Troyen wrote:fabulaparva wrote:Looking at the results of this poll so far--- Does it strike interesting to anyone else in addition to moi, that the heterosexual romance playing as the opposite gender is the least favourite for both female and male players?
EDIT: Typing this as a player who plays all the above options as long and the story/characters are intriguing enough.
This was posted 6 months ago, and I'm chiming in late here, but it's interesting to note that the traditional hetero options have moved up in the polls and MF is now firmly in first place for male players. Both sexes seem to have a great deal of interest in FF however, for male players it's #2 while for female players it's #1. lol.
Troyen wrote:I can only speak for myself (as a M that plays M or F characters about equally), but I am far more picky about the hetero romance partner when playing as the opposite gender. I've done it sometimes, but it requires a
really appealing character, whereas I'm more willing to experiment with the M+F or F+F options. I think the last F+M I romanced in a Winter Wolves game was Tom in Planet Stronghold. (That's not to say there aren't appealing M characters in later WW games, just the ones I've liked have typically been M+M only. Looking at you Draco and Riley.
)
Also, you guys might be over-interpreting the impact of jack's post. I didn't even know he had descriptions for the options until after I voted, and I wonder how many other people did the same.
This sums up my own thoughts almost perfectly. As an M, and more specifically a purely straight M, I'm perfectly fine playing either an M or an F, but I'm considerably more interested in experimenting with MF or FF relationships than I am with FM options.
Romances with unstable bad boys like Mesphit don't interest me in the least. I didn't care for Amukiki's hyper-competitive desire to prove his Alphaness either. My gal didn't have a phallis and thus wasn't the least bit interested in finding out whose was bigger. The only FM romance I enjoyed fully playing out in Loren was the one with Rae, and that was because I very quickly recognized that his shield of arrogance stemmed from fear, a fear that if he were to give his heart away it would get cut to pieces. Over time Rei demonstrated his feelings towards my elven gal in ways that were both fun and useful when words got him into trouble. So I was able to warm up to him. And once he grew relaxed enough to let go of his fears, his arrogant act disappeared, making for a quality relationship all around.
Since Draco and Riley of SOTW have been mentioned as well, I'll say that Draco was too much of an irresponsible child. As Elenor I wanted to mother him, not romance him. And Riley wasn't much better.
Thus I suspect that men when they play as women often look at male romance prospects differently than women do when they play women. Inversely, I suspect that women who play men often look at female romance prospects differently than men who play men. And this explains why FM isn't very popular among men and MF isn't very popular among women. Those romances are usually written with the other sex's perspective in mind, and if you're straight tend to cause you to switch your identification from the protagonist to the love interest for the romance.
I have nothing against any of the other nontraditional relationship types presented in the poll, and I consider diversity a good thing overall, but it is highly unlikely that I will play them. I'm wired the way I'm wired and I have no motivation to try anything that doesn't align with my wiring.