Poll: Roleplaying Opposite-Sex Characters

[DanielDeFig]

I do this a lot when creating characters for RPG games. I suppose it's because it's easier to detach from a female character and see it as HER story, than it is when creating male characters, where I tend to project MYSELF a little too much to create the illusion of it being someone else's story.

Also, if you're gonna be staring at you character's butt for 30-50+ hours, then I personally prefer to stare at a type of butt I find pleasing to look at. XP!

I find that I can project myself into the place of either a male or female protagonist. If I ever ask myself why I play a female character, the best answer I can formulate is "to be different." Male gunslingers are a easy to come by. Female gunslingers I don't see much of in games.

I don't have such a hard time projecting myself into female characters, as I have difficulty AVOIDING doing so for male ones (Sorry if that was unclear). I like making stories and personalities for RPG characters (after playing through the game the first time), but I have a tendency to copy myself too much when creating male ones. I suppose what I'm getting at is that it's easier for me to play a character whose background and personality is different from mine, when the gender is different too (An alien concept from the very beginning).

Though, I have to admit, despite being able to imagine "the female me", it's not as easy as when playing male characters (Who I usually design after myself for the first run-through of an RPG, and explore the story as myself).

 

[Troublesome Lagomorph]

Nothing wrong with it, I think. I see it as a challenge, above all else. After all, a man doesn't know how a woman thinks for sure and vice versa.

 

[kcjerith]

I don't see what the problem is. I have role played different races (elves, goblins, etc...) so playing a different gender doesn't strike me a big deal.

 

[Gudrests]

As a player in a handful of D&D nights, there is nothing funnier than a male being a female character.

I can see someone being a complete whore and just grinning at you because his persuasion skill is high enough so that you have to.....well...Id do that just to grief other people and laugh so hard...never played DnD, none of my friends have and idk where id get involved

 

[Spade Lead]

I don't see anything wrong with it and it can lead to some hilarious situations, but I've never been able to do it myself. It's wierd, whenever I make a female character in a game that let's me make a male one, I feel really wrong. More so in online games, less so in single player games or games with only friends, but it's always present.

Slightly off topic, Morrowind gave male and female characters slightly different stats, I don't know if Oblivion still does though what with all this fun political correctness floating around like a bad smell.

In games I usually play as a male for the same reason. But, to enhance my writing skill, on another website I do text-based role playing on, I added a 4 1/2 year old daughter to my main character, and I am trying to make her a separate character in her own right.

 

[revolutionaification]

Snip.

Well put, sir. I sometimes do get interested in how other characters react to seeing the quiet, timid woman in the rear of party leap into battle and cut down hordes of enemies.

Well, I am in fact, a ma'am, which really was the basis of my point. However, as tone is very difficult to convey through the internet I'll assume you were joking and congratulate you on making me chuckle.

I agree with you about the interest in other people's reactions, and often, that's one of the few reasons I'll ever trot out one of my female characters. The only thing that's frustrating about it is when I'm then called out for trying to be 'badass' when, in reality, I'm merely keeping pace with the guys. Pfft.

 

[Asuka Soryu]

I like to roleplay a person roleplaying a person roleplaying a person of another gender roleplaying another person who may or may not be roleplaying me, roleplaying them.





And no, it's not wrong. I have friends who do it to, but sort of for the wrong reasons.

 

[LoneFullmetal]

I do it just to see what's different for female characters, sometimes in RPGs you'll end up having entirely different conversations and interactions with characters. In Kotor II you even ended up with a different party character if you were female.

 

[Inkidu]

There's nothing wrong with it. Saying there is is like saying men shouldn't write female characters and vice versa.

 

[drisky]

My old D&D group had a problem with it, had nothing to do with how I played it since they scoff when they said the F on my character sheet. I don't see a problem but if it makes someone uncomfortable I just won't do it.

 

[badgersprite]

Well, I'm a girl, so most of the characters I end up playing or roleplaying are male by default. When I play a character of a particular gender, a particular race, ethnicity, sexuality or so on, there's nothing to it except that I want to play that particular character. I like making characters who are different from me, sometimes in gender, and often in ethnicity.

I don't know if it's a particular reason why I do this. Maybe it's subconscious. Maybe it's because I like altering characters from the default to truly make them my character. Maybe I think changing things like that is just another subtle quality that helps inform the character and how I play them. Maybe I like to unconsciously correct a perceived lack of diversity in games. Maybe I just identify more with protagonists who are different from me, because it enables me to recognise them as distinct characters with their own personalities and roleplay accordingly, and not just view them as vessels for self-insertion. Or maybe I just find them more attractive. Who knows?

 

[Mannayz]

Hey, I've got no problem with anyone willing to play as a different gender role. I leave THAT to the people that can actually do it, though.

However, like Daniel said, if I'm playing an MMORPG and I'm going to be staring at my character's ass for the next twenty straight hours, I'd rather stare at the ass of a female character.

 

[dstreet121]

I get a lot of crap from my roommate whenever he sees me playing a female Shepard or a female Warden in DA:O and I just tell him it's the character I wanted to play. If you only play the same gender side of any RPG I feel like you'd be missing half the content and not getting your money's worth. Seeing the subtle differences the game will throw at you depending on your gender, which I wish games would embrace more instead of making the difference purely cosmetic.

For D&D campaigns playing a different gender is just for fun anyway, isn't that what games are for?

 

[Sean Steele]

In a lot of games 'especially Bioware games with a voiced protagonist' I go with the better voice. Beyond that I usually tend to slide male since I am male and think of the characters as avatars of myself. Some people don't and thats fine too.

 

[6_Qubed]

I notice, OP, that you mention games with customizable characters. I'll get to that in a quick second.

I like to play female characters, mostly in third-person games. My justification is that if I have to look at some schmuck's ass bouncing around on the screen for the entire game, it might as well be an ass I enjoy looking at. One important caveat is if the female character plays differently from the others, a la Borderlands, I will only pick her if I like her abilities/moveslist. When I play Tekken 5 I have a small stable of regular characters I call "The Band of Shirtlessness," and the only female on the list is Christy Montiero, because to my thinking that double-boob-sling thingamabob she wears would require a rather liberal definition of "shirt."

In games that involve fully customizable characters, not only do I have female characters, I have at least one female legacy character; that is, a character that shows up game after game after game. Her name is Elmo Orly, (because that's how I imagine "lmao" would sound if you said it out loud, and the last name is pronounced "ORR-lee") she typically has black or dark blue hair, black makeup, tomboyish attire, and as a personal joke she is characterized as being a lesbian, but because most games do an either terrible or nonexistent job of characterizing lesbians, she never meets anyone, and so she's constantly frustrated. She takes this out in combat, adopting the general "sneaky bastard" style of fighting to snipe, poison, or trap/ambush her targets. What made the whole "lesbian" thing even funnier was Fallout NV's "Cherchez la Femme" perk, which presumable makes your character a lesbian, and it still only comes up all of three times in dialogue!

 

[Friendshipandmagic]

In Mass Effect, I played as a girl because Jennifer Hale is a brilliant voice actress, and the guy who does the male Shepard has a voice blander than Hayden Christensen's. In Fallout 3 I played as a girl because Black Widow is better than Lady Killer, and that was my only reason.

Same. But I also tend to play female characters in games because 90%of the time I like how they look better than the male option.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

lol reminds me of this

having questioning doubts about your mind?


jk, but really, its your playthroughs, so whatever, i have noticed that trend around here though, there are quite a few males that absolutely prefer to play females no matter what the case is, personally if it flows for the story, cool, if not, i like to represent what i am, which is a male.

 

[Bara_no_Hime]

I usually play female D&D characters (being female myself) but every now and then I play a male.

I have an male fighter-mage who I love to play. He's a jerk, but an awesome jerk. I also based my Male Shepard off of him when I decided I needed to play a Male Shep to seduce Tali with.

It's a nice change to play another gender in D&D. In video games, not so much, but that just takes me back to my "there should be more female characters in video games" rant.

 

[iDoom46]

I don't see the problem. I've made a female character in every RPG I've touched (so long as it had the option), along with a male character. I never thought of it as weird, maybe a little embarrassing (I have no idea what it says about me if I constantly want to play as a girl, and I don't really care to find out, Mr. Freud).

I can kind of understand where your friend is coming from in it being kind of awkward, especially since his characters are hitting on yours, but that just might be an issue he has with a lack of imagination, or inability to separate fiction from reality.

Personally, I just find female characters to be more interesting. I suppose that's why I like making up female characters more than males. That, and I've spent most of my life surrounded by -mostly- women, making me a bit less of a "macho" kind of guy but more in-tune with how the female mind works (or so I think).
It seems that I reflect that in my video game choices. They do say games can tell you a lot about yourself...

The most noteworthy examples I have of playing as the opposite sex would be:
In Mass Effect, when I created a Psycho-*****, man-hating, racist/alien-hating, lesbian biotic/commando and pretty much tore the galaxy (and my team) half to hell with my fuck-all attitude.
In Final Fantasy XI, mostly because I actually role-played as the character I created. And now I can honestly say, thanks to that experience, I have a pretty firm grasp on the plight of the female gamer.