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

[museofdoom]

no cause i'm a girl, and lets be honest here, most games have male protagonists and it would be a tough gamer life for me if i felt 'awkward' about it. i mean yeah there are games that give you a choice, or actually have a badass woman protagonist, but it's still not as common. i like playing as women and it irks me that it's commonly either not an option, or the female characters are sexualized to high holy hell because apparently some game makers think men won't be interested in a female if she isn't society's standard of hot. yay misogyny! although props to mass effect, fallout, and skyrim for female options that aren't sexualized, can we have three cheers for practical female armor??

 

[Flamezdudes]

In most games I don't have a problem with it at all, I don't mind at all if I have no choice in the character and they are firmly established as the opposite gender.

However, in RPG's and games where I can actually choose my gender and create my character? I find it awkward as fuck and I don't like it one bit, since I roleplay my character's as male because well... I am myself, male.

 

[Yuuki]

So TL;DR There may or may be not competitive FPS with hitbox issues, but theres DEFINITIVLY smaller model "issues" that may cause someone who uses small characters to have the adventage.

Well easily the most prime examples of where hitboxes matter are MMORPG's, and you will see that in e.g. WoW everything from the tiniest Gnome to the most freakishly huge Tauren has exactly the same hitbox and exactly the same "sword swing" radius...because in a competitive scene it's extremely important something like hitboxes are equal :S

GW2 is an even more extreme example where the size difference between an Asura (all sliders minimum) and a Norn (all sliders maxed) is something like 10 TIMES scale difference, when the two of them fight it looks like a hamster fighting a grizzly bear...but the hitboxes are still exactly the same

 

[Another]

I actually prefer playing female in video games. I get plenty of opportunities to be a guys so I leap on the chance to pick the opposite.

That said, in table tops I always choose male. Mostly because my acting would be really awkward.

 

[BeeGeenie]

Not particularly. It's not my default choice, but whatever.

If you find it hard to relate to being a female because you aren't one in real life, then you should also find it difficult to relate to being an unstoppable badass. ;D

 

[Mikejames]

To be honest, I just find it much more difficult to relate with female characters in games than male ones. Gender in development isn't decided the same way as it is in real life. Devs don't flip a coin to decide if the PC is male or female. There are reasons to make characters male, and reasons to make characters female. And I personally can't get behind many 'female' motivations or character flaws.

In situations where I get to decide gender I pick male, pretty much because, again, it is easier to relate to, even when gender has no real impact on gameplay.

You say it's easier to relate to your own gender, but do you really think that male motivations and flaws are so alien to females?

I've played games with women trying to save a friend or avenge a family member. Simply having the story be about a girl doesn't mean that the conflict and hardships have to completely revolve around it.

 

[amara2021]

I like playing as both male and female characters. If it's a story driven game with a static main character, I'm fine with playing dudes cause 90% of all games ever have male protagonists. In fact, if it ever was weird for me I've long since gotten used to it because of that. I don't even mind it when romance is involved, unless the love interest is some uninteresting bimbo. I usually keep a small stable full of characters of different genders and races in mmos and RPGs since the game can sometimes change depending on those traits and it's interesting to see how.

 

[excalipoor]

No. I could not give less of a rat's ass about the PC's gender. Given the choice, I'd wager the larger portion of my characters are created male, but it's pretty close.

 

[Praetox]

Not at all. I find it kind of refreshing, actually, so long as the game is good

 

[deathzero021]

nope, i never did and in many games might have even preferred to. this should have been a poll.

 

[aguspal]

So TL;DR There may or may be not competitive FPS with hitbox issues, but theres DEFINITIVLY smaller model "issues" that may cause someone who uses small characters to have the adventage.

Well easily the most prime examples of where hitboxes matter are MMORPG's, and you will see that in e.g. WoW everything from the tiniest Gnome to the most freakishly huge Tauren has exactly the same hitbox and exactly the same "sword swing" radius...because in a competitive scene it's extremely important something like hitboxes are equal :S

GW2 is an even more extreme example where the size difference between an Asura (all sliders minimum) and a Norn (all sliders maxed) is something like 10 TIMES scale difference, when the two of them fight it looks like a hamster fighting a grizzly bear...but the hitboxes are still exactly the same

Yep. having the same hitboxes is vital for a healthy balance in any kind of competitive game. Well, at least if all the characters are suppused to be equal. If its a game where, say, you have a brute force character thats class tank and all, I guess it makes sence for his hitbox to be huge since its part of the character cons...


Still, sometimes, like the Combat Arms example I gave its just unfair adventage. And it does much more damage than what most people realize. Its not gamebreaking but again, its still an unfair adventage.

 

[Mersadeon]

In Videogames? Not a problem. In pen and paper RPs like D&D? I like playing a male hero, simply because I can't imitate female voices, and it kinda seems incomplete that way. On the other hand, I'm normally a DM, so I "play" male and female characters all the time.
LARPs, on the other hand... I don't like to crossdress, so no, I stay male.

Edit: Also, I'm playing in a group of girls right now, and they seem to have no problem crossplaying, neither in The Dark Eye, nor during LARPs. Or cross-cos-playing during conventions, for that matter.

 

[pyrokitsune777]

I have no problem with a game presenting me with a either male or female character as the primary protagonist and means of experiencing the game presented so long as that character is a character rather than a wooden plank made of archetypes (or worse - stereotypes). I'll often play both a male and female in any RPG with character creation. My female Shepard is the one I always use with I replay ME 1, ME 2 or ME 3. I will admit that in a table top RPG I tend to play male characters better than female characters.

 

[SteewpidZombie]

Only if the character is a horribly written cliche. I don't like playing Princess Peach type characters where their most distinctive personality traits are giggling at heroes or gasping at 'scary' bad guys.

I prefer playing characters like Faith from Mirrors Edge, or Lara Croft from the new Tomb Raider game when I have to play the opposite gender. Playing a empowered character who could be a badass regardless of gender is mainly what makes characters appealing to me. Although SOME characters are a exception. Like John Marston from Read Dead Redemption was a good character that wouldn't quite feel the same as a woman, or Lara Croft wouldn't be the same either (She'd basically be Nathan Drake with a different personality...which would suck).

 

[The_Blue_Rider]

I dont care the gender of the main character. Although if its a character creation system I will make guys 99% of the time jut because thats my gender

 

[chikusho]

I absolutely love to play as female characters. There's something inherently empowering about badass chicks.

 

[Kirov Reporting]

Doesn't bother me, but the first time I played Gears of War I did get a chuckle from being a well-armed walking bus!

 

[luke10123]

Nope, not at all, especially if they're good, well written characters!

 

[NezumiiroKitsune]

No, that's completely absurd. The same answer for every gender, sex, orientation, race, nationality, species, or much anything else that you could categorise a person(ality) with.

I can't quite include all beliefs and ideologies in that, but most. If a game had me take on the role of a neo-nazi sociopath, and story progression necessitated I act as this character, going about their abhorrent business, I'd feel uncomfortable.

That doesn't happen very often.

 

[Drake the Dragonheart]

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??

I know, right?