Do you self insert?

[citrusfr00t]

?Hello, Escapists, look at your protagonist, now back to me, now back at your protagonist, now back to me.

Sadly, I'm not him, but if I stopped using game-breaking logic and switched to Old Spice, I could pretend that I can be like he?s me.

Look down, back up, where are you?

You?re on a boat with the protagonist your protagonist could be like. What?s in your hand, back at me. I have it, it?s an brand-spanking new vidya game from the Gods themselves. Look again, the game is now bacon.

Anything is possible when your protagonist smells like Old Spice and not a lady.

I?m on an internet forum.?

OT: Sorry, but I can't; it's that characters story, after all

Most underrated post ever. You sir made my day.

OT: The only time I felt like I was the protagonist was in the Walking Dead. Every choice I made was how I personally would have made said decisions. I always try to make my RPG characters in Fallout and Elder Scrolls like me (a neutral character, swaying toward the forces of goodness) but every time I try my character always turns into a chaotic evil, backstabbing, assassin thief

 

[TehCookie]

My first character in Skyrim was a self-insert. And I died. A lot. Just like me. (It was my first experience with the Elder Scroll series and I was rolling a pure mage).

I think I'll stick to roleplaying characters, with some based off my personality but not exactly me. They tend to work better.

 

[thejackyl]

In games where roleplaying is/can be a huge draw I do. Fallout 3, Oblivion/Skyrim, etc. Mainly games with character creation, I do.

When writing and such, I tend to shy away from it. Though, one of my bigger projects is essentially self insert fantasy. However it's sort of autobiographical so I guess it's a bit forgivable. Other works though, if I do self insert it will be a small one-line sort of thing, or a flavor text deal.

 

[Diablo2000]

It's depend on the game really.
In New Vegas it's Wyatt Perkins the badass cowboy with a heart of gold, not me.
In Vampire Bloodlines it's Megan Rosenberg, a Gangrel who started kinda good, but by the end got completly mad and cruel with power.
In Saint's Row is the female russian boss, not me, I totally don't have the hots for Pierce to be her, I DON'T, don't look me like that...I don't!He's kinda funny though...

Now I project myself in other games like The Elder Scrolls or Dragon Age...

 

[Techno Squidgy]

Not really. I tend to either role-play as the character provided, or create a character to role-play. Every once in a while I'll play making the choices I would make in that situation, but mostly I like to see other peoples stories.


On an unrelated note, I much prefer Femshep to Manshep. To me, Shephard is a woman who doesn't take shit, and does what she feels is right, rather than what she's told to do (This lead to mostly Paragon choices, but the occasional bit of Renegade when required). I haven't played Mass Effect 3 yet, due to losing my save files in an unfortunate incident involving a fresh install of windows and the mistaken belief my save files were on Steam Cloud. However, I've been replaying and am now most of the way through Mass Effect 2 with most of the same choices made. Mass Effect 3's purchase is on the horizon! I can finally be angry and upset like everyone else!

 

[CrimsonBlaze]

I don't because although I am the protagonist, it's not my story that is unfolding, but the protagonist that I am playing. I just feel like the conscience of the character, guiding them into the unknown, taking the right and most enjoyable actions, and exploring the world around them.

 

[Headdrivehardscrew]

How dare you...

Oh. I see.

Do I self insert (yeah, still sounds well pervvy to me)?

Sure. But only if the game is worthy and capable enough. In the past year, the only two games I've self... done it were Skyrim and Dark Souls. In Skyrim, I went for a spot-on me and a furry cat thing me, and I had a blast. In Dark Souls, I went for a creepy clone of me that looked like well dead me, in a coffin for most of the time, and another, caricature-type corrupted gollum me.

I don't do it on a first playthrough. I need/want my first playthrough to be 'vanilla', I want an archetype I can relate to. Something that does not distract me too much. Something that is the pizza margherita of the gaming experience, something that allows me to compare the gaming experience to others I've had up to that point. So, it's mostly female rogue for me. I like leptosomic, old beardymen wielding magic. If going for a fighter, I'll choose a muscular male 8 out of 10 cats times. I don't self... do that with them. They're just toons, like LOL characters, chess pieces, a horse or car you control.

I tried with Fallout 3, but it always looked hideous. So I went for random faces, only to then get more random faces from the plastic surgeon for teh lulz. A bit like Lil Kim, but not for real.

 

[ImperialSunlight]

I generally try to play "as" whatever character I'm playing. If I play a game with moral choice, I choose what makes the most sense for the character to make, because at that time, I "am" that character. And when I play a game with customizable or mysterious characters, I generally think of a story about what kind of person they are (which is usually not the same as me) and "become" that person. I guess I'm just a roleplayer in that way. No inserting is involved.

OT: no i don't insert myself into characters . I couldn't insert myself into femshep no matter how hard i tried

Context is a funny thing, isn't it?

 

[PeterMerkin69]

It depends on the game. If I'm playing a sandbox or roleplaying game with a custom character like Fallout, I'll insert myself, or at least make the decisions that I want to make, but are impractical in the real world(She owes someone money? I can help! I can help by... decapitating her and forcing her disembodied head watch me have sex with the rest of her.), that sort of thing.

If it's a game with a weakly characterized protagonist with a morality meter(Deus Ex, Mass Effect), I'll forge the character I want him to be, but he's still a distinct entity. Thereafter, my idea of him informs future decision making, and the game is played as if it has a strongly characterized protagonist.

If it's a game with a strongly characterized protagonist, like anyone from Heavy Rain, or Lee from TWD, or even whatshisface from RDR, I'll play those characters how I think they should be played, based on what I know about them. Every decision is made as a logical extension of their goals and histories, rather what I feel like doing at the moment. Well, except in the case of Heavy Rain, in which everyone was such a stupid dick that I couldn't help but torture them for my own amusement.

Of the three, the sandbox/rpg games are my favorite kind to play.

 

[loc978]

As someone who played pen-and-paper RPGs before CRPGs... no. Self-insertion is a bad habit (did I just up the ante there?) from a role-playing perspective (it also shows a severe lack of creativity), and I haven't made a personal avatar of a character since I was twelve years old.

 

[JagermanXcell]

Almost never unless its really good. I very much prefer either well written characters or a voiceless protagonist or both to really feel like I can insert myself. Persona 4, Walking Dead, Spec Ops, and when I get my hands on it, Bioshock Infinite are good examples of this. For the protagonists that aren't voiceless I like to think of myself as a member of an audience enjoying the ride but still feel for the characters much like a well written film, or the grasshopper in their sub-conscience if you will, already inside them but feeling like I have a much bigger role/impact on the journey.

I'm sweating a lot more then usual...

 

[Auron]

Everybody does to a certain level consciously or not.

 

[Boris Goodenough]

Not at all, and honestly I didn't know people did that, I guess that's why I don't have so many problems with antagonist being this and that and doing this and that as so many people seem to have so I guess it's for the best.

 

[Signa]

I think it depends on the game, but usually I will to some extent. Walking Dead was mentioned, and I tried to play a character more than what I would do.

It's funny you should bring up Jim, because as much as I loved the episode, I found myself wondering if I'd really enjoy a female relationship in a game. I suspect I wouldn't. It's not that I don't think girl protagonists should have relationships, but something about the way Jim said it made me think I wouldn't enjoy one in a game. I think it would be because the game would start to dip into romantic/(comedy) territory for the story, and I've seen enough of where those go to feel they are completely shallow.

I love playing as females though, because it usually means being a badass chick in some way, and badass or not, it's a MAJOR departure from the norm. I always think of Jade from Beyond Good and Evil as what the ideal female protagonist should be. She was able to have a relationship, but it was with her best friend, and not some "hot dude" that might feel kind of awkward to watch while feeling at least partially self-inserted. I guess I won't know until I play one, and I hope when I do, that relationship isn't there just for the sake of one, but is there because it brings more meaning to the game.

 

[Silly Hats]

Often enough. I tend to treat open world/RPGs like I would if I were in DnD, I love filling in untold gaps about the character though I don't mind the gender - I am more likely to play as a female because the option is there.

I always do things that I would do in RL situations given the opportunity.

 

[sumanoskae]

I can do it well enough when my character doesn't talk. I self insert into Fallout and Dragon Age: Origins without a problem, but I never feel like Commander Shepard is me. It usually feels more like I'm assisting in writing a character if I'm given control over a voiced protagonist.

I don'r necessarily prefer one method over the other by default, but I think some games are better for leaving the main character a blank slate and some have interesting leads.

The problem for me is when a game ends up in the middle. I often had trouble with the way Shepard said things in Mass Effect, because I didn't feel like any of the options expressed what I wanted to say. If Shepard was capable of doing things on his own, I wouldn't have minded, because then I have a sense of who he is and I can get invested in his choices; I make decisions with his best interest in mind instead of my own. Mass Effect 3 didn't have this problem a much as the first 2

When a voiced protagonist's every action is dictated by me, I can neither convince myself that we're the same person, because although we may agree on certain things, we behave differently, and I can't get invested personally because the character never makes any decisions of their own.

I don't have this problem in games like Red Dead: Redemption and The Witcher, because the leads in those games still make crucial decisions on their own, and they have history that's not determined by me.

Still though, I think my favorite self insert protagonist is the Exile, from Sith Lords. The Exile somehow manages to be both a character in his own right, and a blank slate.

I think The Exile works because he has a history; the game doesn't so much tell you to build a character from scratch as it asks you what kind of person would do the things The Exile did.

When we play games, we adopt a sort of openness; while it's true that we might bring over our fundamental principals or instincts into a game, we also enter with an understanding that this world is not our own, and that we've yet to grasp it's entirety.

By giving the Exile a past, Obsidian afforded me a look into the nature of the galaxy Sith Lords takes place in, whilst providing me with an evocative question to build my character with; not simply "Who are you?" but "Who WERE you?".

This also brings up an oft overlooked issue; how much do people change? How different is the Exile than he was when he made his decision years ago? Can we even be said to be the same person as we were long ago, and if so, how can we make decisions about for ourselves if we don't know who will have to live with them one day?

I kinda digressed, huh? (I really like KOTOR II). In conclusion; I do self insert, but I'm not sure I have the same understanding of the term as most people.

 

[piinyouri]

Considering I've spoken in characters voices while playing after a long night of coffee drinking, I'd say no, I don't supplant the character with myself.

That's why I enjoy those type of games in the first place.
Pulling up the creator, wondering what glimmer of an idea is going to pop in my head, watching as it evolves into a quasi-formed personality.
I love getting into the characters that I play. : D

 

[GundamSentinel]

I don't.

I'm making decisions I think he'd make.

Same thing here. Sure, I put quite a bit of myself into the decisions I make (in games with morality systems, I can seldom bring myself to be evil), but I mostly adjust my choices to what the character would do, and I don't see my character as an exponent of me. I'm fine with that, as it allows me to enjoy exploring characters who are very unlike me. Guess that's also why I never mind playing as a female character (Hell, six of my eight GW2 chars are female).

 

[JaceArveduin]

Not usually, most of the time I come up with some type of archetype, and just go from there.