Do you self insert?

[Tsun Tzu]

It was much easier to do this sort of thing when I was younger...

Hell, as a kid, I used to RP while playing the original Starcraft by protecting/attributing properties/personalities/objectives to individual units.

Not so much with the self-insertion (...I can't not make that dirty) these days, since almost every game out doesn't really allow for it. There is a named protagonist with a set back story, set dialogue, set voice, set appearance, and set actions.

It's pretty difficult to project myself into a character that's already been fleshed out. The Elder Scrolls games are sort of an exception, but they're just TOO empty. They're shells lacking life support, so to speak, so I don't feel I can properly inhabit them.

I'm not sure what the correct formula is for me to enjoy self-insertion (No! Bad!), but it'd be nice to experience it again.

 

[Fasckira]

When I was a kid, sure. I remember playing Link to The Past - that wasn't Link running around, that was me, exploring Hyrule. The fact that you could give your own name made it that much more credible.

Now I'm older though, the immersion is still there but Im playing the role of another character.

 

[Hagi]

Nope, and I despise media that seem to be begging for that. Less common in Video Games, but still present, but more seen in stuff like Anime where you've got protagonists that seem designed to be self-inserted into. They're always horrible.

When possible, in open games, I do enjoy crafting a bit of a story around a character. Never based it on myself though, that just leads to horrid mary-sue characters.

 

[popa_qwerty]

For some reason I always insert my self (sounds Worst) in to the game. I never even thought of it until I played Fable 2 and I tried my best to play as an evil character but just could not. I got as far as having horns and turned a complete 180 and ended up with a halo. For games like call of duty i kind of insert my self in to the game but with in the role given.

 

[Mausthemighty]

No I don't self insert. I don't think it's me when I play as Lara, Batman, Gordon Freeman or my own created character in Skyrim.

 

[Anti Nudist Cupcake]

I can't NOT self-insert. I freaking love it!

Captcha: It hurts.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAA!!!! I COULDN'T MAKE THIS SOUND DIRTIER EVEN IF I TRIED!

 

[Ulquiorra4sama]

It depends...

If i can create my own character like in RPG's i'll go for a self insert character. (Huh... i see what you mean now)
However in games with an established character and a linear story i tend to assume the role of the observer to their struggles.

That's one of the things i didn't like about the transition from Dragon Age: Origins to DA2. You became Hawke (in one form or another) rather than playing as your own character.

 

[adamsaccount]

I may have allowed a soap to venture up there in the bath

 

[Bertylicious]

Of course, method acting FTW!

On a side note it is interesting how many people have cited The Walking Dead both as an excercise in self insertion but also as a game where they couldn't if they tried. I wonder what that means?

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

Every time I insert myself, I turn into a smartass instead of the character I'm playing.

Which is fine by me, because I'm roleplaying an extremely genius character.

 

[Legion]

Only games where you make your own character, and even then, not always.

If I am playing Fallout, Skyrim, Mass Effect, Dragon Age and so on, then more often than not I play as "me" on at least one play through, even if only in personality.

In games where you have a named protagonist then no, I don't. I might still play it as I think I might in that situation, but I don't myself as the main character, I see myself as something more akin to the narrator.

I think it's why I dislike voiced protagonists so much in RPG's. It makes it very difficult to create "me", when my voice is apparently American. With text based conversation you can easily imagine your voice to be your own.

 

[Strazdas]

i insert game characters into me. real life me would suck in videogames, not that 99% of games even offer this option. no scrap that, 100% does not offer it. i just make a plan what my character shoudl be like and follow that. but itsn ot like i pretend it is meo r anything.

 

[Starik20X6]

Oh, I see how it is Escapist. When I make a thread on this topic nobody cares, but when Daystar does we're all here.

Jokes aside, if there's an established character, that's who I am. I'm not Mario, I'm not Samus, I'm not Cole MacGrath. But given the ability to create or customise the character, They're as close of a reflection of myself as I can get. I find it's quicker than coming up with an entirely new character, and it makes the whole thing feel more personal when the NPCs are addressing me by my real name.

 

[Sack of Cheese]

No, hell no! Not even on forums. I am not related to the person who's typing this in any ways.
I tend to think of playing the game as manipulating the protagonist, or helping someone to achieve their goals. Maybe?

 

[Simonism451]

Nah, I don't really think it's possible for the majority of us to satisfyingly answer the question "What would I do if I were a half-orc half-dwarven Battle Maid whose entire family has been killed when the army of the dark wizard raided her medieval village, who is now faced with the choice of giving a beggar all her money or disembowelling him in front of his children?"
If I had to face that choice, it wouldn't be really me as the circumstances would have certainly influenced my personal development quite a bit and even if my player character were in a situation that could possibly happen to me, I'd still probably take the choice I think will be most fun, which doesn't necessarily reflect what I myself would do, since I as of yet haven't found the quicksave and quickload buttons for real life and also since I spent quite huge parts of my life with myself and know myself well enough to grow a bit bored.
That said, I still can't help "roleplaying" even the most blank slate characters, such as the invisible Pilotman in flightsims such as IL-2 or my X-Com soldiers, however, they are their own persons and not me.

 

[J Tyran]

No I do not, not even in RPGs. In games like Mass Effect and the Elder Scrolls I am roleplaying a character not roleplaying myself, I usually create the character I want and play the game around them instead of making the choices that I would make. Sometimes I do make make a character based on my own personality but that usually doesn't work in RPGs with moral choice mechanics. In games like Mass Effect the mechanics generally work better if a character is one or the other, usually mixed alignment characters suffer from lack of focus and lose points and get locked out of dialogue or story paths.

 

[Fijiman]

I have a tendency to insert myself into the protagonist's shoes.

 

[The_Darkness]

To lend a slightly unusual angle to this - I'm an author. (In my spare time - I enjoy it as a hobby, nothing published, etc.) I'm quite used to identifying as, and thinking as, a character that isn't me. I put myself behind their eyes. Is that self-inserting? (Still dirty - *sigh*)

Samus Aran, Isaac Clarke, Master Chief... all these people aren't me. But I am them when I'm playing.

To draw on the topic of RPGs... (no, not the Rocket Propelled Grenade type...) Because I craft the character, because there is no set-in-stone version of the character, and because I don't feel like going out of my way to create a completely new personality, I inevitably end up playing as someone similar to my self. Is that self inserting? It certainly is self-identifying...

Commander Shepard isn't me - but he's very close. The Grey Warden wasn't me - but since I chose his exact words, and (in my imagination) used my own voice, he was even closer. Likewise with the Lone Wanderer from Vault 101.

So no, and yes, at the same time.

 

[TheFinalFantasyWolf]

Never, I really don't understand the appeal. Although I suppose that creates a stranger relationship between me and the character.
I am them, and I'm not.
I treat every character as their own entity, think of it as more as a friendship, me and the character working together to achieve their goals. (Even that explanation isn't quite on mark with how I feel playing, but it's the closest one I can come up with at the moment.)

 

[putowtin]

I get the impression that most gamers do project themselves into games as the protagonist, seeing as how only around 18% of Mass Effect 3 players used Femshep

You see that's one of the games where I can insert myself, for once we have a female protagonist.
Games where you can create your character from scratch (Fallout: New Vegas, Skyrim) there is always an element of me in my female characters.

But I'm also a realist, I?m a disabled woman who couldn't jump over a wall or yell at a Dragon (apart from talking to my mother!) in real life, that's why I play video games!