IRL gender vs Gender in games?

[EldritchMoose]

4 minutes ago, Churl said:

I think that, as an adult, wishing that you are something that you are not is a thought that is not worthy of respect.

I think that having aspirations to learn a new trade, or become a better person are constructive.

While wishing for the unobtainable such as being an endomorph instead of an ectomorph, or being a female instead of a male,

or having super powers, or having a relationship with a fictional character, is actually destructive.

 

There's a massive difference between escapism and a desire to "be something or someone else". Many people, myself included, play games to unwind in their downtime. In my personal case, the thought of playing a game where I simulate staring at security screens all day and call if something anomalous happens doesn't really appeal to me. I play God of War not out of a desire to be Kratos or to kill deities, but rather to experience a Clash of the Titans-style story in a more active way than to sit on a couch devouring a bag of crisps.

 

Also, the DSM-V would disagree with you about the lack of respect afforded to sufferers of body dysmorphic disorder. It's a bit of a weird hill to die on, but you do you I guess.

[kaiju_wars]

3 hours ago, Gegger said:

and 99% of people on discord that know me think i'm male

Kinda off topic, but I've had this issue myself.

I'm male and I've been in a couple servers where people thought I was a chick.  I told them several different times over the course of a couple weeks I wasn't.

 

I decided to finally say screw it when people weren't listening and played a chick for about three months till people finally either caught on, or believed me on it.

[Hawick]

I pick female characters because of tits.

[aaradorn]

Might sound silly but I always think females have smaller hitboxes so I tend to choose them. Also I don't want to look at a buff guy with a huge wang while I am playing a video game. I prefer looking at females.

[jones177]

5 hours ago, Churl said:

I think that, as an adult, wishing that you are something that you are not is a thought that is not worthy of respect.

I think that having aspirations to learn a new trade, or become a better person are constructive.

While wishing for the unobtainable such as being an endomorph instead of an ectomorph, or being a female instead of a male,

or having super powers, or having a relationship with a fictional character, is actually destructive.

 

That may have something to do with culture or state of being. 

 

For example I am a Brit and we don't want respect for the most part. It is basically a bully society were if you stand up you will be accepted and that is about it.

That is one of the reasons that a lot of fantasy comes from that culture. It is never about respect and all about acceptance. 

 

The success of western culture is all about having superpowers because installing the belief that you can do anything and be anything is what has made it great. 

 

Who wants to be an adult? I certainly don't because it sucks. All the negative in my life has been about being an adult. I would rather play.

 

 

 

   

[Guest]

9 minutes ago, jones177 said:

For example I am a Brit and we don't want respect for the most part. It is basically a bully society were if you stand up you will be accepted and that is about it.

Now THAT explains it ALL about the BoJo phenomenon!

Thank you for finally explaining it in a simple way!

 

[cluelessgenius]

really i dont pick my characters by gender. i pick which character feels or looks the most badass or sometimes which is the funniest pick. unless my choice in character somehow impacts gameplay then i go by that.

so in bordrlands 2 i play siren (female) cause her skills are the easiest for me to play. 

in ghost recon wildlands i play male because its doesnt matter whatsoever for the gameplay and there is nothing special or extra about the female characters so i think the male ones look more badass.

then farcry 5 youre obviously not given a choice

and thats all i can think off right now.

 

priorities for character selection:

1. skills/gameplay

2. character story / is he/she funny or special in any way

3. looks / who fits the games story/ genre better / who do i identify more with o a personality level

[Automobili3XF]

It depends, sometimes i use male characters, sometimes female characters, sometimes i play the game twice in a row with different characters and tactics just to see how the experience changes.

[Churl]

12 hours ago, EldritchMoose said:

sufferers of body dysmorphic disorder.

I used this example because I used to suffer from it in my youth.

 

And please stop attributing motivations to me that I have not expressed.

12 hours ago, EldritchMoose said:

lack of respect afforded to sufferers

I have never stated anything about the people themselves, only about thoughts.

If your understanding of the English language is as good as your writing implies

I can only surmise that you must have an agenda in twisting my words in this manner.

[Churl]

7 hours ago, jones177 said:

Who wants to be an adult? I certainly don't because it sucks

Well that just goes to show the wonderful diversity of humans.

I rather enjoy being an adult as opposed to a child.

Yes it is generally not as care-free, but I like the freedom to decide our own course.

And as a child you don't get to decide who you are, you just are.

As an adult we can exercise choice in self direction.

 

 

[dalekphalm]

11 hours ago, Churl said:

I think that, as an adult, wishing that you are something that you are not is a thought that is not worthy of respect.

I think that having aspirations to learn a new trade, or become a better person are constructive.

While wishing for the unobtainable such as being an endomorph instead of an ectomorph, or being a female instead of a male,

or having super powers, or having a relationship with a fictional character, is actually destructive.

 

Ahh there it is. As I suspected.

 

Anyway, this is getting off topic, so I will now disengage from this conversation.

[Guest]

I typically choose my real sexuality in game, however I have made characters of the other sex. 

 

It hasn’t made much of a difference in games so I don’t really care much. Whatever is default is what I typically go with. 

[Guest]

12 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

Ahh there it is. As I suspected.

 

Anyway, this is getting off topic, so I will now disengage from this conversation.

I had this thought before clicking on this thread but reading the OP, the intentions were innocent. The discussion was... well I didn’t read it because I like having some sanity. 

[dalekphalm]

42 minutes ago, fpo said:

I had this thought before clicking on this thread but reading the OP, the intentions were innocent. The discussion was... well I didn’t read it because I like having some sanity. 

Yeah - as far as I can tell, the OP's inquiry was from curiosity and nothing else - entirely innocent there. Some of the responses are... well... expected. Though to be honest, I'm actually surprised that overall the discussion isn't the shit show I figured it would be. Most are entirely reasonable (if, quite often immature - because most young boys like looking at hot lady elf asses - *shrugs*).

[Guest]

1 hour ago, dalekphalm said:

... because most young boys like looking at hot lady elf asses - *shrugs*).

The older ones too!

 

It's more about the type of person you are, not about one's age

[dalekphalm]

4 minutes ago, Cora_Lie said:

The older ones too!

 

It's more about the type of person you are, not about one's age

I'd suggest that's only partially correct. I think it's safe to say that a younger male (Early to mid teens) is far more likely to intentionally play a character who is attractive, because they still lack sexual maturity.

 

Some people will mature and grow out of that. Others will not.

 

And still others will still be mature, but despite that will still enjoy the sexual attractiveness of characters (yet not in a "LOL look at Lara Croft's ass!" kind of way).

 

And of course, some mature early, or don't have much interest in sexuality to begin with.

 

I 100% can definitely appreciate an attractive character. But I don't base my decision to play one vs another based on that. For me, personally, other reasons will dictate that choice.

[Chett_Manly]

7 hours ago, jones177 said:

Who wants to be an adult? I certainly don't because it sucks. All the negative in my life has been about being an adult. I would rather play.  

But now as an adult you should understand that as a child all those negatives you now have you did not have to have before because of someone else handling them for you, and understand what a burden that was to place on another person. I do want to go back to being a burden now that I can lift myself up.

 

Though this is getting off topic.

 

So getting back to the topic, I play male, and am male, because ultimately I want to be able to put myself into the game I play. This matters less and less as the characters become defined, having unique abilities, or are the only option, like Spider-Man or Tomb Raider or Overwatch. 

[jones177]

11 minutes ago, Chett_Manly said:

But now as an adult you should understand that as a child all those negatives you now have you did not have to have before because of someone else handling them for you, and understand what a burden that was to place on another person. I do want to go back to being a burden now that I can lift myself up.

 

Though this is getting off topic.

 

So getting back to the topic, I play male, and am male, because ultimately I want to be able to put myself into the game I play. This matters less and less as the characters become defined, having unique abilities, or are the only option, like Spider-Man or Tomb Raider or Overwatch. 

I grew up in a different time and I started working at the age of 16. My parents were working class English and they started working at the age of 14. Living with the parents was the thing to do until you got married but it was no free ride. The only time I did not have responsibilities was when I was sick and in a way I liked being sick.

I have been really successful as an adult in a childish sort of way considering that my peers think playing video games is a waist and my career as an artist was a waist or not the adult thing to do or get a real job. I had real jobs I don't like them.

 

I really enjoyed playing Bayek in Assassins Creed Origins. He was a true adult character since his inability to act at one moment defined his life and the way his wife moved on was crushing. 

The way things are going it would not be surprised if we see a female Spiderman. I would like the choice anyway.

    

     

[Chett_Manly]

17 minutes ago, jones177 said:

The way things are going it would not be surprised if we see a female Spiderman. I would like the choice anyway.   

     

Would have been much better than the Mary Jane sections they shoe horned into Spider-Man to have a female playable character. Though I still find it odd they didn't utilize Black Cat for that. Someone at least with powers!

[jones177]

4 hours ago, Churl said:

Well that just goes to show the wonderful diversity of humans.

I rather enjoy being an adult as opposed to a child.

Yes it is generally not as care-free, but I like the freedom to decide our own course.

And as a child you don't get to decide who you are, you just are.

As an adult we can exercise choice in self direction.

 

 

What is care free and how much freedom do you have.  

As a child I had as much if not more choice than I did as an adult. 

As an adult I have to make money and my choices are limited to what I can afford. When I worked as a child a good portions went to the things I wanted.

As an adult most of my choices are childish. Like driving my STI or having 2 RTX 2080 tis. These are not the decisions of an adult. Maybe a childish adult.

 

More to the topic. I just bought a new video game. Nier:Automata. Onsale at Steam. It looks like I will be playing the girl.

 

[IBM_THINKPAD_R51]

Female cause i dont feel like staring at a males butt all the time in 3rd person games like dragon ball Xenoverse and stuff

[Cyberspirit]

I'm a guy and, whenever there's an option I go with a female character.

 

Most of the time you can make them look much nicer than male characters with all the accessories and clothes which I do enjoy.

As for immersion, male characters are generally big bulky muscle men and, god knows I can't relate to that so, I usually just make a pretty female characters instead.

[EldritchMoose]

12 hours ago, Churl said:

I used this example because I used to suffer from it in my youth.

 

And please stop attributing motivations to me that I have not expressed.

I have never stated anything about the people themselves, only about thoughts.

If your understanding of the English language is as good as your writing implies

I can only surmise that you must have an agenda in twisting my words in this manner.

Then learn to communicate more effectively. If it is just the thought that you feel is not worthy of respect, then your initial comment is out of place in a discussion about habits surrounding character creation or character selection when playing games. Given no more to go on than statements like "these thoughts are not worthy of respect" and "lol, exactly my point" I am forced to conclude that you are either conflating these choices made when engaging in escapist media with an actual desire to be something else (when the reality is on average a lot more nuanced than that) or just willfully trying to derail the conversation. If you don't give your audience enough to work with to analyze your message, they will fill in the blanks themselves.

 

I do not have an agenda, I just find it weird that back in my WoW days, people seemed to take issue with me playing a female Tauren warrior because I am not a woman, yet for some reason the fact that I am not an anthropomorphic cow was never an issue. The reality, of couse, was not nearly as polarizing or exciting as my being a closeted furry or a trans woman - it was that I like cow puns, and when faced with picking a gender for a character named Legendairy I went with the one that is capable of producing milk. I'm pedantic like that.

[dalekphalm]

7 hours ago, EldritchMoose said:

Legendairy I went with the one that is capable of producing milk. I'm pedantic like that.

I think you just won the internet.

[Sylvie]

i pick the character i'm most attracted to.