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Do you play the same gender as you? And why?
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NotaDaedraWorshipper✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭✭The longer I think about my characters, I've also realized that some share some aspects of me, things that probably even developed in an unconscious or subconscious way
Personality aspects, ways of thinking and reacting,... Their physical form (and therefore also their gender or sex) are meaningless for me, when it comes to that, though.
It's funny actually, if I see some guys who declare they could never play a woman, because they don't know how a woman thinks - but then they play Khajiit, Argonians or even goblins? I'd assume humans of whatever gender are closer in their way of thinking then humans and goblins... But, as I said: To each their own!
The sharing aspects of yourself is quite common I think for writers or people who roleplay in some form, going by various discussions with people in those circles. Either on purpose, or subconciously. There has been times when I've made a character I thought was in no way similar to myself, only to later notice that tiny little aspect had slipped in without me realising until then.[Lie] Of course! I don't even worship Daedra!2 -
renne✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭Both, but in ESO it's majority female because frankly the female toons are easier to make look nice and I'm shallow like that.
I do like to play female characters in games where they give you an option, because until fairly recently pretty much the only option for single player games without choice was to play male characters. 2 -
Grianasteri✭✭✭✭✭
✭Do you typically play characters of the same gender as you? And why?
I play the same sex as me. I have 18 characters, only 2 of them are a different sex to my own. My characters are generally an extension of myself in one way or another, fantasy/role play/aesthetic wise, hence almost always creating the same sex as myself.
(The terms gender and sex are often conflated, but technically they have different meanings, and those meanings are important for a variety of reasons. Historically I think gender came to be used because it seemed more polite or acceptable than using the term, sex).Edited by Grianasteri on February 23, 2021 3:55PM1 -
Grianasteri✭✭✭✭✭
✭I dislike playing a gender other than my own so much, that I refuse to even try games like The Witcher and Red Dead Redemption, even though I am very much drawn to them
Totally agree. In almost every game where using a character of any kind is part of the mechanics, I choose the same sex as myself, because in my mind, immersion wise, I am playing a character that is an extension of me, that IS ME in the game, so I choose the same sex as me and generally go for aesthetics accordingly.
Where a game does NOT have an option for me to choose to play as the same sex as I am, I can enjoy it, but it just doesnt feel right and I am therefore not drawn to those games.2 -
Sylvermynx✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭✭Grianasteri wrote: »I dislike playing a gender other than my own so much, that I refuse to even try games like The Witcher and Red Dead Redemption, even though I am very much drawn to them
Totally agree. In almost every game where using a character of any kind is part of the mechanics, I choose the same sex as myself, because in my mind, immersion wise, I am playing a character that is an extension of me, that IS ME in the game, so I choose the same sex as me and generally go for aesthetics accordingly.
Where a game does NOT have an option for me to choose to play as the same sex as I am, I can enjoy it, but it just doesnt feel right and I am therefore not drawn to those games.
Right there with both of you. Not playing a game that gives me no choice - because choice is the single most important thing of all.2 -
Kiralyn2000✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭✭Different genderGrianasteri wrote: »I dislike playing a gender other than my own so much, that I refuse to even try games like The Witcher and Red Dead Redemption, even though I am very much drawn to them
Totally agree. In almost every game where using a character of any kind is part of the mechanics, I choose the same sex as myself, because in my mind, immersion wise, I am playing a character that is an extension of me, that IS ME in the game, so I choose the same sex as me and generally go for aesthetics accordingly.
Where a game does NOT have an option for me to choose to play as the same sex as I am, I can enjoy it, but it just doesnt feel right and I am therefore not drawn to those games.
Whereas I don't believe in/suffer from "immersion", and don't see playing a narrative game with a character as that different from reading a book or watching a movie. I'm an external observer to what the character is doing.
Of course, that means that I choose not to play games for other reasons - I skipped the later Witcher games because I can't stand Geralt, and I skipped RDR2 because I play games for entertainment/enjoyment/escape not to experience Depressing Tales Of Real West Criminals.
(I tend not to play games where you play a badguy - RDR, GTA, etc - because I don't find that appealing. I don't haul of and slaughter towns & annoying NPCs in games like Skyrim, either. Grew out of that when I was a pre-teen. /shrug)1 -
Integral1900✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭Different genderIt will depend upon your relationship with the character. If you see yourself as that character, literally moving around in the world then I suppose you’re more likely to choose your own gender. Personally I have never felt like that in any game, I always felt as if I was one half of a storytelling team with the game developers being the other half
My main hobby is writing fantasy fiction, I grew up at the time when basically every single hero was a man. With a handful of notoriously bikini clad exceptions. This has given me a profound boredom with male characters, therefore The main characters in my books are invariably female. I find them more interesting. It’s a simple as that
One thing to bear in mind is that I had the supreme good fortune to marry a real life Amazon, which gives you a whole different perspective on the world, especially if you come from as old-fashioned a family as I did. The mother of our two wonderful children. I met her at a historical re-enactment. There is very little as impressive as watching a lady who can use a hundred and eighty pound draw weight Glamorgan longbow. I think we hit it off because we are both as goofy and geeky as each other, also I was one of the few people in the crowd tall enough to look her in the eye 😇4 -
Inaya✭✭✭✭✭
✭Same genderI play both, but more like female character.
Play the same gender is always mistake of new players who associate themselves with character.
[snip]
[Edited to remove Inappropriate Content]
Not true at all. I started with Inaya on FFXI and have always played female characters.0 -
Danikat✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭✭Sylvermynx wrote: »Grianasteri wrote: »I dislike playing a gender other than my own so much, that I refuse to even try games like The Witcher and Red Dead Redemption, even though I am very much drawn to them
Totally agree. In almost every game where using a character of any kind is part of the mechanics, I choose the same sex as myself, because in my mind, immersion wise, I am playing a character that is an extension of me, that IS ME in the game, so I choose the same sex as me and generally go for aesthetics accordingly.
Where a game does NOT have an option for me to choose to play as the same sex as I am, I can enjoy it, but it just doesnt feel right and I am therefore not drawn to those games.
Right there with both of you. Not playing a game that gives me no choice - because choice is the single most important thing of all.
I sometimes wonder if prior experience is a factor in how players feel about playing a character who looks like them.
I started playing computer games when I was about 3 and using a ZX Spectrum so your 'character' was usually some sort of blob or cube, and I rarely got to see the box art to find out what they were supposed to be. After that it was games with a fixed protagonist. I was 8 when I first played a game with a character creator (a DnD game called Eye of the Beholder) but there was obviously no option to make a character look like an 8 year old girl, so it was a long time before I could even try to make a character look like me. When I could I didn't want to, it never occurred to me to try until I found out from online discussions that other people did that.
I suppose Link's Awakening on the Gameboy was my first chance to pretend that was me in the game, because you could put your own name in and with a tiny grey top-down sprite gender is irrelevant. But I tried using my name once, found it weird and restarted using Link and never went back. My husband actually thought it was only the earliest Zelda games that let you choose a name, because he'd only seen me playing the later ones and didn't realise I choose not to. As I said earlier in this thread appearance and gender are fairly far down my list of reasons the main character in a game is obviously not me, so even with those options giving them my name or making them look like me just seems weird. (Even so, after years of saying online "If I was me in a game I'd be the merchant staying in town selling stuff to the adventurers" A Link Between Worlds was a bit of an FU, but that's another topic.)
But then I've always made up a character to pretend to be in games. Those amorphous blobs in ZX Spectrum games? The protagonist of text-based adventure games given absolutely no characterisation and referred to exclusively as 'you'? The 'hand of god' represented only as a cursor in strategy games? If the game didn't give them a backstory I'd make up my own and it was never about me. I wrote literal stories about my 'characters' in Warcraft I & II (the strategy ones, not the MMO), not good stories but even so I had a whole backstory worked out, future ambitions and I'd sometimes 'role-play' in the game itself - using the tactics I thought the character would choose. Even in The Sims I don't make myself or my family and friends.
Whenever I've played a game with a character creator my first through is to see what kind of cool or interesting person I can make, never to see if I can make me. When I started Morrowind I was a bit disappointed at first that all the races seemed to be 'just' humans or elves, then I made first an argonian and then a khajiit just because they were far more unusual.
So I'm not sure. Maybe it's because I had all those years of not being able to play myself, but maybe it's because for me games have always been about doing things I can't or wouldn't do in real life and pretending to be someone else is part of that.PC EU player | She/her/hers | PAWS (Positively Against Wrip-off Stuff) - Say No to Crown Crates!
"Remember in this game we call life that no one said it's fair"2 -
dcmgti✭✭✭I'm male and all my toons are male. For no other reason than I prefer my characters as males after creating both when I first started playing. Just my personal preference.0
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CSose✭✭✭✭This is an aside, but as someone who makes both male and female toons, has anyone else noticed that female toons have a slight butt waggle and they carry their arms/hands differently? It's really noticeable with certain armor styles. So male and female toons even have slightly different animations in ESO. At least at first they really payed attention to the details.Edited by CSose on February 23, 2021 4:53PM0
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SilverBride✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭✭Same genderOut of all the male characters I've created then ended up changing to female or deleting I was successful with one. I think that's because he was a male Worgen in WoW, and I kept him in Worgen form at all times. So he didn't really look like a human male but rather like a male wolf like creature. Otherwise I always developed a disconnect from the character.
One thing I hadn't anticipated was how many female characters would come on to me when I played a male. That's another reason I couldn't continue playing them. I got tired of of explaining.PCNA1 -
Neriak✭✭✭Different genderI'm a girl playing male characters (dunmers are my fav) because hmmm, two reasons:
1. it's hard to make a cute dunmeri girl (no offense to my beautiful dunmeri sisters here, I saw quite a few stunning dark elf ladies in game)
2. I don't like to see a female character fighting, it's not aesthetically pleasing (just my personal opinion), but throwing my boys at enemies in Tamriel or Cyro - oh, what a pleasure to behold
The funny thing I've noticed is that real females (I assume) playing female characters often ask me for in-game help.Edited by Neriak on February 23, 2021 5:45PMEnergy powers future motion.
Dynamic forces spur change.
Nature encourages mutual dependence.
Balanced systems stimulate civilization.
PC EU1 -
robwolf666✭✭✭✭✭
✭Same genderSame gender. Wouldn't feel the same as an RPG otherwise. (To me anyway)0 -
3rdpig✭✭Same genderI'm a role player. And since I'm a man and never really had enough imagination to role play a female, I stick with male characters. And since I'm big and ugly, my characters also tend to look like that. Again, I guess I just don't have the imagination required.2
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rpa✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭Same genderI have an obligatory argonian maid and also a khajit tomboy (the shorts started to annoy me when I was creating him) and the rest are male. I don't find gender of video game characters - or players - a big deal.Edited by rpa on February 23, 2021 6:57PM0 -
Neriak✭✭✭Different gender
I'm always more than eager to help someone in MMOs I just noticed that 7 of 10 requests are (presumably) females asking my male characters for help. It's nothing but my humble observations. My one and only female character rarely gets such requests, only funny whispers on her looks (but that's whole another story). Energy powers future motion.
Dynamic forces spur change.
Nature encourages mutual dependence.
Balanced systems stimulate civilization.
PC EU0 -
renne✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭The funny thing I've noticed is that real females (I assume) playing female characters often ask me for in-game help.
Why are you assuming that? Because they play female characters? From their username?
Because as this thread proves you can't assume that someone is male or female from either of those things. I have a username that I thought was relatively gender neutral and every single person who doesn't know me who's encountered me in game has assumed I'm a dude, and I play a female toon main, so your assumptions absolutely do not mean that the person asking for help is actual a woman.2 -
Sylvermynx✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭✭Sylvermynx wrote: »Grianasteri wrote: »I dislike playing a gender other than my own so much, that I refuse to even try games like The Witcher and Red Dead Redemption, even though I am very much drawn to them
Totally agree. In almost every game where using a character of any kind is part of the mechanics, I choose the same sex as myself, because in my mind, immersion wise, I am playing a character that is an extension of me, that IS ME in the game, so I choose the same sex as me and generally go for aesthetics accordingly.
Where a game does NOT have an option for me to choose to play as the same sex as I am, I can enjoy it, but it just doesnt feel right and I am therefore not drawn to those games.
Right there with both of you. Not playing a game that gives me no choice - because choice is the single most important thing of all.
I sometimes wonder if prior experience is a factor in how players feel about playing a character who looks like them.
I started playing computer games when I was about 3 and using a ZX Spectrum so your 'character' was usually some sort of blob or cube, and I rarely got to see the box art to find out what they were supposed to be. After that it was games with a fixed protagonist. I was 8 when I first played a game with a character creator (a DnD game called Eye of the Beholder) but there was obviously no option to make a character look like an 8 year old girl, so it was a long time before I could even try to make a character look like me. When I could I didn't want to, it never occurred to me to try until I found out from online discussions that other people did that.
I suppose Link's Awakening on the Gameboy was my first chance to pretend that was me in the game, because you could put your own name in and with a tiny grey top-down sprite gender is irrelevant. But I tried using my name once, found it weird and restarted using Link and never went back. My husband actually thought it was only the earliest Zelda games that let you choose a name, because he'd only seen me playing the later ones and didn't realise I choose not to. As I said earlier in this thread appearance and gender are fairly far down my list of reasons the main character in a game is obviously not me, so even with those options giving them my name or making them look like me just seems weird. (Even so, after years of saying online "If I was me in a game I'd be the merchant staying in town selling stuff to the adventurers" A Link Between Worlds was a bit of an FU, but that's another topic.)
But then I've always made up a character to pretend to be in games. Those amorphous blobs in ZX Spectrum games? The protagonist of text-based adventure games given absolutely no characterisation and referred to exclusively as 'you'? The 'hand of god' represented only as a cursor in strategy games? If the game didn't give them a backstory I'd make up my own and it was never about me. I wrote literal stories about my 'characters' in Warcraft I & II (the strategy ones, not the MMO), not good stories but even so I had a whole backstory worked out, future ambitions and I'd sometimes 'role-play' in the game itself - using the tactics I thought the character would choose. Even in The Sims I don't make myself or my family and friends.
Whenever I've played a game with a character creator my first through is to see what kind of cool or interesting person I can make, never to see if I can make me. When I started Morrowind I was a bit disappointed at first that all the races seemed to be 'just' humans or elves, then I made first an argonian and then a khajiit just because they were far more unusual.
So I'm not sure. Maybe it's because I had all those years of not being able to play myself, but maybe it's because for me games have always been about doing things I can't or wouldn't do in real life and pretending to be someone else is part of that.
That's interesting! Might be a great study for a college student?
I haven't ever tried to make characters look like me - I make them to be all the things I'm not: tall, slim, enough muscles for sword-swinging, as beautiful as possible given in-game races (which is why no orcs or argonians). Now, even though I choose females in the TES single-player games - and back in my WoW and RIFT days I didn't ever play males - I have a certain number of guys across both accounts and both servers. I tend to not like them as well as my women - seems like they all have weird leg stuff going on (they look strange when they run, especially Breton and Imperial males which are my favorite races).
Even if I wanted to make "me" - I wouldn't be able to, because I always have all these people in my head begging me to make them first!0
