Guys That Play Girls In Games. Why?

[t3h br0th3r]

sometimes in mmos female characters just fit the class better than their male counterparts (tauren shaman for example).

while i tend to mostly play males,i never consider playing a female totaly off limits.

besides, getting hit on by a 12yr is hilarious.

 

[Action Jack]

I usually play the girl (if there's no ninja available) because she's faster.

In Left 4 Dead I play as Zoey even though there's no functional difference because I relate to her character more. Of course, I still picked her initially before I knew anything about the cast because I'm so used to playing the girl at this point that it was instinct...

 

[zed_word]

I've played a lot of female characters. To simply put it, I like women. It's a preference really, if you like men play a male character, if you like women play a female character. It is as simple as that.

 

[Nonamea12]

I play as a female character in MMOs mainly so when I act like a complete jerk, or simply don't want to talk to a player, they tend to accept it better. When playing as a male people cuss me out if I act that way.

 

[Nonamea12]

I play as a female character in MMOs mainly so when I act like a complete jerk, or simply don't want to talk to a player, they tend to accept it better. When playing as a male people cuss me out if I act that way.

 

[Svartfalk]

Because I can.
And to imaginge the hot lesbian sex my avatar has with the women I seduce.

 

[Dimensional Vortex]

snip

I'm so tempted to yell out "3RD PERSON ASS!"

I guess maybe they like to be as far away from who they are in the real world, so they make characters completely different to them like females. Other than that I have no idea really, I guess it is like asking someone why their favorite color is blue, they can only really answer by saying "Because I like it"

 

[cynik]

I can't name any male videogame character which I would want to be in reality, but I can name plenty female characters I'd want to have at least one month long relationship with. Plus, as it has been mentioned - I like to stare at a nicely made female for the duration of the game. And yes - I haven't read more than the first page of this thread.

 

[YoungZer0]

I chose to play as a female shepard in Mass Effect because I found the male shepard to have an extremely unemotional voice.

Seriously? That's the reason why i don't play female shepard. She just sounds bored. And nothing she says sounds like she means it.

I've played a lot of female characters. To simply put it, I like women. It's a preference really, if you like men play a male character, if you like women play a female character. It is as simple as that.

That doesn't make sense, and it's not simple at all.

 

[Troublesome Lagomorph]

Why not? If I'm going to be in a setting that's not my own why not play as something different from myself? And, as I'm sure many have said I'd rather look at a girl than a guy, whether it's my avatar in a game or on a forum.
And I simply like playing as a girl. Plus, I tend to have both male and female characters.
Edit: And I tend to only play as a girl if I can make her look really awesome or nice looking.

 

[SilverUchiha]

I think the best reason is that the majority of game protagonists are, in fact male. So why should we not take up an opportunity to play as a female (and I mean a good one that is interesting, unlike Lara Croft) when a good opportunity arises? Sure, I can play Metroid, Dead or Alive, or even Super Princess Peach if I want to play as a female protagonist. But they all have their issues too. Metroid doesn't really do character development (and I hear that Other M's attempt was bad). Dead or Alive is a game featuring massive bouncing tits on things that resemble women... you get my point there. And Super Princess Peach... well... Seriously? Do I have to spell that one out for you?

In short, with a rather short list of GOOD (I repeat) GOOD Female Protagonists, it certainly is a nice break in an RPG to create a female who is, hopefully, more interesting than what we normally have to put up with.

 

[HigherTomorrow]

Dat ass!

Actually, the only time I play as female characters (in RPG's of course. I don't mean fighting games, RTS games with avatars, multiplayer games with avatars, etc) is after playing as a male character at least once.

 

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

Meh, I think it's got alot to do with aesthetics as well. I think it's also got alot to do with male angst. People play games to escape all the bullshit of real life, and males (who identify with the common male engenderment) want to play a character far removed from their suit wearing, high culture lifestyles and adopt an alien persona where they can shoot, stab, and otherwise blow shit up and be someone completely different for atleast an hour or two.

So of course, because most people can't ameliorate their wish to blow up, stab, beat, shoot people/buildings/tanks/etc will create a female character is it allows them to escape their realities for a moment.

Picture it like this ... you wear a suit and a tie to work, then you go to a pub to have a quiet drink and a meal with colleagues to discuss work related stuff, then you go home and want to play videogames to escape all that crap ...

The last thing you want to be reminded about is how you could never be that person that saves millions of people and destroys entire planets when playing a videogame, and I think this affects men more than women. So they create a female character in order to escape comparison to both themselves and their normal lives beyond the game.

In order to enhance escapism, rather than be constrained more and more by their expected personas.

 

[floppylobster]

I honestly can't think of single good reason to, for me, all it would do is spoil the immersion as I'm NOT a girl.

Why do games have to be about immersion? I prefer Pac-Man to Call of Duty so playing a female character helps create that feeling that I'm playing a game.

Also, a lot of the male characters in games are over the top and macho - Gears of War, God of War - and I'm not that sort of guy. Most of the girls in games are written by guys - Lara Croft, Commander Shepard, Jill Valentine - so they're fairly masculine kind of females anyway. Even though it's not my gender it comes closer to my personality than a beefy meat head like Marcus Phoenix.

I don't mind Gordon Freeman because he shuts up and lets me be me. I've just realised that if they made female protagonists for GTA I might go back to playing that series.

None of the games you mentioned (bar Half-life 2) are known for being heavily story driven though are they? they aren't about immersion like a game where you create your own character.

That was another point. I play a lot of games so I'm trying to make some points that cover them all. My first point is about your problem that it ruins immersion. My counter is that immersion is not everything in games. My second point is to give the reason I generally don't like playing male characters. My third paragraph is just musing on the topic. Ironically it probably ruins the immersion for me more when I have to play a male character who is less like me, than a female character. Also, Resident Evil is fairly story driven. Mass Effect is nothing BUT story driven. And I didn't add the aesthetically pleasing argument to cover other games because you had already had it listed. But I'm adding it here to cover everything else. So there you have, three (I think) good reasons to play as a female character. Never again should you be able to say "I can't think of a single good reason to", only perhaps "I don't agree with a single good reason given to".

Is immersion the only reason you play a male character? Or do you seek to be more bad-ass or kick-ass version of yourself in real life? There's an element of fantasy in whichever avatar you adopt. Who would you play in StreetFighter II? Ryu, Ken or Guile because they're guys? Would you ever play Dhalsim or Blanka? Or are they not close enough to who you are? What about the later Final Fantasy games? I find their feminine male protagonists very annoying.

 

[Kris015]

My friend always does this, and when I ask him why, he's like "Id'no"

 

[BeholdTheRivas]

I registered just to reply to this thread (though I'll stick around).

I'm a feminine gay (male), so I feel more comfortable playing as a girl.

 

[Tsadhe]

I'll keep it concise.

As a friend of mine once said, "If you're going to be staring at someone for upwards of 9 hours, you might as well make it a woman."

 

[DarkRyter]

"If I'm gonna stare at an ass for hours on end, it might as well be a nice one."
~Batman

At least, I think it was Batman. Yeah, I'm sure Batman did that.