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Are they're any stories with a female lead or the ability to choose a sex? The stories are good and all...but they seem male centered.

we had a huge discussion about this a while back, im working on one now, there are some that are female out there i think, additionally this isnt the correct place for this, needs to go to the writing workshop or the loung not that we need another lounge thread. it will be moved eventually, dont worry about it.

Good question, I think it is because most of the writers are male and it is just easier for a male like myself to see things from a male point of view. I'm not saying it is impossibly for a male to write from a female perspective, just suggesting a reason.

its a logical reason i accept myself.

Viva, I honestly never thought about gender in a story. I really need to implement gender choice in my next project, my current one is too far along to be bothered with it. Thanks for the idea though, I love the idea of being able to choose gender. Question, would it bother you (or any of the other readers) if gender didn't really make a big difference in the general outcome of things?

I was wondering the exact same thing! :)

Honestly I'm quite surprised that the majority on this site seem to be male, hence the focus towards male protagonists? Then again, I suppose this is rather an offset of the gaming community whereby men seem to be the larger target audience.

In response I've begun writing a (rather long) CYOA with a female protagonist. Granted shes a lesbian so I'm not sure how well a majority of female players will relate to the player character :P. Speaking of which there isn't much LGBT related content either... no surprise there considering the minority, lol.

Oh well, at least I'll try to do my bit towards diversity. XD

Ah, good point, there is a good degree of androgynous characters on this site which I'm glad of, my only real upset is when gender is a main factor in influencing the story, romance for example.

Hmm, just re-read my post, I sound rather like a radical feminist! Lol, not true of course, I usually don't mind playing either gender, it's just nice to have the option available. ;)

I think that a number of these games aren't really written such that gender makes any difference.

True, CYOAs and interactive fiction in general are unique in that the main character, 'you' can basically just be a cipher that the player mentally fills in with whatever they want, but on the other hand that only works if the story is kept deliberately generic. I'm talking 'find the seven treasures in the giant dungeon and destroy the magical MacGuffin' levels of stuff.

Once you start moving away from the game elements and putting more focus on the story, (which even IF has done over the past fifteen years or so when it went indie) this naturally means plot and character is going to take center stage, which means you really kind of need an actual, specific character. And for a lot of reasons yes, that character usually winds up being male. (Though now I'm a little curious what the statistics are on this particular forum, maybe it does mainly just come down 'most of the writers here are male so most of them are more comfortable writing about guys'.)

Anyway, for what it's worth my contest story will have a female protag. So does the sci-fi story I'm working on for IS. (well...sort of.) The next Big Damn Project on the list is planned to be an ensemble piece, but if that turns out to be as overwhelming as I'm thinking it might it'll probably wind uo mainly being about a woman too, with a few 'intermission' pages stuck here and there from other POVs.  (In response to the OP, there's probably a reason most games don't give you a choice--unless the only difference is that you click M or F in the beginning, in which case it's meaningless, writing all those branches for one character can be daunting enough, I can't imagine going through all the trouble to write an 'almost the same but not quite' version to go alongside it, and if for whatever reason it's a completely different plot, then they might as well make a completely different story.

The story I'm writing for the contest is centered around girl character, but, then again, I'ma  girl, and I think writers tend to write more with their own sex as the main character than the opposite.

Possibly because that perspective is more vivid to them.

exactly, more people on here are male, so more people do what is easier for them to do and write in there gender, its very hard to understand the thought process of the other sex.

I grw up with 3 sisters and a mother, didn't live with my dad till I was 15. I understand the thought process of women just fine. It depends on the person, really. Women were so hard to grow up with lol.

I've grown up with a younger brother, and no other siblings, so I'm not so sure on how the other gender thinks. I've really never given it much thought

every person is so different it makes it impossible to understand fully.

Well there is another site like this where all there games have a male female optionality. Look up Choice of Games.

I'm thinking of adding some female apsects to my current project. I can't give specifics but there is mind control involved at a point, I think adding a male controlling a female would be awesome, and not in a sexual way. I could incorporate feminine thoughts, actions, feelings, etc. MAN I love this idea. I have to thank this thread for giving me inspiration.

Sorry, last post was me thinking aloud, or through typing if you want to be technical.

Yes but it is still a choice. I think that is most likely the main point in this forum. They just want the ability to chose.

I think the main point is someone asking why there are so many male protaganists rather than female, that is the opening question after all.

Well that would mostlikely be because the majority of people on this site is male. Men tend to write themselves as male charactors in a story. Likewise Females tend to do the same thing. This creates a balance.

In theory, yes. However, with more males writing about male leads than females writing about female leads, it does not provide a balance, it is still more one sided.

Yes but life is not fair.

and bees, dont forget bees. jk

Of course not, just don't say there is a balance like it is fair when it isn't. That's all I'm saying.

OK women you are out numbered on this site. If you want female leads make them yourselves. Is that what you wanted me to say.

I didn't want you to say anything specific actually. You said it was a  balanced, I said it wasn't and said why, you said "life isn't fair", Which was kind of weird.

I was being nice before.

As was I