Guys That Play Girls In Games. Why?

moretimethansense

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Chairman Miaow said:
CrystalShadow said:
Chairman Miaow said:
snip
As I have already said in this thread, it's not a matter of playing myself, it's a matter of being able to relate to the character, it's a matter of catharsis. I'm not saying I CAN'T relate to women, I'm just saying I find it easier to relate to the male characters.
You can't relate to women?
You must really suck as boyfreind materiel, unless you're gay I guess. [/joke with bitter grain of truth]

You wanna know the reason, the real reason?

Because we feel like it.

That's all there is to it.
 

Spark Ignition

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Burck said:
Although I typically play through a game as a male first, I occassionally enjoy playing as a female character to help myself disconnect from my character and define my character not by some idealized version of myself, but by whatever I want to. However, I never play as a female character on my initial play-through.

A couple of years ago, this was the only way I could convince myself to do a "dark side" run of Knights of the Old Republic. Every other time, I couldn't bear to make a decision that I didn't approve of by my own morals.

Recently, I used a female character to briefly disconnect myself, and then forge a new personality (for the sake of role playing).

For me, switching genders in a game allows me to stop worrying about keeping my in-game actions consistent with what I would actually do.
Yup this is pretty much exactly how I feel.
 

TheMann

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steph01a said:
I think it's because of the internet - "where men are men, women are men, Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus."
I thought the internet was "Where men are men and the women are too and the children are FBI agents."

OT: I dunno, sometimes just to mix up the game dynamic. Sometime the female characters have abilities that the male characters lack. Or sometimes you're playing a game like Portal where you don't have a choice. A lot of times it's just to be contrary and do something different. I admit some time it really is just this

The_root_of_all_evil said:
Why don't they? There's the PvP argument:
Although if it's a platformer or shooter, I usually forget the gender about a quarter of the way through and just concentrate on the game play.
 

Spark Ignition

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Ranchcroutons said:
Typically I will create a male character in order increase my immersion into the plot. Unfortunately in games like Fallout 3 the male characters are all so hideous I couldn't imagine staring at them for 50+ hours so sometimes ill go for a female character who looks slightly less awful.
You play Fallout 3 in 3rd person?



...you're weird :D
 

Onyx Oblivion

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Because I don't often get the choice?

Girl in Fallout 3 , girl in Fable 2, girl in Dragon Age, girl in Pokemon...Girl in Mass Effect 1.

Sadly, a male in Mass Effect 2, because my 100% complete Mass Effect 1 data was a male.

If I'm online, I remain a male, to avoid gender confusion. Even if I really want to be a girl in Phantasy Star Portable 2 right now...
 

Fishyash

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Well, if I play a female character, it's because of differing animations, voice acting and dialogue opportunities (since the boy/girl choice is almost always in RPGs usually).
 

Matt_LRR

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I tend to like the character designs and aesthetic of female characters better. I usually joke about how, if I have to stare at an ass for 100 hours, it may as well be an attractive one, but even that is simplifying, and not really accurate.

I find a lot of the gaming industry's trumped-up machismo to be overpowering, and the depiction of males as super-masculine steriod-fueld apes to be ridiculous - in a game like wow - where the sexual dimorphism between male and female avatars is extreme, my preference is usually for the female genders because they more closely resemble an actual human form.

This preference for less charicaturized avatars works both ways though - I'm averse to hyper-feminine, and overly sexualized female characters as well. I don't want to play a woman in short shorts, with a giant rack, an hourglass figure, and legs until tuesday, either. I don't find those characters appealing at all.

So it basically just comes down to my having a preference for the character types that most closeley resemble an actual human being. In games with ultra-macho men, that means looking to a female character, and in games with over-sexualized "male-ideal" women,that means looking back to men. Given the male dominated industry though, and the tendency for game characters to be an expression of a male power fantasy, I tend to select female characters (even if the game's design doesn't lean to ultra-machismo) simply to level the gender bias back out.

I play a feale character in Fallout and Mass Effect, becuase I consider male characters to be clichee and expected in those roles - and taking a female character, building her to look like a normal human being, and placing her in a scenario that was designed for men by men helps to neutralize the inherent gender bias.

Does that make any sense?

Playing a girl helps take the male-dominated gender bias out of the equation?

-m

That is to say, when I play a female character it feels less like an expression of gender?
 

Chairman Miaow

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moretimethansense said:
Chairman Miaow said:
CrystalShadow said:
Chairman Miaow said:
snip
As I have already said in this thread, it's not a matter of playing myself, it's a matter of being able to relate to the character, it's a matter of catharsis. I'm not saying I CAN'T relate to women, I'm just saying I find it easier to relate to the male characters.
You can't relate to women?
You must really suck as boyfreind materiel, unless you're gay I guess. [/joke with bitter grain of truth]

You wanna know the reason, the real reason?

Because we feel like it.

That's all there is to it.
I'm not saying I CAN'T relate to women
 

Woodsey

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Things you're not:

- A space marine
- A scientist
- Batman
- An assassin
- A prisoner with a mysterious past whose crimes are not the things he will be remembered for
- James Bond
- A cowboy
- An eastern European gangster
- A *insert Star Wars alien species here* Jedi
- A writer
- A general
- A prince of Persia
- (Not quite) Antonio Banderas at his finest
- A car
- A spaceship captain
- An orc, an elf, a dark elf, and all that jazz
- Beowulf
- Hello Kitty
- That guy on Lost who never showed up on TV but was so important they made a game about him
- A superhero
- A film director
- Captain of the Enterprise

None of these things ruin the immersion for you if you are set as them or choose to play as them, yet being a woman does?

Maybe they just like to stare at a fake woman's arse and not a fake man's one.
 

Spark Ignition

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blakfayt said:
Chairman Miaow said:
I was just trying to think of a reason why guys so often seem to play women in video games.
My brother plays almost exclusively female characters, and I know he isn't alone. 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. So, anyone who does play as a woman in games, why? Feel free to speculate even if you don't play a woman, but please try not to just descend into "COz ThEy ARe PerVS LoL!".

TLDR: Why do men play as women?

EDIT: Women who play as men also feel free to reply as to why you do.

This is not about sexism, I am NOT saying you can't play as a woman, I just want to know why you do.
Because I'm not so close minded as to think "videogame women can't be hot" I'm sorry if I'm the only one who gets a boner when a half naked elf chick walks on screen, but honestly I'm far from the only one, hentai proves that, and seriously, real women have problems, be it as superficial as how they dress or what they look like, or as serious as heavy mental issues or a crazy ass personality. In a game though, the girl can be perfect, and that's what fantasy is about, imagining things that aren't horrible.

.... you do know you're a bad person, yeah?


ok thast sounds overly harsh..

What I meant to say was:

You have problems, kid.
 

PureChaos

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i play as both, mainly because in the MMO i play different sexes/classes have different abilities/animations/options so i use them for the variety. if i went for all male characters it would bet a bit dull with them all being able to do exactly the same thing
 

Zakarath

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I play a girl in DDO becuase all the male character models are fucking ugly.
I play as FemShep in Mass Effect because the voice acting is better.
and also occasionally in other games just to mix it up, and in RPGs I also enjoy modeling PCs after characters from my favorite stories, who are on occasion female. Some people see it as a big deal and think that you should only play as characters from your own gender, but I don't see why it matters.
 

RanD00M

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#1; Games are a means of escapism. I'm a man, therefore playing as a girl would heighten the escapism. Heightened escapism for me usually means more fun.

#2; I usually tend to enjoy female voice actors more than the male ones. So if my character speaks, I look at it as a plus.

#3; Then there is a little part of me that would like to know what I would be like if I were a woman. But seeing as I also like being a man, going transsexual would be bad way to go. So at least video games can at least give me a part of that dream.
Sure, it's nothing like the real thing. But it's the best I can currently do.

#4; And to top it all off, I sometimes enjoy nude mods... Not gonna sugar code it. That's just the way it is, and that isn't going to change just yet. However it might when I get older/ more mature.

Edit; I also forgot one thing. Female models in RPGs usually look like they're better for class "X", and vice versa.
 

Kukakkau

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Chairman Miaow said:
I was just trying to think of a reason why guys so often seem to play women in video games.
My brother plays almost exclusively female characters, and I know he isn't alone. 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. So, anyone who does play as a woman in games, why? Feel free to speculate even if you don't play a woman, but please try not to just descend into "COz ThEy ARe PerVS LoL!".

TLDR: Why do men play as women?

EDIT: Women who play as men also feel free to reply as to why you do.

This is not about sexism, I am NOT saying you can't play as a woman, I just want to know why you do.
I'm gonna use a quote from a really old WoW video

"If you're going to be staring at a screen all day would you rather be staring at hot ass or man-clevage?"
 

Roland123

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Chairman Miaow said:
I was just trying to think of a reason why guys so often seem to play women in video games.
My brother plays almost exclusively female characters, and I know he isn't alone. 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. So, anyone who does play as a woman in games, why? Feel free to speculate even if you don't play a woman, but please try not to just descend into "COz ThEy ARe PerVS LoL!".

TLDR: Why do men play as women?

EDIT: Women who play as men also feel free to reply as to why you do.

This is not about sexism, I am NOT saying you can't play as a woman, I just want to know why you do.
Given a choice I pretty much always choose a female character. I guess I can't speak for everyone but it's pretty clear that for me the desire to have (as in a guy wanting a girl) somewhere along the lines gets turned into the desire to be.

So yeah, I play to try and become. Kinda weird I guess, but I think it's more common than we might think and not necessarily a perverse thing.
 

moretimethansense

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Chairman Miaow said:
moretimethansense said:
Chairman Miaow said:
CrystalShadow said:
Chairman Miaow said:
snip
As I have already said in this thread, it's not a matter of playing myself, it's a matter of being able to relate to the character, it's a matter of catharsis. I'm not saying I CAN'T relate to women, I'm just saying I find it easier to relate to the male characters.
You can't relate to women?
You must really suck as boyfreind materiel, unless you're gay I guess. [/joke with bitter grain of truth]

You wanna know the reason, the real reason?

Because we feel like it.

That's all there is to it.
I'm not saying I CAN'T relate to women
Ah, sorry I misread it, my point still stands however.

When we play as female characters we do so because we feel like it, anything else is merely justification, justification might I add that we don't need.
Unless it's for completionism, that's one reason that isn't just people trying to defend their choice.