Your Gender/Sex IN VIDEO GAMES, and does it matter to you?

[Malcador]

Pick whomever has the better VA (female IA was the best one) or just randomly.

[Keyrock]

Gender doesn't matter to me one bit in games.  I'm a guy but I probably wind up choosing to play a female character roughly 50% of the time when I am given a choice.  I don't really have any specific criteria for why I choose one gender or another, it's just whatever strikes my fancy at the time I'm making the character.  And if a game has me play as a set character and doesn't let me choose that's okay too, I just don't care.  

[Undecaf]

 

So...what is it with sex/gender that makes people lose their **** when it's different from what they are playing? Why does it matter?

 

I don't think it matters, really. I have no idea of a root cause other than we seem to live in an age of oversensitivity and some sort of identity confusion where every individual thinks s/he's a unique piece of fragile porcelain art entitled of representation and if you so much as even breath too loud in that direction, there's a crack and all hell breaks loose. The best medicine to such is ignoring it.

 

I don't care about such matters in games, though, unless it's being rubbed in my face that I somehow "need to" pay attention to it.

Edited August 29, 2017 by Undecaf

[Gfted1]

^What would be an example of such a game?

[Undecaf]

^What would be an example of such a game?

 

Hypothetically speaking.

[teknoman2]

in a single player rpg like Mass Effect, the first time i play as male (which i am) and make choices based on what i would do if i was in that situation. the second time i play as female and do the exactly opposite choices.

in a mmo i always play female because if i have to stare at the back of my character for hours, it may as well be a character with a pretty butt.

in all other cases i simply don't care about the sex/gender of the character unless it is somehow relevant to the plot.

[nstgc]

^What would be an example of such a game?

 

Life is Strange? You have to deal with the protagonist's stereotypical teen girl talk that the French male adult devs expect of a an American female teen? I mean, no body talks that way. I don't think so at least.

[Gorth]

Didn't vote and for what it's worth, my thoughts are very similar to Teknomans on the subject. If there are story differences, I play through as both genders, if no difference, I couldn't care less. If the only difference is a visual one, then yes, I prefer to stare at female butts when running around. If a fixed protagonist, I just lean back and enjoy. I had fun playing the nameless one in Planescape: Torment just as I had fun playing Lara Croft n Tomb Raider. Both of the latter were for me games where gender was completely irrelevant to the experience. Ok, so Lara did look good in that wetsuit...

[EbonyBetty]

 

^What would be an example of such a game?

 

Life is Strange? You have to deal with the protagonist's stereotypical teen girl talk that the French male adult devs expect of a an American female teen? I mean, no body talks that way. I don't think so at least.

 

I think that was kind of the point? I mean her surname was Caulfield as in Holden Caulfield from Catcher in the Rye AKA the gateway drug to hipsterism and teenage rebellion.

[Valmy]

Uh...I have no idea. I play as both genders. It just depends on what sort of character I feel like playing. If the protagonist is pre-selected I will happily play that character. So...I don't really know how to answer the question. I do not really like to obsess over identity too much, I feel like it alienates a bit from trying to play a character.

Edited August 31, 2017 by Valmy

[Valmy]

in a single player rpg like Mass Effect, the first time i play as male (which i am) and make choices based on what i would do if i was in that situation. the second time i play as female and do the exactly opposite choices.

in a mmo i always play female because if i have to stare at the back of my character for hours, it may as well be a character with a pretty butt.

in all other cases i simply don't care about the sex/gender of the character unless it is somehow relevant to the plot.

 

I always play my gender MMOs. I feel like it just confuses people in teamspeak otherwise. I don't really look at my own character very much anyway, too busy looking for mobs and loots.

[EbonyBetty]

For me on the subject, I am an African American cis-female. I will and have bought any game with a fixed black female protagonist, regardless if it's gold or crap because there's just so few of them. Even weird obscure stuff, if you have a hidden gem black woman protag that you think I haven't heard about me lemme know. And if there's character customization I'll usually have at least one playthrough with a black woman. As for the game industry's generic "cookie cutter" protag which is usually: white, male, assumed straight. And if the fixed protag is female it's usually a white woman (blond or brunette) or Asian in-game model with white female voice actress. For me, I find it grating. Granted games are becoming more diverse nowadays but primarily in side characters, not the protag or face/mascot of the series, such as: Naughty Dog game titles, Bioshock series, Far Cry series, Resident Evil series, majority of Assasian Creed games, Wolfenstein, Dishonored, Arkham Asylum, the majority of GTA protags, and etc. And also if the protags in the games are customizable the white male model is usually shown in the advertisement to sell you the game such as: Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Destiny, all the Bethesda RPGs, Far Cry 5, and etc. I like to call this Barbie Doll Marketing Syndrome. Barbie can have all the diverse friends under the sea, to disabled friends, ethnically diverse friends, and gender diverse friends, but Barbie's name and face are still on the packaging and she's still the leader. If the game companies are feeling particularly "diverse friendly" they'll add a black male protag. Which trust me, I prefer more than a white male one and sometimes a white female, but still no love for black women. 

 

Uh...I think I rambled a bit. So TL;DR: yeah I think it's very important. 

 

**Also Edit: I don't engage in many JRPGs, not my squeeze. However please list me the amount of dark-skin  AND female Asian protags there are, such as East Indian or Southern Asian. Also I've already gotten a message about this post being racial and yes, race is very much interwoven with gender**  

Edited August 31, 2017 by EbonyBetty

[Amentep]

You know, I can't off the top of my head think of a game with a single fixed protagonist where that protagonist  was a black female (may say more about the fact I haven't always paid big attention to game news though).  I can think of some games that had the choice of a black female from a group of fixed characters (like Samantha in the Hunter: The Reckoning Series or Houston in the Vigilante 8 series), and of course plenty of games with character creation, but nothing pops to mind for a fixed protagonist game.

 

With respect to the topic, on games where I'm creating a character, I consider gender, sex and sexual orientation of the character I'm creating as part of defining that character in my head.  I try to avoid 'playing myself' generally speaking, but have done so on occasion (it all depends on what I feel like, to be honest).  But generally speaking I try to have an idea for a character and play that, just like I would in a Pen and Paper RPG.

[Bartimaeus]

The only one I can think of that I've played is Broken Age (e: also, for anyone who hasn't played Broken Age or doesn't know anything about it, there are two protagonists, Vella and Shay, that are equally important and you have to play through both of their parts to progress through the game).

Edited August 31, 2017 by Bartimaeus

[Hurlshort]

Didn't one of the Gabriel Knight games split protagonists too? It's not even a problem just in games, there is a lack of black female leads in Hollywood as well. I'm all for more Pam Griers. 

[Gorgon]

I play whatever avatar looks the best. That's female more often than not, but not always obviously. 

 

I don't really consider it important. 

[SonicMage117]

I love when games have memorable characters of the opposite sex. I'm not talking about sexy or provacative but just a personality which makes me attached to the character and actually care for them.

 

Life Is Strange, the newer Tomb Raiders and The Witcher 3's Ciri are great examples.

 

Not sure why but I love to see how writers develop characters. It's been evolving. Characters are much better written now in games than in generations before thanks to the new wave of technology, methods and new techniques making characters more relatable. It also helps that we are modern enough to where our female characters do not look like mid-hormonal trannys (no offense to any transformer/transgender that may read this).

 

I like when some female character reminds me of a video game characger reminds ex-girlfriend. Which makes that character easier to relate to and care for.

 

That's another reason why I do not mind when developers force me to play as a female character. Not that I ever had a problem with it to begin with.

 

 

HA! Good Fun!

[itsLDN]

If given an option, I always choose male for my character. I suppose this is because I want an avatar of myself reflected in the game's world. That said, playing as a female typically won't deter me or take away enjoyment from the game.

 

I enjoyed Morrigan as a character in Dragon Age. Ciri from the Witcher is pretty cool. I'm not sure if I like them because I know I have my character to go back to. That said, I think Laura Croft is wicked and didn't kick Terra out of my party in FFVI when given the option.

 

Overall, I don't think it a huge factor for me unless it's gone all dead or alive and I'm dealing with a lot of err bouncy body parts

[Flouride]

It really varies a lot. I don't mind the protagonist being female, I can live with that. Though usually if there is romance involved in the game I'll pick male character (Dragon Age, Mass Effect for example). I'd rather look at a cute butt of a female if the game is 3rd person game and doesn't involve romances.

My Tauren Druid was/is a male though, then again a cow is a cow. There's no way you can make that character cute at all

 

Just don't shove playersexual npcs down my throat and I'm fine.

[Malcador]

Didn't one of the Gabriel Knight games split protagonists too? It's not even a problem just in games, there is a lack of black female leads in Hollywood as well. I'm all for more Pam Griers.

2 and 3 had you alternate.

[Valmy]

For me on the subject, I am an African American cis-female. I will and have bought any game with a fixed black female protagonist, regardless if it's gold or crap because there's just so few of them.

 

Well I can see why you like RPGs then. You can, usually, create one yourself.

[ShadySands]

 

For me on the subject, I am an African American cis-female. I will and have bought any game with a fixed black female protagonist, regardless if it's gold or crap because there's just so few of them.

 

Well I can see why you like RPGs then. You can, usually, create one yourself.

 

 

That was the initial draw of RPGs for me as well. Finally having a hero/character that looked like I did. I know that may seem silly now but to 10 year old me it was somewhat inspiring

[Bartimaeus]

Hm, what RPGs allow you to make a 10-year-old twerp as the main character?

[Orogun01]

Hm, what RPGs allow you to make a 10-year-old twerp as the main character?

Mother

[HoonDing]

"Hm, what RPGs allow you to make a 10-year-old twerp as the main character? :p"

 

Chrono Trigger