What is an immediate red flag for you guys?

[seneya]

why any of the martial arts stories aren't gender locked

I'd prefer them not to be genderlocked for pretty much the same reason it's fine for something like Wayhaven to not be genderlocked: bias or no bias, having an option is better than having no option.
I've zero idea what the current state of POMA is, but I do enjoy AC a lot, and idk, it doesn't bother me that someone might be getting more options somewhere. We already had this discussion on the disappointment thread though xD

 

[Levant]

While it happens more often with female locked stories, I still don't understand why any of the martial arts stories aren't gender locked. POMA, Dao Ascension, Aura Clash, all these suffer from the same problem of obviously being written with a male MC and a straight male audience in mind. While Dao Ascension gets away with it because the MC is purely a self-insert, with POMA and Aura Clash it can be glaring.

True. Though I think the Aura Clash reason is more so that the author probably doesn't know how to write other types of romances that aren't straight, and even then I feel like Aura Clash kinda lacks on that as well, even the supposed "Explicit" scenes aren't that explicit lol.

He mentioned in his Patreon he was pissed at the forums because people kept asking for other forms of romance that wasn't straight.

 

[Amara]

* Having less than 100k words of wip but having a patron.
*Going months and months without commenting about the next update.
*Updating after much time has passed and it's just 20 or 10k words.
*Having so many love interests that you the player lose count of them
*The characters automatically reverting to a different personality even when your player's personality is different for example when your character is cold/reserved but does things that goes contrary to that personality type.
*Skipping a whole route, just so they can go to the next chapter.
*When the story obviously suits a specific gender but gives you the choice to pick a gender
That's all I can remember.

 

[Amara]

Oh yeah, when the author and the fanbase doesn't accept any form of criticism, or if the author is easily forced or bullied to give a character a specific gender or sexuality..... What else? Yeah.

I stay away from following a specific story just to avoid the drama but yes... Yes...

*When the game forces you the player to have a specific thought without giving the opportunity to choose
Hmm