Guys who play girl characters

[jesusismyairbag]

to stare at that booty babay!!

 

you gay

 

jks, obv...

Edited July 11, 2012 by jesusismyairbag

[GnatGoSplat]

I wonder if the females I know who play games tend not to mind playing males while males I know (not all of course) do tend to mind playing females because many of the games we ladies were exposed to in our youth usually only allowed us to play as boys. Playing an opposite gender was normal; it only rarely bugged me but I was much more interested in playing the game than nit picking over not being able to play a girl. Since guys typically were able to play their gender, they did not have that experience and it may be why some guys balk at the idea of playing a girl or why guys who play girls are sometimes scoffed at. I think there are other contributing factors, but males being the typical gender you had to play could be one of the factors.

 

I think it's much deeper than that. I think it's because most males and even females view females as inferior. Masculinity is power, so being associated with femininity is embarrassing. It's okay for a girl child to play with toy cars and Legos, but parents worry when a boy child plays with dolls. Women still can't get equal pay in the workplace, and men still get most of the promotions. There are many people, men and women, who think woman's place is in the kitchen and staying home raising babies. My wife worked in IT support last year, and said first thing some women would say is, "let me speak to a MAN". People of both sexes automatically think women are less competent. How often have you heard people say that women are terrible drivers? In reality, men are involved in far more fatal crashes. It's still a sexist world when you really look at it, and I'm sure I could think of a ton more examples.

 

I probably would have been embarrassed to play a female character (or admit it to my peers) when I was a kid or teen, but now that I'm old I do what I want and I don't care who knows it. I sometimes will not even consider playing a game if I can't play as a female character because I love a female hero and I become a lot more attached to her as her story unfolds.

[SFBryan18]

On my third play through in Oblivion I used a female Breton instead of a male and named her Ariel. Now in Skyrim, Ariel is my wife.

 

Why did I play as a female in Oblivion? Well, I had played as a male twice and felt like mixing it up. There weren't any mods for PS3.

[Psiberzerker]

I play female characters mostly because i get to be a GIRL, so it's different. There's next to no difference in game terms, so if I can be a badass, and pretty, why not? I'm plenty secure enough in my masculinity to not feel threatened by a video game. Besides, this is a Fantasy game, you don't get to be a wizard IRL, right? Fight dragons, run around in armor killing people with a greatsword... (Ok, you could do that for a little while, but the cops might have something to do with it.) The whole idea is to escape this old boring life for something different, and exciting. It doesn't make you gay.

[invertedpanda]

I normally play males, but have never had a problem with female characters (Such as Diablo 2, where the Amazons and Sorceresses were female).

 

I did finally start playing a female character, because of the lack of interesting attire for males in mods. It seems most stuff tends to be made for female bodies (the Triss armor, for instance) - especially clothes (about half of my characters don't wear any armor). My new character is a poisonmancer/conjurer. No armor, and no attack skills. She takes care of undead and dragons using staves and conjuration, and kills everybody else by reverse-pickpocketing poison (this is my second time playing this build, but the last one I didn't have conjuration and went with illusion).

[Relativelybest]

Eh, I just get a better feel for females, making it easier to get into character. Somehow, male characters never feel quite "real" to me. They end up being just some guy running around doing stuff. I've been some guy all my life, so I don't realy see the appeal in pretending to be one in a video game. If I want to be some guy running about swinging swords around, I can do that in real life.

 

Anyway, I don't really feel a need to identify closely with my characters - in fact, I tend to prefer ones that are radically different from me.

 

Plus, I don't really like the look of the dudes and with the limitations of the race menu, I don't think it's even possible for me to create a male character I consider genuinely cool.

Edited July 11, 2012 by Relativelybest

[ufw7]

My first playtrough in any game will always be male (i'm male) and will be a good character (always helping people etc.) because thats who I am and I can fully immerse myself in the game and with the story, and my second playtrough (if i do any) will most likely be female and evil (exept saints row the third where my first character was a girl (the people who played it will know why :P)) I also think, again, I THINK that men who play as female characters are 1) feeling themselfs as a female or 2) miss a girl in there lifes and go search it in games. Edited July 11, 2012 by ufw7

[StayFrosty05]

My first playtrough in any game will always be male (i'm male) and will be a good character (always helping people etc.) because thats who I am and I can fully immerse myself in the game and with the story, and my second playtrough (if i do any) will most likely be female and evil (exept saints row the third where my first character was a girl (the people who played it will know why :P)) I also think, again, I THINK that men who play as female characters are 1) feeling themselfs as a female or 2) miss a girl in there lifes and go search it in games.

 

Incorrect...I am a female who only plays males and my hubby and his brother play females when they have the option...neither hubby, his bro or I wish to change our RL sexes, our reasons are very simple for playing the opposite sex to our own, if we are going to spend that long watching someone's ass running around on a screen, we may as well make one we enjoy watching....I know I for one find men insatiably sexy, so why in the hell would I want to watch some woman prancing around on my screen when I can watch some very sexy man in action instead? (Mods made him gorgeous... :tongue: ...)....my hubby and his bro play females for the exact same reason....We are all in our 40's, maybe we have all just gotten well and truly over any fears or questions about our own sexualities....Oh and plus I enjoy the whole tough Barbarian Warrior Hero fantasy.

[sukeban]

I definitely roll female characters for aesthetics and roleplaying, qualities that I value a great deal.

 

There's something about the "more ripped than ripped" body type in Skyrim (and, really, most other games) that I just do not find that appealing, as it either a) makes them look like a cartoon character or b) is just aesthetically unpleasant. The way that huge hulking dudes look in some of the armor sets... ugh, something like forcing a hot-dog inside of an overly tight casing. Not a good look. That is not to say that I am down with J-style guys ("girl" guys), but rather that I'd simply prefer to roll a girl character and abandon my hand-wringing (that is, after about an hour on character select!).

 

I can't really take the "more ripped than ripped" guys seriously from a roleplaying perspective either, as all I can think of is Abobo from Double Dragon and secretly voice-over everything with "HULK SMASH" or begin sentences with "Me want!" Basically, if you want to look like Stalone in Rambo or Arnold in Conan, you basically have to accept that same level of dialogue ("Crom will not let me into Valhalla until I can answer the Riddle of Steel!") and one-dimensional personality that comes with those characters. And I know that's unfair and stereotypical, but... I can't really do anything about it.

 

Girl characters just look cooler and leave more room for roleplaying maneuverability--totally IMO, of course.

[SergeantGrrock]

Wow. This thread is on page one AGAIN???

 

(Yawn) :sleep: