Playing as a Different Gender

[Robert Ewing]

I usually opt to play Generic McGenericson if there is a given character creator.

White male, brown hair, blue eyes, quite tall, slightly muscular physique.

That's on my first proper playthrough anyway. After I finished the game and go into exploring the game in more depth, that's when I shake the characters up a bit. And play as a black ginger with red eyes and a chest asset that would put most of Miami to shame.

I dunno why I do that, perhaps it's just a habit. But I find it easier to take the story on board if it's my aforementioned archetype.

 

[Scrustle]

I think it has something to do with the "role playing" aspect of an RPG. I have no problem playing as Faith in Mirror's Edge (actually I really love that the character is female) but there's something disturbing to me about assuming the persona of myself as a female, which is how I usually tend to play RPGs (as myself that is, not a female). It's kind of like digital transvestitism in a way. I don't personally object to transvestites, but I don't want to be one. Also there's the tendency for female characters in games to be sexualized, which is something I don't want to play as. That's another reason why I really like Faith, she's not sexualized at all. She's not being used for eye candy in any way shape or form.

 

[Wolfram23]

I think it has something to do with the "role playing" aspect of an RPG. I have no problem playing as Faith in Mirror's Edge (actually I really love that the character is female) but there's something disturbing to me about assuming the persona of a female. It's kind of like digital transvestitism in a way. I don't personally object to transvestites, but I don't want to be one. Also there's the tendency for female characters in games to be sexualized, which is something I don't want to play as. That's another reason why I really like Faith, she's not sexualized at all. She's not being used for eye candy in any way shape or form.

I'll say that's all well and good, and I realize you aren't projecting this view onto others. But for example when I play an RPG I do not get into the role as if it were me. I play it like I'm reading a book, I'm just a puppet master. If my puppet is a good looking girl or a beefy meatbag of a guy (War from Darksiders lol) I don't really care. But if I have a choice I sometimes pick one, sometimes the other. I might feel awkward having to do very feminine things, like if the game made you do your makeup (I don't know what kind of game that would be...). Fortunately most games do not care if you are a guy or girl besides maybe a different perk here and there like in Skyrim. Which, btw, I played as a male mage first then a female sneak.

 

[Luke3184]

I soon learned on Runescape that playing as a female character resulted in a lot of free stuff from a fun and wide variety of creeper and the socially awkward. I just kind of got into the habit after that.... However on single player rpgs I'll generally play a guy, my main Shepard being a no nonsense fellow who does what's right in the end. Plus tell the council to F*ck off every time they phone you is a lot of fun.

 

[hazabaza1]

I generally only played as a male, but then I discovered that female voice 1 in Saints Row 3 is Laura Bailey.
Welp, looks like my Saint is a chick.

 

[GonzoGamer]

Given a choice, I usually play as female characters myself. In stuff like Fallout, it doesn't make much difference though.

In Saints Row, it's kinda hilarious and awesome since the dialogue always seems to be written with a heavy dose of testosterone.

For Saints Row I always try and recreate Dr Girlfriend so a little of both there. Also, I kind of think of SR as Dr Girlfriend's prequel.

But, as a heterosexual male, if I'm going to be looking at the backside of a character for a long while, I would prefer it be a female. I'm not saying that guys who play guys are homos...
well...
yes I am.
Just kidding.

 

[Knight Captain Kerr]

My sex and race are unimportant to me. Heck my entire body is unimportant i'd be fine "switching it out" for a better one (go augmentations.) So as I don't care if i'm male or female, I don't care if i'm playing a male or female. I play the one I feel like playing at the time.

 

[Bara_no_Hime]

**snip**

I think it is the (silly and outdated) concept that you the player MUST see the video game character you are playing as some sort of avatar for yourself.

I've always found that odd. Why would I want to be myself? I already am myself. I want to play someone else in a video game.

I still mostly play female characters (I am female) but that's because being a female protagonist is still sort of a novelty (most games still favoring male player characters).

 

[MetaKnight19]

I have no problem playing as either, it's usually 50/50 if I have an option. If I feel like playing as a female character then I will do, just to break the monotony of the male protagonist I guess...

 

[SovietSecrets]

Everyone feels foolish when they find out they have been dating a guy online through a game.

 

[Scrustle]

I think it has something to do with the "role playing" aspect of an RPG. I have no problem playing as Faith in Mirror's Edge (actually I really love that the character is female) but there's something disturbing to me about assuming the persona of a female. It's kind of like digital transvestitism in a way. I don't personally object to transvestites, but I don't want to be one. Also there's the tendency for female characters in games to be sexualized, which is something I don't want to play as. That's another reason why I really like Faith, she's not sexualized at all. She's not being used for eye candy in any way shape or form.

I'll say that's all well and good, and I realize you aren't projecting this view onto others. But for example when I play an RPG I do not get into the role as if it were me. I play it like I'm reading a book, I'm just a puppet master. If my puppet is a good looking girl or a beefy meatbag of a guy (War from Darksiders lol) I don't really care. But if I have a choice I sometimes pick one, sometimes the other. I might feel awkward having to do very feminine things, like if the game made you do your makeup (I don't know what kind of game that would be...). Fortunately most games do not care if you are a guy or girl besides maybe a different perk here and there like in Skyrim. Which, btw, I played as a male mage first then a female sneak.

I totally respect that. I know lots of people play games in the way you do, in that they want to role play someone completely different from themselves in a game. But when I play a game I prefer to play as how I would like myself to be within the game world. Sometimes I mix it up with a different race or something like that, but I can't imagine myself as a female. That's just not something that appeals to me.

 

[LiberalSquirrel]

What few MMOs I've played, I've exclusively played male characters. I get enough skeevy guys in real life, I can do without them in virtual world as well.

Offline RPGs, though... if I like an RPG, I'll almost always play it through multiple times, and have characters of both genders. I tend to start with a male character, though. I blame MMOs for conditioning me to think of "my RPG protaganist" as male. And I've never quite gotten why people think that a create-your-own RPG character should be an avatar of the person playing them: I'd find that rather boring.

 

[Mylinkay Asdara]

I stick to mostly girls, when given the choice, but I feel like it's because I've been plenty of guys when I didn't have a choice, so I'm balancing the sheet of character gender over years and years of being a girl gamer.

I do, sometimes, play a guy when given the option just to get another side of things or do other romances or whatever if that's built in. I don't know why some guys get creeped out by the very idea of playing a girl (again, only when given a choice, I've never heard anyone whine about having to be Laura Croft) and other guys don't seem at all put off by it. I guess it's just a personal thing, some of us might find it easier to empathize with the other gender, some of us not so much?

 

[bossfight1]

I've dabbled a couple times; once I leveled a female undead rogue in WoW, and I recently started a female character in Saints Row the Third, complete with badass russian accent.

 

[James Mann]

While i understand why it should be a problem to play as the opposite gender, i always find it weird when people do, i don't care in games where there's no or limited choice, but when people play as opposite genders in games it just makes me a bit uncomfortable, although i could probably explain this to myself from experience, from the people i know of that play exclusively transgendered, one was my maths teacher in high school who exclusively as females in order to flirt and get free stuff... and the other was a creep who always made their characters female in skimpy armour and really didn't stop playing games, i know a few people who occasionally play cross-gendered in order to simply experience the game in a different light after playing as a guy, but the idea just seems weird to me. But i've always played as characters as close to myself as possible in appearance to feel like i'm in the game, the game-play side of things tends to get skewed by the design of the game pushing decisions.

So maybe its a thing i've developed but i tend to dislike it when people play as the opposite gender role, especially in mmos when it feels somewhat deceitful or perverted, even if that isn't the case.

Also with the fantasy side of things you tend to play as you wish you were, so playing opposite genders kinda is a bit... discomforting.

To sum up:
In my opinion its not weird if:
Theres no choice.
Theres limited choice.
The gender makes a fundamental gameplay difference (outside of interaction with other players)
The gender makes a difference to the story elements.
You are a transexual and you are playing your former self.

im my opinion it is weird if:
The gender is being used for person-person interactions with weirdos on the internet.
You made the character for aesthetic pursposes.
You interact with children on a professional level.
You've never spoken to a real world girl.

 

[Wolfram23]

im my opinion it is weird if:
You made the character for aesthetic pursposes.

I agree with most of what you said except for this... how does that make it weird? Is it weird if I would rather look at Maxim magazine (girl pics) instead of Muscle Monthly (big muscly dudes)?

 

[Vault101]

since I do it all the time (you know, because I dont have a choice) I dont find it weird

then again I donr RP as a guy so yeah...not because I would it weird but because it makes things more interesting being female

 

[quantumsoul]

Only in MMOs do I feel like my character is a representation of me. It feels way too much like I'm wearing a dress when I play a female.

In other games she's more like my partner than an extension of me, so I don't feel weird at all.

If others want to play the opposite gender I don't care.