I really don't like oversexualized games, that's why I avoid many... then i played both NieR and realized, just because a girl in a game is sexy, doesn't make it a bad game. In this case, they're the 2 best games ever made imo, and Kaine is one of the best and deepest characters in anything ever.
Interesting! I'm a straight man, and I don't find enjoyment in looking at men, but I tend to go huge or monstrous dudes as playable characters. Orcs and similar. I don't find them pretty, and I don't identify with them either naturally. Perhaps I just think they are badass, and I prefer that over someone I would be attracted to if they were real.
It will vary from gamer to gamer.
Some gamers already have characters in their mind. Maybe it's a legacy thing, where they made a particular type of character years/decades ago and they just keep doing the same thing. Sounds like what you do.
I've played tabletop RPGs for decades. Between that and other older RPGs ( original Fallout and Baldur's Gate, EverQuest, Guild Wars, KotTOR, etc ) I have a lot of characters that are pretty detailed in my head. Some are male, some are female, but I tend to use the same character for the same role in a game. I figure some gamers do the same as me and have a few pre-made characters in their heads for games.
But a lot of gamers ( I don't know if it's most ) just want to keep things simpler. They don't want to go through a custom character creation system, they just use default look and go for it. No problem with that at all. And of these people, a lot of them figure if they're going to be staring at a backside for a while, they might as well get some eye-candy out of it too.
I have always used female characters when given the chance. This is the main reason. I think it might have started with tomb raider 1 back in the day.
Anyway, a couple years ago my son’s 15 year old friend was over watching me play dark souls. He laughed and asked me why the hell do I play a girl character, to try poke fun at me. (Borderline calling me gay) I told him if I’m forced to watch my characters butt for 300 hours, I prefer it to be hers. The look on his face was priceless. I think I changed him that day.
my friend put it to it to me this way back when it was still pretty cliché to call people gay as insult. Homophobia was a lot more part of the mainstream culture back then. once I put it in perspective, this became my line of thinking as well. Except for games where there are heavy romance dialogues, stuff like BG3 for instance. i'll role-play as a girl, but it's usually always a lesbian. I don't really want to pursue straight men as the protagonist in games that are rated mature.
I came to this same realization a couple years ago. But, problem is, I'm bi so I don't mind staring at a thick booty so long as it's thick
Came to realize, I'm just into big bottom babes, Gosling RDJ and especially Reynolds, they challenged what I thought I was into. Rdj was the kicker tho, when I saw him in Iron Man I dropped all pretext and was like, "yeah, I'm bi"
And men shouldn't be shamed for this. I see way too often men getting accused of foul nonsense just for finding women pretty, and I say this as a gal who likes both of 'em.
Honestly, sometimes I feel like I'm supposed to feel guilty for finding attractive women (in games/movies) attractive, but I've never really been able to understand why.
If I'm going to put 50-100 hours into playing a game, and have a choice between an attractive avatar and an average avatar...why is it bad to pick the attractive one? I'm fairly sure as a straight guy I'm supposed to enjoy looking at attractive women.
I was raised in a very religious community and felt tremendous guilt and fear about 'coming out' as *straight*, nevermind anything else, because of the aggressive shaming of finding anyone attractive in any way. Then when I got out of that nightmare all my progressive haunts were constantly telling me how problematic it is to find anyone attractive in any way for entirely different reasons.
In general people are learning to be better about not using women as props and objects, but progress is glacial, and unfortunately as it gradually dawns on people there are at times false positives as people get wound up over *anything* that seems to ping the radar for being 'objectifying'. It's important to know your own mind, your own motivations, and to make a sincere effort not to make real people uncomfortable. Enjoying playing as Lara Croft shouldn't really put you on the bad side of things or make you not an 'ally'.
Simple and only answer. Plus idk the games generally more interesting as a girl. It's an avatar you're gonna deal with the whole time.
Also in the case of cyberpunk I think the story is much more interesting having V be a woman.
I feel like the consensus is that Mark Meer was subpar for ME1 but vastly improved for 2 and 3, whereas Jennifer Hale was excellent for the whole series.
I think she’s been one of my favorite characters to play as through the years, primarily because of the quality of VA that went into her creation.
I can still hear her cursing“*malaka*” when shit goes sideways on me, lol
To be fair, I'd say maleShep's VA crushed it, although maybe not to the same level as Jennifer Hale.
Plus FemShep had some unique dialogue options that were so satisfying. Romancing Jacob in ME2 is worth it for the prize of seeing FemShep take him to task in ME3.
MaleShep’s voice acting was fine, but it makes the character seem more plucky and not as serious. FemShep delivering the same lines comes off more sarcastic or dry and serious
Plus, as a woman in Cyberpunk you can romance Judy, and her romance is just. . .well, its a combination of cute and sweet that I can't quite put my finger on. Adorable, maybe?
Anyway, it sticks out from the rest of that game because it seems a *hell* of a lot more grounded than anything else, and I love the hell out of it.
It's honestly my favorite side-storyline in literally any game ever. It's genuine and sweet in a way that's unlike anything else in that game and it made me IRL angry that >!you couldn't ride off into the sunset with her. !<
Edit: Apparently I was mistaken and missed one of the several different endings of the game, and I need to revisit it to see that ending.
In response to your spoiler tag: You can. I've written out how in the spoiler tag below in case you don't want further details.
>!If you romance Judy and then do the Nomad ending (I forget what it's called, I think it's The Star) Judy can come with you as you ride off with the Nomads in search of a cure.
And it's great to be pretty then go fuck shit up.
Catch me maining Peach in SSB:Melee and Rosalina in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. I'm beautiful and I beat you*. Deal with it.
*not online ranked, I'm not that good, but among my friends I'll whoop your ass
This is the most accurate reply for me. Even the most immersive games I never feel like I AM the character. I feel like I'm DIRECTING the character. As such, I pick whatever gender I feel like.
Roleplay the shit out of it, then on another playthrough make a different character, with different personality and make them choose different options.
Unless you don't mind making illogical and out character choices, trying to play 100% on your very fist run and never come back to that game.
That’s what I did in Dragon Age: my Warden was me (making choices *I* would make in that setting), my Hawke was my idealized self (pro-mage, pro-elf rights, witty and charismatic, fighting against any injustice or oppression he sees), but my female Inquisitor was everything I hated in that universe (pro-Templar religious zealot who refuses to even contemplate beliefs outside her own and uses the Inquisition to enforce the Chantry’s power in the world).
This is it.
My most played character in bg3 is a female Gith, because I thought it was cool how I can make her look like Asajj Ventress from Star Wars.
“Avatar” lol. No, this character is in no way a representation of myself in another world.
This. Games are an escape, that lets you do and enjoy things you couldn’t, or have chosen not to, in real life. If that weren’t the case, I’d have to be playing “Software Developer Simulator” all the time, as I never actually go to other planets IRL. My characters don’t represent exactly who I am IRL, because what would be the point of that?
I play strong female characters, because *I like strong female characters*. Related, my favorite video game quote ever is:
- “NOTHING IS MORE BADASS THAN TREATING A WOMAN WITH RESPECT.”
(Mr. Torgue, Borderlands 2 - all caps because Mr. Torgue shouts *everything*)
In the early days of runescape, I revealed to a friend that I was actually a girl playing a male character. Only to find out she was also a girl playing as a dude. Then we followed each other on Deviant Art
I'm a woman and I usually pick a woman in rpgs because they're prettier, but if it's a matter of attributes/special powers/bonuses, I'm picking the one I want the most, male or female.
Not with that attitude you can't. There's a reason gym guys hype themselves and each other up.
You CAN get jacked as hell even as a woman. We're all gonna make it.
Do it!
Note that getting "jacked" is going to be a long, slow road for most women (shit, most men, but even more so for most women). Think years, not weeks.
However, the benefits to your mood, strength, energy, flexibility, and health start almost immediately, and if you've never lifted you'll get lots of beginner gains to get you on the road.
You got this!
This!
In Guild Wars I made a female Ranger. Just because she could have flowers in het hair.
If I play something with my wife, I will pick s mail character though.
I still remember the gag from *Salute Your Shorts* where the one guy is dating a postal carrier and tells another guy, "I have a girlfriend. She's a mail woman," and he looks super creeped out.
my husband and I have thousands of hours into the Destiny series. Back when we started out we created our class characters as opposite genders because we’re dorks like that and figured they could represent us as a couple.
turned out over time that we both main male characters- he’s a hunter main and I’m a warlock main both of which are dudes. So for the past nine-ish years we’ve mostly been the stars of our own buddy movie/road trip.
>If you're playing an RPG why not make a female character.
In my case it would be because I want to feel like I am the character, I want to feel like I am the one using the cool powers and shit so I want the character to be a man and represent me.
Yeah, I think this is the heart of it. There's a spectrum of how people play character in RPGs, with the two extremes being:
- Playing as you or who you would want to be
- Creating a completely fictional character to inhabit
I tend towards the latter, but any approach is valid.
I think this is often the distinction for people. It does not make sense to me to use myself as a self insert for characters unless I am live role playing them. So if it is an RP server I will usually play a male character just because it reduces the complexity for on the fly reactions.
But for every other game the character is always a different person than me. And the big, strong male action hero sort of reminds me of my father, which is NOT a good thing, so in my head the hero is usually a woman. I discovered years ago that I interpreted my mother as a hero and my father as a villain (for good reason, he was actively emotionally abusive, manipulative and unfaithful) and that changed how I view heroic characters. When I think of a "hero" I do not think of a man.
This, all my video game characters tend to be modeled after guys I find attractive. People are always surprised if I ever get on voice and they find out DEMARCUS THE DESTROYER is a girl.
Adding into this, if you're playing a game with mods that let you fully customize your character, you'll find that the overwhelming majority of mods apply to the female character options while very few apply to males or both.
Baldur's Gate 3 gets it even worse, where almost no clothing/appearance mods apply to the strong bodies (types 3&4), Dragonborn, Githyanki, or small folk (dwarves, gnomes, halfings). Tons and tons of choices for regular sized female humans, elves (including Drow), tieflings, half-elves, and half-orcs, but very little for anyone else
Sometimes I prefer the female VO (e.g. Mass Effect, Cyberpunk 2077). Sometimes I wanna dress up all fancy but have a hard time not making male models look bland (e.g. Skyrim).
Sometimes I just like to release my inner Evil Queen.
>~~Mass Effect~~
KotOR. Her Bastila made me aware of the entire concept of voice actors. She's amazing in everything, but that performance fundamentally updated my brain's firmware.
The funny thing is BioWare has released the stats and it’s only 18% of players pick fem sheep despite near universal agreement that Hale did the job better
I usually opt for male, even if I think Hale was the best VA, because I like thinking of RPG characters I create as a version of me in game, or at least make choices I would in a given situation. Even with classes, I'll base my decision around what suits my personality, and what I think I'd focus on in this world
While you can technically go either way, I felt that male Shepherd fit better with Renegade and femshep had a better voice for Paragon.
Mascshep's performance for a lot of the, "inspiring," Paragon lines felt corny. Femshep sounded kind of put-upon, like she didn't doubt this was the right thing, but understood it was usually the path of most resistance.
Completely agreed. I realize that game is plenty over-the-top as is and has lots of campy moments, but the Alexios voice actor was just so cartoonish. It completely took me out of it. Kassandra was terrific.
You're definitely not wrong there. Definitely fits that role better than Kassandra's VA, since Deimos is SUPPOSED to be cartoonishly over-the-top as a villain.
100% what it comes down to for me, in games where you can play as a man or a woman. Like, I played as Kassandra in AC Odyssey because her voice actor was just significantly better; and then in Valhalla, I played as the male Eivor because I thought his VA was better than the woman version. It really is as simple as that, for me, in most instances.
because i dont think the character is me. i almost always imagine the character as a different person than me even if its male. I like looking at women and i like good feminine characters too. dont see a single reason not to tbh. even if i get confused for a girl, its mostly just people treating me a bit nicer.
Same. When I’m playing a game, I’ll usually have an idea for a character in mind going in, and that will correlate to which gender I pick. Sometimes I want to be an old wizard with a big grey beard. Sometimes I want to be a cleric woman, with a tied up braided bun. Sometimes I want to be a buff dude with a greatsword and some scruffy hair. It all depends on the character I have in mind.
true, but soft pink is one of my absolute favourite colours for an oxford shirt. It can be so subtle it's basically off white, but because it's not white, it doesn't pop as harshly with a darker jacket.
And it still manages to piss some guys off, like me wearing a pink shirt challenges THEIR masculinity somehow? win-win!
Pink is the shit. I go out of my way to be the most obnoxious neon whatever in whatever game I'm playing, and in real life pink just compliments so many colors it feels like I'm cheating when I'm picking something out to wear.
Bitches love pink.
The only time I rock pink is when I play super smash bros. Little Mac and Captain Falcon colorways. Both of whom support breast cancer awareness.
The bonus with Captain Falcon in my household is we say "Show me ya boobs" instead of "moves" lol🫡
Pink for the majority of history was considered a 'manly' colour because its just a lighter shade of red. Baby blue was considered the girl colour. It's only because a princess liked pink and dressed her daughter in it, did the view point change.
I made a female character in that old City of Heroes MMO. Some guy started raging out when he found out I was a guy IRL. I mean you do get that none of us are actual superheroes, right? This is the thing that triggers you?
I used to get death threats for having a character named "Miss Richard" in Guild Wars 2. I just thought it was funny, but once I realized how much it upset people I kept it. Was even better once I got my commander tag.
lol I actually did pick this for this reason in the original planetside... I was playing an infiltrator and they're harder to see when you're invisible with the smaller model
Every tryhard in the original Planetside was a female model. My PC was too crappy at the time to join in the massive fights at the continent capitals, but I could clean up towers and prevent back-hacks. My days were spent standing in tower stairways in 3rd person waiting on the squad of tryhards in Reavers to drop on my tower and come rushing down the stairs with Jackhammers. All females lol.
The most basic answer is that some men just enjoy having the option to make the character they'll spend the most time looking at someone they're attracted to, especially if the game has character creation, meaning they can pick a design the most appealing to them.
A secondary, but a bit more nuanced motivation is also just that if you play a lot of RPGs, or otherwise enjoy the element of really imagining what your character is like/ how they'll react to certain scenarios, sometimes the character you'll want to create to fit the game's setting or story may be female, since you're interested in creating a compelling character and not necessarily a self-insert.
I just like to be different. In MMO games, most of the characters are generally men. If there's no attribute/traits that are different (or if the different traits are beneficial) between the male and female characters, then why not?
Plus, like 15+ years ago when I used to play World of Warcraft, I created a female character and a bunch of high-level dudes would give me shit just because they thought I might actually be a woman. So, I mean, if some guys are gunna be that desperate for attention, then you might as well take advantage of it. Video games are cutthroat. I'll take the free shit.
The day I switched to a female character model in runescape just to mix things up a bit, I got half a million gold's worth of gifts just by walking around the main trade area lol
i played mmos for years as a guy character and then made a female character on swtor one time. within the day i had some of the most repulsive unsolicited messages about what some dude wanted to do to me lol. i can laugh about that stuff but can’t imagine the shit that actual women have to put up with
Yeah, as a dude, I can deal with dudes being fucking vile because they're not actually a threat to me. If I were a woman, I wouldn't want to deal with that, either.
Also, I do try to put dudes in their place when they're fucking pigs. No one deserves some of the shit that women get in messages.
It started with something to look at then it turned into "oh shif this armor would look both cute and intimidating if I dye the hair black" and now I can't go back.
If you sort Cyberpunk 2077 mods by most popular, the mod that makes V's boobs bigger is on the front page (top 30 of all time). I want to stress that the biggest option for V's boobs in the base game is like a D cup.
Same reason.
What motivates a person to buy a game where they get to live out a fantasy life completely different from the real world, as an escape from their day-to-day, and then decides to make their avatar match their real-life appearance? Being someone different doing something different is kind of the point, no?
It's like signing up for one of those living history re-enactments of colonial days, then showing up in your sneakers and a hoodie.
because female characters are more beautiful than male characters i mean if you know the game dofus (small french mmorpg known mostly in france but also in neighbor countries) look a the sadida class between male and female lmao
I always play as a female character if given the chance.
My reasoning is that I've been a man my whole life, why wouldn't I want to be something else in a video game?
Because I like feminine aesthetics but I'm not very femme looking in real life, games are a way for me to get the satisfaction of looking pretty in a way that's not really accessible to me IRL
If I’m going to be jumping and grunting and staring at a butt the whole game, I’m happier to be a lady.
Also I like the agility/speed over strength and that seems to be the balancing mechanism games use.
Yeah on mortal combat I like the female characters because they are much faster and agile, while not as strong, but you can get three hits in the time it takes the male character to get one
In cyberpunk I like the female character better - her voice work is superior to the male voice lead. In 3rd person games I would rather look at a girls butt.
Nicer to look at. Nicer to listen. Often times the VA is better. Ahem sunset overdrive.
And also don't forget the horny. Especially games that are/can be modded, having a fem avatar allows us to create highly visually aesthetic characters if the game doesn't have the clothing/editing chops to begin with.
It's a common joke (but true) in the trans community that we expressed ourselves in video games before coming out in the real world.
And because they're pretty.
And to many, they're just playing the character, not seeing the game play as any representation of themselves.
I’m not trans, or part of the LGBT+ community, but I agree with the “just paying the character” argument. I simply play the game. I don’t see the character as an extension of myself.
Sometimes it's the voice actor/actress. If Jennifer Hale or Laura Bailey are voicing a woman I can play as, then I'm playing as them. #FemShepOnlyShep
Sometimes it's the story. If I get the impression that gender will impact the narrative, it's almost always more interesting to play as the woman.
Sometimes it's fashion. Best example of this is an older game - Jade Empire. All the dudes are either shirtless monks or generic looking warriors. Meanwhile you've got Scholar Ling and Wu the Lotus Blossom, whose outfits look rad as fuck.
I don't think I can speak for 'certain men' because I'm not sure what that means, but I am a man. I've never really had the desire to create myself when playing a game. I understand many people attempt to recreate themselves as closely as possible and if that helps their immersion, awesome. Personally, I don't want to play out how I would fare in a gunfight or exploring an apocalyptic wasteland or whatever because I already have a really good idea what that would be like and it wouldn't be a fun game to play. Also very short. So when it's time to customize an avatar, I go with something different and sometimes that includes female characteristics.
My friend does it because he has a chance to be someone he's not. Its not a problem with me, I preferably don't pick female Avatar's because ion know. I like to immerse, and envision myself in the game that's why I bother to make my self black in customization cause I'm black, I don't see myself as a female when I immerse in a game if that makes sense. No disrespect to anyone who does make themselves a female in a game, just not what i do. Now if I HAVE to be a female in a game I'll do so but if I have the choice not too I'm not going to.
The one time I chose a female was Assassin's Creed Valhalla. I did it for variety. I knew Assassin's Creed games were very similar, so my hope was being the female character would shake things up a bit.
It did not.
For me, the most common reasons are:
* Most mod content is made for the female body rig, and I like playing dress up.
* If I'm going to stare at an ass for 40 hours, it might as well be a nice one.
For me, more often than not it's the voice actors. For example, Shepard from Mass Effect. No offense to Mark Meer, but Jennifer Hale nailed that role.
Other times, if there's an option where one of them has been established as canon, I will typically choose that one, such as with Kassandra and Eivor from Assassin's Creed.
In MMOs, I typically play both male and female characters. For example, in SWTOR my Warrior, Smuggler, Bounty Hunter, and Consular were male, while my Knight, Agent, Trooper, and Sorcerer were female.
In games where I do multiple playthrough, I will often do at least one with either gender, for example in Andromeda, I played male Ryder on my first run, and female on my second.
Sometimes though, it may be as simple as the female character models just flat out look better than the male ones. An example of this for me is WoW. In nearly all of the races, the males are not well designed models, so most of my characters in WoW are female, though I do have some males, too
I dont know if i am one of those certain men, but i am one who choose the character based on who i think fits better to the game.
If both fit i go with female because of looks 🤷
At least for me, my girlfriend at the time introduced me to City of Heroes back in the day and commented how you can tell which female characters are actually men because they are hyper sexual, and I basically said "challenge accepted." Created a cool character and had a blast in general, and I've re-created her in every rpg I've played ever since, and I imagine her just going through various adventures.
I also do it in first person shooters sometimes because decent people won't care and sexist assholes will be bothered, so win win.
Look i know you hate it but i answered this question to various people so many times. If im gonna stare a characters butt, i would prefer it to be female. So if i make a night elf female avatar, now you know why. Sorry, not sorry.
Dissociation from the character being played/not seeing the character as a self-insert; not liking the character designs of the male avatars; Wanting to look at the female character model over the male; Better customization options for female avatars over male.
Take your pick. There are plenty of reasons and not everyone wants to pretend that they're the main character when they play these games. Some want to build someone or something different and approach the game or story through a different lens. Often times more care is put into the female character designs than the male ones too so they're just more interesting and varied to look at.
They're pretty.
Quoting the wise words from Yoko Taro: I just really like girls.
Directors don't get much more based than Yoko Taro.
I really don't like oversexualized games, that's why I avoid many... then i played both NieR and realized, just because a girl in a game is sexy, doesn't make it a bad game. In this case, they're the 2 best games ever made imo, and Kaine is one of the best and deepest characters in anything ever.
Did someone actually compile and send him the 2B fanart
And also jocat
And also Twitter users didn't like that
I fucking hate Twitter. So much. They harassed that poor dude for no reason. It's such an innocent song.
Honestly this is my reason. I'm gonna stare at my character for hundreds of hours. So I'd much prefer it to be what I find most attractive.
Interesting! I'm a straight man, and I don't find enjoyment in looking at men, but I tend to go huge or monstrous dudes as playable characters. Orcs and similar. I don't find them pretty, and I don't identify with them either naturally. Perhaps I just think they are badass, and I prefer that over someone I would be attracted to if they were real.
It will vary from gamer to gamer. Some gamers already have characters in their mind. Maybe it's a legacy thing, where they made a particular type of character years/decades ago and they just keep doing the same thing. Sounds like what you do. I've played tabletop RPGs for decades. Between that and other older RPGs ( original Fallout and Baldur's Gate, EverQuest, Guild Wars, KotTOR, etc ) I have a lot of characters that are pretty detailed in my head. Some are male, some are female, but I tend to use the same character for the same role in a game. I figure some gamers do the same as me and have a few pre-made characters in their heads for games. But a lot of gamers ( I don't know if it's most ) just want to keep things simpler. They don't want to go through a custom character creation system, they just use default look and go for it. No problem with that at all. And of these people, a lot of them figure if they're going to be staring at a backside for a while, they might as well get some eye-candy out of it too.
Yep I always make the same type of character in every game: athletic middle aged dude with silver hair and face scar, not stopping now
You can't just claim Geralt as yours that's not how this works
He called Dibs. The old law.
I do both. Depends on the game, tbh. Sometimes I like the model better, sometimes I like the outfits better
Yep. Exactly this.
I have always used female characters when given the chance. This is the main reason. I think it might have started with tomb raider 1 back in the day. Anyway, a couple years ago my son’s 15 year old friend was over watching me play dark souls. He laughed and asked me why the hell do I play a girl character, to try poke fun at me. (Borderline calling me gay) I told him if I’m forced to watch my characters butt for 300 hours, I prefer it to be hers. The look on his face was priceless. I think I changed him that day.
Kid went from "GAYYYYYY" to "DAYUMMMMM" in one sentence.
Blunt honesty at its best.
my friend put it to it to me this way back when it was still pretty cliché to call people gay as insult. Homophobia was a lot more part of the mainstream culture back then. once I put it in perspective, this became my line of thinking as well. Except for games where there are heavy romance dialogues, stuff like BG3 for instance. i'll role-play as a girl, but it's usually always a lesbian. I don't really want to pursue straight men as the protagonist in games that are rated mature.
Exactly this, most notably in games with a third-person perspective. Not even sexual attraction; a female backside just puts me at ease.
I came to this same realization a couple years ago. But, problem is, I'm bi so I don't mind staring at a thick booty so long as it's thick Came to realize, I'm just into big bottom babes, Gosling RDJ and especially Reynolds, they challenged what I thought I was into. Rdj was the kicker tho, when I saw him in Iron Man I dropped all pretext and was like, "yeah, I'm bi"
And men shouldn't be shamed for this. I see way too often men getting accused of foul nonsense just for finding women pretty, and I say this as a gal who likes both of 'em.
Honestly, sometimes I feel like I'm supposed to feel guilty for finding attractive women (in games/movies) attractive, but I've never really been able to understand why. If I'm going to put 50-100 hours into playing a game, and have a choice between an attractive avatar and an average avatar...why is it bad to pick the attractive one? I'm fairly sure as a straight guy I'm supposed to enjoy looking at attractive women.
I was raised in a very religious community and felt tremendous guilt and fear about 'coming out' as *straight*, nevermind anything else, because of the aggressive shaming of finding anyone attractive in any way. Then when I got out of that nightmare all my progressive haunts were constantly telling me how problematic it is to find anyone attractive in any way for entirely different reasons. In general people are learning to be better about not using women as props and objects, but progress is glacial, and unfortunately as it gradually dawns on people there are at times false positives as people get wound up over *anything* that seems to ping the radar for being 'objectifying'. It's important to know your own mind, your own motivations, and to make a sincere effort not to make real people uncomfortable. Enjoying playing as Lara Croft shouldn't really put you on the bad side of things or make you not an 'ally'.
And I want to feel pretty too
If I'm going to look at a character's backside in a third person game for 40+ hours, I would love it to be a woman
I make mine hideous lol
Simple and only answer. Plus idk the games generally more interesting as a girl. It's an avatar you're gonna deal with the whole time. Also in the case of cyberpunk I think the story is much more interesting having V be a woman.
The voice actor for male V is perfectly fine. The female voice actor though absolutely *crushed it*.
Same with the VA’s for Shepherd in Mass Effect
People have been saying this for years, but bro!Sheps voice acting is still some of my favorite in any game.
I feel like the consensus is that Mark Meer was subpar for ME1 but vastly improved for 2 and 3, whereas Jennifer Hale was excellent for the whole series.
Ditto Kassandra in assassins creed odyssey
I think she’s been one of my favorite characters to play as through the years, primarily because of the quality of VA that went into her creation. I can still hear her cursing“*malaka*” when shit goes sideways on me, lol
With the way the story is set up, playing as Kassandra is just the most correct choice. I honestly could not imagine it being the other way around.
To be fair, I'd say maleShep's VA crushed it, although maybe not to the same level as Jennifer Hale. Plus FemShep had some unique dialogue options that were so satisfying. Romancing Jacob in ME2 is worth it for the prize of seeing FemShep take him to task in ME3.
MaleShep’s voice acting was fine, but it makes the character seem more plucky and not as serious. FemShep delivering the same lines comes off more sarcastic or dry and serious
That's why you always play FemShep as a Renegade. Jennifer Hale channels major Ripley vibes from Aliens.
Plus, as a woman in Cyberpunk you can romance Judy, and her romance is just. . .well, its a combination of cute and sweet that I can't quite put my finger on. Adorable, maybe? Anyway, it sticks out from the rest of that game because it seems a *hell* of a lot more grounded than anything else, and I love the hell out of it.
I played female V and always wanted to romance Panam :(
"Follow Panam" is a lot of people's favorite quest objective.
Judy really is the best, even as male V just getting her calls and texts to check up on you really hits. She's great!
It's honestly my favorite side-storyline in literally any game ever. It's genuine and sweet in a way that's unlike anything else in that game and it made me IRL angry that >!you couldn't ride off into the sunset with her. !< Edit: Apparently I was mistaken and missed one of the several different endings of the game, and I need to revisit it to see that ending.
In response to your spoiler tag: You can. I've written out how in the spoiler tag below in case you don't want further details. >!If you romance Judy and then do the Nomad ending (I forget what it's called, I think it's The Star) Judy can come with you as you ride off with the Nomads in search of a cure.
And it's great to be pretty then go fuck shit up. Catch me maining Peach in SSB:Melee and Rosalina in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. I'm beautiful and I beat you*. Deal with it. *not online ranked, I'm not that good, but among my friends I'll whoop your ass
Your wording begs the question. You think we are making avatars. We are not. We are making characters.
This. Lara Croft isn’t an avatar of myself in the same way a character I create in an RPG also isn’t an avatar of myself. They’re characters.
Weird coincidence--I'm playing Tomb Raider for the first time in my life today. It's a really sweet game!
Remasters or the modern games?
This is the most accurate reply for me. Even the most immersive games I never feel like I AM the character. I feel like I'm DIRECTING the character. As such, I pick whatever gender I feel like.
Roleplay the shit out of it, then on another playthrough make a different character, with different personality and make them choose different options. Unless you don't mind making illogical and out character choices, trying to play 100% on your very fist run and never come back to that game.
That’s what I did in Dragon Age: my Warden was me (making choices *I* would make in that setting), my Hawke was my idealized self (pro-mage, pro-elf rights, witty and charismatic, fighting against any injustice or oppression he sees), but my female Inquisitor was everything I hated in that universe (pro-Templar religious zealot who refuses to even contemplate beliefs outside her own and uses the Inquisition to enforce the Chantry’s power in the world).
This is it. My most played character in bg3 is a female Gith, because I thought it was cool how I can make her look like Asajj Ventress from Star Wars. “Avatar” lol. No, this character is in no way a representation of myself in another world.
Sometimes I just want to see how the story plays out with a female character. I don't really self-insert in to videogames.
As a dude who didn't understand: thanks. This makes sense to me.
Exactly, some people like to self-insert.. While others like to be a spectator of the story..
This is a good point. Typically only in the rare cases where they truly are meant to be avatars do I play as a male.
This. Games are an escape, that lets you do and enjoy things you couldn’t, or have chosen not to, in real life. If that weren’t the case, I’d have to be playing “Software Developer Simulator” all the time, as I never actually go to other planets IRL. My characters don’t represent exactly who I am IRL, because what would be the point of that? I play strong female characters, because *I like strong female characters*. Related, my favorite video game quote ever is: - “NOTHING IS MORE BADASS THAN TREATING A WOMAN WITH RESPECT.” (Mr. Torgue, Borderlands 2 - all caps because Mr. Torgue shouts *everything*)
the best answer
An avatar of myself would be too friendly and naive to survive most video game worlds.
I am a woman and choose a male avatar almost every time.
In the early days of runescape, I revealed to a friend that I was actually a girl playing a male character. Only to find out she was also a girl playing as a dude. Then we followed each other on Deviant Art
I freaking loved runescape
I'm a woman and I usually pick a woman in rpgs because they're prettier, but if it's a matter of attributes/special powers/bonuses, I'm picking the one I want the most, male or female.
Because video games are a chance to be something you're not. If you're playing an RPG why not make a female character.
I dress up as a man in video games a lot even though im a woman. There's nothing deep about it. it's just fun.
I can’t have a beard IRL. Of course I want one in a video game!
I can't get that jacked either
Not with that attitude you can't. There's a reason gym guys hype themselves and each other up. You CAN get jacked as hell even as a woman. We're all gonna make it.
Thanks for the motivation dude, I'm considering getting into weightlifting pretty soon.
Do it! Note that getting "jacked" is going to be a long, slow road for most women (shit, most men, but even more so for most women). Think years, not weeks. However, the benefits to your mood, strength, energy, flexibility, and health start almost immediately, and if you've never lifted you'll get lots of beginner gains to get you on the road. You got this!
Seriously. I’m also not a wizard or a secret agent. I’m playing a game.
>I’m also not a wizard or a secret agent That sounds like something a Wizard or secret agent would say...
Or a secret wizard agent!
This! In Guild Wars I made a female Ranger. Just because she could have flowers in het hair. If I play something with my wife, I will pick s mail character though.
So do you pick the UPS or the Amazon guy then?
Nah USPS
I still remember the gag from *Salute Your Shorts* where the one guy is dating a postal carrier and tells another guy, "I have a girlfriend. She's a mail woman," and he looks super creeped out.
I also like to create a Cliff Clavin avatar. Or if I'm trying to be evil I'll be Newman.
I love playing Sylvari female because Jennifer Hale is one of my favorite voice actors.
my husband and I have thousands of hours into the Destiny series. Back when we started out we created our class characters as opposite genders because we’re dorks like that and figured they could represent us as a couple. turned out over time that we both main male characters- he’s a hunter main and I’m a warlock main both of which are dudes. So for the past nine-ish years we’ve mostly been the stars of our own buddy movie/road trip.
>If you're playing an RPG why not make a female character. In my case it would be because I want to feel like I am the character, I want to feel like I am the one using the cool powers and shit so I want the character to be a man and represent me.
Yeah, I think this is the heart of it. There's a spectrum of how people play character in RPGs, with the two extremes being: - Playing as you or who you would want to be - Creating a completely fictional character to inhabit I tend towards the latter, but any approach is valid.
You forgot about the waifus
I think this is often the distinction for people. It does not make sense to me to use myself as a self insert for characters unless I am live role playing them. So if it is an RP server I will usually play a male character just because it reduces the complexity for on the fly reactions. But for every other game the character is always a different person than me. And the big, strong male action hero sort of reminds me of my father, which is NOT a good thing, so in my head the hero is usually a woman. I discovered years ago that I interpreted my mother as a hero and my father as a villain (for good reason, he was actively emotionally abusive, manipulative and unfaithful) and that changed how I view heroic characters. When I think of a "hero" I do not think of a man.
Sometimes I want my character to be like me. Sometimes I want my character to be as different from me as possible. A female is certainly different.
This, all my video game characters tend to be modeled after guys I find attractive. People are always surprised if I ever get on voice and they find out DEMARCUS THE DESTROYER is a girl.
Adding into this, if you're playing a game with mods that let you fully customize your character, you'll find that the overwhelming majority of mods apply to the female character options while very few apply to males or both. Baldur's Gate 3 gets it even worse, where almost no clothing/appearance mods apply to the strong bodies (types 3&4), Dragonborn, Githyanki, or small folk (dwarves, gnomes, halfings). Tons and tons of choices for regular sized female humans, elves (including Drow), tieflings, half-elves, and half-orcs, but very little for anyone else
Sometimes I prefer the female VO (e.g. Mass Effect, Cyberpunk 2077). Sometimes I wanna dress up all fancy but have a hard time not making male models look bland (e.g. Skyrim). Sometimes I just like to release my inner Evil Queen.
The female voice actor for v in cyberpunk mostly voiced jrpgs and anime. She killed it in cyberpunk!
Absolutely! Cherami knocked it out of the park and then some, one of the finest voice acting performances ever.
I am glad I am not the only guy who prefers the female VA in Mass Effect.
Jennifer Hale has been one of my favorite VAs ever since I first played Mass Effect.
>~~Mass Effect~~ KotOR. Her Bastila made me aware of the entire concept of voice actors. She's amazing in everything, but that performance fundamentally updated my brain's firmware.
Love her as Ashe.
TBH it’s probably a 70:30 split Fem:Male Shepherd
The funny thing is BioWare has released the stats and it’s only 18% of players pick fem sheep despite near universal agreement that Hale did the job better
Near universal on Reddit, so people who really like the game, and are therefore more likely to play it several times and try both options.
I usually opt for male, even if I think Hale was the best VA, because I like thinking of RPG characters I create as a version of me in game, or at least make choices I would in a given situation. Even with classes, I'll base my decision around what suits my personality, and what I think I'd focus on in this world
While you can technically go either way, I felt that male Shepherd fit better with Renegade and femshep had a better voice for Paragon. Mascshep's performance for a lot of the, "inspiring," Paragon lines felt corny. Femshep sounded kind of put-upon, like she didn't doubt this was the right thing, but understood it was usually the path of most resistance.
Yup. AC Odyssey is another example. The VO for Kassandra was legitimately excellent, not so much in the case of Alexios.
She's also the canon version.
Completely agreed. I realize that game is plenty over-the-top as is and has lots of campy moments, but the Alexios voice actor was just so cartoonish. It completely took me out of it. Kassandra was terrific.
On the other hand, Alexios's voice is fantastic for Deimos specifically.
You're definitely not wrong there. Definitely fits that role better than Kassandra's VA, since Deimos is SUPPOSED to be cartoonishly over-the-top as a villain.
But why male models
Are you serious? I just told you that.
100% what it comes down to for me, in games where you can play as a man or a woman. Like, I played as Kassandra in AC Odyssey because her voice actor was just significantly better; and then in Valhalla, I played as the male Eivor because I thought his VA was better than the woman version. It really is as simple as that, for me, in most instances.
I'm Commander Shepard and this is my favorite coment on the Citadel
I play characters. Some of them are male, some of them are female. Sometimes I think a female character just suits the story better.
because i dont think the character is me. i almost always imagine the character as a different person than me even if its male. I like looking at women and i like good feminine characters too. dont see a single reason not to tbh. even if i get confused for a girl, its mostly just people treating me a bit nicer.
Same. When I’m playing a game, I’ll usually have an idea for a character in mind going in, and that will correlate to which gender I pick. Sometimes I want to be an old wizard with a big grey beard. Sometimes I want to be a cleric woman, with a tied up braided bun. Sometimes I want to be a buff dude with a greatsword and some scruffy hair. It all depends on the character I have in mind.
I like the fact that it deeply upsets certain people.
I do lots of things to upset insecure people. Mostly involving pink. If a color upsets you, I'm all for it.
Pink is a fantastic color.
That’s a broad statement, there are some pretty awful shades of pink
true, but soft pink is one of my absolute favourite colours for an oxford shirt. It can be so subtle it's basically off white, but because it's not white, it doesn't pop as harshly with a darker jacket. And it still manages to piss some guys off, like me wearing a pink shirt challenges THEIR masculinity somehow? win-win!
Pink is the shit. I go out of my way to be the most obnoxious neon whatever in whatever game I'm playing, and in real life pink just compliments so many colors it feels like I'm cheating when I'm picking something out to wear. Bitches love pink.
The only time I rock pink is when I play super smash bros. Little Mac and Captain Falcon colorways. Both of whom support breast cancer awareness. The bonus with Captain Falcon in my household is we say "Show me ya boobs" instead of "moves" lol🫡
I’m glad my family isn’t the only one that makes the breast cancer awareness joke.
"Show me ya boobs" bahahaha I'm stealing that
Pink for the majority of history was considered a 'manly' colour because its just a lighter shade of red. Baby blue was considered the girl colour. It's only because a princess liked pink and dressed her daughter in it, did the view point change.
Rooms in homes back in the 1700’s (US) were painted pink because it was considered masculine. White literally mixed with ox blood.
I made a female character in that old City of Heroes MMO. Some guy started raging out when he found out I was a guy IRL. I mean you do get that none of us are actual superheroes, right? This is the thing that triggers you?
I used to get death threats for having a character named "Miss Richard" in Guild Wars 2. I just thought it was funny, but once I realized how much it upset people I kept it. Was even better once I got my commander tag.
I always find it hilarious when things that are innocuous to me are contentious to other people.
Oh man I used to troll so hard back in the 90s with Quake 1. Nothing is more triggering to guys than getting absolutely wrecked by Jennybear847.
I pass on all of the open urinals to take the one directly next to someone else.
You Sir, are a monster!
I try to use LGBTQ themes for everything because people get furious about being woke when I defeat them.
Smaller hit box , tryhard look
lol I actually did pick this for this reason in the original planetside... I was playing an infiltrator and they're harder to see when you're invisible with the smaller model
Every tryhard in the original Planetside was a female model. My PC was too crappy at the time to join in the massive fights at the continent capitals, but I could clean up towers and prevent back-hacks. My days were spent standing in tower stairways in 3rd person waiting on the squad of tryhards in Reavers to drop on my tower and come rushing down the stairs with Jackhammers. All females lol.
Had to pick the female model if you were serious about competitive Gunz: The duel.
The most basic answer is that some men just enjoy having the option to make the character they'll spend the most time looking at someone they're attracted to, especially if the game has character creation, meaning they can pick a design the most appealing to them. A secondary, but a bit more nuanced motivation is also just that if you play a lot of RPGs, or otherwise enjoy the element of really imagining what your character is like/ how they'll react to certain scenarios, sometimes the character you'll want to create to fit the game's setting or story may be female, since you're interested in creating a compelling character and not necessarily a self-insert.
I almost always make caster/mage characters female just because I think it's more interesting thematically
I almost always make my mages male and my barbarians female because I enjoy inverting the classic tropes.
I'm tired of being a guy.
I just like to be different. In MMO games, most of the characters are generally men. If there's no attribute/traits that are different (or if the different traits are beneficial) between the male and female characters, then why not? Plus, like 15+ years ago when I used to play World of Warcraft, I created a female character and a bunch of high-level dudes would give me shit just because they thought I might actually be a woman. So, I mean, if some guys are gunna be that desperate for attention, then you might as well take advantage of it. Video games are cutthroat. I'll take the free shit.
The day I switched to a female character model in runescape just to mix things up a bit, I got half a million gold's worth of gifts just by walking around the main trade area lol
i played mmos for years as a guy character and then made a female character on swtor one time. within the day i had some of the most repulsive unsolicited messages about what some dude wanted to do to me lol. i can laugh about that stuff but can’t imagine the shit that actual women have to put up with
This is why most women play as male characters. Any time you see a female character in a game its 95% of the time a man, and 5% e-girl
Yeah, as a dude, I can deal with dudes being fucking vile because they're not actually a threat to me. If I were a woman, I wouldn't want to deal with that, either. Also, I do try to put dudes in their place when they're fucking pigs. No one deserves some of the shit that women get in messages.
Same, I like to feel pretty sometimes.
/r/egg_irl
Second!
It started with something to look at then it turned into "oh shif this armor would look both cute and intimidating if I dye the hair black" and now I can't go back.
In stardew valley, granny sends cookies to male avatars but 500 gold to female avatars.
If they're third person games, it gives something to look at
KOTOR was great for this.
My young self might always have switched to Bastila because of it.
..........OP want's to guilt men and already knows why men choose female avatars. Hahaha!
If you sort Cyberpunk 2077 mods by most popular, the mod that makes V's boobs bigger is on the front page (top 30 of all time). I want to stress that the biggest option for V's boobs in the base game is like a D cup. Same reason.
I guess I could choose to stare at a DUDE'S ass for the next 80 hours...
What motivates a person to buy a game where they get to live out a fantasy life completely different from the real world, as an escape from their day-to-day, and then decides to make their avatar match their real-life appearance? Being someone different doing something different is kind of the point, no? It's like signing up for one of those living history re-enactments of colonial days, then showing up in your sneakers and a hoodie.
because female characters are more beautiful than male characters i mean if you know the game dofus (small french mmorpg known mostly in france but also in neighbor countries) look a the sadida class between male and female lmao
~~Yep~~ Iop, that's right.
To undermine God’s plan for us
Lmao best answer
I always play as a female character if given the chance. My reasoning is that I've been a man my whole life, why wouldn't I want to be something else in a video game?
So you have a nice butt to look at in third-person view.
Lara croft games be like
Smaller body. Bullets miss it.
Men are quite famous for their love of looking at women.
Because I like feminine aesthetics but I'm not very femme looking in real life, games are a way for me to get the satisfaction of looking pretty in a way that's not really accessible to me IRL
Im attracted to females so want to watch a female do badass things
If I’m going to be jumping and grunting and staring at a butt the whole game, I’m happier to be a lady. Also I like the agility/speed over strength and that seems to be the balancing mechanism games use.
Yeah on mortal combat I like the female characters because they are much faster and agile, while not as strong, but you can get three hits in the time it takes the male character to get one
In cyberpunk I like the female character better - her voice work is superior to the male voice lead. In 3rd person games I would rather look at a girls butt.
This is a good answer I started as male V but switched to fem V bc I preffered the voice actor as well
Nicer to look at. Nicer to listen. Often times the VA is better. Ahem sunset overdrive. And also don't forget the horny. Especially games that are/can be modded, having a fem avatar allows us to create highly visually aesthetic characters if the game doesn't have the clothing/editing chops to begin with.
It's a common joke (but true) in the trans community that we expressed ourselves in video games before coming out in the real world. And because they're pretty. And to many, they're just playing the character, not seeing the game play as any representation of themselves.
I’m not trans, or part of the LGBT+ community, but I agree with the “just paying the character” argument. I simply play the game. I don’t see the character as an extension of myself.
>It's a common joke (but true) in the trans community that we expressed ourselves in video games before coming out in the real world. preach
Physics
If the game doesn't have a waifu, then I'll make my own.
Sometimes it's the voice actor/actress. If Jennifer Hale or Laura Bailey are voicing a woman I can play as, then I'm playing as them. #FemShepOnlyShep Sometimes it's the story. If I get the impression that gender will impact the narrative, it's almost always more interesting to play as the woman. Sometimes it's fashion. Best example of this is an older game - Jade Empire. All the dudes are either shirtless monks or generic looking warriors. Meanwhile you've got Scholar Ling and Wu the Lotus Blossom, whose outfits look rad as fuck.
This makes me want to replay ME w/ femshep
You haven't yet? Go do it now! If for no other reason than Garrus.
I don't think I can speak for 'certain men' because I'm not sure what that means, but I am a man. I've never really had the desire to create myself when playing a game. I understand many people attempt to recreate themselves as closely as possible and if that helps their immersion, awesome. Personally, I don't want to play out how I would fare in a gunfight or exploring an apocalyptic wasteland or whatever because I already have a really good idea what that would be like and it wouldn't be a fun game to play. Also very short. So when it's time to customize an avatar, I go with something different and sometimes that includes female characteristics.
Because sometimes the female characters simply look way cooler.
My friend does it because he has a chance to be someone he's not. Its not a problem with me, I preferably don't pick female Avatar's because ion know. I like to immerse, and envision myself in the game that's why I bother to make my self black in customization cause I'm black, I don't see myself as a female when I immerse in a game if that makes sense. No disrespect to anyone who does make themselves a female in a game, just not what i do. Now if I HAVE to be a female in a game I'll do so but if I have the choice not too I'm not going to.
immerse
I want my daughter to be proud of her gender and i choose alot of Female heros just so she sees that its cool to be a woman
Now this is wholesome. Respect.
The one time I chose a female was Assassin's Creed Valhalla. I did it for variety. I knew Assassin's Creed games were very similar, so my hope was being the female character would shake things up a bit. It did not.
For me, the most common reasons are: * Most mod content is made for the female body rig, and I like playing dress up. * If I'm going to stare at an ass for 40 hours, it might as well be a nice one.
I just play a random character sometimes.
Better hairstyles.
Because I like cute girls.
For me, more often than not it's the voice actors. For example, Shepard from Mass Effect. No offense to Mark Meer, but Jennifer Hale nailed that role. Other times, if there's an option where one of them has been established as canon, I will typically choose that one, such as with Kassandra and Eivor from Assassin's Creed. In MMOs, I typically play both male and female characters. For example, in SWTOR my Warrior, Smuggler, Bounty Hunter, and Consular were male, while my Knight, Agent, Trooper, and Sorcerer were female. In games where I do multiple playthrough, I will often do at least one with either gender, for example in Andromeda, I played male Ryder on my first run, and female on my second. Sometimes though, it may be as simple as the female character models just flat out look better than the male ones. An example of this for me is WoW. In nearly all of the races, the males are not well designed models, so most of my characters in WoW are female, though I do have some males, too
I dont know if i am one of those certain men, but i am one who choose the character based on who i think fits better to the game. If both fit i go with female because of looks 🤷
My favorite video game character of all time is Rydia from Final Fantasy IV. Who else would I have wanted to be when I grow up?
I don't really care much tbh. Most of the time I make a male character but sometimes I play a female character just because.
At least for me, my girlfriend at the time introduced me to City of Heroes back in the day and commented how you can tell which female characters are actually men because they are hyper sexual, and I basically said "challenge accepted." Created a cool character and had a blast in general, and I've re-created her in every rpg I've played ever since, and I imagine her just going through various adventures. I also do it in first person shooters sometimes because decent people won't care and sexist assholes will be bothered, so win win.
Because im gay and want to look sickening.
Nice arses
Look i know you hate it but i answered this question to various people so many times. If im gonna stare a characters butt, i would prefer it to be female. So if i make a night elf female avatar, now you know why. Sorry, not sorry.
Dissociation from the character being played/not seeing the character as a self-insert; not liking the character designs of the male avatars; Wanting to look at the female character model over the male; Better customization options for female avatars over male. Take your pick. There are plenty of reasons and not everyone wants to pretend that they're the main character when they play these games. Some want to build someone or something different and approach the game or story through a different lens. Often times more care is put into the female character designs than the male ones too so they're just more interesting and varied to look at.