What should the rules and customs of m/otomegames be?
Hello everyone, @Catch42 here, your friendly mod. I'm here to ask for feedback on what you think the boundaries of what's on topic for our otome game magazine!
Edit: I have updated the magazine with a new set of rules I'll still be checking this thread for a few days; I can always update them again.
As you can see, the initial rules that I posted only disallow explicit content. That is a hard rule because I don't want that here. Other than that, I've just been posting what feels like related content as someone who was a longtime contributor to r/otomegames back on reddit. I think it's worth fleshing out what we want this magazine to be in more detail so that newcomers who aren't coming from an established otome community know what to expect.
Some suggestions I've already seen brought up:
games should have:
-a strong/primary focus on romance.
-majority male romance options
-Option to play as a woman (I also suggest that games should have the option not only to choose she/her pronouns but also to have a feminine gender presentation)
Art:
only allow original fan art here, not reposts
Let me know what you think! Feel free to discuss these aspects or anything else.
It’s pretty nice here right now, but most communities have a rule about being respectful and not being bigoted for a reason.
We probably also want a spoiler policy.
@Elevator7009
@Catch42
I've gone looking for spoiler tags and I wasn't successful. So I've just been italicizing spoilers.
There are two kbin issues requesting spoiler tags. One provides a temporary workaround using magazine CSS.
I implemented that code into the magazine's css, but I think it would be reasonable to wait to require spoiler tags until an easier to use solution is available. I have no idea how to use it.
I’m going to give it a shot right now.
You should have had to click to see this text.
It works!
What do you do to use it?
I typed
[You should have had to click to see this text.](#spoiler)I can still see the text without clicking on mobile.
@Elevator7009
On desktop and mobile, I have to highlight, the clicking doesn't show it.
Does this spoiler work
Okay, nice
@Catch42
I am NOT saying we follow reddit otome games, but I'm bringing their definition here, and then I'll comment on it.
What are the requirements?
A clear romance must take place in the story and is a major part of the story progression.
Romance must be the central conflict or of equal importance to other plot elements.
It should ideally culminate in a confession scene or kiss scene.
Friendship routes are fine, provided that it does not make up to half of the available routes.
There has to be gameplay that affects the story or ending.
Choices do not have to be part of the main story.
In stat-raising games, raising certain stats can push the story towards the appropriate ending or unlock parts of the story.
Role playing games such as the Persona, Harvest Moon or Fire Emblem franchises are not otome games since the romance elements are not the main focus of the game.
The protagonist or Main Character (MC) needs to be female. This can include trans MtF. Games where you can choose to change the gender of the MC are fine, provided that female is an option.
There has to be mostly male Love Interests (LIs).
The number of male LIs must be greater than the other genders in total.
If there are more than 3 LIs, the number of male LIs can be equal to the other genders in total. There can be female LIs, but if they are equal amount or more to the male LIs, it will not be considered to be an otome game.
Examples of otome game LI gender distribution:
2 male LIs, 1 female LI and 1 non binary.
3 male LIs, 2 female (including trans MtF) LI and 1 genderfluid LI.
5 male LIs and 2 genderfluid LIs.
2 male LIs and 1 female LI.
It needs visuals (ie. character sprites, CGs, backgrounds, etc).
Character sprites should change expressions.
Protagonist sprites are optional.
Voice acting, music, background music, opening themes and sound effects are optional but preferred.
@Catch42
So one sticky issue between reddit and your post for a game I'm looking forward to.
Touchstarved has an unseen protagonist. You can name and pick pronouns. So it's a gray area then, because there is no female or female presenting if you can't see them?
I think WTNC is also like this. An unseen protagonist with pronoun choice.
It's worth noting that Touchstarved doesn't identify itself as an otome, but it certainly seems like otome to me. It should be easy to have a carve out for this situation.
@Catch42 It probably wouldn't identify as an otome because otome is a different language word being used to kind of stand in stead of an unwieldy phrase.
Touchstarved is being made by Red Spring Studio. They have writers, producers, artists, programmers, content strategists from games like: Last Legacy, Apex Legends Mobile, the Walking Dead games, League of Legends, Horizon: Zero Dawn, The Dragon Prince, the KPOP group BTS, Arcana, Last Legacy, the Blue Rose TTRPG, Arcana and Destiny 2.
They got nearly a million buckaroos for their project with gems like those in their work history. this is this team's first project together and giving it an otome tag would actually close doors, not open them. And since the protagonist can be whatever they want, it wouldn't even really be true.
Like WTNC, neither of these are otome or aimed at maidens specifically. But they are romantic video games. But even on Reddit, indie and rainbow otome sub reddits lack activity. I feel like we should generally be more inclusive to be the open haven for all the users who are leaving, lest we have too few users to bother.
Maybe just require that the game allow a she/her person to be played and the love interests to be 50% or more male gendered
This makes me think about purely text-based games.
Say there’s a game aimed at women with a canonically female MC. It’s got a heavy focus on romancing men. There are also no sprites for anything. Not the LIs, not the MC. The extent of the graphics is GUI for reading text and making choices. Is this an otome game?
I’m admittedly super conditioned by seeing most things called “otome” be visual novels.
@Elevator7009
@Catch42
There are interactable novels that lack visuals. I'd still keep the sprite/graphics requirements
I think that otome are traditionally visual novels, but we can be open to experimental forms. I think the important thing is that the purpose of the gameplay is to advance the romance. Your hypothetical game would be a non-typical otome with that definition.
-a strong/primary focus on romance.
Definitely agree with this. Despite the ability to romance men as a woman, the way I see things Stardew Valley is not an otome game because romance isn’t its primary focus.
I think the community you have here is pretty neat as it stands. My preference leans towards more choices over less, and more towards towards wlw with a female protagonist though I've got nothing against a well written love story no matter the genders of the participants