Does Oblivion Encourage Transvestism

[Telyn]

Basically there are two types of player. One type projects the self into the protagonist, and although some oldtime roleplayers can do that with either sex without discomfort, most people of that type tend to play the same sex they are. I saw a study once that indicated women are more able to identify with male characters than men are with female characters. I am guessing that's because most of the books, movies, etc they see feature male characters. So it's probably a matter of being used to it.

 

The second type of player likes watching and controlling a character, and doesn't have such a strong self-identification with it. In my experience, generally that type of player prefers to play a good-looking character of a sex they find attractive.

 

I'm an oldschool roleplayer so for a long time I would randomly generate characters for games. Sex/race/age/weight, I would randomize all that, and it was a lot of fun. I have alt-itis, and never really had a "main" on MMOs, so I try to make all my characters unique in some way or I would get bored. Now I come up with a story for the character first. Most of my recent characters have been the same sex I am but roleplay is a form of imagination exercise so it just varies. My characters wear armor that would protect them, and clothing appropriate to the climate, as much as is possible. I have done what I can to see that NPCs do the same.

 

That said, when I was playing WoW and other MMOs, I discovered that a lot of rpers had descended into snobbery and unfriendly elitism. I reject that. If someone enjoys watching an attractive PC character more than they would enjoy roleplaying a short elderly priestess who is losing her memory, I can certainly understand that and there's nothing wrong with it.

 

I mostly play in 1st person also, helps my immersion, and I have a difficult time with combat in 3rd person. I do like having nice gear if it would matter to my character.

 

Adding: I think a lot of male players who play females actually descend from a line of early FPS players. From what I understand, in a lot of those games, female characters got a dex bonus that was widely considered to be a minmax advantage. I use a mod here which makes starting stats equal for males and females, because I prefer not to be encouraged to choose a character class based on sex in a fantasy game.

[stars2heaven]

I always play with what feels most efficient. In wow, that is third person, and I have no issue with it. I have both male and female characters in wow. In Oblivion, I only play in first person and I only play male characters. In wow it doesn't feel weird for me to play female characters but in Oblivion it does. I don't know why.

[Telyn]

Well, on WoW I think about half the female characters are male. Maybe it's because the female models are a lot better. People have been complaining about the male models for a long time.

[NAPALM13092]

Both gender are equal offenders. Most of the men here are adolescence to middle aged men driven my an insatiable and demented sex drive. Most of the women here are engrossed into an extremely complex and technical grown up version of dress up fashion show. Long story short most women play female characters and most men play female characters....

 

People are going to mod what they want, download what they want, play what they want, and what the people seem to want is sex appeal. I don't care personally for the most part I just wish it wasn't the vast majority of content. For every dress give me a claymore, for every pose mod give me a quest, for every HGEC, BBB, Hentai, Bondage, and Eyecandy give me a Deadly Reflexes, Better Cities, Unique Landscapes, Qarls Texture Pack, and Lost Spires. Is that too mush to ask well yes it sort of is but get what I am trying to say.

[Telyn]

Nah, that's a myth almost as old as "there are no girls on the internet." My warriors are warriors, not models. This is about as elaborate as fashion gets in my game: Female Armors Less Skin. The Non-Sexy Armor list is useful (the thread accepted links to armor for both sexes). I don't have many clothing or armor mods because, personally, I'd rather save the .esp space for something that I would rather have, like a quest.

 

As for people who are into bikini or loincloth armor, my view of it is that life is short, and having a sex drive in middle age(or older) is entirely normal. So is gaming. Whatever makes people happy and hurts nobody is Not-a-Bad-Thing. By the way, in PMs I have helped several guys find more conservative armor for female characters. There are also female players who enjoy sexy clothes on male PCs. AlienSlof is female. She has designed some of the most revealing clothing and armor mods for male characters you are likely to find and she plays only male characters. This isn't the Victorian era. If it makes you feel better, I think you may be underestimating the number of people who aren't particularly into the sexy stuff, though, because people are often too embarrassed on a site like this to post "Can anyone point me to a female body that's shaped like an average woman, a male body with a slight beer belly, and armor sets that covers both crotches and chests entirely?" Plenty of people might be looking for that and give up because even though all of those exist, they are hard to find even if you search sections by hand. If they give up, they aren't reflected in the download numbers. Unfortunately there are not seperate categories for decorative armor and protective looking armors. People have asked for that, but the problem is some mods have both. Where do you put them?

Top 100 Most Endorsed, All

Top 25 Files in the Past Two Weeks

Not all sex or fashion shows by any means. Lots of different types of mods at the top of the top. Note that HGEC has underwear/no underwear options. Also note that some of the adult mods other than the body mods don't have much competition compared to the number of non adult quests, etc.

 

I agree with you entirely that it would be nice if we had more mods like Lost Spires etc. but those often require a lot of scripting, so I don't think it will ever be a 1:1 ratio. Thanks for the honest post. Made me do some thinking about the issue from new angles.

[CasperTheLich]

i'm a man, not much of a burly one either... so bear that in mind. now as far as chest size, h-cups are a little (or a lot) too large for my taste (speaking form a video game standpoint). i think the largest size i can handle is about an e-cup. not too much or too little. at first i typically played male characters, i started with d&d table-top gaming way back in the day, and by the time oblivion came out i had already noted the fact that videogame modders tend to make the best clothing/armor mods with female characters in mind, so i made the switch, and didn't seem to mind. now, i like the first person view when playing, however i use the vanity view quite frequently when i'm wondering around, so it does matter to me if my character doesn't look as good as he or she could, and i also take a lot of screenshots and turn them into wallpaper, so that to comes into it. as far as clothing goes, i like seductive items, weather i'm playing male or female characters, i just think male characters look better with more coverage. as far as armor goes, it doesn't matter how sexy it looks, or doesn't; as long as it looks like it suits it purpose, if it does that and looks sexy, without looking flimsy, it's just a bonus. i might not be a hardcore RPGer, but i usually do have a background setup for each character before i even create them, and it is usually complex, and they do have their own attitudes, and carry out their own actions as they should. Always in character.

and i don't usually use fast travel, i actually like walking or riding around when playing my characters, taking in the views, etc. hmm... lost my train of thought. even forgot the question.

i'll stop here.

 

oh, for oblivion i've maybe created about 60 characters, some are rehashes of older characters who had corrupted save files or ini issues, all were female. now in morrowind i had maybe twice that, the male female ratio was about 1-to-1. i asked myself: "what gives?" i answered with: "who the hell really knows."

[MarkInMKUK]

I'm an old-time Diablo player. Having thought about it, I tended to play a Rogue 99% of the time on Diablo, and now I have a character generator to play with I STILL tend to end up with a female, redheaded, archer. I tried playing a hack-and-slash type - and tended to get too badly hurt as my coordination isn't marvelous and blocking wasn't something I could do while fighting. When it came to magic, I get confuzzled by the options once I have more than half-a-dozen spells, so I don't play mage-types. Apart from the occasional assassin (a Diablo II class this time, and, yes, they tend to be female with shortish dark hair), I still end up playing a Rogue.

 

I guess I play as a Rogue most naturally, and the female character just saves me having to be inventive. And she's WAY prettier than the blokes to look at if I do swap to 3p view.

 

Having said that, I'm going to give a mage-type character a go again soon. A guy called Harry Dresden... (well, I liked the books AND the TV series)

[Zapata935]

Hi everyone, I'm glad I offered this subject up for debate as it has drawn some very interesting views and thought channels. I guess the bottom line having read all above is, be who you want to be. In real life you may have to pay a tariff for that, but in front of your own computer you can be whoever you want to be!

 

Best Wishes Zapata935

[Ghoulz]

In real life you may have to pay a tariff for that, but in front of your own computer you can be whoever you want to be!

 

That... sounds sorta depressing. No wonder I have no real life.

[MarkInMKUK]

In real life you may have to pay a tariff for that, but in front of your own computer you can be whoever you want to be!

 

That... sounds sorta depressing. No wonder I have no real life.

 

Real life is an illusion brought on by lack of computer access. Books are an alternative to computers if you get desperate - I recommend anything apart from Robert Jordan (which is the literary equivalent of an endless pointless dungeon crawl).