Susan's Place Transgender Resources

Computer games, both on and off line have given us the opportunity to create virtual characters as extensions of ourselves.  If you play or played such games did you always choose a character whose sex/gender was opposite of yours?  Or maybe only sometimes?  What was the purpose of your choice and what was its effect?

In single player games I always chose a female avatar, and to be honest can not bring myself to make a male avatar these days.

In multiplayer games, when I first started with Everquest shortly after it came out I made a male character; Characters after that tended to be my whim; I had a decent 50/50 mix but I was seriously starting to go all female at the end. (This is before I woke up by the by); The next multiplayer game I played (Horizons), I never had a male character, and I admitted to being male to almost no one.

These days when I have more of a clue... ^*shrug* Who would want to play a male char anyway? ;)

I would choose the gender that's the same as mine, which is female. :)

Melissa

Whenever I have a choice, I choose a female character. It almost feels awkward to play a male character, especially in roleplaying games. The only online game I played for any length of time is WoW and I've never mentioned to anyone that I am physically male. So as it turns out, the people I play regularly with assume the opposite, which is fine by me.

Though, this isn't all that uncommon, even among 'normal heterosexual' males (half the people I know personally who play are males playing female characters). Sometimes I wonder if the popularity of gender-bending in online gaming actually represents something a little bit more meaningful that no one wants to admit?

I once read an article about the demographics of World of Warcraft that mentioned that the gender split of characters is about 65/35 male/female, but a little more than 50% of female characters were played by male players (around a quarter of male players surveyed enjoy playing a female character more than a male character!).

This kind of thing tends to be a popular but controversial topic on gaming forums, but I really wonder what a "normal guy's" real motivations for playing a female character are. The "macho" argument (and the one that is most often used when people get defensive) is to say that female characters look better or are attractive, and others apparently like duping and taking gifts from chivalrous but naive male players. But... somehow I get the feeling that it isn't the whole story.

I have never thought about the connection between the two until I read this!!!

I'll be the first to admit that I am a complete video game geek (we prefer "video game gods" actually ::)) and have played since before I could talk. But as much as I love video games, I never rent or buy a game that has a woman as the main character that you can't switch to male. I honestly don't think that I have ever played as a female character in a game before about 5 months ago.

I thought to myself about 5 months ago how my brother wasn't "afraid" to play with a female character, and he's very much the "manly man". I realized that I don't have anything to prove and just because I am a man I don't need to play as a male character. This wasn't so much of a conscious, well thought out tangible thought pattern at the time, but I now realize that I've actually come to the point of being able to play as female (although I still definately don't prefer it).

This is one of my favorite polls!!!!

         Tino

A female character in both, singleplayer and multiplayer games, sometimes you can't choose female character but you can named this charater with a new name and  I always use female name even if I play with male character. Maybe stupid lol but I feel better that way. I also play games from the very first beginning ... do you still remember the first ZX Spectrum? :D and than came Commodore 64 and so on  :) ...



* :icon_hug:*

Michelle

The only game that I've played where I could choose the character/skin to represent me online was always a female one.  Although I don't play anymore, my favorite game used to be the Unreal series, and when online I went by the name of -={Angel}=-

I often wondered if the reason that I died so easily in the face of those huge brutes was because I was female or if it was due of a lack of skill.

-={Steph}=-

When I get the choice I do.    but actually I dont really know if this signifies anything as lots of players play am M F or Non Human as it suits them.   Games are about shooting stuff or solving puzzles.

Maybe of more significance are places like Second Life or Moove online where you can choose male or female avatars.  There I had a F av   :)

Rana

It's funny this is something I thought about, but forgot to put into my intro. Yes, whenever the game had a female character, I would play as the girl. Even as early as super mario 2, which put me at about 8 to 10 years old, I almost exclusively played as princess toadstool. Fighting games always gave an oportunity for choice of gender. mortal kombat i always played as Katana, recently I played a lot of Dead or Alive ultimate and Soul Calibur (of course as female characters), and as I mentioned in another area here theres the online game Second Life that lets you create a character from scratch......can you take a guess on that one? that one gave me my first chance to be female in a public setting, even if only virtual.

Usually male characters. When I play a female character, it's usually for a reason like size (the female chars are often smaller and for sneaking around, smaller is better) and I make sure everyone knows I'm male irl.

And I'm a big game geek too :)

Dennis

Dennis:

do you have xbox live going over there? if you do PM me your user name and we could hook up a game of Halo, Ghost Recon or something like that.

     tino

Tino:

Naw, I'm a PC gamer. And you'd wax me at an FPS! I'm old and don't have the twitch :P

Dennis

If the game allows me to be female, I'm always a female... I don't know why I'd be a male... might as well be as female as possible right? ;)

QuoteMaybe of more significance are places like Second Life or Moove online ...

I love Second Life Rana, and play a lot there.  It's my sanity! :)
Well, not really play, it's hard to explain Second Life, it's such a different paradigm.

Jessica

I have a golf game where I can be a girl. I'm pretty darned cute, too, if I do say so myself!

I look a little like a very petite Jenny Finch (albeit, sadly, only in the game) and call myself "Amber" there.

The only game I've played is Civilization (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilization_III), and most of its civs have men at the head of them. But I don't choose which civ to play by the gender of its figurehead, which makes no difference to the game. I choose it by a civ's combination of attributes (scientific, industrious, agricultural, seafaring, religious, militaristic, commercial, etc.) and its unique unit, which makes a big difference in the strategy. The gender of the figurehead is incidental. If I wanted to always play women I could be Byzantium (Theodora), Egypt (Cleopatra), England (Elizabeth I), France (Joan d'Arc), Russia (Catherine the Great), or Spain (Isabella). But the game doesn't work that way. My favorite civs are the scientific ones. Although I do hate it when I play for example my favorite scientific/industrious civ, Persia, which has Xerxes as the figurehead, and the game keeps calling me "Sir." If that starts to irritate me enough, I may start playing only the women-led civs just so I can be called "Ma'am."

I always choose to be female.  WOW, Ghost Recon w/ a all female squad, Big Game Hunter.  If I can be female I am, if I can I do not play, period.  Except for Madden '07, I love football, especial the Hawks.  I would change teams if I had a bf that like football, to his team of course.  ;D

Janet

In the world of Dungeons and Dragons, I have two main characters, one male and one female.  They are brother and sister.

AHHH another Civilization fan? I loved playing Civilization II back in the day. :D

Honestly it depends on the game most of the time. Like in Tekken I use Ling Xiaoyu -- not necessarily because she is female. For some reason I love her techniques of kicking ass.

Now if both genders in the game have nothing unique or special about them, then I will go with whatever I'm feeling.


EDIT: I don't play male all that often, but if the male character has something special that makes it worthwhile, then maybe. Furthermore not every game has a female character to play, although those games are becoming quite rare.

I always play as/create female characters. Always. And this has raised a fair amount of... curiosity among acquaintances. But it's got to the point now where that's my primary reason for playing games where you have to create your character (like Phantasy Star or Monster Hunter) Even sports games, which I always hated... I got one of the Tiger Woods golf games and pretty much lost myself in the character creation.

In beat 'em up's... I always use female characters, and have done ever since the days of Street Fighter II where Chun Li ruled.

For example, the characters I always use are:

Tekken Series: Nina & Anna Williams
Soul Calibur Series: Ivy primarily, but also Taki and Sophitia
Mortal Kombat Series: Nitara and Mileena
Virtua Fighter 4: Sarah Bryant
Bloody Roar 4: Uranus and Jenny
Dead Or Alive Series: Tina

I hadn't realised just how comprehensive it was until someone recently pointed it out to me. I just did it without thinking because it feels normal to automatically use female characters. :-\

Always the other gender.  I even went as far as deleting all of my male characters on Guild Wars and creating new female ones.

It's not that I don't like male characters.  That's why I initally made a male warrior so he can be all buff and BASH FACE.  But it's just that I really suck at roleplaying male characters, so people usually think I'm female anyway.  Also, the female characters have better looking armor, so it's a win-win situation.

My dervish is sporting a brown robe now.

What was meant by "the other gender"?
I'm a trans woman. For me the "other gender" is male. I feel no attraction for such a role. In fact, I feel a very, very strong aversion to it.

I remember reading back in the '90s about a young guy who died when his truck crashed because he fell asleep at the wheel. He hadn't been sleeping because he'd been spending all his time online in role-playing games. He went online as a female character. The news story commented that lots of RPGers played characters in an alternative gender. I remember thinking at the time well yeah of course it would only feel natural to take on a female identity. I wasn't out to myself yet back then. There were millions of such clues happening, but I managed to stay clueless for a long time.

Tekken Series: Nina & Anna Williams
Soul Calibur Series: Ivy primarily, but also Taki and Sophitia
Mortal Kombat Series: Nitara and Mileena
Virtua Fighter 4: Sarah Bryant
Bloody Roar 4: Uranus and Jenny
Dead Or Alive Series: Tina

I'm a bit of a liar. In Tekken I almost always use Ling, although every blue moon I'll use Law -- very rare. In Soul Calibur II, I use Talim.
In Virtua Fighter 4 I use Pai chan. In Dead or Alive 2, I use Lei Fang...

When I'm around my male cousins who are under fifteen, I will change up with a male character every so often...They tend to tease me when I use a female character.

I don't play many games, but my picks are usually moreso for ability, rather than catering to my identity. I've always been attracted to speed, gracefulness, stealth and agility over brute force, armor, power and strength... so I often "end up" with female characters because of it.

I'll admit though, I DID once try to make my Halo persona some pretty shade of pink once, just to add a feminine flair, but... it's... just... WRONG somehow, lol.

~Kate~

I don't generally play role-play games on the computer these days,...but..

...I remember going out to get a copy of "Leisure Suit Larry" (V3 I think) and getting very frustrated
that it took so long to get the bit where I could change sex!.. >:D

...and I have played (badly) the Tomb Raider series.. so I guess the answer is Yes!

Damn... am I giving away my age again?....

Chrissty

Quote from: Hypatia on July 03, 2008, 03:29:10 AM
I remember reading back in the '90s about a young guy who died when his truck crashed because he fell asleep at the wheel. He hadn't been sleeping because he'd been spending all his time online in role-playing games. He went online as a female character. The news story commented that lots of RPGers played characters in an alternative gender. I remember thinking at the time well yeah of course it would only feel natural to take on a female identity. I wasn't out to myself yet back then. There were millions of such clues happening, but I managed to stay clueless for a long time.

That's the thing... to take on a female persona in a game allows you to be yourself with none of the drawbacks that occur when trying to do it in everyday life. You are accepted as female without any questions (except for the lingering remnants of the male view that female gamers don't exist). You're pretty much taken at face value.

And you can also create the persona to be far more physically feminine and curvy than you could ever hope for with all the surgery in the world. An idealistic expression of yourself perhaps. And whilst online you can interact with others completely naturally, without having to worry about whether someone will come out with a derogatory comment.

That's pretty much one of the main reasons I've deliberately stayed away from online games, though. If I started... they would take over my life.

Although, I do suspect that some people who play games as the opposite gender to themselves, if it's not to try and be themselves... then it might be because they would simply rather spend time looking at a beautifully rendered, armour-clad Amazon running around battling dragons etc, than a buff guy. I know someone who does just that.

Quote from: Kate on July 03, 2008, 11:48:13 AM
I don't play many games, but my picks are usually moreso for ability, rather than catering to my identity. I've always been attracted to speed, gracefulness, stealth and agility over brute force, armor, power and strength... so I often "end up" with female characters because of it.

I'll admit though, I DID once try to make my Halo persona some pretty shade of pink once, just to add a feminine flair, but... it's... just... WRONG somehow, lol.

~Kate~

That's a really good point. There are still very solidly gender-defined roles and abilities in a lot of games. Female = lithe, fast, agile, not necessarily powerful and male = tank on legs, pack mule, slow, lumbering, exceptionally powerful. And as well as ability, some games have far more options and female specific items, so it can also be a case of getting the most out of the game almost requiring you to play as a female character.

Quote from: Chrissty on July 03, 2008, 12:00:58 PM
...and I have played (badly) the Tomb Raider series.. so I guess the answer is Yes!

The new Tomb Raider games (Legend and Anniversary) are awesome! ;D

Worse than that, with extremely rare exceptions, I only buy video games that allow a female avatar. 

But I don't know how to answer the poll.  Are we talking gender now, birth gender, what?

Posted on: July 03, 2008, 03:25:11 PM

---

And also, I stay away from the online games because anyone with a female avatar is automatically assumed to be male.

Always male characters if its an MMORPG. I don't feel right playing a girl in those games, its just too weird. When I create an MMORPG character, I feel like its an alter-ego of myself, so its why I prefer to present my avatar as male.

But when it comes to fighting games and certain other games, I'm fine with female characters. I guess it has to do with creating a character vs. using a pre-existing one. Its a situational thing.

I usually make a female character, but I make them on the basis that they are usually quite powerful, whether with physical strength or magic.

For example my first character that I played on an online neverwinter nights server was a female barbarian that wore plate armor that covered her entire body (what a shock, considering in most of the more popular MMORPGs, even if it's plate it still shows skin, which I hate, but I can't do much about it.) and she fought with a great sword.

I don't mind playing female characters if I portray them as powerful, independent and full of fiery personality (if I'm role-playing them) because I like to perpetuate the ideal that women can be powerful in the same ways that men are considered powerful and after all it is a fantasy world, I can be what I like, lol.

The only game I play a lot right now is World of Warcraft, and the server I play on the most I have all female characters except for one male. Usually if I'm in a group with people not in my guild or they don't know me, they just assume I'm male since it's a pretty widely accepted fact that a lot of the female characters are actually played by males. I like the fact they assume I'm male; they don't treat me differently when they assume, and I can just go about my business, and if I mess up in a group or a raid, they wouldn't be soft on me, which is good, lol.

Edit- On second thought when I think about it, I really do like playing a male character sometimes (in WoW) and I wish I had made a few of my female characters male when I look back on it. I couldn't change any of my taurens though, I think it's cool that the male taurens get more horn options and braids but otherwise I think they look kind of goofy when they run and their combat animations aren't the greatest. Usually when I have the urge to play a male character I just go on another server and make a new character and play him for a while till I want to go back to my main server lol.

If given the choice I tend to play females more often then males in computer game and table top rpg's.

The female's look better, which may say something about the graphic artists, I'm currently playing a female assassin in Guild wars, she's wearing Kurzick armour if you want to see it the link is

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Gallery_of_female_assassin_Kurzick_armor (http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Gallery_of_female_assassin_Kurzick_armor)

Compare that to the male version

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Gallery_of_male_assassin_Kurzick_armor (http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Gallery_of_male_assassin_Kurzick_armor)

As I said the females look a lot better

Only hers is completely black and you wouldn't believe the cost of black dye (5 pieces of armour, each needing 1 bottle of dye @8,500 gold pieces each, 38,500 gold must be mad)

Which does present a problem, she's a member of a Lexon guild, and the Lexon and the Kurzick don't like each other. What are they gonna do kick me out?

Quote from: shazz on July 07, 2008, 08:36:44 AM
If given the choice I tend to play females more often then males in computer game and table top rpg's.

The female's look better, which may say something about the graphic artists, I'm currently playing a female assassin in Guild wars, she's wearing Kurzick armour if you want to see it the link is

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Gallery_of_female_assassin_Kurzick_armor (http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Gallery_of_female_assassin_Kurzick_armor)

Compare that to the male version

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Gallery_of_male_assassin_Kurzick_armor (http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Gallery_of_male_assassin_Kurzick_armor)

As I said the females look a lot better

Only hers is completely black and you wouldn't believe the cost of black dye (5 pieces of armour, each needing 1 bottle of dye @8,500 gold pieces each, 38,500 gold must be mad)

Which does present a problem, she's a member of a Lexon guild, and the Lexon and the Kurzick don't like each other. What are they gonna do kick me out?

Actually they look pretty much the same to me. I always liked that look though. I used to play GW a lot, and I think that usually they make the male and female armor sets pretty equally awesome and sometimes I was pretty envious of the male sets. I don't think the guild would kick you out just cause they're Luxon and you aren't, and it would be pretty rude if they did.

Yes I always play the female characters...unless its a game with only male characters like BF2 and then I have no choice.

gina

QuoteComputer games, both on and off line have given us the opportunity to create virtual characters as extensions of ourselves.  If you play or played such games did you always choose a character whose sex/gender was opposite of yours?  Or maybe only sometimes?  What was the purpose of your choice and what was its effect?

Always, when I have the option. My brother (Mike) got a Wii recently, and it has WiiSports, for which you can create your own character. So he and I went through the family creating characters that look roughly like us, and finally it was my turn (though he held the controller-thing). He entered everything for me as anyone 'normal' would - as close as he could get to my physical appearance (i.e. female, "diminutive", long brown hair etc). Anyway, he went to bypass the 'facial hair' section, but I got him to stop and go through all the options as he'd done for the other sections, and they had this really cool moustache :eusa_shifty:... And then, when he was about to finish, I realised that 'I' was wearing a dress. Lutin does not do dresses, and the only way a female can wear pants on the Wii is if she's male. Figures :icon_burn:. SO! My Wii-me is wearing a purple  ("the ->-bleeped-<- colour?!!!!", as my accepting brother so diplomatically phrased it - though I confess that I didn't choose that colour randomly ;)) top and black *pants*, and has a long brunet ponytail, a moustache, and very feminine facial features. So I'm happy with it. :angel: However...

Quote....what was its effect?

It scared the bejesus out of Mike. >:D Now, *every* time the topic of WiiSports comes up, he says "Yes, someone really needs to *shave*." He even told our parents that my Wii character is male and has a moustache, but "transgender" obviously isn't in my family's vocabulary, 'cause no-one has any idea. ::) ;) 

i normally create male characters, but sometimes i create female ones.

Quote from: Phate on July 07, 2008, 06:09:22 PM

Actually they look pretty much the same to me. I always liked that look though. I used to play GW a lot, and I think that usually they make the male and female armor sets pretty equally awesome and sometimes I was pretty envious of the male sets. I don't think the guild would kick you out just cause they're Luxon and you aren't, and it would be pretty rude if they did.

My Guild wars assassin is Luxon, just prefers the Kurzick armour. This is the Luxon assassin armour


http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Gallery_of_female_assassin_Luxon_armor (http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Gallery_of_female_assassin_Luxon_armor)

I don't think it looks so good.

As for the Guild kicking meout I don't think they will because a) we short of members, and b) they not seen me wearing it, sorry her wearing it (I'd love to get into an outfit like that, but if I starved myself for the next year or so and had surgery I might just be able to squeeze in.)

Shazz

Quote from: shazz on July 10, 2008, 04:05:16 PM

Quote from: Phate on July 07, 2008, 06:09:22 PM

Actually they look pretty much the same to me. I always liked that look though. I used to play GW a lot, and I think that usually they make the male and female armor sets pretty equally awesome and sometimes I was pretty envious of the male sets. I don't think the guild would kick you out just cause they're Luxon and you aren't, and it would be pretty rude if they did.

My Guild wars assassin is Luxon, just prefers the Kurzick armour. This is the Luxon assassin armour


http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Gallery_of_female_assassin_Luxon_armor (http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Gallery_of_female_assassin_Luxon_armor)

I don't think it looks so good.

As for the Guild kicking meout I don't think they will because a) we short of members, and b) they not seen me wearing it, sorry her wearing it (I'd love to get into an outfit like that, but if I starved myself for the next year or so and had surgery I might just be able to squeeze in.)

Shazz

Well I meant that the male and female armor look the same, though you said the female looks better.

Anyways, if they kick you out because of that then they aren't worth being with anyways, in my opinion.

I play Video Games like a Religion.
On Soul Calibur I use Nightmare: A Male Demon Knight, But I made a female Charecter that uses his Style I use female charecters over Male as much as Possible, even if there is a Style that a Male Charecter uses in a fighting game I like, I make a Female charcter that uses that style. EX: Carolyn on SC3 and soon SC4 will use Nightmare's Style because Nightmare is my Favorite all time Charecter.
On Things Like Halo 3 My Elite (Which I only play as) is female. My Ninja on Tenchu Z was a Kunoichi (Female Ninja). I use Ayane, and Kasumi on DOA. I have a Female Charecter in GTA4. So on and so forth.
Now as Nightmare says
OFFER YOUR SOUL!
lol Just kidding!

Lol. ;D

Nightmare is a very good character. In SC3 I did have a custom female Nightmare-esque character, too. I actually really liked the way SC3 did that, with the custom character creation.

I still maintain that SC3 has one of the best intro movies ever.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6FTog7uY2Q (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6FTog7uY2Q)

I'd always chose male characters. It was the beginning of my gender expression before I even really understood it.

Hey Leiandra
If you have a Xbox 360 We can play SC4 against each other (Online Play at long last) also Can't wait to see that opening movie and I agree with you about SC3's open, a perfect Fighting game opening period
my Xbox live name is Ikuro Hanogi BTW

Quote from: Carolyn on July 22, 2008, 10:56:20 AM
Hey Leiandra
If you have a Xbox 360 We can play SC4 against each other (Online Play at long last) also Can't wait to see that opening movie and I agree with you about SC3's open, a perfect Fighting game opening period
my Xbox live name is Ikuro Hanogi BTW

I don't have one yet, but I am seriously thinking about getting one now that Final Fantasy XIII is being released for it. I tend to be more RPG focused, and XBox hasn't really been a great platform for the genre, at least not compared to PlayStation.

But it sounds like fun. If I do get one, I'll look you up. *hugs* :)

The 360 actally has a few great RPGs on it, Lost Odyessy (GREAT GAME I love this game more than FF7), The Last Rememnt (SqaureEnix Title for 360 only) , Unlimited Discovery, and of Course Final Fantasy XIII
so Yea great games, can't wait to see you online one day ;D

Well, I sometimes play female characters, though I definitely prefer male ones. In online games I used to play female characters more than I do now when I was younger and that always felt really weird. I preferred playing as a guy and still do, though I don't really have against playing a female char as much as I did a while ago however the way the "armour" almost always shows a ton of skin really irks me. Often when I go with female chars instead it's because the males are too buff-looking for me.

In (usually) MMOs, where you're seeing the world from behind yourself, I tend to gravitate towards female (ie. opposite gender) characters, though not always.

Someone, at some point, said that the best reason so many otherwise straight guys play female characters on games like that is because, "If you're going to spend that much time looking at someone's ass, you might as well make it a good-looking ass!"

I totally understand that one.  When I used to play City of Heroes, I had a real hard time staying interested in playing "huge" male characters.  They were predominantly female (I kinda miss "Miss Takesmaid", my primary villainess).  Social interactions have never been much of my reason to play those games, oddly enough.  :)

Now, back in the day when I was on various MUSHes (like TinyMUSH), I used to revel in "playing female" and "faking people out"...  Passing for a female in even a text-based environment seemed like a big accomplishment.  :)

...Paul

I was playing one of my son's characters on WoW (a male) and I had forgotten how rude guys can be to each other.  One guy called me a ->-bleeped-<-, which really didn't phase me since I'm a girl anyhow.  Anyhow, I usually play female characters, but I also have no problem playing male characters because I'm pretty secure with my gender. :)

Quote from: Melissa on August 26, 2008, 10:50:57 AM
I was playing one of my son's characters on WoW (a male) and I had forgotten how rude guys can be to each other.  One guy called me a ->-bleeped-<-, which really didn't phase me since I'm a girl anyhow.  Anyhow, I usually play female characters, but I also have no problem playing male characters because I'm pretty secure with my gender. :)

A lot of younger people, especially teens, play wow, so it's no surprise that there's so much rudeness going on. It's one of the less mature gaming communities, but there's also a lot of grown-ups who play too and are a lot more respectful when talking to others.

That's one of the reasons I'm a lot more solitary when I play games, preferring single player experiences to online games (if I played any, that is). Maybe part of it comes from the unpredictability of other human players.

Anyway, this is my Phantasy Star Universe character. :)

(https://www.susans.org/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fv351%2FAethenor%2FDSC00690a.jpg&hash=136d2383524b80185a91b69ba51920eb24095295)

I do play other single player games from time to time, but they are usually pretty easy to finish.  However, I like the social aspects of the online games.  I've even do voice chatting regularly (and I've been told I have a pretty voice). :)

Quote from: Melissa on August 26, 2008, 06:13:07 PM
I do play other single player games from time to time, but they are usually pretty easy to finish.  However, I like the social aspects of the online games.  I've even do voice chatting regularly (and I've been told I have a pretty voice). :)

I love to play single player games, mostly things like RPGs or Espionage games like the MGS series when I want to be alone. Sure I could play alone in a social game like WoW but there's still some aspect of interacting with others, especially if you're in a guild.

I will use whatever I like the look of most. I do not "identify" with the character on screen, or anything.

If there's honestly no difference in scenario between male and female choices... and the female character appeals to me, I'll play her. If the male does, him. I mean if I'm going to spend the next 30 hours staring at someone's arse, pick the most appealing, yeah? Unless they have a horrible voice or something. I always pick the chick in Mass Effect 1 because the dude's voice is like nails on a chalkboard.

99% of the time I chose female. If there was something male specific, I'd often do multiple playthroughs/characters for that. Dragon Age or Mass Effect for example for different romance options. (Though I've said it before, I had a male main in ME just because I love Tali and I wanted to romance her. Also said this before, my favorite thing in the world was Dragon Age, playing female and marrying Alistair just to become a queen. ;D)

For offline games I always choose female characters. I love being able to make that choice. Online I always choose male because I have an unnatural fear of being called out.

Edit: I've always been annoyed when Bioware or whoever would restrict romantic options to certain genders. Why? It's a video game. Who cares? Ugh.

Quote from: PollyQMcLovely on January 24, 2018, 01:51:56 PM
For offline games I always choose female characters. I love being able to make that choice. Online I always choose male because I have an unnatural fear of being called out.

Edit: I've always been annoyed when Bioware or whoever would restrict romantic options to certain genders. Why? It's a video game. Who cares? Ugh.

I choose female too, and feel because I'm trans female not begun HRT yet it helps for my transition (I think I identify with characters, and in games like Pokémon I choose to raise the Pokémon I like, not just those among the strongest).

I think that's sad too. I prefer it when games give you a greater choice for sensitive matters like this (for example I heard in Animal Crossing you can cross dress which is nice, though I don't know for sure if it's true).

I've played computer games with character creation options since somewhere in my teens, mostly world of warcraft. I've always played both male and female characters, and my preference for which one has changed many times. There are two main components that determine why I like to play as both/either: my gender, and my sexuality. When I thought of myself as a guy, I preferred a male character to relate to how I saw my gender, but also enjoyed playing a female character cause of being bi and finding her attractive looking.

Now in detransition and thinking of myself as a woman I prefer a female character to relate to how I see my gender now. However, sometimes I still connect to thinking I'm a male character in a game. There's still a certain thrill in that for me, but I think that mostly comes from my androgyny and that I actually like being perceived as male despite being a woman. Suddenly it hits me why I've always liked playing feminine, long-haired male characters... they resonate with me on some complicated level.

And again, my sexuality influences that I still enjoy playing a male character sometimes, cause I'm still bi, and like looking at a hot male character too.

But there is another factor too, kinda. That really I think I just pick whichever character resonates with me style and body-type wise, regardless of their gender.

No. I always chose the character according to the gender I actually am and always was which is MALE!
Bad enough that I had to live as something I wasn't in real life for so long, why would I do that to myself in role plays too? Wouldn't have made any sense! 

Quite often if there's character creation available I'll try a humorous mimic of a famous character. Or see what the ugliest character it is possible to create, then enjoy the "romance" scenes where other characters are drooling over em.

Usually it is much easier to be a terrible looking dude as the female characters seem to have makeup built in to their facial features and are generally less fugly. Like in Skyrim, for example. Good luck trying to make a handsome bit of beef in that, lol. Everyone looks like they wash with grit 'n' vinegar.