What do you think about gender selection in otome games?

[Arisara]

I've noticed that whenever a good non-Japanese otome game comes out, a lot of people start asking for add male MC or yuri routes..

 

[totallyamanda]

i am in the vein of if it's an 'otome', it's a female heroine with love interests with majority if all being male, one or two female love interest does not make it a yuri game to me because the focus is still on a female audience. ૮ ˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶ ა

i do agree with the usage of amare to differientiate between the two because i do believe gender neutrality is an enjoyable way for a multitude of people to enjoy a game. (..◜ᴗ◝..)

HOWEVER, it comes with a caveat of if there is gender selection certain things must be tweaked to have it written to the gender selected otherwise it is immersion ruining a la bathing with men like op or sleeping/sleepovers with the opposite sex (if that makes sense). ( °ヮ° )

like others have stated, the issue arises with the fact that women spaces must be inclusive of everyone and bend to adjust while the same is not expected of men's and is rarely given to women in the same and equal capacity. (૭ ｡•̀ ᵕ •́｡ )૭

there's still a stigma attached to women in gaming let alone 'girl games' that is often met with ridicule or vitriol and so it's hard to not want a little exclusivity when women have been excluded for so long and be protective of these spaces. ( •̀ᴗ•́ )و ̑̑

 

[BiscuitB]

I wouldn't mind it if it didn't affect the quality of the story or my enjoyment of the CGs. But a lot of the time, it does. The MC ends up feeling flat, with no real background, no face, and no presence in the CGs. It takes me out of the immersion. At that point, I'd rather read a Twine story.

I felt like this is one of the reason I moved from V/N to IF. I do enjoy visual novels, I've moved from otome to amare games, as I felt more apart of the game but I agree when they cater to both it can make it difficult to give them distinct characteristic. Which I get can be hard from a game developer perspective,but then makes it unenjoyable for your audience

 

[dogiwall]

I've noticed that whenever a good non-Japanese otome game comes out, a lot of people start asking for add male MC or yuri routes..

like others have stated, the issue arises with the fact that women spaces must be inclusive of everyone and bend to adjust while the same is not expected of men's and is rarely given to women in the same and equal capacity. (૭ ｡•̀ ᵕ •́｡ )૭

I'm frustrated that these kind of people outright refuse to support BL, GL, amare games especially when it's pointed out to them that those games exist and that they should support them rather than demand an entire genre meant for women be changed to accomdodate them. And if you point it out to them, they're gonna ignore what you say, claim that games in these genres barely exist, try to argue that otome is a catch-all term for romance, say that you and the genre is homophobic, and go "Oh, I can't play otome games then???"

It outright comes off across as them thinking that it's easier to leech off a genre that worked hard to get where it is rather than help support genres that's actually for them.

 

[Kyouri]

Selecting gender would make it not an otome anymore. I feel like maybe at most, if you could select non binary or something and not really change too much about the content it would be okay but otherwise, it's always going to lean one way or the other like you said with the pictures/content/etc. I've seen some indie ones where selecting "female" but you end up basically playing a BL which is super misleading....