There’s an absurd gender dimorphism in most games where every guy is a mountain of muscles by default. I don’t enjoy that body type - for myself, as a 5’5 dude, or even romantically - and women are usually on the softer, thinner side, so I tend to pick them at first.
If its a game where I can easily change genders, I’ll flip around to my tastes, depending on which clothing looks better on whatnot. - Aliens:Fireteam Elite and Dragon Quest Builders 2 come to mind as examples that did that. Also games with intricate character creators, like Saint’s Row (RIP) are welcome, but rare.
Eastern games tend to have softer men, so those tend to be exceptions. I recall picking male options in both Genshin and Path To Nowhere, and I usually enjoy the male leads in jRPGs.
I think this is my reason. I like lithe, acrobatic archetypes and will, for instance, usually prefer playing stealthy character classes when given the option. Guy bodies in games are (or at least used to be) blocky rectangles; they look like walking refrigerators. Gals usually have a more dynamic and nimble appearance.
Two more relevant reasons: (1) traditinally, non-customizable main characters are predominately male, so when given a choice I’ll choose the less common option to mix it up and (2) I am a guy in real life and am bored enough of it that I feel incentivized to play the other side in game world.
I don’t mind what sex my character is, my character is not me and I don’t see why I would mind what sex my character is. Like, especially in a video game, the scenario is usually quite fantastic and nothing that my character does (e.g. acrobatics, shooting, running for more than 18 seconds without collapsing out of breath, etc.) gives me a sense that they are a version of me. My character should be random or whatever the writers thought would be most appropriate for the themes or story or whatever.
I never get this type of response. Do you really keep paying attention at whoever ass it is rather than the whole game happening on the rest of the screen?
In this case, “ass” is a funny oversimplification. The player model is on the screen all the time, so having it be attractive adds to the visual appeal of the whole experience
I prefer playing characters as little like me as possible. If there’s a non-human option, I will always take it. The further from human available. Weird alien race? That’s my jam.
If I have to be a human, I’ll often play a female character because it’s the furthest from ‘me’ I can get within those constraints. I’ll also usually play a character of a race I am not, for this same reason.
I don’t go deep into role play stuff. My character is a character, not me. In games where it’s “pick a man or a woman” only I’ll tend to pick women because the voice actors are often better and you can better “play barbie” with character customization, plus of course the cliche reason.
With games that allow full customization I’ll often make androgynous/non-binary characters with various dials at either extreme trying to break the character builder.
I always thought it was weird to model a game avatar after myself. I always roll the “random character” button (shout-out Monster Factory) when it’s available, keeps things simple.
Especially when playing 3rd person games, I find that I enjoy looking at a woman more than at a man in. Also mostly I think the character customization is better.
Well, for one, I play role playing games. So, I like to experience different roles, different ways of thinking, and playing as someone like FemShep or female V in Cyberpunk offers a much different perspective on life than if I played as a male. I’m a male, I go outside as a male, why do the same thing in gaming?
And for a second reason, if I’m playing a third person shooter why would I (a straight male) want to stare at a man’s ass for 120ish hours?
I rarely play women in games because i like playing a oversized jacked warrior guy. I play women if a male of that class would look gay. Stuff like assassins, elementalists I always pick a women because the clothes look better and small build is more immersive to the role. But monk or healer I always pick a guy cause tall gigachad healer is funny.
There are some exceptions – I like playing Nightmare, who is male, in the Soul Calibur series, due to his moveset – but absent broader gameplay considerations coming up, I’ll default to a female choice. I’d rather look at the female character through the course of the game.
considers
I play very few multiplayer games. The last time I was playing a 3D multiplayer game much was a long time ago, probably a Quake 2-based Team Fortress-style game, and then I played a male character, an engineer, because of his role.
I haven’t played MUDs for ages, but there I generally played a male character.
Sometimes games attach some sort of gameplay benefits on a gender-basis (e.g. male or female characters have slightly different stats or characteristics), and then I’ll sometimes choose the main character’s gender based on that, but that’s become less-common, maybe not politically-correct. Mount and Blade: Warband does that – it’s a medieval world and male and female characters have significantly-different roles there; there I’ll play a male character. The Fallout series had a long tradition of having the Black Widow/Lady Killer perk work differently based on a character’s gender; it’s generally advantageous to play a female character there.
I just want you to know there are pills which are fairly easy to get your hands on which if you take will make your skin softer and cause you to grow breasts.
If that sounds intriguing to you, I further inform you there exist many people who happily take these pills for the entirety of their lives and the kind of person who would want to take such a substance is in no way a freak.
But yeah, girl avatars can do sick acrobatics, huh?
I second this and wanna add, that it’s also totally cool, to feel like switching into a different body whenever would be neat. Maybe being whomever you want to be whenever feels just right to you.
This is also attainable with outfits though honestly your appearance is completely secondary to how you personally feel about being your self.
Shapeshifters are just awesome characters anyway right?
Yeah, in discussions like this it's important to put out both the "it's okay if you've got a deep curiousity/desire to be the other gender that you want to explore to see if it leads somewhere more" and the "there's nothing wrong with just having fun exploring other identities or bodies without it being some kind of deep-seated transgender thing." I think the "egg_irl" reaction is sometimes harmful because it ends up pressuring people who really aren't transgender but who would be perfect allies if they weren't ending up feeling annoyed by the whole thing.
who would be perfect allies if they weren't ending up feeling annoyed by the whole thin
No one who can be annoyed out of allyship would have been a particularly steadfast ally regardless how many eggshells one stepped around while dealing with them.
You may not be aware of just how annoying and downright offensive it is to have eager "helpful" people instantly jumping to "aha, you're trans and I will help you come to terms with that!" When you mention that your roleplaying characters or whatnot play around with various genders. It's probably not quite on the same level as people assuming gay people are just "rebelling" or "going through a phase" or whatever and will just get over it, but I imagine it feels along those same general lines.
There surely are some people who are indeed a metaphorical "egg" just waiting to crack, but everyone should have the right to feel comfortable with themselves regardless. Dismissing those offended feelings as walking on eggshells misses that point.
Dismissing those offended feelings as walking on eggshells misses that point.
reply
I said "around", not "on". It was rather clever wordplay.
Telling every single person in the world there are possibilities they can explore is a good thing and no level of unease at that self-examination is any person counters that good.
A person who is trans will be better off knowing and dealing with it and the sooner the better.
A person who isn't trans is part of the dominate social hierarchy and will be fine, even if they are exposed to info that doesn't apply to them or the consideration of that info makes them feel icky.
I empathize if you've been tied to a chair and forcibly boofed with horse urine, I condemn such an affront to your autonomy.
I do point out that that this is a reply thread than began with someone informing a person hormones existed and describing their effects. No comment was made that the person to whom this info was proffered should take the substance, nor was any comment made about what it would mean for anyone's identity whom did.
If it is being suggested to me I should consider the "harm" a hypothetical cis person may come to in being told it's possible to not be cis and in so considering refrain from or hesitate in informing a hypothetical trans person of the same, I never will.
A person can say, "I am confidently cisgender and enjoy typical pastimes generally associated with my sex." That is a great time to tell them hrt exists and what it does.
A person can say, "Nice weather today, huh?" That is a great time to tell them hrt exists and what it does.
Rose Tyler can walk into the time vortex of a TARDIS heart, and that would be a great time to write that hrt exists and what it does across all of time and space.
No one is better off not knowing transition is possible, and the implication mention of trans existence should ever be avoided for the benefit of non-trans persons I find just-this-side-of troubling.
There is something my therapist pointed out to me, who was feeling like fraud about being trans. There is some peer pressure out there on how you have to be to be trans. We are not talking about mean peer pressure, but if you see that bodily transitioning is the way for apparently every trans person, then that must be the way for you too, right? And what if you really dread procedures or meds? Or if you are maybe not super happy with your body, but who ever is? Does that make you less trans? I think it really helps to think of trans as a spectrum and exploring it slowly. And maybe you find your gender identity on that spectrum or you feel role playing etc. is just some good fun. And if you find yourself on that spectrum you can go into character creation and say, I’m fine with the presets or change things up, the result will always be beautifully you.
Didn't cross my mind that someone would suggest that I'd be trans (just) because I want to play female characters too (and sometimes robots and others).
The thought alone feels so strange to me (to me personally)!
Of course a joke is a joke and OK in my case (when the intention is good) but if someone insisted that I'm a trans based on my game characters only, I would get upset.
I was once handed a princess to use as a playable character in my first text-based chat roleplaying game with 3-5 other people of girls and boys.
It quickly grew on me and I started using girls more often as my playing character from then on.
I won't deny that looking at them could be generally nicer, but I believe it's not the main reason. At least when it comes to text roleplaying, I like to (try) think and behave like a lady in games, to roleplay in their world of view. It's neat in its own way and I love the immersion when it hits me!
kbin.social
Najnowsze