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

[Gatx]

Not really. I make female characters sometimes when I play MMORPGs (though if there's a bio section I usually put a disclaimer to avoid weirdos) and games that allow custom characters as well. Though I imagine if I played a tabletop game that requires some degree of roleplaying, I probably wouldn't unless it was more lighthearted.

 

[Diddy_Mao]

In most games where I'm allowed to choose my avatar I find that I usually go for a female character.
That does tend to rely heavily on the look and feel of the game of course but I'd say 9 times out of 10 if given the choice I'll play as a female character.

In terms of games where the protagonist is female by design. I don't really think about to too much in terms of gender and more how the character is written.

 

[likalaruku]

I'm a bisexual tomboy, so no problems for me.

 

[wintercoat]

Not at all. In fact, I prefer playing as a female character, mainly because the character models are nicer to look at, and the voice actors are easier on the ears more often than not.

 

[Sansha]

Usually. I like to base characters upon myself but in circumstances I don't mind. Namely L4D comes to mind - Zoey is always my first choice if I can pick my character. L4D2 has me picking Nick > Ellis > Coach > Rochelle, but that's because Ro's character is boring and undeveloped.

I'm not fussed about *having to* play a female character if that's my only option.

In WoW, I have one female character, and EVE Online I have three.

So I guess I'm pretty balanced.

 

[Action Jack]

Nope. In games where I can choose a character but can't create one from scratch, I often wind up with a woman because they tend to be faster. In Left 4 Dead, I played Zoey because I liked her personality the best (well okay, I picked her because I was used to playing the girl, but I *kept* playing her because I related most to her).

When I can make whatever I want, I go back and Forth. I played through Fallout 2 with each gender to see how it would change. I was a man in Fallout 3, then I was going to be a woman in New Vegas but changed my mind at the last minute because I wanted a sweet mustache. In Mass Effect, I was intrigued by all the sliders and tried to make Commander Shepard the ugliest woman possible. I failed, but I was pleased to march around the universe with an all-female death squad.

 

[Alakaizer]

It's all based on immersion. Some stuff does it well (all Metroid minus Other M), other stuff, not so much(Blades of Time).

 

[dontlooknow]

Actually, I'd say I generally prefer playing a female role - this doesn't apply to every game, but female leads in most story-telling media are so rare that I quite like the novelty of viewing the narrative from a different gender.

 

[FreakofNatur]

It depends on the demands of the game.

I play any gender so long as it fills the roles that they ask you to play. For example, I wouldn't play a female healer in the game if the game states that females have affinity towards offensive magic rather than defensive magic, even if the game allows me to play the female character equally effectively as a male character.

It's good to follow the lore of the game to make the game feel smoother i guess. Commander shepard was always a male archetype to me because mine was a ruthless sole survivor. I don't think a female shepard would be one that could adequately represent the physical feats shepard participated in simply due to the rather slim model used for the female shepard.

Gender is unfortunately tied closely to sexism(READ:feminism), and I can say nothing more without agitating any responses.

 

[MorganL4]

My main in Diablo 2 was an Amazon, but that was because I liked the long ranged attack possibilities that game with a bow. The fact that she was female never really entered into it. I have made female characters since then, because I had a particular character in mind that I wanted to try role playing. I made a female breton in Skyrim, because I wanted to role play a backstory that wouldn't work as well with a male. But most times I make male characters in video game RPGs


In pen and paper, I have always played a male, because attempting to play a female just doesn't work that well when you have to speak for the character, it always seems to break immersion.

 

[Mauler]

Wait what??? This discussion...? AGAIN??? ! Well no i dont get sexually aroused or disgusted when im playing female protagonist in games because i dont get the same thing when playing male... Why you all try to find some hidden gender proactive fault in ewreything you do(not you but them who dont read what i just wrote...) and extrawertly try to prove that those feminists/showinistic males are to blame for ewreything that's dont come to your tastes i mean come on why did the We are entitled to better ME3 ENDING!!!(WHAAAAGH!!!) come from... From the case that it wasn't something you thought it would be so you judge the whole product by the one and only flaw(yes there may be many but stil) and say that it's an ABOMINATION... and yea it's not awkward for me to play opposite sex...(in the game i mean...(yeah right...))...

 

[Nomadiac]

I only project myself onto the character I create on my first playthroughs of games, so on other playthroughs I often create female characters to get slightly a slightly different experience. I don't find it any more awkward than playing a male character where I'm not identifying myself as him. I'm still connected to my character, as with characters in any work of fiction, but I have a vision of who they are that is very different from my vision of myself.

 

[manic_depressive13]

No. In fact most of the time I prefer to play male characters. Playing characters of my own gender in games makes me uncomfortable. I'd rather pick a male avatar and pretend it's actually a woman under the armour, than play as someone's sexual fantasy.

And I'm so tired of female characters having orgasms when they die. That's not what cries of agony sound like.

 

[Autumnflame]

given the choice i always play an opposite gendered character.

i find it better for whatever reason.

i feel more awkward when i play as my own gender

 

[Yopaz]

No, but I never make female characters if the option is there. I don't project myself to my vharacter so I don't care enough to pick any option other than default male number 1. I want to play the game, not the character simulation.

In games where the characters control differently I just pick one I like. Tales of Graces F: turns out Cheria is pretty badass and very fun to play as.

 

[Xukog]

I don't really care to be honest,hell the few times I have played fighting games,I tend to favor female characters simply because the most agile character tends to be female.

 

[Daniel Ferguson]

In single-player games, fine. In MMOs, forget it.

 

[Saulkar]

I actually prefer it given that I get a jolly off of curb-stomping men who look down on women because they are women in the few games that such things are acknowledged, I do not know why.

 

[Dizeazedkiller]

Most of the time no. But once upon a time when i spent my days rping on SotDRP maps on WCIII i decided to rp a female character and eventually became the love interest of a male character. I horrible at replicating that sort of thing in my actual gender but doing it as a female character was awkward.