Would you mind an Agender protagoni

[TilenM]

Hey!

So I'm in a game dev. team and a while ago we were deciding on what gender should our leading character be. An idea came up to make this character Agender (EDIT: doesn't identify neither as woman nor man; not sure what the right expression is) and this sparkled a very "passionate" debate. The team was pretty much devided in half. Some thought it would be a good idea and others (including myself) seriously opposed it.

The arguments FOR having an Agender protagonist (as presented by part of the team that was cheering for this idea):

- it would make the character more mysterious
- it would set us apart from other games
- it would be very inovative
- it is something that catches attention
- it would appeal to a wider spectrum of gamers

Now for the arguments AGAINST such an idea (those arguments are totally biased and written from my side of the view):

Whilst it's true that it would put more mystery into our character's persona and it would also set us apart from other games, I think it's also true that we have to consider HOW do we set us apart from others. Yes, it would be something inovative and we would stand out, but would this really be portraing what are we trying to do game-wise, or would it portrait us more as a certain political agenda-serving studio that tries to appeal to the PC culture we're living in today? And yes, it does catch the attention, but what kind of attention? It's a very common expression we hear that "even a bad publicity is still a publicity", but I think it's evident in the gaming world, that good reviews and good publicity is what makes you money. And this leads me to the last point: would it really appeal to the "wider spectrum of gamers"? I think not. Again, I think it would only appeal to some of the people, but majority of these people would not be the kind of people that would actually consider buying our game (eg. would not be gamers), but would instead just agree with the agenda we would be representing and move on.

As a marketer I have to look at things from marketing point of view and I always tend to follow the basic saying: Inovations are welcome, as long as they don't produce more bad than they do good.

But I've been wrong before, so I'm really interested in your opinion. Is gender something you even notice? Would you mind if the game's main character would be Agender? What do you have to say?

[Fro]

At 9/18/17 01:28 PM, RightTime wrote: Do any of the people working on the game identify as agender? If not you're character is not going to come across as very genuine, since none of you know what being an agender person is like.

This literally is probably the only advice you need to take on the subject of whether or not you should do this. I agree 100%.

[TilenM]

At 9/18/17 01:28 PM, RightTime wrote: Do any of the people working on the game identify as agender? If not you're character is not going to come across as very genuine, since none of you know what being an agender person is like. People generally tell stories in media from a point of view that they can relate to, that way the stories come across as more genuine since they come in part from real experiences. If that isn't the case for you guys then you should scrap this idea or bring in some people who are willing to tell you what it is like to be agender and how your character might act that would differ from a man or women in a given situation. Of course you could just make your character an emotionless agender character that only cares about the mission, but then why did you even bother making them agender in the first place?

Nope, and that's actually another thing that bothered me. Just making an Agender character could stir up some minds, but if we'd accidentally make this Agender character totally wrong, it could come out as either totally ignorant or even worse, as a joke.

So yea, since the game has no intention to promote any gender roles, I think it would be an unnecessary or even a bad idea to present an Agender protagonist.

Thanks for the response!

[Oddlem]

Or instead of being agender, you could make it to where the gender itself isn't revealed in order to make the main character easier to relate to. There's some games that do this, and it works out fairly well since anyone can put themselves in the main character's shoes.

[Peregrinus-Ferrum]

At 9/18/17 01:19 PM, TilenM wrote:

- it is something that catches attention

It could catch the wrong attention.

Personally I wouldn't really care as long as the character is interesting.
However if the character is flawless and/or continuously brings up "I'm agender" that could be seen as shoehorning it in to emphasize those views.
Have you seen Natty comics?
Don't do it that way.

[orangebomb]

Don't waste your time with making an agender protagonist, especially since no one outside of the Internet thinks that agenderism is even a thing, so you're basically making the protagonist unrecognizable to people who want to play. If you truly want to have a memorable game, (whatever that means) don't rely on a shock value gimmick such as this, that instantly will turn off a chunk of your audience right off the bat, let the gameplay and story do the talking. I think Oddlem actually has the right idea in which you can make your main character's gender a secret until late in the game (or even at all), which by then the gamer would be so invested in the story, they pretty much have to see it through. It worked for Samus Aran and Naoto Shirogane, and you really don't see too many cross dressers females let alone males that isn't a custom created character or purely for comedy.

I get that you want some sort of unique selling point with your game, but don't fall for the flavor-of-the-month Tumblr topic that only serves to belittle and divide your audience, especially if your work wants to be taken seriously on its commentary.

[SatanBrain]

Make a female/male/other choice at the beginning of the game, even if it is completely irrelevant and insignificant. This should please everyone.

[Verspar]

Could you be referring to androgyny or is it the identification of a lack of gender? I watched a video of a non-transgender woman with so much testosterone that she was able to grow a beard, in which she grew it out. It was interesting.

Anyways, there is also vanilla Minecraft Steve's Skin was intended to be androgynous, but it turn out to be too much of a male. Notch tried to make every creature in the game to be of both gender at the same time. It would be interesting to do something like that, but Minecraft was never about the character; it was about the game. You could also easily paste a custom skin and make a unique character, which breaks any meaning behind the main character's intended androgyny.

You can have a choice of both gender. If that isn't good, then you have to figure out what you need to do. It all depends on what you're trying to express. If you guys don't really care about the gender, make the main character asexual because it's a robot or something. I personally don't care, as long as it's consistent and there's a reason for it outside of a political/social reason.

[Peepers]

There's a game coming out later this month where the character is genderless, I think mainly because it has absolutely nothing to do with the story.
Don't make an issue out of something that doesn't need to be.
Make a character design that is undefinable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmhhOLnIoCU

[TilenM]

At 9/18/17 01:41 PM, Oddlem wrote: Or instead of being agender, you could make it to where the gender itself isn't revealed in order to make the main character easier to relate to. There's some games that do this, and it works out fairly well since anyone can put themselves in the main character's shoes.

That's another thing we considered, but I think it's safe to say that we concluded female protagonist is the best choice for us. Thanks for the reply! :)

[TilenM]

It could catch the wrong attention.

Personally I wouldn't really care as long as the character is interesting.
However if the character is flawless and/or continuously brings up "I'm agender" that could be seen as shoehorning it in to emphasize those views.
Have you seen Natty comics?
Don't do it that way.

I absolutely agree. Thanks for the input! :)

[TilenM]

I get that you want some sort of unique selling point with your game, but don't fall for the flavor-of-the-month Tumblr topic that only serves to belittle and divide your audience, especially if your work wants to be taken seriously on its commentary.

We're absolutely on the same page here. Thanks for the reply! :)

[TilenM]

You can have a choice of both gender. If that isn't good, then you have to figure out what you need to do. It all depends on what you're trying to express. If you guys don't really care about the gender, make the main character asexual because it's a robot or something. I personally don't care, as long as it's consistent and there's a reason for it outside of a political/social reason.

Thanks for these great points! I'm satisfied to say we ended up with picking a female protagonist. ^^

[TilenM]

There's a game coming out later this month where the character is genderless, I think mainly because it has absolutely nothing to do with the story.
Don't make an issue out of something that doesn't need to be.
Make a character design that is undefinable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmhhOLnIoCU

You are absolutely right. And thanks for the link. :)

[DanielTheManiel]

I've honestly never cared about the gender of who I'm playing as, All I really care about when it comes to a set character (AKA: A character that I can't customize or really modify past clothing and a few color schemes)
Is if I actually like them as a person, if they are a total asshole and it's not played for laughs then I'm going to hate the character.