Do you 'self-insert' in videogames?

[DoctorImpossible]

By 'self-insert' I mean: when given a good character creation tool do you enjoy crafting a reasonable likeness of yourself and playing through the story as if you were the main character? This can range from building a Shepard version of you in Mass Effect to statting up yourself as the starting QB of your favorite football team in Madden.

Or do you prefer to play 'canon' or default characters, or create a character unique to the situation the game sets up?

 

[Kopikatsu]

I tend to make my characters the opposite of me. Opposite gender, completely different hair style, different hair color, etc.

Hey, if you're going to delve into fantasy, may as well go all the way, right?

 

[Vault101]

hard question....

yes and no, generally I try and create the charachter as their own entity..but I do project I supose

that said I'll always prefer the comander shepard aproach to the elder scrolls aproach

 

[skywolfblue]

I'd say no.

I treat characters as their own entities. Their own hopes and dreams. The only thing I control is where they're pointing and the moral choices they make. Silent protagonists are bland to me.

 

[Ryotknife]

I usually pretend to be someone else.

I do tend to play female characters quite a bit, but for reasons other than "i wonder what it is like to be a chick."

Mass effect for example i just really like the female voice actor better. Femshep makes for a badass renegade.

Warband I choose a female because it is easier to conquer the world as a woman than a man (whipped husband HO!)

Skyrim I choose a female because they look freakin AMAZING in ebony armor, more so than the male model. The color scheme, the curves, the design (swoons)

 

[Eleuthera]

I tend to play female characters (if given the choice), but personality wise they are (mostly) self-inserts.

Occasionally I try to roleplay, but I can almost never keep it up.

 

[StriderShinryu]

It depends but, more often than not, I suppose it's a mix of me and and whatever character I create. There's always at least of a bit of my own personality in there though. For example, I have a lot of trouble playing a more evil character simply because it rubs me the wrong way, regardless of the character I'm playing.

 

[Kopikatsu]

I tend to play female characters (if given the choice), but personality wise they are (mostly) self-inserts.

Occasionally I try to roleplay, but I can almost never keep it up.

Keep up in what way?

I never bother trying to roleplay because the choice I would have made is basically never, ever presented because it doesn't fall into the black/white dichotomy that most games are restricted to.

 

[Eleuthera]

Keep up in what way?

Keep up being 'someone else', for instance I can't do a renegade playthrough in Mass Effect, the options are just 'wrong'.

Characters ijn games I play for a very long time (WoW) do develop a distinct personality eventually, but they're still based of aspects of myself, and they tend to not go against my personal 'morals'.

 

[Zhukov]

Nah.

I project a bit, maybe even a lot, but I don't try and stick myself in the game.

It wouldn't work anyway. I've never played a game with a "run away screaming" or "retire before shit gets real" button

 

[piinyouri]

Sometimes, usually once I've done quite a few other characters.
Just another character to role play as.

 

[darth.pixie]

Nope. Call-back from the PnP games where if you got attached to a character, it most likely ended up eaten, fireballed, disintegrated or just plain stabbed. After having two or three of your low levelled alter egos scratched to death by cats, you tended to stop projecting.

Cats...bane of low-level PCs. Epic forces of destruction.

 

[an annoyed writer]

Depends on the game, really. Hell, most of the time my characters are projections of what I aspire to be, rather than a carbon copy of myself.

 

[AVeryClassyCat]

First I usually spend about 45 minutes making the guy of my dreams, then I completely forget to care about why I made him look like that and just play the game entirely free of any roleplaying.

 

[Scarim Coral]

I pretty much like the character creation as they are since I'm fine making the game "me" just a Asian looking character with short black hair as my girst/ human character (after that I make whatever I want next for my next character).

Granted the similarity with the real me and the game me is way off but I ain't going to invest a more indept character creation to make the game more less fit and got the exact hair cut! I suppose my way is more of an alter ego then a full inversion but I still get that inversion fell to it.

Granted this is only apply to games when the main character is whatever you want it to be while with some jrpg if they got a default character that has been used in the game trailer or gameplay I tend to stick with that default. This is the same thing with Mass Effect as I had grown accustom to Sheperd to his default apperance in the official game trailer and gameplay.

 

[Tanis]

I tend to make Asian females.
So, no, not really.

Being half-white & half-various-other-colors...
But still looking like one of those Aryans from a WW2 Nazi poster isn't very thrilling to me in a game.

I just wish I could tan.

 

[UrinalDook]

I used to, as a kid. Bit with age comes a little more self awareness, and I simply can't take myself seriously in the setting of most games. If I make a character look like me, and bad guys take me seriously while the designated love interest selflessly comes on to me, saving me from doing any work, I just laugh. I actually find it less immersive these days to be playing a game and see a crude representation of my own face, not to mention that no matter how many choices you are offered, it never feels like 'your' choice if you're picking off a list. Also, this:

It wouldn't work anyway. I've never played a game with a "run away screaming" or "retire before shit gets real" button

I play most games for story and setting, and if given the option to create or customise a character, I much prefer to see myself as a sort of director/writer hybrid. I come up with a character I think fits what I know of the story, and direct them through the plot, adjusting it here and there when choices come up. These days, I also generally prefer female protagonists. So if given the choice, I'll design a female character. If nothing else, it's much easier to do custom faces when creating a female character because I have a much better idea of when I've successfully made her attractive.

Sure this leads to some weird moments, Mass Effect's romance scenes spring to mind, but in an odd way I kind of enjoy the tiny glimpse into another perspective.

 

[Full]

It's odd, for me. Usually with pre-set protagonists that I don't create, I try to insert my own thoughts and mix them with what their thoughts might be like, it makes it easier for me to relate to their situation. However, if I were to create a character, say in an RPG, I usually make them their own thing and not try to self-insert at all. There's probably some pseudo-psychological explanation to that, which I actually know about already, so yeah.

 

[Varrdy]

Most of the time, yes.

When I created my original M-Shep, Lion Shepard, I really wanted to put myself into his boots, so to speak. Interestingly, whenever I do this in Fallout 3 / NV, I always give myself white-hair...as I have done with my CAW in WWE 12 & 13. Maybe it's because, despite being only 30, I am going grey rapidly!

I haven't tried it with Skyrim yet as I have only played as a male khajiit and a female nord, so far.