[POLL] Male or Female Protagonist

[Chester]

Hello,

Which gender is your preferred protagonist in a game made with RPGMaker? Please feel free to express your explanation in the comment section below.

Important Information

Spoiler

I'm sorry I have no intention of offending anyone. It is great that there people (including me) who doesn't judge a game based on the gender of the protagonist but you have to understand that there are those who prefers one over the other. For example, I know a few people who actually prefers a male protagonist over a female protagonist and wouldn't even look at a game if the Hero is female and vise versa. I am not saying that this is unacceptable because it is perfectly fine, this poll is based on player preference. I understand this may be a difficult choice but please choose BOTH if you believe that it does not matter if the protagonist is male or female. As a developer, it is crucial that we consider facts whether it is good or bad.

Thank you for participating!

 

[Ms Littlefish]

I'd be careful with the wording. Better? 

There are many stories that can be told from many perspectives.

 

[mlogan]

Each story is unique regardless of the genre. And the best protagonist for the story is the one that makes that story the best it can be. There's my cheesy, but true answer.

 

[Amysaurus]

I'm fairly certain that choosing a specific gender for a given genre's protagonist won't make the game any better. I want a protagonist that's genuinely fun to play as - gender isn't really something I care about.

 

[Aoi Ninami]

I was a bit unsure about voting in this one, since it's not clear what you mean by "better". However, if you're just asking for my own preference, then I will say female regardless of genre, as I happen to find it easier to get into the head of a female protagonist and write her as a unique and interesting character. (That's why I have a female username -- the name of one of my characters -- even though I'm male.) In fact, my current project takes this to an extreme -- every named character (five playable, nine other) is female, except one man, a professor, who's dead before the story actually begins. But other games and stories I've worked on in the past have had more of an even balance

 

[Celianna]

I'm so confused. That's like asking if it's better to have a redheaded protagonist or a blond.


Neither is wrong or right, and what about a genderless protagonist?

 

[Euphony]

How does one really judge which gender is "better"? Maybe "more suitable" is a better phrase, and even then it depends not on the genre, but on the story. There are some stories where it makes more sense to have a female lead over a male lead--for instance, a story about an army that bars female soldiers, and the protagonist is a woman who disguises herself in order to join. The opposite also holds true. But I think in most cases, gender is irrelevant. It's character traits that matter--bravery, intelligence, morality, etc--and men and women are equally capable of demonstrating said traits.

 

[RoseofCrimson]

Whichever suits your narrative. There is no right answer for anything of this nature.

 

[noctiluca]

Neither is better than the other and I have a feeling that's what most people are going to say. It all depends on the kind of story and characters you want to write.

Typically whenever there's an option I pick FeMC though. Not having an option doesn't really deter me from a game (my favorite games have set protagonists) but having an option is typical for 'blank slate' protagonist games. The game I've played that did the best job with it was Persona 3 Portable because it actually changed character dynamics and made the game a lot more enjoyable for me.

 

[Uzuki]

Unless there is a problem that can only apply to a certain gender then for me it doesn't matter if they're male or female. At least this is what I think in a ideal world.

 

[Chester]

Hey,

I'm sorry I have no intention of offending anyone. It is great that there people (including me) who doesn't judge a game based on the gender of the protagonist but you have to understand that there are those who prefers one over the other. For example, I know a few people who actually prefers a male protagonist over a female protagonist and wouldn't even look at a game if the Hero is female and vise versa. I am not saying that this is unacceptable because it is perfectly fine, this poll is based on player preference. I understand this may be a difficult choice but please choose BOTH if you believe that it does not matter if the protagonist is male or female. As a developer, it is crucial that we consider facts whether it is good or bad.

 

[lPaladinl]

I personally don't care about gender in videos games in general. If the game makes me play as whatever character, then I will play as whatever character it is. Be it male, female, a robot, a dog, whatever it may be. All that matters to me is that it's a good character with real development, and I tend to really, really dislike when a character is too forcibly pushing narrative based specifically on their creed. (It's just not realistic, and makes them come across as immature and undeveloped as a character, or even just pushing the author's own bias or agenda rather than the character, and at worst, bigoted, ruining that character.)

The only preference I have, and it's a slight one at best, is when I get to make my own character. I tend to like modeling my characters after myself in some way (with obvious liberties, I'm not a muscle chiseled hero obviously.), and I prefer to make a male, with a beard, maybe eyes the same color as mine with my hair color and a hair style that would best suit me personally.

With that said though, I still play female characters from time to time just to enjoy something different, and I still roleplay different characters ( I used to have a set of preset personalities/characters that I would recreate from video game to video game.). Or I just come up with something on the spot most of the time just because I feel like trying a new class and think that a different gender or race would make it more interesting as a character.

 

[Euphony]

No worries, Chester. I don't think you offended anyone.

And if someone instantly chooses to pass on a game because of the main character's gender, that's...well, kind of douchey. And frankly quite stupid. Someone with that kind of mentality is going to miss out on a lot of amazing games because they looked at the cover and went "eww a girl" or whatever.

I say do whatever the hell you want with your game and don't worry what hyper-judgmental people like that think.

 

[Ms Littlefish]

We may not realize it but there are many large and small choices we make that determine who is interested in playing our game.

You can't make a game that everyone wants to play so make a game for the people you want to play instead. 

 

[SLEEP]

Agender protagonist 

 

[Astel]

Games made by me? Male.

I wouldn't even know how to start writing a female protagonist, it just don't feel natural for me. No offense for those that think otherwise

 

[Euphony]

Games made by me? Male.

I wouldn't even know how to start writing a female protagonist, it just don't feel natural for me. No offense for those that think otherwise

Lol just write them as you would write a male protagonist. They aren't aliens.*

*They might be aliens.

 

[Milennin]

When making a game, male, because it's easier to write for me.

When playing a game I have no preferences when it comes to the gender of the main protagonist.

 

[Galenmereth]

I vote both because I always prefer to be able to choose. But as has been stated already, the gender is a part of who the protagonist is, their history in the world, and how others look at them (depending on setting). This means that you have to take that into consideration when writing the character, and there is no right or wrong answer; it all depends on the story you want to tell with them.

 

[trouble time]

When writing games, I like writing both kinds of characters, though I think more of my ideas have female protagonists than males just cause. It might have something to do with how when I play fighting games it's almost always a female character that has the playstyle I want and I get ideas practicing combos or during matches sometimes. when I play games I don't really have a prefrence actually my prefrence is that the character not be a blank slate, as long as it's not that I don't mind. If I have the option to choose though I tend to go with the female character cause of my expirence with fighting games.