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ugh, so homophobic :( what about the lgbt community? or even if your just a heterosexual girl?
High School Romance
name 4/24/2015 6:16:07 PM

 

I've actually gotten a bunch of comments like this.

"I'm a girl, you should give me the choice to be a girl."

"bad game I can't pick my love interest."

Personally, I think it's ridiculous. I don't want characters so generic I can give them arbitrary genders.

But a lot of people seem to think they should be able to customize the story.

I can't imagine Suzy with the ability to make her a guy, or Through Time with everything else exactly the same, but you can make Ian female.

what do you think?

You can just switch out the names by genders, and do the same with pronouns like he and she, but yeah, that'll kind of make your characters generic. Or you can do it the hard way, and write two different storylines. 

I suppose it says something about my opinion on gender and culture -i havent really investigated this, but my initial feeling is that if you change a chars gender, it affects their characterization, even if you leave all else the same.

I guess it does. 

Well, this site is called "chooseyourstory.com"...

I think it totally depends on the story. Sometimes, generic, arbitrarily-gendered characters (particularly of the second-person-protagonist variety) work out perfectly fine, especially with the more RPG-like games. Sometimes, they don't. But ultimately, it is the author's choice, not the reader's.

Er ... *coughs awkwardly and points to "A Game of Life and Death" and "The Other World"* my stance on this probably seems a bit obvious, but for both games, I allow players to choose both their gender and that of their love interest. On the other hand, I'm also very in favor of stories with protagonists that are fully defined. Devil's Chess has Layne as the protagonist. He is male, period. He also has a defined appearance and story. Oneirology has a defined female protagonist, period.

So. I'm in favor of both kinds of stories and believe both can be done well.

One acronym (I hope I got my English right): CoG

The author shouldn't be compelled to provide every sort of main character you can conceive of. If the main character doesn't fit with your own gender/orientation, then learn to role play or find another game.

Nicely put. I've never understood why some readers squabble over such silly details.

COG does a lot of the 'gender and sexuality customization stuff.' But I have always felt like that is an irrelevant choice since it doesn't really affect the story. So I diddle with Jane or Jack and still go along the same path. Big whoop. Those choices are essentially 'fake' in my opinion and result in authors toting inflated word counts for their stories.

I'd rather have choices that present a different adventure.

Sheesh, never thought I'd see Seth accused of being homophobic.

I liked this comment too though:

It was so stupid, with context that would never fit the real world. Open your eyes to life! Do better, or I will tell all my blog followers not to read your stories!
-- Claire on 3/22/2015 2:01:03 AM

I do get why a lot of people like or want customization since they want the protagonist to be as close to themselves as possible.

The problem is most of the time this tends to create a more generic character since the story choices have to account for every possible combo which in turn tends to lead to a cookie cutter effect like making all the romance choices bi, gender flipping, fake choices, etc.

Of course the author could actually make each combo/variation have a unique set of paths, the problem with that is it creates a lot more work on the author who might not have the time (If they do, well go for it I guess).

Obviously I always ignore the cries of what the masses might want and prefer to go "all in" with a protagonist and lock them into one setting (The Witcher approach as opposed to Dragon Age to use a video game example) and focus on more important stuff like the actual storyline.

I actually know a tumblr-ite named Claire IRL.

... Oh shit. I have some dis-owning to do.
 

- To be fair, it's *not* a good story.  

- great example-- within the context of the witcher, you actually get to customize Geralt quite extensively.  Yes, he has predetermined gender, appearance, backstory- but the kind of person he is is entirely up to you.

"I will tell all my blog followers not to read your stories!!"

Hahaha, sounds like you should keep writing "stupid" stories like this if you want to get free publicity.

Silly you, you forgot to prepare in the game description! Being the cautious man that I am, I have a pre-prepared a disclaimer for that kind of person once, in case I ever write something playable with romance in it...

Trigger warning: This story, albeit a romance story on a Choose Your Own Adventure Game, does not have customizable sex/gender/whateverthehell. No, it's not due to homophobia or any of that shit, it's because that's not the way I fucking want it. You have to understand that, while it doesn't mean the characters have to be inherently different in order to be gender flipped, gender-flopped, androgynized, gay, bi, pansexual, omnisexual, or trigender-furry-blamcrotch, but it would still be different to me. And that's not because I'm prejudiced, that's because I'm telling a story here, and that's just how these characters are and what I know them to be. If you want to go complain about the lack of minorities in your friend's next funny barhopping story, that's your thing, but note that it's not their job, or my job, to represent people.

But then again, the only reason I'd ever write a romance in the first place would be to watch the angry/disgusted comments roll in... Perhaps I should make the disclaimer more venomous?

I prefer surprise romances with group hugs...

with the amount of seriousness in this, i was taken aback (spoiler alert) that in one of the ending's climax, the options were "group hug" and "saying how happy you are". at first glance I luaghed thinking "whats the difference?!" i chose both and yes. There is. A whole lot. Of difference...

-- coke_monster on 11/30/2012 8:26:57 PM

Well, no more group hugs

-- Drakilian on 1/23/2013 7:57:28 PM

for the love of baby jebus, do not hug at the end. do not hug!

-- vinru on 2/26/2014 10:46:43 AM

Insightful and meaningful...until the group hug.

-- Allusional on 3/25/2014 9:48:29 PM

That was a great story.The group hug was unexpected, though.

-- SomeGuyNamedBob on 4/23/2014 3:48:39 PM

8/8 DO NOT HUG DO NOT HUG DO NOT HUG DO NOT FIANSUDUBD HUG

-- Lunican on 5/8/2014 9:33:04 PM

Oh god... why did I choose the group hug?

-- ShyOdessa on 5/18/2014 1:34:09 PM

So I read the previous comments and was intrigued about that group hug. After 3 tries, I got it. Well...

-- toni on 1/9/2015 9:48:57 PM

The group hug option: really endmaster? Really?

-- Reader on 4/18/2015 9:54:19 PM

LOL, I remember the group hug!

How do you get the group hug? I've been trying for about 10 endings...

Go downstairs

Sit down, eat and stay out of it.

Go check on mom.

Reach out to her.

Ignore him.

Keep quiet.

Stay.

GROUP HUG

I remember the first time I read that ending. I still don't know how I feel about it.

... Worth it.

@EndMaster what game was it on?

@Malkalack : Repression

Wait, that disclaimer was supposed to be venomous? :)

Well, saying that I'm not going to add a trigender-furry-blamcrotch option isn't exactly the least sarcastic of ways to desrcibe their viewpoint. No way in hell was that my best effort, because I remember trying to be nice and reasonable at the time of writing. Then I forgot what kind of writer I am, and what I'd likely put in the desc. if I actually wrote a romance game...

I think I ever write a romance story, I shall steal that warning.

PLAGAIRISM!!!!1!

Nah, you just have to say something along the lines of "In the words of the incredibly sexy Sentinel:" before you use any of my disclaimers.

Seems reasonable.