When it comes to picking a male or female avatar, some gamers prefer the “odd” choice of picking the “softer” and “gentler” gender. Gamemoir's Victor explains why he usually selects a woman character when given a choice.
This article makes some silly points and some unnecessarily loose jabs at Ubisoft that don't strengthen them very much. I too prefer playing as women, but it's because I have a preference for female protagonists. That's not to say female main characters automatically take precedence over male ones. The character has to be likable or interesting. But since I'm more drawn to women characters, I tend to pick playing as a woman if given the option. It's a preference that needs little explanation other than "Oh I like this a little more."
In games that let you create a character a lot of people immediately try to make a representation of themselves (or what they want to be).
But that gets tiresome, especially when you come to the inevitable conclusion that you cannot create a good representation of yourself.
Then you start to make characters that have no connection to you, or perhaps are delibarately different from you. I play as women, old men, monsters, dwarves, whatever. I very rarely choose to make a strapping atheletic young man like myself :)
I agree with this. I tend to play as characters who Agility is better overall and it just so happens that games (a least a few years ago) tended to make the women the agile characters.
I'd rather stare at a sexy pair of ass of a female character that I fantasised about than looking at a man avatar's back through the whole game. and I'm married, and no I'm not a frustrated teenager. My red haired female shepard looked gorgeous though :D
I usually pick whichever is the better character model. In TitanFall, for example, I exclusively pick women, because the male models look overly bulky given how nimble they are supposed to be...
So you like playing games with a hard on? lol. I like playing as male characters because i don't stare at their butts and i like to make them look badass.
I do but mainly because I like to see strong female characters. I do on MMOs because when you play as a male every other guy is trying to compete against you instead of working with you. I'll play a female in an mmo to just be left alone. Not like the creeps who actually pretend to be a girl to get stuff.
It really makes no difference to me who I'm playing with as long as I can shoot someone in the face... then we're cool... man, women, dog.. I'll play as anything... even a little carnivorous green dinosaur who eats his own kind.
A lot of guys like Tomb Raider and have been playing since the PS1 days... not a word of this crap until this generation... quite the rotten bunch if you ask me.
I mostly agree with the article. In the end, I just like looking at a female more. It has absolutely nothing to do with connecting with the character, consciously or not. Just as often though, when possible, I create characters to look as much like myself as possible.
Interesting points, and I think I now understand why people may choose to play a different gender to their own.
Still, I'm a strong advocate of gaming metrics, and studios putting more effort into options which are used (of course, female characters should be included if the sales lost from their omission outweigh the cost of implementation) allows effort to be distributed equally among all players (except where value lies in the existence of a choice itself, which is the case with moral decisions).
With gaming metrics, these attacks on developers can end and a small elite who choose niche options which took thousands of man-hours of development can give way to the most chosen options being far more padded out, diverse and enjoyable.
Of course, they should be anonymous and not be as overt as the AC4 mission rating system where possible.
Sometimes I like to have a break from playing as male characters and also female characters can be better i.e. femshep from Mass Effect. I also like playing as female COGs in Gears of War because they have attitude and are smaller.
In my opinion If I'm given the option I'd rather look at a women in tight clothes and watch a digitally perfect ass/bum on screen (3rd person games) Then watch a bulky man grunt every few momments, But then i realize about an hour or 2 in I want to feel as If I'm the man, and the womens voice in cutscenes normally annoys me so I then revert to the man, this happened in mass effect 1 and 3 for me!
I usually play as a female when it fits the role of my character I play in RPGs. Like a sexy and sneaky thief that uses her looks to her advantage and stuff like that. Why would you wanna play as yourself? That what you do in real life already... let's be honest guys who wouldn't wanna know how it is to have boobies for a day?! Video games are the closest thing we got so let's embrace it!
There are various reasons, of course they encourage more attention in online games/worlds (see: PS Home) but it can be tactical, I remember my Unreal Tournament days when more players opted for a female character as they were smaller.
I completely agree with the author, I love female beauty and I solely pick it for it. Now that I think of it, if the protagonist weren't an attractive girl, I doubt I'd pick her... yeah, call me shallow (but honest)
Oh, and I do have a girlfriend, and we have a healthy sex life, but that doesn't stop me to admire my main character's ass when she's moving around :D
Same here. Well, besides the girlfriend part, as we just broke up. Nice anniversary present, eh?
I also tend to use games that allow for female characters+ customization so that I can work on what I want my own characters in whatever novel I'm working on to look like. For some reason, this works better for female characters than males, for me.
But, mostly, it's that appreciation for the female form, particularly if I'll be looking at it for the next 50-100+ hours.
In games like ME I play the male on my first play through, then female on the next simply because I want the second play through to be as different as possible from the first. I also usually go good male evil female... ya know cause bad chicks are hot.
I do it cause ive been playing male characters for 41 years and given the opportunity id like to see a beautiful digital avatar playing as I usually would. I get a kick out of it.
Normally I go with a female because they're much easier to look at for the 60-100 hours I'm going to play that game. Also the character designs for them are usually better.
For me it depended if the the gender affected choices in the game then I'd reroll as a female character on another playthrough...or if especially the male character never received a voice acting lesson in his life.
Edit: Fighting games however are a different story...I dunno how many people I destroyed playing as Sonya.
Games that give you the option to choose a gender usually doesn't change anything but the looks and voice. I might choose female just to experience something different. Which the only difference is you look at your characters sex appeal more.
Well this is all good and all but at the same time i dont think any develoer should be forced or pressured into making a female character. Its their vision, they can do what they want with it and they shouldnt have to come up with lame excuses to justify it. Unfortunately thats not how it works.
I choose a female character in GTA4's on line side of things just to see how people react to a girl in the game........lets just say there are a lot of weirdoes out there!
Im seeing everyones comments and still cant understand why the reason guys who are saying they play as females is because if their playing 20+ hours they dont want to stare at a guys ass?
So in games with male roles such as Uncharted, God of War, Red Dead Redemption, Gears of War, etc., are you staring directly at their back sides? Or are you looking ahead at the surrounding areas/enemies?
The agility of female characters i can understand, but cant help wondering if thats all psychological...You see the big muscle bound male avatar then the slender physique of the female avatar and assume she walk/runs faster or dodges better, but could it be the same?
Fighting games I completely agree some girls just kick so much ass!
Only reason i pick female is cause if i have to stare at a characters ass for 20+ hrs due to the camera trailing behind on screen i would rather it not be a mans.
Wow... some of the comments here.... Anyway... I'm not particularly into games that try to make it seem I'm myself. I want to experience and understand what the character is experiencing and help them along. For me, media is my escape from reality whether it is a book, movie, music, and yes even video games. I don't want to be that person because then that person becomes me and I'm back in reality. Now... I like me... lol... but there are some things in this world I can never be or want to be but doesn't mean I don't find it fascinating to watch or experience.
For me it depends on the game. I liked playing the man role in certain games MGS series, God of War, any soldier roles (because that's similar to what I use to do in real life and I'm a man) hand to hand fighting games. But in fantasy games I like playing as a woman, sword base game play I seem to favor women over men i.e Soulcalibur, Heavenly Sword, certain JRPG games, Magic based characters (mages/witches). Also, like playing fun games that tend to set the character up as children ....
Just because gamers play different sex roles doesn't make us Gay, Perverted, a Child Molester, or a Cross-dresser. Also I know a lot of guys who are no where close to being gay but love watching movies with women as the main character in action, horror, scifi .... all have had great movies and series with women as leading role its no different in games. Women have been playing and watching men roles in games and movies especially in action based genres where it tends to favor men over women..... Doesn't make women gay...
But that's the dilemna isn't it. There are quite a few people out there who do like being the actual Person/Animal/Alien as an extension of themselves. Then there are a lot of those gamers who are more like me... who like to interact with the character as if it were a separate person and am helping them along the journey or experience.
Got to be tough For game developers trying to make a character and story that is compelling for a mass market of so many gamers with different outlooks, game styles and backgrounds. My hats of to them for such an undertaking.....
and chill out .... its really not that serious if a player decides to play as character who is of different gender or species.....
I always create a female character because the female characters that I create tend to look cooler than the male characters. Skyrim and Destiny Beta where the last times I did it. And will probably do the same for Dragon Age Inquisition and Bloodborne I probably will.
It really depends on the game for me. Most of the time it doesn't matter. Only a few games where I always play as a female character and some where I never.
This is like saying, "I'm not going to use a shield, because I feel like it!" Seriously, the option's there, so why not use it? If the creators didn't want it in the game, they wouldn't add it in! No one should limit themselves of the experience of the game however they want to experience it! -_-
This article makes some silly points and some unnecessarily loose jabs at Ubisoft that don't strengthen them very much. I too prefer playing as women, but it's because I have a preference for female protagonists. That's not to say female main characters automatically take precedence over male ones. The character has to be likable or interesting. But since I'm more drawn to women characters, I tend to pick playing as a woman if given the option. It's a preference that needs little explanation other than "Oh I like this a little more."
Because they probably need a girlfriend. Kidding Kidding. on some games the women characters are more agile.
I usually pick whichever is the better character model. In TitanFall, for example, I exclusively pick women, because the male models look overly bulky given how nimble they are supposed to be...
i tend to play as a grill every time when given the option. but for some reason i did not do it with mass effect gaems.