Do you self insert?

[Something Amyss]

This thread calls for:


DIRTY!

I don't know. I played four different characters in ME. Both genders. Same with Saints Row 2 (though I think it's more like 6) and SR 3.

I suppose I could still self-insert to an extent, but I can't say as I'm really gung ho about it.

 

[DocMcCray]

To start with, I am male.

And as far back as I can remember (I'm 35 now), when given the choice between playing a male or female character, I always choose the female. There have always been really minor reasons as to why, but if I had to guess, it is just to be different from what I normally am IRL. I think ultimately I can trace it back to the original Metroid with Samus being female.

I like strong women and strong women protagonists mainly because I'm male, hetero, and not the least bit insecure about it.

 

[NoeL]

I've tried to self insert, but I couldn't quite get it all the way around.

... oh, you mean in games. I'd have to say that I do, to a degree - at least where romance is concerned. Given a game where I can choose a gender I'll almost always pick the female, and in games that allow physical customisation I'll always make her cute. Where I differ is in games that have some romantic focus, like Harvest Moon. Wooing guys and trying to land a husband feels a bit off because I feel as though I AM the character, rather than leading her on her farming adventure.

That said, I feel like character depth is crucial to something like this. If I was playing Harvest Moon where my character is a blank slate and had a number of superficial boys to choose from it doesn't quite work. I think those games are designed for you to self-insert. If, on the other hand, I was playing a female character and met up with a fully realised male that a) I liked, and b) I thought would make a good partner for my lady I would love to see them hook up - and would be happy to try and woo him as a game mechanic.

Anyway, if the game isn't an RPG then I have no problem with the writers giving the female lead a male love interest. If the game IS an RPG then it feels a bit weird to have to actively woo guys, UNLESS those guys are developed enough to make me WANT to woo them for the sake of the story (or even just for fun if I like the idea enough).

Oddly I very rarely give female characters in rpgs my name but call guys Charlie. So I think I'm like saying 'this is me but dude shaped' It's kind of an interesting subject.

I do the same thing. I tend to name my girls Minka, unless I decide to make a gruffer character. 'Minka' doesn't really fit a badass Amazonian covered in battle scars.

 

[Cazza]

I can't insert myself into games. Too much violence. I just can't see myself doing though kinds of things. I would avoid attacking people as much as possible which I just don't do in video games.

 

[Dosbilliam]

If anyone reads the Facebook comments and sees this, the game design I've been talking about recently features an exaggerated version of myself into a situation I would personally run and hide from.

That being said, I nearly always self-insert, because that's really just who I am. My characters aren't an island so much as they are an extension of myself into situations I personally would stay the hell away from. Even Walker from Spec Ops: The Line was MY character, white phosphorus be damned.

 

[Quadocky]

I used too, but now I do it via developed characters that are basically apart of me.

I find it hard not to self-insert or latch onto characters.

Sometimes inserting yourself and others into games can make the meaning rather... well even more personal. Such as naming characters in FF7 after family and friends you know. Aaand well, naming yourself after the main character can make the game pretty eerie and personal sometimes. Because, at the point, the game is Speaking to you directly. I found this most effective in games like FF7 or Ogre Battle 64.

In terms of games like D&D though, I only tend to make characters who are reflections of myself but in abstract ways.

 

[keideki]

I usually self-insert when you get to create your own protagonist. When there is a well defined character I don't, I usually just try to make the decisions I figure the character would. Sometimes when I create a character I will role-play a different person than I am.

 

[CrystalShadow]

It really depends. I'd say I'm a bit inbetween. I easily make the leap that it's 'me', in the game, but at the same time there's a sense of detachment from it all. It's just not convincing enough to escape the fact that it's a game.

Aside from which, given what sets this discussion off, most game protagonists are not people I can really identify with in any sense. ;p

The argument of 'gamers have to be able to identify with the protagonist' becomes a little comical to hear when you aren't anything close to what the games industry seems to think a typical player is like...

"We make this character like that so our audience can identify with it?"

XD. Who am I then? Someone who doesn't actually exist? XD

Um, anyway, getting back to the point, it varies.
I can sort of insert myself into a game, but it all rather depends on the game.

I mean, it feels like I'm doing whatever the protagonist is doing, but it doesn't really tend to feel like the character is 'me', so much as it's a thing in it's own right independent of what I'm doing.

 

[Zeke17]

I really dislike mary sues and characters that are written just so people can project themselves onto them. I know a lot of people do this though. One could argue that a many terrible books, like Twilight and Eragon, wouldn't have sold well at all if people didn't project themselves onto otherwise unlikable, insufferable, and just plain weak characters.

 

[Akytalusia]

not really. it's impossible most of the time, being a sentient AI with no gender association.
if the character is a character (jrpg style), i'll accept them as such, and much like you, play as a spectator, so they can do whatever they want.
if it's a blank slate character in a single player game (wrpg style), then i'll usually play a straight female given the option.
if it's an MMO, then i'll play a male healer because humans.
in all cases i do behave as i normally would, so they're projections in a sense, but their sex doesn't mean anything to me.

 

[redmoretrout]

Good topic, I have often wondered how many people self-project themselves as the protagonist. But, no whether the protagonist was created by me or not I 'll assign them a separate identity.

 

[Robot Number V]

I kind of switch back and forth. Sometimes I just do whatever I would do, sometimes I do what I think the character would do. For instance...

Spoiler: Spoilers for The Walking Dead Game, Episode 5

After Lee had his arm cut off, I tended to choose the more aggressive dialog options, making Lee a bit more irrational, even if that meant he was kind of a jerk sometimes. I mean, how could he NOT be irrational at that point?

 

[mfeff]

Narrative driven games very rarely, unless that game allowed for a great deal of character customization. In most any other type/genre always and without fail.

It is the "BEST" way to play Total War.

That said I tend to find narrative driven games to be a little creepy in an "ick" sort of way. There are always exceptions though such as... let's say... the monkey island series. So in that there is probably a discussion about context.

Not the biggest fan of playing puppeteer to a character in someone else's fan fiction. (Most character driven narrative games as far as I can tell fall into this category).

Interestingly this mechanic is reversed in Spec Ops the Line, which many people heralded as some great thing... it isn't, just an extreme example of how little agency is often offered in narrative driven titles.

I don't play Tomb Raider or the like as a general rule of thumb. Then again I don't really consider those products to be "games" in a formal sense.

Different strokes for different folks.

In answer to your question people often project themselves into things. So much so it is marketed to as a matter of design, leveraged narcissism and or solipsism. Jim's video does not surprise me in the slightest when he references the difficulty to get "anything" out of the ordinary into a product. Weird missteps may potentially cost millions of dollars.

Easy to ***** about... unless it's your "millions of dollars".

 

[Reincarnatedwolfgod]

Nope.

In skyrim I can only roleplay a Psychopath and I am unable to even insert my self even if I wanted to. It's due me not give a single fuck if all of NPC died or what happened to the world. the destroyer guy can destroy the world of elder scroll unimplemented for all I care. Bethesda sucks at writing.

But I find pretty easy to make a personalty, it's morality for and sometimes a backstory for my characters in fallout new Vegas and stick to that when deciding my actions.

I can't insert myself into games. Too much violence. I just can't see myself doing though kinds of things. I would avoid attacking people as much as possible which I just don't do in video games.

yeah that is the problem I faced when trying to insert my self in New Vegas. In ended up having to compromise my morality and parts of my personalty to even somewhat insert my self. It does not work and I find roleplaying characters more interesting.

When I'm playing Fallout New Vegas, it isn't me who's wandering the Mojave, it's Lilith Valentine, revolver wielding bounty hunter of fortune.

reading that some how got me thinking of playing new vegas as female courier with actaual morality. It would be a nice contrast to the female 2 couriers who that lacked morality and the one with morals based off of abstract concepts that I made. I am glad you made this thread

 

[Vigormortis]

Depends.

In occasions where I'm being heavily involved in the games plot, and I'm controlling the same character throughout, I tend to project myself into the character. I can easily (and quite like to) imagine myself as that character. Especially if the story is compelling enough or I'm attempting to tell my own story.

This goes for linear, story-driven games like Half-Life, Bioshock, Portal, and Halo. As well as games like Prince of Persia, Metroid, and even down to racing games like Blur.

However, if the character is too "odd", or well defined (exhibiting VERY specific personality traits), or I'm in control of multiple characters (like in most RTSs), then I tend to have a hard time projecting myself into it. There's no clear role; or a too well defined role; for me to imagine myself filling.

There have been exceptions, though. I was able to "self-project" into games like Homeworld, MechCommander, and Sins of a Solar Empire. But, I'm convinced this was due either to scripted portions of the game referring to the player, specifically, or there being a level of "communication" between the player and the units or other players within the game space. (like the Diplomacy aspects of Sins)

 

[WouldYouKindly]

I do it then I don't. I'll usually do one play though doing what I might do in whatever situation, but then after that I start branching out. I played one purely logical playthrough of DA:O and ended up with an army of mages, golems, werewolves... and dudes. Yeah, the normal soldiers seemed pretty out of place in that motley bunch.

It's fun to see if the game will fuck over making all the "right" and "good" choices because sometimes they're outright stupid. This never happens unfortunately.

Then there's the inevitable evil run where I murder everyone I meet.

 

[OldGus]

It really depends on the story telling in the game... how well the game is set up and the world is presented. If the presentation itself doesn't break away from immersion and can make me feel like the character presented is a real person in the context of the game (not a pinballing 5-year-old/marksman who people trust with their lives despite having to explain things to them that they themselves, and presumably the main character, grew up with), then... I don't think you would call it self-insertion. I am immersed in the game as the character. I don't feel like a detached and separate person controlling my little puppet, I feel I am that character in the game. As this pertains to the Jimquisition, sure, one may feel that it is weird to think like that, but if a game is well presented, and the main character in that game is a woman, and I can feel believably like a woman instead of a caricature, I could get immersed in that. It doesn't matter if its a woman. I've never been a space marine, a WW2 sniper, a race car driver, a ship captain, star or otherwise, or an Italian plumber that grows to 12 feet tall, spits fireballs, surfs turtle shells, and beats the shit out of giant turtle dragons, and I never will be in real life, but that doesn't mean I can't be them in the context of a game world. I probably will never commit war crimes, experience PTSD, kill someone, see a ghost, or get possessed either. This medium is unique. Books tell you about a world, or a situation, or a person, but you don't become that person and experience it yourself. Movies show you a world, a situation, a person, but you don't become that person yourself. In games, you make the choices. You perform the actions. I become FemShep. But here is the important part. FemShep does not become me. For however long I pick up that controller, I do not become a character who is a man sitting on a couch halfway around the world from his family, the woman I love hundreds of miles away and both of us working our asses off for the two times every month we can see each other. I am a strong female captain commanding a team, one of which I am romantically involved with, and all of which I can actually help, who goes out there, finds evil, and does the hard things I have to do to stop it. And if I (as FemShep) falls for a strong, gung ho type who still goes weak in the knees and stuttery when he first thinks about "us", I would order him to my quarters at 2300 hours, tell him to bring his a-game, and it would be hot. And if presented well, I feel their emotions, their successes, their failures, but here is the important thing... that character is not me. If FemShep were me, not only would they crumble when they have to make the hard choices, but they would probably reassign that guy after saying, "You're nice, but you definitely could not turn me on." Oh yeah, and they would not be Fem. You understand what I'm getting at?

I am in the game world, yes, but the character is not me... I am the character. Provided its a good game. I don't know... from the way you explain it, it still doesn't sound like self insertion, as I don't project myself onto the character so much as step into their shoes.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

Depends on the game. I can do it quite easily as long as it's involved enough. So yeah, when I played DX:HR, I was not like "What would Adam jensen do", I was like "What would I do".

this.

when it comes to uncharted/god of war/gears of war/etc... i don't think of it as myself, i enjoy the awesome ride of the game respectively to the character at hand.

however, in rpg's (especially bioware or moral based ones) i tend to project myself to the fullest.

(no wonder i can't finish a dark side/renegade playthrough on any of their games...)