While doing a bit of research on scripts for the various RPG Maker programs, I have seen a little bit about how defining races and genders could be of use, and how to implement these features; I have not yet attempted to use such scripts, but they seem to be useful in many respects, in that it provides yet another way to specify an attribute about the character, about a class, about whether an equipment or item is used by a certain character, et cetera. Problem is, I haven't seen even one of the rpg makers available make this a valid selection within the editor interface, when it could be so useful in game terms. I hope to be the first. (And if I'm not, please let me know; I hate being wrong/unaware.)
The general purpose of this post is a discussion on the general parts of a character-creation process, for what I intend to implement in my open-sourced, extensible, Alternative RPG Maker in specific. The point in discussion is where games may allow the player to specify what the main character is, or does. Usually this only requires just a couple steps, and it's possible to make it even more complex if so desired. I don't have any overarching examples of a truly COMPLEX set of steps; but for my purposes, I'm starting with some basics.
Define: Gender Versus Sexuality.
For the purposes of what I'm trying to create, I must define some things clearly, so that you have no misunderstanding. Where most people refer to the "sex" of the person, I am specifically meaning the biological gender, with the primary determinant being specified by the reproductive organs, not the "sex" as an activity or even "sexuality". This word "sex" is equally used as a descriptor for biological gender, for the procreative activity, AND for one's chosen sexuality; thus, the reason I specifically use the word "gender" instead of sex, where possible, when referencing the biological sex.
Among psychology's domain, it gets a bit more complicated; beside biological gender, you also have mental gender ... or so psychologists would have us believe. It's formed in part by exposure to our parents, friends, social circles, et cetera -- even at a very young age. It's also highly driven by personal choices and motivations, as we either accept or reject certain external stimuli. With these factors and more, it's how you can have effeminate "pretty-boy" males, as well as masculine "tomboyish" females. That's mental gender.
(I have read in RPG Maker Web posts how typically in games, a male hero is usually brash, happy-go-lucky, and often equips swords and heavy weapons, and how female heroes tend to be more observant, reserved, and be the "magic user" of the group. This is not to say that it always has to remain this way; a male hero could just as well be the support character, and a female hero could just as easily be the heavy-damage-dealer and tank; although for such a game to be plausible, it needs a specific reason ... especially when outside of social norms.)
Sexuality, on the other hand, is a particular aspect I'm not specifying in my system, as that is something that a particular game creator would want to implement. But for the record, I say that a person's sexuality is typically by choice. (My presumption is that most games will go with a traditional "Straight" male-female sexuality for interaction, if even mentioned; but for various perversions you might have "LGBT" types that some might want to implement for their story-lines.)
Character Gender and/or Sex In Game Terms.
To begin, gender is typically obvious from the character graphic, and I would say that most games might not even need to refer to sexuality, other than specifically for games of romance and outright sex.
The biggest choice in a custom character-creator is often one of character gender, and sometimes of which race (if differentiating between human/non-human races). A choice of race will constrain which genders are available for selection, such as a race of child-bearers being all female, or a two-gender race such as ours, or even a three-gender race like in the television series Alien Nation.
For one example, say you have a fantasy-themed (or even science-fictional, for that matter) game, with multiple active races to choose from. A game where the player could choose to play as a slime creature just as well as any other fey-folk or alien race, humanoid or not. this would then allow the player to select from the valid gender options specified in the Races tab of my editor (if I get to it, need ideas for traits of races to implement). Besides that, the race and gender may further constrain which class and equipment that could be selected. - If I add race and gender selections natively within the editor interface, it will be almost mandatory that the other database tabs get a looking-over to see if character gender might, in even the slightest, affect its implementation or usage.
In the Editor; How?
Gender can and should be specified within the editor interface when defining characters, and could also be changeable within events/scripting, however this may work out. This would likely be a single combo-box with a few choices (male, female, neuter). It is presumable that most human(oid) beings fall into the male/female genders; but it is also possible that, if creating a race for a game, it could be fully humanoid but reproduce in an asexual manner, such as by budding (bearing one's progeny as a physical offshoot of the parent body, and at some point at "infancy" it separates from the parent to become an individual) or self-cloning.
And, if magic (or even, advanced future-technology) is part of the game/world, you could add complexity by adding/modifying the gender choices: along with the natural gender options, you might also have selections for whether the character was artificially/unnaturally transformed to another gender (whether by magic or tech). So, an extended listing choices could be:
- naturally male
- naturally female
- naturally neuter
- unnaturally male
- unnaturally female
- unnaturally neuter
(When I first wrote the original post that this should've been, I posited that I couldn't think of a realistic reason that this might be so important for a story reason; but then I did happen to come up with one idea: a female hero just turned magically into a male, but for the sake of her romantic interest, is aggressively pursuing the wizard who turned her this way.... Et voila, a new story side-plot, or main story-line, even. See? Sometimes I need to start a post over, just to get a better idea of things.)
What Next?
It's been a long, tiresome post to (re)write. I've looked it over a couple times, though I'm not completely sure I remembered all the main points I wanted to cover from the original post, so forgive any incomplete thoughts; but if you have any further questions, comments, or even general encouragement to get this thing developed, don't hesitate in the slightest: I value honest feedback, humor, and even criticism when given in honest fashion.
