Hi there! I'm an autor of the book with the female MC ) I'll be glad if you'll read my book and leave a message whether you like it or not The Renegades (The Bard from Barliona Book #1)
So, in a departure from some of my other works, City of Champions Online is a Superhero Gamelit book, using the Mutants & Masterminds system as a base (so you can actually reproduce all the craziness in a home game, if you like), and it follows an all-female team of 'nontraditional' superheroines in Atlanta. Pyramaniac - The fire-type flyer who has to have specially designed clothes or she ends up with a lot of wardrobe malfunctions when she uses her powers. Mortal enemy of sprinkler systems everywhere. The Reptilian - Human-Velociraptor-Dragon hybrid girl with a more feral side to her. Ultimate predator, but is generally nonsexual (a disturbing lack of dinosaur guys in ATL). Temptress - A literal demon from Hell (one of them), she's a Succubus with all the powers and appetites that implies. Web Mistress - A technopath that is essentially a living supercomputer. Can 'transmit' herself and others through data transmissions, and processes everything at 2500x human speed. She once signed an enemy team up for all the porn on the in-game internet. ALL of it. Vampyra - The MC, an energy vamp/healer who got abducted by an actual vamp, and turned, leaving her with complex dietary needs, and issues with the sun. Her vampiric healing and resilience makes her the 'heavy' of the team. Once defeated a giant rock-person by flying them up to a nice height, and then flying down as fast as she could (Over Mach 1) before throwing him at the ground, and peeling off at the last second. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075SHXQS1
In retrospect, the reason why we don't see more female MCs in litRPG/gamelit seems to be that they don't sell particularly well and I'm not sure if that's because readers don't like female MCs, because the authors didn't put as much effort into writing or promoting the books, or because the niche is still too small in what still amounts to an underground subgenre.
That is so weird to me that people have a problem with the gender of a main character. Like, aren't straight guys defined by being into women? Wouldn't they rather read a book about a woman, then?
I've seen some quality female MCs out there. However, the majority of the authors in LitRPG/gamelit are male, and while it is certainly possible for a man to write female characters, and do it well, there's a layer of disconnect there that you as an author have to bridge. So many male authors write women either as having predominantly 'male' characteristics, or as something closer to a soap opera. One of my favorite shows growing up was Xena: Warrior Princess. But looking back, she was not a very feminine character, being more like a female version of Kevin Sorbo's Hercules, at least until the series got its footing. Look at Tolkein, as well. In his works, you have women who are powerful rulers, or are beauties that men fight over. The one woman in Tolkein's Hobbit and Lord of the Rings that is actually shown to be a warrior is Eowyn, who was basically suicidal at the time, hoping for a good death rather than being locked away in some gilded prison to wither and die. Even in Shakespeare, the women of any prominence you see are either lovers obsessed with one man or another, or manipulators like Lady Macbeth, or witches, and so on. And that was during a time when England was ruled by its strongest female ruler ever. As for them not selling? No, there are quite a few that have sold quite well (not even counting the erotica versions). The Puatera Online series has done very well, for instance. It is just that there are fewer female writers in the genre, and for a genre that is mostly populated by new writers, many of whom are still doing normal jobs on the side, the male MC is the easier path to follow while they're still learning their way. Same as in tabletop games where you're actually roleplaying. Most gamers I've seen start with a character of their own gender (and usually human, as well), and it takes a while for them to be comfortable roleplaying as a female character. Except you're looking at it the wrong way. The LitRPG/gamelit genre is primarily one of escapist power fantasy or wish fulfillment. In games, you have a clear progression. You do X amount of work, and you get tangible results from it, whether it is in gold, or increased Reputation, or completed quests, or levels. In the real world, you can work hard as you like, and someone else with better looks or connections may instantly hop over you while you toil on stuck at your same level. Even when you're talking about the 'world becomes a game world' or 'reincarnated into a game world' stories, you still have that progression where your efforts have quantifiable value, and you are rewarded based on what you do. The flip side of that is that the genre is one of projection. Writers and readers project themselves onto the characters, and use it as an escape from their day to day. But when you're projecting, it is easier for a male reader/writer to project onto the fantasy of the dashing hero (or sly rogue, or wicked villain) who goes around and fights monsters, gets the loot, and claims the girl, than it is to project onto a female character behaving like the women we see in our day to day lives. In some ways, it is like porn. It is easier for, say, a straight white male to project themselves as one of the participants when there is a straight white male on screen pounding a woman than it is for them to project themselves as a black man. And it is nearly impossible for them to project onto lesbian porn, except wishing that it became a threesome, and the titillation value of that.
Ok, fair enough, but I've also read a lot of books starring goblins and if it's easier to project yourself into a imaginary green monster than a human, you might want to take a step back and re-examine yourself.
Except that those books typically aren't someone being born and raised a goblin. It is a human player PLAYING a goblin. The thoughts and motivations behind the character are still a human male. Even when it is a full on goblin from the start, they tend to act like humans (short, smelly humans, but humans). Just like the Dwarves tend to act like humans, but with better accents, or Elves tend to be poncy humans. As for 'lots'? I've seen three or four, with another couple being kobolds and at least two or three with slimes. The vast majority of books in the genre have MCs that are humans, elves (pretty humans), gnomes (short humans), dwarves (short, stocky humans), as well as a significant number of demons (sexy, 'bad' humans), vampires (sexy, undead humans), and humanoid dragons (sexy, powerful humans).
Except that men and women think about and react to things differently, both from differences in hormones and neurochemistry and in societal norms and the psychological/sociological impacts that has on them. Which is why, as I said, most female MCs you see are the 'badass alpha' types that are basically reskinned male characters, or emo romantic types like you see in Twilight. Neither of which is a good representation of a typical woman that you'd see walking around in the world around us.
I don't particularly care to buy into that sort of things, as it's impossible to seperate cultural and inborn differences. Humans are extreme neuroplastic, most of the differences are a. statistical and b. coloured by the researcher's own cultural prejudices. I think it's more a question of the writer's skill than their gender whether or not a female character is flat.
^ Except we do know that women have certain psychological quirks that men don't. That's just a basic biological fact as a result of different hormones all stemming from differing sexual characteristics. Saying that the chemicals directing psychology don't affect behaviors is like taking methamphetamine and expecting to trip like you're on LSD. As neuroplastic as humans are, we are still animals to that end. In real life, it's usually far more subtle than it ever is in fiction. While culture does indeed drive most of these differences, puberty essentially kicks off the moment men and women start generally differing in behavior in every culture. It sucks. It's not politically correct to say this. And it certainly won't remain true past this century (possibly even the early 21st century). But it's true at least at the moment. The big problem is with pigeonholing women into the same five or six archetypes (i.e. Mother; Pure Innocence; Slutty Temptress; Wizened Hag; Manic Pixie Dream Girl; in modern times, Strong Female Characters™) and the same three body-types (i.e. hour-glass figure with big breasts; plain and homely hour-glass figure with big breasts; and Wizened Hag).
Eh, I'm not going to fight about it - none of us here, I am willing to bet, are neurophysiologists or anthropologists - I've just found that scientific opinion leans more and more to the differences between any random male and female being more statistics than biology. Go back 200 years and you'd see people arguing that evidence was solid certain races were biologically different at fundamental levels. If I had to bet cash money, that's where I'm betting. And again, no matter the scientific debate, it's writer competence and a degree of reader laziness/obstinence/pissiness more than anything else.
I feel like writers who do both genders well generally don't perceive a huge difference between the sexes. Just by not having that mental block of the opposite sex being "the other" helps a great deal, IMHO. Also, sometimes if the author doesn't really have any experience with a healthy adult relationship, it shows... in a really cringe-y way.
Howdy! I'm the author of Couch Potato Chaos which just launched last weekend and features a strong female MC who rides a velociraptor, wields a gunblade, and can eat her weight in tacos. I may have exaggerated that last bit. Anyway, let me know if you like it! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FDTPN2R/
If still looking for female MC my books have one. It is only light litrpg though and book 3 is not litrpg anymore only the book 1 and 2. March of the Gnomes https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07D5PCXXW
Knd of makes me wonder what people have to say about trans women characters then. Remember when this one lady on Youtube was saying because you've transitioned only within the year, you have no clue about feminism? What a completely dumb argument, and one that assumes certain things she has no experience in. We need better representatives in Anarcho-Communist circles. If you're a trans woman, you always have been a woman. This is not a topic for debate. I'm still going to market trans women as female characters, regardless of what some random person on Gab thinks.
https://www.amazon.com/Gamers-Cambry-Varner-ebook/dp/B08B6GJRWD/ I edited this. Two well drawn women MCs (Cleric and Rogue). Half-sisters trapped in the game.
Here are a few I don't think anyone has mentioned: The Dungeon Shop by Chris Ford Small Medium by Andrew Seiple Lotus Lake by Jay Boyce This Goodreads list has a quite a few: LitRPG with a female heroine
