals
About this journal
Men and Masculinities (JMM) offers high-quality, interdisciplinary research in the emerging field of men and masculinities studies. JMM presents peer-reviewed empirical and theoretical scholarship grounded in the most current theoretical perspectives within gender studies, including feminism, queer theory and multiculturalism. Using diverse methodologies, JMM’s articles explore the evolving roles and perceptions of men across society.
I’ve thought about it and I think the actual reason that I’m less interested in genderlocked games is that I tend to assume that it means there’s going to be more rigid or stereotyped gender roles in the actual story. Like the MC will be presumed to be a certain way, and so will the NPCs (not saying that’s true for all/any of the site’s genderlocked games, but it’s my kneejerk reaction).
That pressure is thought to be a leading contributor to the higher rates of suicide among men - possibly not so much something to lionise.
I wouldn’t say masculinity being under threat is the problem. Rather, it’s intolerance as a whole towards differing viewpoints and people, along with the need to control the creative arts. (Speaking generally here, not with regard to CoG in specific)
You got me 
(You were obviously paying a lot of attention, I was trying to be relatively subtle about it.) The game may be gender locked but I was trying to keep a balance of power happening within genders without completely breaking the background story in which it was set, although perhaps I’ve even tilted it a bit further across than I needed to if it’s that obvious.
It actually didn’t take much to do, there were already some strong characters in Oedipus/other mythological influences I borrowed from, although I’ll admit I did tweak a few things that I didn’t love (like Jocasta’s amount of influence.) I guess I could have left it as is (in the original version for example, it seems to be more her brother’s decision to offer her up as a prize to the hero of the hour, rather than a decision on her part) but I kind of preferred the slightly more modern spin on consent and power.
Thing is, you can have differences in gender roles within a setting without it having to be a good or bad thing. I actually think it’s sometimes really interesting to see things from different points of view. Take the Oracle for example, in her own way she’s very influential (as in even royalty and heroes would come to seek her advice); but she’s not a warrior, she’s a seer and priestess of Apollo and if I were to tell her story would be quite different to Oedipus’. It’s also worth noting that the priests outside that dealt with “lesser matters” (and were below her in rank) could in fact be male, but the oracle was always female. (I did my research 
) Others like the Sphinx and goddesses are already powerful female characters, I’ve just expanded on their roles in the story.
Fair enough . I think it’s something to be encouraged though that the author has plans for it. I’d personally like to see a variety of games from different viewpoints eventually end up on the HG store whether that me male, female or non-binary. I also suspect it could possibly be helpful for authors to write as a defined character of the opposite gender for writing development. One of the comments that sometimes gets made is that a writer doesn’t feel as comfortable writing as the opposite gender, what better way to improve than to write a whole story as one? If you get stuff wrong or fall into stereotypes there’s a good chance that the community here will let you know so you can fix it and improve.
There’s a few HG’s in active WIP that are gender lock female at the moment (and more that have been abandoned over the years in the very sad lost stories pile.) It’s just none have made it onto the stores yet, but there’s no reason why one couldn’t be written if someone wanted to
To everyone else, I’m sorry if I have been sounding a little defensive on the topic at times and I definitely respect views on wanting gender choice in every game. Just bear in mind that having critisisms made that suggest if you write a gender locked story it means you probably either don’t want to make the effort to make it gender choice, the game is inherently sexist and why it can’t be non-gender locked or that you don’t care about half of your readers actually distresses me. (Particularly as I am female and would consider locking a game to a female character in the future if writing a very specific type of story that as a writer I felt needed it, as is the case with Oedipus.) So there’s sometimes other reasons to why some games may have their customisation reduced such as being locked to a particular gender or even to a particular character. I’m not advocating that games should be locked to a gender “just because” or to perpetuate exclusion or sexist attitudes, only where there is a real story based decision to do so.
This is, to me, the crux of the issue. Why does no one seem to want to?
I’m sorry if this is distressing to you, but people are posting here because they’re upset too. If and when non-male genderlocked stories start getting completed (and not just joining the pile of abandoned WIPs) then it won’t be such a big deal that yet another person chose to write a male genderlocked game, but until then it’s still frustrating to feel forgotten and left out whatever and however good the reasons behind it.
I suppose the question to ask is: although general consensus tends to be against genderlocks in general, why are there still some male genderlocks that make it to publication, and no female genderlocks that have? Is it because male genderlocks tend to reflect historically male positions of power and privilege? Is it more difficult to have a female genderlock the other way around? Is there a perceived lack of interest or demand in female genderlocked stories? Why is no one writing one to completion?
I’m also curious as to the user demographics on these forums. Are there more men than women, and that’s why there are more male genderlocks?
There was a poll a while ago
Though there’s a lot of variables that would affect that plus it didn’t last long from what I remember.
If I wrote a game with inclusiveness in mind 
Hide the code, lock everything to generic male, include a group with less focus from the beginning and unlock everything at the last minute. For giggles.
Whoa, I was not expecting that! For some reason I thought it would be more of an even split or even slightly more female users. Maybe it’s the threads I frequent, like the original thread says. Maybe the numbers indicate that more male users would necessarily mean more male genderlocked games?
Orrrr there’s no correlation, haha.
There was a few on that thread that were surprised too 
My guess was about matching with the polls, mostly because there are a lot of lurkers.
Question for those of you wishing for a female gender locked game. Would you still consider it one if for half the game the protagonist was a cat?
I never even saw that poll. I hardly ever go in the Off Topic section. I don’t think that poll can be taken as wholly accurate.
Noteworthy that I believe a lot of male readers come from TGT (and other free games which are usually easier reads and power fantasies), and are disproportionately young and don’t actually purchase games.
There are currently 5 female locked works in progress that I am aware of and have been updated within the last month. At least 3 of those I’m fairly sure will be finished and published games (+Gwen which is a long term project). Support those writers if you really want to see those games completed. Show that there is a strong interest there if a female or non binary locked Wip turns up on the forum. It’s all very well to say they’re wanted in a topic like this, but writers do watch how much attention various types of wips get and that’s where it actually matters if you want them done.
I think I’m going to leave this thread here as I don’t have anything else I think I can say on the topic.
Edit: it looks like the author of twin flames has actually finished his gender locked female game so there is one all set to go to HGs if it hasn’t been submitted already. It saddens me that his Wip topic only got 19 comments. (This one almost has 500). (WIP) Slayer of Evil
I write small stories and I’m male, so its harder,for me anyway to understand a women’s perspective. And i don’t attempt to do so in fear of something like a “weak writing of the character” that why I don’t write special routes for females. Its more like copy and paste for me.
Thank you very much @Jacic. Yes, in Slayer of Evil you get to play a lady. When I was thinking of the MC, I had in mind Astra from another game of mine, Spacing Out, and yet it will be wrong to say that it is really her because she is placed in a setting that shows her in a very different light. So, I guess it will be easier for the reader to consider her a totally different character.
What was important for the character to be female was the connection to the two very different divine (or demonic depending on what the reader makes of it) feminine entities that she meets on her journey. And, there are quite a few other notable ladies that she befriends… or not quite.
Slayer of Evil is indeed in the queue and if all goes well with the review we may see it coming out in late summer of early fall (I guess).
Y’know, if anyone expects you to write perfect upon first try they can go drink dishwater.
As said, worldbuilding, characterbuilding and a healthy dose of empathy are a good start. And you have lotsa people here who’ll quite likely improve your craft if you ask for feedback and help.