Do you find playing a character of the other gender awkward?

[Drake the Dragonheart]

How do feel about playing characters of the opposite gender, whether it be in a video game or table top pen and paper RPG's?

I have no particular feelings about it. I have made/played both male and female characters in both, as have most of my friends in my RP group.

I do have one friend, while awkward wouldn't be the right word for it, he has no qualms about playing a female character (had a rather strong amazon build on Diablo 2 if I remember), but if given the option he will make a male character. I think that springs from when he would DM, if a male player made a female character, he had them try to mimic the female voice. we eventually abandoned this practice as too many times we would forget, and had a female character with a male sounding voice.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I couldn't care less. I picked Jill in the original Resident Evil because she had bigger pockets than Chris. I played through the whole game without thinking once about her. Same in Resident Evil 2 - Claire had the easier campaign, I think. On the other hand I always played as a male character in games like Diablo and Baldur's Gate, but that's because I don't like the ranged attacks female characters in RPGs are usually associated with. So no, gender isn't a thing for me in choosing between male and female characters - I just weigh in their gameplay features and go with whatever suits me best.

 

[VanQ]

No, of course not. I've been playing female characters in MMOs for as long as I could remember. Ever since I signed up for Tibia back in 2000, I've always enjoyed playing a female character more. Dunno why, I just do.

I even seek out female protagonists in other genres as well. Not that I really care what gender a character is as long as they're well written but I like playing a female as much as I like being a guy. My all time favorite self-insert character happens to be FeMC from P3P. Yet my favorite protagonist with a personality is Yuri Lowell from Tales of Vesperia. I also always pick the female sprite in every Pokemon game because the female designs just seem better to me.

There's no need to feel awkward. Gaming gives you the option to enjoy both worlds. So go and enjoy it.

 

[Legion]

I don't project myself onto characters unless it is the kind of game where you create your own. I tend to view it the same way as reading a book, when it comes to playing a game. I am not playing as me, I am experiencing somebody else's story through their eyes.

So the gender of the character matters about as much to me as their favourite colour.

 

[Fappy]

I have no problem with it at all. In fact, in games where gender has zero impact on anything of note (primarily the story) I usually prefer to play females. In tabletop I am about 70/30 male-to-female. I prefer to play males simply because it is much easier to do (I am male after all), but I like playing females when I come up with a character I want to play.

 

[Zhukov]

Nope, never had a problem playing as a chick.

I didn't feel any less "connected" to Jade or Lara or April Ryan than to, say, Nathen Drake.

Actually, come to think of it, I often sympathize more with female characters since they're more often allowed to show emotion or weakness, whereas the dudes have a tendency to be incapable of anything other than grim determination and violence rage.

Hell, I often make female characters in games that let you choose the gender of the protagonist. Sometimes for aesthetics and sometimes just for the variety.

 

[Toxic Sniper]

I vary it up. In Demon's Souls, I chose a female character because the only decent-looking preset face was female and I was unwilling to go through the long process of character creation. Then I started a Dark Souls account with a male face (Although based off a certain butcher-knife wielding female npc).

I usually don't have problems projecting onto a character if the game is engrossing, whether that character is male or female, white or black, rich or poor, human or alien.

 

[Jandau]

Depends. Is it a game where I get to create a character? And if yes, how much of a blank slate is that character?

If it is a game with a predetermined protagonist, I have no problems playing a female character. I'm not projecting myself onto the character I play, so I don't feel awkward about the whole thing. This also applies to games where I can pick a prebuilt female character that in some ways affects the way the game plays, like Diablo 2 or Borderlands - in this case I'm picking a game mechanic more than I'm picking a character.

However, if the game requires me to make a character, then things get more complicated. In this situation, it's more about projecting myself onto the character I play. If the character isn't a complete blank slate, I can still go through with a female (Mass Effect is an example), but otherwise I find it awkward and ultimately unpleasant to play a female. This would be mostly MMOs and such, where the character you make tends to have no personality outside what you project onto him/her.

 

[scorptatious]

Not really. In fact, playing as a girl gives me the oppurtunity to look at her...

...um...

hair! That's it! Hair... >_>

In all seriousness though, with games like Mass Effect or the Fallout games, I tend to do multiple playthroughs playing different genders depending on what kind of character I want to play as. For example, in one of my Fallout: New Vegas playthroughs, I play as a seductive black widow kind of character. I would seduce Benny and then kill him in his sleep. Plus, I made her a cannibal, so she gets to eat his corpse afterwards.

Dammit, why isn't there an achievement for that??

 

[shrekfan246]

Nope.

Most of my Diablo III characters are female.

If there's a character creator, I'll usually make a male for my first game and go through a second (or subsequent multiple times) as a female.

In Mass Effect, the only thing that really stops me from always making FemShep is the fact that Jack and Tali aren't bisexual. It's one of the hardest things in the world to make a Custom MaleShep that actually looks human.

 

[Ryotknife]

I usually play as a female character as they are usually more fleshed out, at least emotionally. I think the only time I played a female character that sent out bad vibes was FF X-2.

 

[Panthera]

I don't really think anything of the gender of the character I'm playing. In a game with fixed characters, it doesn't matter to me. In games with character customization, I generally switch back and forth between male and female from playthrough to playthrough and I often forget which I'm playing as at any given moment.

 

[Pulse]

If there's character customisation, then I make it as close to me as possible on the first playthrough and since I happen to be male, that's what I make my character.

That's about it. Apart from that it's a complete non issue.

 

[go-10]

I lay a character based on what my friends
if all my friends are playing a male I'll play female or vice versa, if they're evenly split between male and female I simply flip a coin and make that character gay/lesbian; so no I don't really care since its all RP

now in video games I usually go for males unless the females look cooler, its all based on looks when it comes to video games I couldn't care less about practicality when in a fantasy, I did grow up reading about a dude in spandex that never got excited

 

[The Wykydtron]

Nope, don't give a fuck. When i'm picking a character I start by going "What's the coolest looking thing here?" and go from there.

Thinking about it, all my fighting game characters are female with the exception of Phoenix Wright and Dante in UMVC3. I play Makoto and Mu-12 in BlazBlue, mostly Mu now actually. Boxers are just not my thing. I DO love Hazama though. Man he's cool... I can't play him and about 75% of how to play him is playing damn mind games with your opponent.

Then there's me playing nothing but Shadow Labrys in P4A. As in I try to switch to Naoto sometimes then instantly regret it when on the loading screen then spend the entire match pining for Shabrys. I just won a Labrys vs Shadow Labrys game today. I dunno if I should feel happy about that to be honest.

So yeah, female characters are cooler. Oh and somebody better not post some Hakumen bullshit as a counter point. He's not cool, he's trying too hard

 

[krazykidd]

I like women . So i always choose a girl if they option is there . And i make her as sexy as i possibly can . Which means big boobs ( and a huge booty if possibly ). Yeah i'm one of those guys . Come at me bros .

 

[generals3]

It depends on the game and how immersive it is. If the character could just as well be a stickman i wouldn't care but if the character is quite important to the game i do mind playing as a female character. I tend to "self-insert" myself into the character and it just doesn't feel right if the character is of the opposite gender.

 

[Caiphus]

Not awkward as such. I usually like to project myself onto my characters in RPGs and stuff though, so that would certainly make it a bit more difficult to do. But even then I occasionally play as female characters. My first alt in MMOs is usually female.

I must say though, I tend to avoid the romance options a lot more if I'm playing as a female character. Which probably says something bad about my personality, but as long as we're being honest, there you have it.