This is just me but I don’t think I have to play a game and can only relate to the MC if they’re the same as me. I often tend to play as female characters in some games, even though I’m male, and then males in others. Might depend on the type of game.
3 Likes
I find it interesting that all of those authors gender locked male games are specific types of games, all playing as a knight sort of character, even though they are different in some elements.
2 Likes
I don’t think your 2nd point is correct, look at Tomb Raider for example who have a female protagonist yet most of the players who played it are probably male. Same goes for Horizon Zero Dawn, Nier, games with female heroes like League of Legends, MMOs and others.
3 Likes
I like rolaplaying too. Actually I never create an MC who would be the same as I. But I guess gender isn’t something I can overlook just bc I’m roleplaying.
2 Likes
I am fine with playing a female protagonist game which doesnt concentrate too much on the sexuality. It is only then I become too self aware. Otherwise I would probably just forget the protagonist and dive into the plot. Even romance is awkward to play for me as a female protagonist. I dont know if it is because of my preferences to style of romance or it is my gender which is causing a block in my mind.
1 Like
I don’t think that “in my opinion”, “is it just me, or…” and etc replies are good in this particular tread.
It doesn’t matter how you play games. There are people around you that would want to be a female dwarf warrior in WW2 and that’s just how it is. RPG genre (and books with choices) is all about, well, choices. And if you take away at the VERY BEGINNING probably the most valuable choice (being who you want to be), then maybe this genre is not for you, no?
5 Likes
Roleplaying is a broad word my friend. There is freedom as well as restrictions. You cant play a samurai in Uncharted. But because of that, u cant say the game is bad.
5 Likes
I don’t know. Personally, I’ve never found that I can’t relate to a character just because they’re male. I mean, in Choice of Dragons, the first CoG ever, the MC is species locked to a dragon. Surely it’s more difficult to relate to a female dragon than it is to relate to a male human. Still, I found that game enjoyable. 
7 Likes
Not necessarily. I see choice games as “Imagine if you were…”
I mean I’d never go around killing people like in SoH and I know I’m certainly not a fire breathing dragon like in CoD, but I can let that go for the sake of “Imagine if I were put into this situation.” It’s not necessarily how I would act either. I run through the story thinking imagine if I was this kind of character or that kind of character, how would I act then? If (and I do mean if for a good reason) a character is locked in some way that makes it essential to the storyline, I’m not sure how that makes it a nonviable story, it’s just one more factor to take into account when imagining “what if?” It’s all down to my imagination.
(Yes I grew up on the book versions of CYOA that did tend to have at least gender locking if not character locking happening so perhaps I’m biased.)
5 Likes
Dragons is an exception for me as well. I normally prefer to play well… Not necessarily human but at least a humanoid character. Choice of Dragons was written in a good enough way that I could overlook the fact that a dragon isn’t the least bit humanoid, but even so that’s also one of those games where I did only one playthrough and while I enjoyed that, i don’t intend to play it again.
1 Like
Probably for the same reason some of us can’t play a character that doesn’t match our own gender identity. Some authors only write male or female MCs because that’s the one they identify with the most and have an easier time describing events from their prespective.
On a side note, I’ve seen both men and women stating having a hard time writing romantic and even erotic scenes as the opposite gender, and those who did so in a very fetish-y way. Like women writing Yaoi manga or even male developers making adult games with a female protagonist, these examples are more about the authors exploring their own fetishes than anything else.
So, in essence, these authors only write that which worth something for them - it’s not about you, it’s about them; their availability, patience and willingness to get out of their comfort zone.
3 Likes
I think there’s actually quite a few more. Doomsday on Demand is genderlocked and I remember quite a lot of the early games like Dilemma and Wizard’s Choice being genderlocked too.
I consider myself someone who dislikes gender-locked male games since it’s something I feel is so common in all fiction that I like to avoid it. Every once in awhile I will find writing I think is strong enough to justify playing it. While I do understand why people don’t like playing gender-locked female stories as men, it does get on my nerves when they say they can’t get into the game with a female protagonist, since women and non-binary players are always expected to do it.
@Jacic, I’m not sure how many hosted games are gender locked AND written by men, but I do know there are a lot that don’t explicitly mention gender. So that brings me to my next question: is a protagonist of unknown gender a better compromise for gender-locking?
Personally, I’m not sure I like the idea. I feel like sometimes it’s easy to tell what gender was meant for the game–even if a writer tries to edit out all obvious references to gender.
17 Likes
Huh, you’re right about Doomsday that should have been on the list. I completely forgot about Wizard’s choice. I didn’t remember that being locked at all but it’s been quite a while since I played it. (Although I did really like it at the time, must have gotten into character and not remembered 
) Dilemma as well? (Wanders off mumbling that I really should replay some of the earlier ones.)
2 Likes
I’m actually unsure about that one. I vaguely remember it being gender locked, but HG doesn’t have the link to it anymore, so I can’t check without downloading it. 
Oh hang on, I’m mixing up choice of the wizard with Life of the wizard.
I actually know the one you’re talking about (but I found it on the play store, didn’t realise it was a HG at some point.) If that’s the one I’m thinking of, it was male locked.
2 Likes
That’s the one! 
1 Like
The Great Tournament seemed like an odd choice for a genderlock. There were a lot of female fighter characters in the story, so it didn’t seem like the argument was that it wouldn’t work with a female knight. 
14 Likes
The book (or book series, I am not sure) we were talking about seemed to get between 3.7 on amazon and 3.9 on good reads. (out of five) The general perception seemed to be not as good as his other book, but pretty okay. (Once you take out the 1 and the 5)
But I do agree with both @Fawkes and @Scribblesome that the biggest problem is that women is more often written as stereotypes than as people. - Of course the only way to combat that is to have more women and not have male be the default.
5 Likes
There is only Nadine who is an archer. Even when she is introduced, the MC is supposed to think twice whether to enroll a woman for the fight. It is also the reason Varys underestimates Hannah during sword practice. So I dont think it is odd that it is gender locked