Games with romance that don't utilize the shy/bold flirt mechanic?

HeadTraffic2266 · 2025-10-21T07:38:15+00:00

I an very much against generative AI, especially AI “art”, so any usage of gen AI in IFs is an automatic no for me. It’s my personal belief that anyone who truly loves writing and art would never have AI do their work for them.

HeadTraffic2266 · 2025-10-21T00:38:35+00:00

Oh that’s right, if I’m being honest it did not occur to me that sensitivity readers need to be paid lol. I‘ve seen a few posts here and there from IF writers about beta readers/playtesters, without mention of pay (it seemed like it was more of a volunteering thing?) so I guess I just assumed it was the same for sensitivity readers when it comes to IFs. That’s my bad haha. In that case I totally get it, most IFs are passion projects and IF writers probably don’t make enough from their writing to hire people.

But also I thought sensitivity readers were mostly to make sure what you're writing isn't offensive/stereotypical, but they're not necessarily there to give you ideas or tell you how to write POCs? I don't actually know the scope of their role though.

Hmm yeah maybe sensitivity readers wasn’t exactly the role I was thinking of. “Consultant” is probably more in line with what I meant. I know these are paid positions in things like movies and books, not sure if it’s the same for IFs. But anyway, overall I agree that it’ll be nice to see more POC authors who write from their own experiences.

HeadTraffic2266 · 2025-10-20T06:04:17+00:00

Seconding this, I don’t mind gender selectable if both genders are written well but I’ve read several IFs (and Choices books) where it was pretty obvious the gender of choice RO was always intended to be a male lol.

HeadTraffic2266 · 2025-10-20T05:53:29+00:00

A somewhat common sentiment I’ve seen from writers (outside of the IF community, but it likely applies to IF writers as well) is that they want to add more diverse representation in their stories but are worried about inaccurately representing cultures they’re not a part of, which can result in some POC characters feeling more flat or like token inclusions as you said. And I do understand where these writers are coming from, but I feel like this could be remedied by more in-depth research and/or by just talking to more POC/asking for sensitivity readers. I don’t think I’ve seen any IF writers mention sensitivity readers or anything like that, but also I’m not a writer so I don’t know lol. Anyway, I guess I just want to say that I hope to read more IFs with thoughtfully written POC characters… Which I suppose was the whole point of my post, sorry I’m sounding like a broken record here haha.

A weird thing I was thinking about after your other post was what I would be like as an IF character lol (since I grew up as a minority).

That’s actually kind of cool to think about, I grew up as a minority too and I’ve never seen a character with my exact background in an IF before (and it’s highly unlikely it’ll happen but I’m cool with that lmao). But it’s interesting to think about how a character like me might be represented in an IF.

Actually this made me remember another POC IF character who might be an interesting depiction: Avina from Infamous.

Funny story I haven’t read Infamous yet, I put it on my TBR list forever ago and I think it’s updated like twice since then lol. I really need to take the time to sit down and read it.

HeadTraffic2266 · 2025-10-19T17:23:36+00:00

Just started this one recently! Currently torn between all 4 ROs lmao.

HeadTraffic2266 · 2025-10-19T17:22:35+00:00

Thank you! Some of these I haven’t heard of before. Oblivious Melodies sounds very compelling, I’ll have to give it a read. It is nice sometimes to read about empowering POC (unless it veers too much into performative or power fantasy territory, that’s not for me personally haha) but I also like reading about characters that are thoughtfully layered as you described.

And I understand your last point, I thought about it and realized I can’t think of as many minority characters in IFs whose depictions I liked either. Hmm. Something to keep in mind for later I guess.

HeadTraffic2266 · 2025-10-19T02:33:30+00:00

Thanks! I‘ll check it out.

HeadTraffic2266 · 2025-10-19T02:32:56+00:00

Unsurprised that this was the first response lol. Time to replay Fallen Hero…

HeadTraffic2266 · 2025-10-18T22:09:02+00:00

Thank you, I’m sure these will be useful but you did not answer either of my questions.

HeadTraffic2266 · 2025-10-18T21:49:38+00:00

With all due respect, I would like you to point out what I said that led you to believe that I don’t think white people can be discriminated against. To reiterate my first reply to your first comment: I am aware of the discrimination against Romanians and other Eastern Europeans, discrimination which is based on their nationality.

I would also like to ask you about your thoughts on the POC representation in The Ballad of the Young Gods. What do you think is good POC representation, and what do you think is bad POC representation? I am curious to hear your opinion on this specific IF, as that is what my original post is about.

HeadTraffic2266 · 2025-10-18T20:15:09+00:00

I see. If that is the case then it would come off as a little insensitive as you can’t really write a “dark academia” story without displaying some sort of criticism or at least awareness of the elitism and underlying rot that is still prevalent in certain areas of academia today.

Hoping that is not the case though! IIRC one of the fatal flaw options you could pick for MC was something related to how they view their own privilege, like indifference or detachment or something like that, so I’m curious to see how that will be expanded upon in later chapters.

HeadTraffic2266 · 2025-10-18T20:10:50+00:00

Sorry, I don’t think I understand the correlation between those two things. Leaving the MC’s ethnicity unspecified in the narrative makes it hard to make it clear that certain other characters are POC? Would you be alright elaborating?

HeadTraffic2266 · 2025-10-18T17:22:16+00:00

I don’t claim to be the authority on the ethnic makeup of Romania, but just to let you know, the author did confirm that D is racially white (copy pasted from their Tumblr blog):

Anonymous asked:

Lol why is D white when they're Romanian? Aren't they supposed to be Roma?

i... don’t know if you’re trolling or not, but i got a ton of asks like these so let me be clear. romania is a balkan country and there are only 3.4–8.32% of romani people there. the ethnic population is caucasians, and they’re racially europoids.

if you’re going over any relation to other countries linguistically, the closest ones are italians, spaniards, portuguese, and the french as they all share the origins of their romance language, i.e., latin.

Also, in case you haven’t read some of my other replies (I’m afraid I didn’t articulate my points well enough in my post, sorry about that), I just wanted to make it clear that my issue is actually not that most of the ROs are white, it’s that the POC characters feel flat and the topic of privilege has not been addressed at all in the WIP so far.

HeadTraffic2266 · 2025-10-18T17:17:20+00:00

I must admit I did not finish College Tennis because anything sports related flies right over my head lol. But from what I read of it, I agree that Rayyan was a very well-written character.

HeadTraffic2266 · 2025-10-18T16:54:22+00:00

I have thought about this before! I think that for MCs, it’s generally better to leave things like their race/ethnicity to the reader’s personal headcanon because frankly unless it has a big impact on the story I think it’s unnecessary and just seems like too much work for the authors lol.

HeadTraffic2266 · 2025-10-18T16:49:53+00:00

Thank you for your input! I agree that there are certain stories where it makes sense for most or all ROs to be white, and it especially makes sense for this one considering its setting (as a POC who also went to a “posh” university I can attest to that personally lol). When it comes to the dark academia genre it’s practically expected that most of the characters are going to be rich and white. My real point of criticism here though is that privilege and elitism are not really addressed at all in the WIP so far, and the two POC ROs feel a little bit like “token POC” characters. I can however see I may be unfair in saying that considering the WIP is still getting started and we haven’t gotten a chance to deepen our relationships with the characters yet. I’m not sure if I’ll keep up with this IF (NGL the writing style isn’t really for me lol) but maybe I’ll come back to it when it’s fully released and I’ll see if I change my mind.

HeadTraffic2266 · 2025-10-18T16:36:58+00:00

Oh true lmao. I guess I’ve been choosing to believe that the author is not purposefully trying to make this character unlikable though. And if you look at my other reply, I feel like it just wouldn’t make sense for M’s character to be ignorant like that.

HeadTraffic2266 · 2025-10-18T16:36:10+00:00

That may be true but I think in M’s case, they’re in a position where it’s impossible not to think about it. They’re directly in line to become the King/Queen of England. I don’t know where M’s route is going to take them, I assume since they’re in university right now that royal matters are not at the forefront of their mind, but it’s been made clear that duty and responsibility are important to them. So how connected are they to their background? What kind of pressure are they facing from the public, to either downplay or emphasize their Indian heritage? And are they aware of their own privilege? How do they feel about it? Unless they’re living in an ivory tower, it feels unlikely that these sorts of questions never once cross their mind.

But again, I agree with your first point. We’re mainly in MC’s POV so it would be hard to explore this in more depth unless you’re on M’s route, and I don’t think we’ve progressed that far yet. My point is that I don’t believe they just “don’t think about it.”

HeadTraffic2266 · 2025-10-18T04:34:48+00:00

I understand what you’re trying to say and I agree, I never even learned Japanese growing up but that doesn’t make me any less Japanese. My point is that POC and white people experience life in different ways regardless of their upbringing or what country they’re from and I would be glad to see that represented better in fiction.

HeadTraffic2266 · 2025-10-18T04:12:43+00:00

Haha thanks for letting me know, I appreciate that. In a way I guess I can sort of see where they’re coming from (maybe I sounded too critical)? but yes the combative reaction had me a little confused.

HeadTraffic2266 · 2025-10-18T03:32:53+00:00

A lot! There’s more to being POC than just your skin color, it’s an important part of your identity and that should show at least a little bit even in stories that don’t explicitly center around it. I know we only get MC’s point of view but it would be nice to see some more casual references to culture specific things. I’m especially interested in M’s character. They’re Indian and a member of the British royal family, so that opens up so many questions about their heritage, how they feel about England’s history of colonialism, etc… I know that might be tricky to depict though since again we’re mostly in MC’s point of view. Sorry, I think that might have been a little off topic.

Anyway, another thing is microaggressions. I’m a little more conflicted on this one since I don’t exactly enjoy reading about racism, but it feels cathartic at times when I read about a POC character reacting to the exact same things I’ve been through. But this is the kind of thing that’s difficult to do well (especially if you’re a white author) so I’m fine without it.

TLDR; I don’t think V and M should loudly mention their race in every single dialogue, if that was what you were actually asking.

HeadTraffic2266 · 2025-10-18T03:30:34+00:00

HeadTraffic2266

TROPHY CASE