The "I like to play as either male/female characters" Thread

[miyabi95_]

We have favorite characters to play as in video games. but in general, most people don't mind having to play as certain characters, whether they're restricted to a single character (i.e. Street Fighter 1, Super Mario Bros.), one gender (i.e. Fatal Fury), or any other circumstances. Maybe they don't mind leaving their comfort zone to try other characters, like in Super Smash Bros. (hell, i do that sometimes when i play for a good change of pace)

But for me personally, it's very specific and very limited. I like to play as female characters. Street Fighter - i'm Chun Li, Darkstalkers - i'm Felicia, ESP Ra.De. - i'm Irori.

Back then I wasn't as picky. But nowadays I usually stay away from games that only have dudes. Zelda is an exception because the 2D games are just too darn fun to put down. but otherwise, i like games that either feature a girl as the lead character, or give me a choice to choose a girl to play as.

It's pretty much from a visual standpoint. I like female designs because...Well they just look pleasing to my eyes. sex appeal, moe, whatever appeal, i don't care all that much. i like any female character designs really.

But there are people different from me. and that's totally cool. i'm glad games these days have become so diverse in pretty much every aspect of character design. it's probably what's pushed games into the mainstream even moreso.

[Dolphman]

I'm the same when playing Darkstalkers. The other character I play is Lord Raptor because it's nice to see an Aussie in a game.
With Metal Slug, I usually pick Fio over the rest of the cast. It gets boring playing as Marco or Tarma.
And I got into games like Shantae and Hyper Dimension Neptunia. Mostly because I like the character designs and the games are really fun.
But the first game I did play with a female character was Epic Games' overlooked breakthrough hit, Jill of the Jungle.

A neat little platformer made in 1992 for DOS. Came in three episodes, which was the thing PC games did back then. with the first chapter being shareware while you had to buy the other two or, for certain games, buy the full thing with all episodes.
Jill's leotard also came in three different colours depending on the episode you played. EP1: Green EP2: Red EP3: Blue.
Wish they would rerelease this game instead of only caring about the Unreal series. Your only option for now is abandonware sites

There's some male characters I like due to how they were designed, such as Duke Nukem who is a parody of manly action movie characters.
He's over the top macho, Women love him. One of the funny things is how his autobiography is named "Why I'm So Great".
So yeah, the series isn't really to be taken seriously. Which is why I wish modern first person shooters would be more like the classics.
- Blake Stone: Sci-fi secret agent fighting an evil criminal mastermind and his army of mutants and aliens.
- Heretic/Hexen: Fantasy series in a shared universe involving villains known as the Serpent Riders.
- Redneck Rampage: Two hillbilly brothers (one smart, one stupid) fighting an army lead by an alien dominatrix with boob guns!
- Blood: Undead gunslinger getting revenge on his demonic deity and his army of cultists and monsters.
- Rise of the Triads: Five mercenaries going against an terrorist organisation associated with a cult.

Now that I think about it. We need more first person shooters with female protagonists. No, Mirror's Edge doesn't count.

[Kriven]

I don't care enough to avoid playing games with specifically gendered protagonists... I just want a character with a good design (and personality/story, if the game goes that far). In games where you can choose a character, I used to always choose female characters (Talim, Xiaoyu, etc.) with the exception of ensemble games like Smash Bros. I tend to gravitate towards animal characters more than human anyway, so it's all about design for the most part... I tend to prioritize pink over other colors, but that's become less frequent in the past few years. In games where you can choose I usually pick male and build an avatar of myself, though sometimes I try to build specific OCs or favorite characters instead.

Female characters typically have more unique designs... even in games like Sonic where everyone is a colorful animal, the girls usually get nice outfits and hairstyles and fur patterns while the males are just kind of... templates for how Sonic characters should look. In more realistic games, the males are usually Young Harrison Ford or Matt Damon, or Naruto. Jill Valentine has more thought put into her design than Chris does... Hell, Sheva looks better planned.

With story-based games, I usually stick to the protagonist, because it's their story being told. So in RPGs I usually keep the central character in the party, even if they aren't my favorite.

[psychospacecow]

I usually care more about the way a character plays than their gender or appearance. That being said, if it doesn't matter whatsoever (like in an MMO where I'm staring at a character's back for hours on end), I generally shift a little to female. In single player games, I generally do a male character for first playthrough then female for all others.

[Kosheh]

oh

i used to play as girls in fighting games as a kid, mainly because they usually had the fast rushdown type playstyle that i liked. i actually got made fun of quite a bit over that.

nowadays, i don't care as much and i pretty much play characters whose playstyle i like; male, female, mammal or lizard.

edit: ok just kidding if i play exclusively female characters nowadays i'll just look like a fedora weird creep, but that's not really why i've started playing other characters. playstyle > biological sex of the character.


take that feminists!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Rhyme]

barring gameplay changes from character/gender choices (see: tera (even though reaper is female only so this isn't a good example), or fire emblem (where you can't wife girls since you're a girl), or fighting games) i usually play females

gameplay/playstyle is much more important to me, but in games where it's simply cosmetic i'll almost always play as a female, half because the designs are typically flashier and more appealing and half because i like girls

[Phantom Killah]

Female characters typically have more unique designs...

I'm not so sure about this. Female characters tend to fit into a pretty narrow 'thin and attractive' niche, where as male characters can have pretty much any body type, and are even allowed to be ugly sometimes

[Jermungandr]

I think that's relative to the game really. If the game is going for an exaggeratedly sexy look for their females, which is fairly common, then yes you're right, they do tend to have a very stereotypical body-type and appearance to them. For games that are going for a more cuter, less sex-appeal approach, I do tend to find that female characters tend to have the better designs. Males are usually pretty bland in these instances.

[miyabi95_]

there are some instances where girls have a more niche appeal. in muchi muchi pork, the girls do look pretty sexy, but at the same time, they have a bit of a chubby/pudgy aesthetic (which i assume would be for a cute animal-themed feel instead of an insulting "I HATE GIRLS CUZ THEY'RE PIGS" message. the former makes more sense. lol)

[puggsoy]

Generally I tend to go with male characters, at least in cases where it's only cosmetic. This is especially true if there's a story and/or I want to be somewhat immersed (e.g. Fallout), I feel like I can relate better to a character who shares my gender.

I don't often play games with many character choices, usually it's just a predefined character or just a cosmetic male/female choice. If there is an actual gameplay difference (like in fighting games) then obviously I pick for playstyle rather than character. If there is a predefined character then the gender doesn't affect my choice of whether I'll buy/play the game or not, although it may have an affect on how I experience it or relate to the character, especially if their gender actually plays a role in the story.

[miyabi95_]

never been a fan of tomb raider (didn't grow up with polygons), but i couldn't help but notice that Lara Croft is much more realistic, to the point of being uncanny valley, if you will.

and i dunno if that's colloquially good or bad, but i honestly find it more modest than her original look-at-my-boobs design from 1996. her modern design is more of a sexy, but not obnoxious design.

and that's weird coming from me: a freak for super voluptuous and curvy character designs. but to me the overly-sexualized design from 96 just doesn't seem to fit the survival platfotmer motif to me. felicia from darkstalkers for instance is like capcom's ultra-sexy brainchild but the aesthetic totally fits with the dark and humorous universe that she originates from.

getting back on topic, i suppose i'm even picky with certain gals in video games. while i do enjoy playing as her, lucina is a bit too plain of a design (navy blue and faded gold? meh), and she's pretty stoic and serious (this is basically me in real life). i don't have them downloaded yet, but i'd probably relate better to a character who's more expressive like corrin or bayonetta (opposites can attract!). meanwhile i have princess peach and jigglypuff. lol

[Gors]

I play with whatever character I like, it depends on the mood really

I choose characters for their playstyle, not looks

[Koh]

I'm fine with any character really, what matters most is their playstyle and their story. I usually gravitate towards males and toons (anthros), the former so I can have less obnoxious VA if there's VA, and the latter for cute appeal. When it doesn't matter at all on all accounts, just a coin tossup. For example, last time I played Pokemon Crystal, I played as Crystal/Kris because why not.

[Zero Kirby]

When I started playing Mass Effect, I created Samus Aran Shepard. That's just because I'm a huge fan of Metroid and it's the closest thing I can get to a Samus Aran played by Jennifer Hale that does more than yelp when falling in lava. Totally worth it.

Games with set protags, I don't really care too much about whether or not the protagonist shares my gender. Metroid is my favourite series and it stars probably the most prominent female game hero ever. I also really enjoy the Bayonetta and Shantae games.

Beyond that, in cases of both-genders-play-the-same-just-pick-one gameplay, it's more of a visual design thing. I play the female Inkling in Splatoon and I generally pick female Robin in Smash 4, but I always pick the male character in any Pokemon game because I never really cared for any of the female player designs.

And of course, if the gameplay is different between genders, then it's a matter of preference for gameplay. If I prefer the male characters' gameplay, I'll play as them. (Viewtiful Joe in VJ2, for example. Hated what they did to Silvia in that game.) If I prefer the female characters' gameplay, I'll pick them instead. (Melia's my favourite character to play as in Xenoblade. Too bad AI Shulk's such an idiot I only really play as her when doing quests or grinding.)