In game Gender Dysphoria

[KageNiko]

Haha, that would have been an awkward game to sit through. I've always wanted to design my own game like that. Pen/paper, cards, video games, text based video games, I love designing stuff.  Thanks for sharing!

[IAmDariaQuinn]

I like to play wrestling games.  I don't really game much, but of what I do, it's mostly superhero stuff and wrestling.  For the most part, WWE games will let you play as characters of both genders, as well as create players of either gender.  However, if you choose to play as or create a Diva, you're limited as to what you can do as far as clothing options, body shapes, and game modes.  Earlier versions of the games would allow for intergender play, or to make CAWs as a third gender that could compete in both divisions and could take a male or female body type.  But current versions don't allow for that, nor any sort of intergender play, so if you're a hardcore fan like me, you can't play as your preferred gender and take on or team with the guys.  So, if I want to play against Seth Rollins, for instance, I have to play as a male character or CAW.  But if I want to take on AJ Lee, I can be Daria all I want.  I can't be WWE Champ, but I can be Divas champ, which is fine, but to play other modes, you have to play as a guy.  Which is fine if I want to play as Sami Zayn in a career mode, but not so much if I want to play as me... or any other girl for that matter.  Well, I CAN play as me, but it'd have to be male me, which... eh... kind want to stop doing, really.  I can't even really pretty my male CAW up enough to be androgynous or whatever.  So I can't even really Shane myself up enough to make it work.  Bleh...

However, most other wrestling games don't even have that option.  CAW modes are limited, and almost always male-only.  So the AAA Heroes of Lucha, TNA, or anything like that, no dice.  Fire Pro Wrestling let you make women CAWs, but they'd balk at the intergender play. 

It's because they want to be all family-friendly and crap, but it's like, there's maybe 10 divas in any WWE game, and half of them are crap wrestlers no one want to play as/against anyway.  I'd LOVE to have a SHIMMER game with a full roster and a deep CAW mode, like a WWE game or better, but they're so low on the totem poll that it'd almost never happen.

But that's just me, transgender fangirl lamenting how she can't use her real CAW up against Seth Rollins and kick his teeth in with his own finisher....  She has to use a guy.  Bleh.

[Amy85]

I play female characters like 80% of the time. The rest I play male because a nagging voice in my mind says I should want to play them :/

[crystals]

i used to play male characters back at the day before understanding my own feelings as to why i was miserable at the time but ever since then i only and every single time i can [when i can choose if a female or male character except for times when the female character is showing too much and leaves a taste of body objectifying in such case i prefer to play a male character because those are usualy more covered
but my skyrim player.. dark souls 2 player.. titanfall all of them are female characters because i can choose what they would wear

[Taius]

You know, I play male characters a good 95% of the time. The only time I don't is when I have a specific roleplay character I want to play in an MMORPG, or when I can't play as a male.

Pretty much always done that, preferred male avatars vastly, but it wasn't until I came out that I realized exactly WHY it was so prominent. Before I thought I was just really really into hot guy butt?

...Well. I still am. LOL

[Amy85]

You know, I play male characters a good 95% of the time. The only time I don't is when I have a specific roleplay character I want to play in an MMORPG, or when I can't play as a male.

Pretty much always done that, preferred male avatars vastly, but it wasn't until I came out that I realized exactly WHY it was so prominent. Before I thought I was just really really into hot guy butt?

...Well. I still am. LOL

Lol That is what I would say when my friends would ask me why I make female characters in WoW. "If I'm going to stare at an ass for hundreds of hours it might as well be an attractive one!"

[kelly_1979]

I really don't play games nowadays.... pc is from 2010 so can't handle new games well.  But when I played it was mostly stealth. .. lume Splinter Cell, and was quite OK with Sam Fisher.

[MattAverage]

When I was like, 7-10 years old I mostly just played fighting games with friends and felt that I always had to use a feminine character because my friends would pick on me if I didn't. When I got into other genres and played alone more I figure out I was more comfortable playing as a man and then started playing as male characters more and more to the point I was doing it exclusively. I started feeling really uncomfortable playing as female characters when I had my choice so I avoided it as much as I could. I never really gave it much thought until I was 15 and picked up Fable III. My second playthrough I was a bearded cross-dressing woman, which finally got me seriously thinking about my gender issues.

I still play predominantly as male, but I have a lot of alternate profiles/saves that are female characters.

[Tessa James]

I think you who love the games might enjoy a book about a transgender character in "Just Girls" By Rachel Gold.  It is her second book with the first "Being Emily" another coming out trans story.

[awilliams1701]

When I was getting my hair done, I realized it was going to be the same color as my game preference. Apparently I've been making my true self in game form all these years. Maybe that means I need to start wearing nuclear green makeup in insane amounts. lol (probably not)

[Aubrey1day]

Discovering the online RPG world when I was 17 is what really started to make things click for me. Playing a female character felt so natural and the more and more time I spent doing it the more I realized I enjoyed it so much because I was able to be my true self. It was eye opening but also caused me no small amount of pain. I felt until recently that being myself online was the only option which was devastating. I pulled away from everything in real life (Friends, family, and even working.)

I met people along the way and came out to a few of them. There were times they would react badly but most were surprisingly understanding. A few even suggested things like GRS but the concept of that seemed so extreme and out of my reach that I just pushed it aside. I've spent the last 12 years living my life in MMO's. It for me has taken the loss of two parents and confronting the fact that unless I make big changes to ensure my happiness and that I have a reason to keep living that I wouldn't have survived another year.

I may never have come to the conclusion that the dismay I had felt with myself all my life was due to feeling like I was trapped in the wrong body if not for video games.

Oh and my characters over the years have all sort of shared a similar look. I think it was my subconscious shaping the characters to follow what I felt the true me would resemble. Except for in WoW at least, my true self is definitely not a Blood Elf. 

[Aearon]

I have a lot of issues with playing RPG games and the like, because they're so often very binary. I end up having to pick between only two genders, neither of which fit me. I used to flip a coin to pick one, but it's reached a point now that when I say "does anyone have a coin", my friends will pick one at random or make up a silly 'pick a number' game or something. I have a roughly equal number of male and female characters, and in LOTRO I even have a non-binary one (RP-wise only, but dwarves are all coded male for some reason?).

[Dee Marshall]

I have a lot of issues with playing RPG games and the like, because they're so often very binary. I end up having to pick between only two genders, neither of which fit me. I used to flip a coin to pick one, but it's reached a point now that when I say "does anyone have a coin", my friends will pick one at random or make up a silly 'pick a number' game or something. I have a roughly equal number of male and female characters, and in LOTRO I even have a non-binary one (RP-wise only, but dwarves are all coded male for some reason?).

Because in the books no one ever saw female dwarves. There were two theories among fans, either the dwarves keep their women deep in their delves, or female dwarves look exactly like male dwarves.

[Aearon]

Because in the books no one ever saw female dwarves. There were two theories among fans, either the dwarves keep their women deep in their delves, or female dwarves look exactly like male dwarves.

Tolkien did explicitly state the existence of female dwarves, and included the named character of Dís. Plus there are plenty of fan theories about non-binary dwarves and dwarves with different constructions of gender than humans.

[Dee Marshall]

Tolkien did explicitly state the existence of female dwarves, and included the named character of Dís. Plus there are plenty of fan theories about non-binary dwarves and dwarves with different constructions of gender than humans.

I missed that one, thanks! Which book?

[Aearon]

I missed that one, thanks! Which book?

Because this is Tolkien, Lord of the Rings: "Appendix A: Durin's Folk", and A History of Middle Earth: Volume XI: The War of the Jewels, "Part Two. The Later Quenta Silmarillion: Concerning the Dwarves (Chapter 13)" 
There are also female dwarves in some of the films: mentioned in Two Towers and shown in An Unexpected Journey.

[Jen72]

I am not sure where I seen this but the explanation I got why you don't see female dwarves is that so few are born therefor to preserve the race they are kept save in the mountains at home basically.

[Solaela]

Most of the time I play the female unless it's somthing like Borderlands where a male might fit my style. Even though that never happened XD

[BenKenobi]

I could go both ways. I write a lot so I don't have the game character represent me, rather represents other characters of mine. In Saints Row, I had fun making different people and listening to the different dialogue options. And then Dragon Age came in to my life and I'm just all "I MUST PLAY ALL OF THESE PEOPLE". I marvel at how much detail they put in to the different reactions from race and sex.

[Venom]

I've been gaming for most of my life, though I was a casual player right up until 2007. In 2007 I started playing RuneScape, and at first my character was female with short hair, but I eventually changed it to a male character. At first I put it down to not wanting people to flirt with me, which sometimes happens if you have a female character. Then I moved to Mabinogi, where most of my characters were male, except the one. I couldn't put down the reason why, though my excuse was always "I don't want to be hit on" for online games and "I'd rather look at a male character" for offline games. This continued to Vindictus, Assassin's Creed Multiplayer, Kingdom of Amalur: Reckoning, Halo, Saints Row, Borderlands, Destiny, Fallout, Elder Scrolls, Dragon Age, Mass Effect and whatever else I'm missing where most, if not all, of my characters were male.

It wasn't until last year that I had that Aha! moment regarding my preference for male characters. I felt like I identified more with the male protagonists or characters than any of the female characters I made. It was easier to settle into the story, and was a more enjoyable experience for me overall. I don't regret choosing a female character when there's an option, and still enjoy the story with a female character. I just don't connect as well with them, and now I understand why.

With games that don't have a choice, I'm lucky in that most games have male protagonists, so identifying with them is easier. However for the few that have female protagonists, I can identify with them in aspects like personality.