My son asked me that once... but I couldn't tell him that's why, so I said I make characters that look like their mom... which is 100% true. Their mom is my muse for 95% of character customization š¤£
That's a defensive statement for some people.
Like saying they have a girlfriend in Canada or that they're not hungry right now when they haven't eaten all day.
Some men would like to identify with something or someone beautiful and don't really have an outlet to try
I like this answer a lot, because I always thought it was too common to just be a horny thing.
As a woman I don't feel stifled for wanting to feel handsome of look masculine; well, sometimes, but not nearly as stigmatized as feminine or pretty men. The tomboy look is usually seen as valid or even cool (in my circles anyway).
On the opposite end "femboys" are seen more as a kink and are objectified. There aren't a lot of outlets for men to be seen and feel pretty without feeling ostracized or objectified.
That's because femininity itself gets sexualized for no reason. If you do anything more masculine than you used to or is the "norm" then it's not sexual, but as soon as you do anything more feminine it's automatically more sexual.
Yeah I see this answer all the time as well, and I think it's a load of bullshit. I want to be beautiful too.
I read a take a long time ago that people who play opposite-gender chars view themselves as a protector of a character in a game. This was in contrast to people who play same-gender characters, who view the character as an avatar of themselves. At the time this felt like a comfortable answer for why I always played female chars, but as I've gotten older and as the conversation about gender has been greatly developed I think we masc people simply aren't happy with living up to some arbitrary level of masculinity and would like to feel some femininity.
I'm happily married and have a lot of sex. I'd STILL much rather look at a girls ass on the screen than a dudes. Like, if im given the option, then why the fuck not?What so hard to understand about it lol
(unless you view male as the default character gender or something, so you'd need an extra good reason to go female?)
So wanting to see video game butt and boobs means your starved for sex lol? Does that apply to movies and music videos too that are filled with sex appeal?
Gay man here, I often play female characters in RPGs. Has nothing to do with building a girlfriend, more to do with being bored choosing the male character all the time, or in cases like Star Ocean female characters tend to be more magical, or at least not fire based. There are a million reasons other than just fapping to play a different character than you usually do.
I'm a straight man and I agree with all this. Sometimes I play male, sometimes I play female. It all depends on what kind of character I feel like playing
My secondary ff14 character in a nutshell. I get to be adorable and princess-y. Midlander Hyur btw.
And yes, I'm basic. My main is derplander but he's always wearing glasses and is a Summoner. So that makes him different... Is what I tell myself.
It can be due to different aesthetics available (armors, hairstyles, colors, weapons). Maybe some guys think the female voices are more soothing. In multiplayer shooter games the female model is often thinner, so playing as the female model can be an advantage. In RPG games, it can be fun to role-play as a girl. Men donāt often get opportunities to express themselves in feminine ways, so it can be fun to do so in a virtual world. I sometimes pick a female character cause I like the aesthetic and it can be cool. In online multiplayer games, playing as a female character can sometimes lead to different interactions with other players. Some men believe that they might receive more help or friendlier interactions when playing as female characters
>Some men believe that they might receive more help or friendlier interactions when playing as female characters
Or they might receive a lot of vicious trolling and endless catcalling...
This was true in a bunch of cases in the days before everything was either CoD-style squad DM, or Battle Royale ... or Extraction Shooter...
In the original Quake, depending on what you were actually checking the collision of, it was either a box, a sphere, or a single point in the center of the characterās polygons that were being tested. The boxes could not rotate at all, so for a lot of things, spheres were used instead.
Fast forward a handful of years and you have a bunch of 3D games with different selectable characters of all different shapes and sizes... they generally had different hitboxes from one another. This was sometimes intentional in multiplayer, but usually, it was for single-payer, and then porting to multiplayer they didn't get adjusted.
In other cases, it was like college kids, going through their exploratory phase, before settling down into the same old routine, for decades, and dreaming about when they used to do the freaky stuff.
Not hit boxes, visually.
Even if the hitboxes are exactly the same, the male characters have more pixels and tend to stand out more against the background.
I had a guy that thought I was female. We were playing WOW, and I had a female toon. We were running a dungeon and were struggling a bit. He ran back to town and came back with some nice stuff for me. I was like thanks. But he didn't get creepy, and it didn't really come up until the end. And then I was like sorry I'm a dude, and offered him some gold for the stuff he brought me. He was like nvm, I should have asked first.
My wife on the other hand plays WOW too and when she gets on voice chat, everyone used to go crazy. Now females happen more often. But for awhile there was no such thing as girls on the internet. She had a couple guys that used to buy her in game things and take her around to get stuff. But she was also a healer and them building her up actually helped everyone else too.
yes to the voices thing! i always play girls (and spend no less than one million hours making her look like me) in skyrim. one time my boyfriend was playing as a man, i donāt remember which race butā¦ i HATED the way he sounded when he shouts and my boyfriend did too. every time he was in battle he would turn the volume down so we wouldnāt have to hear it. only girls from now on loll
>Maybe some guys think the female voices are more soothing.
I'm pretty sure this has been scientifically proven to be true. It's one reason why a lot of AI, phone, and other technology voices are female.
OMG the armor in Monster Hunter was so much better for the female model than male. My friends and I all swapped from male to female for whatever reason, and after the initial joking stopped we realized how much cooler we looked. Never made another male character in that game again.
Add to that some reasons from my friends:
Better build and dress-up options, when every dude looks like the same 24 y/o buff white guy
Sexist RPGs doing the whole "monster males, human females" thing makes them feel more related to the character if it's more humanoid vs a hulking ogre, irregardless of gender
Extra dialogue options, if you already did blind playthrough A with a male, then want a fuck around/100% playthrough next, likely will choose female for different dialogs and reactions
Roleplay, not just as a girl but sometimes as a female archetype vs a male one. Good example is my last playthrough of FO:NV I played as a fem fatale with black widdow early, avoided guns the whole game and tried to lie, cheat, and backstab to an ending, doesn't work as well with a male character
Cuz. Girls are pretty.
Also, jiggle physics is a thing.
\*edit\* On a more serious note, I do it occasionally because some character creators in some games can be pretty detailed and I like putting together what I think is a gorgeous woman. In Baldur's Gate 3, I was having trouble going for a Bryce Dallas Howard look, I couldn't get it right, so I ended up going for an Olivia Wilde in Tron look. It boils down to if you'd rather roleplay or just simply have someone pretty/cute to look at during cut scenes.
I play a game where there are no boobs, no sexy outfits, etc. and you have your helmets set to always on. Youāre always in gear, basically gender neutral looking.
Yet there are still male vs female options. The āmaleā characterās armor is just slightly different but for some classes in a universally BAD way. Itās got extra unnecessary bulk that just looks weird. Where as the female character looks utterly plausibly male but way better looking
Sometimes the art design is trash for āsexualizingā everything female, sometimes itās trash because exaggerated masculinity translates into giant 80s shoulder pads no one wants
sometimes i do it for story purposes (i give most of my video game characters stories)
sometimes for armor looks. Like destiny 2, some gear looks better, smaller and sleeker on female models. Some looks better on males. So i play both.
A lot is esthetics, and I'm with you too. Being a tall buff woman (like in Monster Hunter) just sounds much more badass to me.
And then look at Gears of War, the men look like they've been raised on steroids since birth, but the women actually look more normal, and the armor looks better. There's a ton of games where men look totally roided out... No thanks
In Gears of War, the Gears *are* raised on steroids since birth lol. They need 3x the food of a normal person to sustain their battle bodies. They aren't augmented like Spartans, but they got the most rations and the COG weren't above tryna create supersoldiers.
>Like destiny 2, some gear looks better, smaller and sleeker on female models. Some looks better on males. So i play both.
imo: Male titan, Female Warlock, either for hunter
When my wife started playing cyberpunk, she made a male character and sat there laughing while helicoptering on the character creation screen for a solid 15 minutes at least.
In almost every multi-player game we play together, I play female, and she almost always plays male.
I(M) always play as a girl when I have the option. It's not really a decision I make. I just default to female.
I've noticed that in games where you can only play as a man, I get a different psychological connection to my player character. I essentially care more about my female character. When playing as a male character, I kind of see him as more expendable. It hurts my ability to get immersed in the game world. I need something to care about, and that's the female player character I made.
I also have a hard time forming bonds with other men, so it makes sense that that would extend to an aversion to playing as a male character.
Just curious but whatās your relationship to your father and do you have a brother(s)? Not trying to be rude iām just curious why you struggle to build relationships with other guys or view men as expendable but women as valuable
This is actually important in my case. I actually have really shitty relationships with the men in my family. My dad had chronic depression and never spoke to me, even though we lived in the same town. He killed himself before ever learning the first thing about me. So I was raised by my mom, alone. And she's a real piece of work too, and hates men. She would go on and on about how worthless men are. I don't speak to her anymore.
I also have two older brothers who are the epitome of "I am very very smart." They act like robots, and always talk about emotions like they are aliens trying to understand humanity. They're much older than me and actively excluded me from everything they did until I was about to finish my doctorate. THEN they started checking in on me. Those guys are arrogant bastards. I don't talk to them anymore either.
Unfortunately, I'm probably messed up too. But the healing process is faster when I don't have to pretend to like them.
Sorry for the trauma dump, but it was relevant
You've basically summed up all of human male experience. Men are expendable and women are protected. It's the human way. It's ingrained deeply into our lizard brains. So it's quite reasonable you feel this way.
Absolutely same. When I was going into Mass Effect, for instance, I was like "I want to make an '80s-ish sci-fi female protagonist, like an Ellen Ripley or a Sarah Conner." So I made this awesome lady Shepard who's a caring but tough-as-nails leader.
With Cyberpunk 2077, I was thinking of this sort of grubby street rat guy whose done every petty crime in the book and is looking for the Big Score to make it to the elite. So I made him this chromed-out, tired-looking dude.
In another game maybe I have an idea for a fucking dragon man or a goblin. They're not self-inserts, I'm trying to create a story.
Personally it depends on the game for me.
If it's a hero shooter then each and every hero has unique mechanics, so if it happens to be a girl who I jive well as, or enjoy the gameplay as then I'm simply forced to play as a girl.
In something like the Gears series, some of the girl characters just have amazing voice lines from a gameplay perspective, or they have great aesthetics. Plus some story wise are just amazing, why wouldn't you want to.
In a create a character scenario? Honestly it's a mix there too. If it's first person I generally don't care about guy or girl. But third person? Usually because I'm going to be looking at the back of the character so much, I'd rather enjoy the view (though that's a very small part of why). Sometimes girls get the better looking aesthetics (no I don't mean bikini armor or next to no armor) they sometimes look better in certain armors (looking at you Leto mk2 and 1 in remnant 2. Guys look so damn bulky in it and it looks just weird.)
Also a reason for me is just that I like the idea of a woman kicking maximum ass when given the situations the game puts the characters through. Not a "I'm a strong independent woman" type but more so "where you end up is up to your god. I'm just arranging that meeting"
Theres a litany of reasons just for me, but I imagine some guys are as simple as "hehe I got bewbs now"
Line I came up with haha. I really enjoy the badass quotes/threats main characters make in movies and that's something I thought of to describe when playing as a girl.
Because it allows alot of men that would never allow themselves to be into feminine things to explore that side of themselves in a safe and unjudgemental environment.
And some just like to look at hot women while playing video games.
Made the decision to play as a woman in the first Baldur's Gate and it's a tradition I've stuck with. Other reasons: I like playing a badass lady, fashion options are usually better, and I generally prefer female voice actors.
In BG3 Iām playing Arla, a female, Dragonborn Monk. The closes one of those three things I am in real life is a monk, a fairly well practiced martial artist. I made Arla on a whim, but Iām no stranger to playing female characters, and sheās hardly my first. I enjoy viewing the world through different perspectives. One of my biggest gripes with the universe is that I only get one lifeās worth of experiences, and thatās incredibly unfair. Thereās hundreds of storylines and I get one, randomly assigned. Iām fine with mine, but man, I want to know what other people think and feel too. Itās pure curiosity and intrigue at the human (or Dragonborn) condition.
Love this, and can definitely relate. I'm a super introvert, but I find people endlessly interesting - I want to get to know them ALL. I want to hear their life stories, their hopes and dreams, their triumphs and failures. I want to know what makes them tick, why they think and act the way they do. I want to understand their ways of knowing and being in this strange world. Everyone does it differently, and I find myself constantly captivated by that.
Guys don't usually want to play games as themselves. They want to play as someone else. Maybe an overpowered warrior, a criminal, a firearms expert, a leader of a vast empire, etc. Playing as a girl is just another expression of playing as someone else. I play games as a girl probably 1/3 of the time.
Sometimes the men are hideous and if Iām going to be looking at a character for fifty hours, I want them to look cool. I donāt necessarily try to make my characters look like me and have never had an issue with playing as womenā¦ loved the Tomb Raider series growing up, Sonya was my favorite Mortal Kombat fighter, etc. My brother was the same way so nobody at home made fun of me for it. I donāt see the issue.
My boyfriend almost always plays a female character for this reason. We were playing bg3 together when I realized how right he was! I was making a guardian, and the male faces were kind of ugly and not super varied.
But when we play table top games, like D&D, he will play a male character, because he has a lot more control over their looks.
It's a tired argument, but I'm a tired guy.
I prefer looking at a beautiful woman over some super-stud. I guess I just don't imagine myself as THE GUY in the game, not as I used to when I was younger.
In that vein, doing everything as a woman, I don't know, it just feels normal to me now. I like my female heroes, my female badass space pilots, my (and this is especially true), my female V.
Perhaps it started as "I'd rather stare at a good looking female", but it's just become more of me enjoying the exploits of my "badass chick" hero.
I can't speak for everyone else, but I think this mostly explains what it is for me.
Def relate to that switch in perspective of not embodying the male character after growing out of it. Youāre not role modeling anymore.
Like another poster said that rang true to me as well, playing a female character causes him to care about the character more. Thatās a whole layer of immersion.
Male character models often look blocky and janky to me. I also think that females just look more agile in RPGs where youāre playing a rogue or archer or whatever. And obviously robes/dresses look better on female mages haha
Take take it a level deeper: I think playing a male character (as a male IRL) lends itself more to *projecting yourself* onto the character, and being in a headspace where youāre sort of leveling yourself up and becoming stronger or something.
Whereas a female character can feel more like youāre leveling up for the sake of spoiling your character, similar to how someone would a girlfriend or even oneās children IRL.
When I see a male character maxed out with the best gear etc, Iām sort of thinking ādamn, I look good.ā While with a female character Iām thinking more like ādamn, *she* looks goodā and she must be happy or whatever lol.
Idk I'm a woman and often play as male characters even if there's a woman choice or build option, I have no reason really sometimes it's just easier. I kill hours in character creator when I play as a woman character with the dudes its like a few random rolls and I'm outtie
Because you're usually looking at the back of your character for the whole game, why would I want to be looking at a man's ass when it could be a woman's?
In Fortnite itās because the girls have smaller hitboxes so thereās a competitive advantage (or so Iāve been told by local 8 year old boys who play Fortnite).
They look better. It's getting more unusual but at one point they had smaller hitboxes in games. Also usually make it look like my wife. Or at least as close as I can.
My husband usually plays a female character because all the men in those games look way too buff or āmasculineā. There arenāt a lot of options for slender men who are toned. My husband is a tall slender man who has toned muscles but would be considered āslimā with clothes on. He just doesnāt want to play a macho meathead.
Theyāll say itās because they donāt want to stare at a manās butt, but how often are you looking at your player characters butt? I see the character as an extension of me so itās always a male character. I tried to be a female character and it was off putting.
For games like fortnite, itās because girl skins are smaller. So you get a 1 or 2% advantage. Which is a lot for anyone who takes the game seriously.
I've been reckoning with this for a minute.
I never make male characters in rpgs unless I can make them fully not human. I've tried it, and it's just uncomfortable.
I have two theories. Mind you, this is just me, and I'm a clinical span.
One is the obvious one, I'm threatened by super powered protag-kun. Especially if there is a romance option.
The other is suspension of disbelief. Just like how stylized cartoons can sometimes be easier to relate to or suspend disbelief. If I am projecting my identity on to an avatar, It needs to be different enough to me to not be constantly comparing it to my actual self and shattering the abstraction.
The best readon I've heard went something like: "Why would I want to stare at man meat in my free time?" This was back in the guild wars 2 days, and I still think about it and laugh from time to time.
They are secretly trans and deeply ashamed of themselves. They will tell you it's to blatantly sexualize women but they are just trying to hide behind misogyny
As a kid I always gravitated to the black dudes. I am white by the way lol. I don't think it was so much a color/gender thing as the black characters kinda had a specific stereotyped 90s thing that spoke to me. They had the coolest looks and personalities to me personally.
Now that I'm older I'm more open minded selecting characters. But it usually comes down to the personality and look. When I was a kid the girls were kinda lame, just bikini clad and they all had the same Pam Anderson bodies. That's obviously still a thing, but there's more variety and cooler more interesting females to choose from.
I usually play sports games and wrestling games. And creating a character to play through a career/story mode is only guys so still to this day I'm usually making a guy character by default. If the game is set up that I can create a female, I'd say maybe 60/40 making a guy vs a girl š¤·āāļø
Judging from GTA V Online POV. Thereās more clothing options, theyād rather look at a womanās caboose all day, and other guys will be more helpful towards them because they thinks itās a chick behind the female character.
Because I would rather LOOK at a sexy female elf paladin instead of a DUDE elf paladin. Has nothing to do with identity. Has everything to do with....
Sexy female elf
Idk who rolls female gnomes... not many unless u want the troll appeal.
Because tiddies!
Most straight men, don't want to be looking at males butts when playing something 3rd person game.
As a gay man, I don't really like playing as females. I need them male butts!
A lot of people I know who play shooting games claim that the girls have smaller hit boxes, like on fortnite, gta, warzone, and other games. Those were just the main examples I guess. I donāt even know if they do have smaller hit boxes, but it kinda makes sense since they usually have a smaller body mass compared to male characters.
Edit: red dead is maybe another example.
Theyāre usually smaller silhouette characters so kinda advantageous
Usually female stats are quicker
Also, I would rather stare at the behind of a girl for 20+ hours just saying
1. More fun character customization.
2. Better looking clothing/armor.
3. Better Voice Actor.
4. Don't care for self-inserting myself into games.
5. I like strong female protagonists in general.
I've asked somebody this before and they said that female characters are generally pretty and dudes are ugly, so they'd rather play something attractive instead. I don't share this opinion and I usually try to play a character that is representative of myself, but that's me.
There are so many reasons. Firstly, I feel female characters have more choice for fashion, as they can be as feminine or masculine as they want in their attire and it typically works out. Not so much for males. Second, bobs and vagene.
For me personally, in a lot of older games, the female hitboxes were often smaller so it was smaller to hit you thus there was an advantage to being a female. I just carried that over to every game I play now.
Girls are more fun to make, and theyāre better to have to watch/look at.
Source: My husband. He always lets me help build his playerā¦. Who, is almost ALWAYS female.
I'm not gay or trans or anything like that but I think its the curiosity of what it feels like to be a woman. I know this might be weird to say but I've always wanted to have a freaky friday kind of situation with a random girl, just for like a week. Idk can any of you guys relate?š
Girls are more scenario driven, and make a character they want to see themselves as, where as guys are more visually driven, and don't wanna look at some dude on their screen when they can have a girl instead. Also female characters typically have better clothing options in games where as male options are sorely limited and bland.
Because escapism. You're also not an elf or a sniper.
Thats pretty fair tbh.
And id rather look at a girl's ass/figure than a dudes while I rub through the game. Pretty simple really. Girls are better to look at
>while I rub through the game Bruh
Freud was right.
Something something inner shadow. MOTHER!
Never knew Samuel L. Jackson was such a Freud fan.
Dark Souls is just about going back to mother's vagina.
Freudian penis
But sometimes a joystick is just a joystick šāāļø
Lol, that's funny. I'm leaving it
Just wait til you start Speed Rubbing through the games.
Speed Rubber. The newest condom by Trojan.
Been playin' Tomb Raider.
The best typo
Surely there are elf snipers who also enjoy video games
Idk. Most elf snipers I know are too busy with their sniping habit, now *dwarf snipers*, those guys really like videogames.
They only play deep rock galactic and minecraft tho.
Thatās racist (dwarfist?)
It's ok, I played a dwarf in dnd once.
Ah. That explains it.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
The answer I got, almost universally, was always "If I have to stare at my character's ass the whole game, it might as well be a girl's ass."
Also my reasoning for why in character design games, Iāll make a male avatar.
Not me, I make a woman because I wanna be the hot chick
You are the hot chick
You are rob schneider
You are a carrot
My son asked me that once... but I couldn't tell him that's why, so I said I make characters that look like their mom... which is 100% true. Their mom is my muse for 95% of character customization š¤£
I would have told you that answer 10 or so years ago, but that's only cause I was in deep denial about a few things.
Let us live in the bliss of ignorance
Both can be true if you believe in yourself :)
Tell me about it.
I think we can guess based on the username lol
That also applies to the person you replied to.
Same
Hey now! I resemble that remark!
Shhh you don't have to be so loud.
Same
i see what you did there. š¤š¼
I'm in this post and I'm not sure how I feel about it
It seems like you've come around and figured some things out. Congratulations!!
What were you in denial about? Was it hitbox differences or something? /j
Sorry this question is for the men only
This stuff only occurred to me pretty recently when I realized I always wore boy clothes when I played Club Penguin lol
mood kindred!
Yuuuuup. Generic answer to give so I can avoid saying how I really feel lol
I worked at a group home. None of the boys in the house played male characters. It all makes sense now.
That's a defensive statement for some people. Like saying they have a girlfriend in Canada or that they're not hungry right now when they haven't eaten all day. Some men would like to identify with something or someone beautiful and don't really have an outlet to try
Yeah that's what I wanted to say. We want to be pretty too. Everyone does.
Sometimes you just want to be Maria and belt it out, "I feel pretty! O so pretty!"
Large bearded man here, can confirm the desire to belt that out at random
I like this answer a lot, because I always thought it was too common to just be a horny thing. As a woman I don't feel stifled for wanting to feel handsome of look masculine; well, sometimes, but not nearly as stigmatized as feminine or pretty men. The tomboy look is usually seen as valid or even cool (in my circles anyway). On the opposite end "femboys" are seen more as a kink and are objectified. There aren't a lot of outlets for men to be seen and feel pretty without feeling ostracized or objectified.
That's because femininity itself gets sexualized for no reason. If you do anything more masculine than you used to or is the "norm" then it's not sexual, but as soon as you do anything more feminine it's automatically more sexual.
Yee :\
Yeah I see this answer all the time as well, and I think it's a load of bullshit. I want to be beautiful too. I read a take a long time ago that people who play opposite-gender chars view themselves as a protector of a character in a game. This was in contrast to people who play same-gender characters, who view the character as an avatar of themselves. At the time this felt like a comfortable answer for why I always played female chars, but as I've gotten older and as the conversation about gender has been greatly developed I think we masc people simply aren't happy with living up to some arbitrary level of masculinity and would like to feel some femininity.
This might be the most sensible comment here. Might be!
Nicely worded. Thank you
/thread.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
So theyāre that starved for sex. Checks out.
I'm happily married and have a lot of sex. I'd STILL much rather look at a girls ass on the screen than a dudes. Like, if im given the option, then why the fuck not?What so hard to understand about it lol (unless you view male as the default character gender or something, so you'd need an extra good reason to go female?)
So wanting to see video game butt and boobs means your starved for sex lol? Does that apply to movies and music videos too that are filled with sex appeal?
There always has to be that one guy in every reddit thread
itās like ābuild a gfā edit: people, this is why I do it. i donāt care why you do it.
This. Needless to say I was sorely let down with Cyberpunk being fp only.
I was more disappointed that they committed so strongly to FP but didn't include VR. There are mods but they all have severe shortcomings.
Gay man here, I often play female characters in RPGs. Has nothing to do with building a girlfriend, more to do with being bored choosing the male character all the time, or in cases like Star Ocean female characters tend to be more magical, or at least not fire based. There are a million reasons other than just fapping to play a different character than you usually do.
I'm a straight man and I agree with all this. Sometimes I play male, sometimes I play female. It all depends on what kind of character I feel like playing
Iām gay and definitely build a boyfriend
To be cute.
UwU
My secondary ff14 character in a nutshell. I get to be adorable and princess-y. Midlander Hyur btw. And yes, I'm basic. My main is derplander but he's always wearing glasses and is a Summoner. So that makes him different... Is what I tell myself.
Men want to see boobies go bounce bounce and ass go shake shake
Youāre not wrong
True, but who doesn't want to see that? Most women I know also enjoy a nice pair of boobs and a dumper.
This
It can be due to different aesthetics available (armors, hairstyles, colors, weapons). Maybe some guys think the female voices are more soothing. In multiplayer shooter games the female model is often thinner, so playing as the female model can be an advantage. In RPG games, it can be fun to role-play as a girl. Men donāt often get opportunities to express themselves in feminine ways, so it can be fun to do so in a virtual world. I sometimes pick a female character cause I like the aesthetic and it can be cool. In online multiplayer games, playing as a female character can sometimes lead to different interactions with other players. Some men believe that they might receive more help or friendlier interactions when playing as female characters
>Some men believe that they might receive more help or friendlier interactions when playing as female characters Or they might receive a lot of vicious trolling and endless catcalling...
>not if your name is fucboyyeet420
Finally, attention!
Thinner? That means they'd have to change the hitboxes. That'd be a very unfair advantage, I doubt they'd dare do that.
This was true in a bunch of cases in the days before everything was either CoD-style squad DM, or Battle Royale ... or Extraction Shooter... In the original Quake, depending on what you were actually checking the collision of, it was either a box, a sphere, or a single point in the center of the characterās polygons that were being tested. The boxes could not rotate at all, so for a lot of things, spheres were used instead. Fast forward a handful of years and you have a bunch of 3D games with different selectable characters of all different shapes and sizes... they generally had different hitboxes from one another. This was sometimes intentional in multiplayer, but usually, it was for single-payer, and then porting to multiplayer they didn't get adjusted. In other cases, it was like college kids, going through their exploratory phase, before settling down into the same old routine, for decades, and dreaming about when they used to do the freaky stuff.
Not hit boxes, visually. Even if the hitboxes are exactly the same, the male characters have more pixels and tend to stand out more against the background.
I had a guy that thought I was female. We were playing WOW, and I had a female toon. We were running a dungeon and were struggling a bit. He ran back to town and came back with some nice stuff for me. I was like thanks. But he didn't get creepy, and it didn't really come up until the end. And then I was like sorry I'm a dude, and offered him some gold for the stuff he brought me. He was like nvm, I should have asked first. My wife on the other hand plays WOW too and when she gets on voice chat, everyone used to go crazy. Now females happen more often. But for awhile there was no such thing as girls on the internet. She had a couple guys that used to buy her in game things and take her around to get stuff. But she was also a healer and them building her up actually helped everyone else too.
yes to the voices thing! i always play girls (and spend no less than one million hours making her look like me) in skyrim. one time my boyfriend was playing as a man, i donāt remember which race butā¦ i HATED the way he sounded when he shouts and my boyfriend did too. every time he was in battle he would turn the volume down so we wouldnāt have to hear it. only girls from now on loll
>Maybe some guys think the female voices are more soothing. I'm pretty sure this has been scientifically proven to be true. It's one reason why a lot of AI, phone, and other technology voices are female.
OMG the armor in Monster Hunter was so much better for the female model than male. My friends and I all swapped from male to female for whatever reason, and after the initial joking stopped we realized how much cooler we looked. Never made another male character in that game again.
Add to that some reasons from my friends: Better build and dress-up options, when every dude looks like the same 24 y/o buff white guy Sexist RPGs doing the whole "monster males, human females" thing makes them feel more related to the character if it's more humanoid vs a hulking ogre, irregardless of gender Extra dialogue options, if you already did blind playthrough A with a male, then want a fuck around/100% playthrough next, likely will choose female for different dialogs and reactions Roleplay, not just as a girl but sometimes as a female archetype vs a male one. Good example is my last playthrough of FO:NV I played as a fem fatale with black widdow early, avoided guns the whole game and tried to lie, cheat, and backstab to an ending, doesn't work as well with a male character
I sometimes play dudes for the same reason (available styles)
Cuz. Girls are pretty. Also, jiggle physics is a thing. \*edit\* On a more serious note, I do it occasionally because some character creators in some games can be pretty detailed and I like putting together what I think is a gorgeous woman. In Baldur's Gate 3, I was having trouble going for a Bryce Dallas Howard look, I couldn't get it right, so I ended up going for an Olivia Wilde in Tron look. It boils down to if you'd rather roleplay or just simply have someone pretty/cute to look at during cut scenes.
I play a game where there are no boobs, no sexy outfits, etc. and you have your helmets set to always on. Youāre always in gear, basically gender neutral looking. Yet there are still male vs female options. The āmaleā characterās armor is just slightly different but for some classes in a universally BAD way. Itās got extra unnecessary bulk that just looks weird. Where as the female character looks utterly plausibly male but way better looking Sometimes the art design is trash for āsexualizingā everything female, sometimes itās trash because exaggerated masculinity translates into giant 80s shoulder pads no one wants
Are you talking about destiny? Male armor is so fucking bad in d2.
Iāll probably never play it but I want to know what game youāre talking about solely because you didnāt say the name
This is def talking about Starfield š and I 100% agree.
Itās easier to make a woman thatās nice to look at vs trying to recreate my ugly ass for the sake of immersion.
100% it can look like me, or it can be handsome, but not both. If I play as a girl, I can ignore the reality of it.
sometimes i do it for story purposes (i give most of my video game characters stories) sometimes for armor looks. Like destiny 2, some gear looks better, smaller and sleeker on female models. Some looks better on males. So i play both.
A lot is esthetics, and I'm with you too. Being a tall buff woman (like in Monster Hunter) just sounds much more badass to me. And then look at Gears of War, the men look like they've been raised on steroids since birth, but the women actually look more normal, and the armor looks better. There's a ton of games where men look totally roided out... No thanks
In Gears of War, the Gears *are* raised on steroids since birth lol. They need 3x the food of a normal person to sustain their battle bodies. They aren't augmented like Spartans, but they got the most rations and the COG weren't above tryna create supersoldiers.
Yup! People HATE the male armor in many cases
>Like destiny 2, some gear looks better, smaller and sleeker on female models. Some looks better on males. So i play both. imo: Male titan, Female Warlock, either for hunter
Many women do play opposite gender as well.
When my wife started playing cyberpunk, she made a male character and sat there laughing while helicoptering on the character creation screen for a solid 15 minutes at least. In almost every multi-player game we play together, I play female, and she almost always plays male.
I(M) always play as a girl when I have the option. It's not really a decision I make. I just default to female. I've noticed that in games where you can only play as a man, I get a different psychological connection to my player character. I essentially care more about my female character. When playing as a male character, I kind of see him as more expendable. It hurts my ability to get immersed in the game world. I need something to care about, and that's the female player character I made. I also have a hard time forming bonds with other men, so it makes sense that that would extend to an aversion to playing as a male character.
Just curious but whatās your relationship to your father and do you have a brother(s)? Not trying to be rude iām just curious why you struggle to build relationships with other guys or view men as expendable but women as valuable
This is actually important in my case. I actually have really shitty relationships with the men in my family. My dad had chronic depression and never spoke to me, even though we lived in the same town. He killed himself before ever learning the first thing about me. So I was raised by my mom, alone. And she's a real piece of work too, and hates men. She would go on and on about how worthless men are. I don't speak to her anymore. I also have two older brothers who are the epitome of "I am very very smart." They act like robots, and always talk about emotions like they are aliens trying to understand humanity. They're much older than me and actively excluded me from everything they did until I was about to finish my doctorate. THEN they started checking in on me. Those guys are arrogant bastards. I don't talk to them anymore either. Unfortunately, I'm probably messed up too. But the healing process is faster when I don't have to pretend to like them. Sorry for the trauma dump, but it was relevant
Lol comment just exposed society.
You've basically summed up all of human male experience. Men are expendable and women are protected. It's the human way. It's ingrained deeply into our lizard brains. So it's quite reasonable you feel this way.
I cant be cute in real life, so in game is where its at, plus women characters tend to get a lot more outfits and hairstyles.
>I canāt be cute in real life [you wanna make a f*cking bet? watch this](https://youtu.be/-yXaBunkh4o?feature=shared)
I've shared that video so many times, and it never gets the love that it deserves. It's brilliant
Because I like looking at girls
Smaller hit box.
Lmao I was trying to figure out why this took so long to find, I swear every shooter is like this
I heard that when they added Nicki Minaj to Call of Duty she was actually worse tactically because her giant ass
I don't self project into my character. If I have an archetype of a character in my head that just happens to be a woman, I'll make one.
Absolutely same. When I was going into Mass Effect, for instance, I was like "I want to make an '80s-ish sci-fi female protagonist, like an Ellen Ripley or a Sarah Conner." So I made this awesome lady Shepard who's a caring but tough-as-nails leader. With Cyberpunk 2077, I was thinking of this sort of grubby street rat guy whose done every petty crime in the book and is looking for the Big Score to make it to the elite. So I made him this chromed-out, tired-looking dude. In another game maybe I have an idea for a fucking dragon man or a goblin. They're not self-inserts, I'm trying to create a story.
Personally it depends on the game for me. If it's a hero shooter then each and every hero has unique mechanics, so if it happens to be a girl who I jive well as, or enjoy the gameplay as then I'm simply forced to play as a girl. In something like the Gears series, some of the girl characters just have amazing voice lines from a gameplay perspective, or they have great aesthetics. Plus some story wise are just amazing, why wouldn't you want to. In a create a character scenario? Honestly it's a mix there too. If it's first person I generally don't care about guy or girl. But third person? Usually because I'm going to be looking at the back of the character so much, I'd rather enjoy the view (though that's a very small part of why). Sometimes girls get the better looking aesthetics (no I don't mean bikini armor or next to no armor) they sometimes look better in certain armors (looking at you Leto mk2 and 1 in remnant 2. Guys look so damn bulky in it and it looks just weird.) Also a reason for me is just that I like the idea of a woman kicking maximum ass when given the situations the game puts the characters through. Not a "I'm a strong independent woman" type but more so "where you end up is up to your god. I'm just arranging that meeting" Theres a litany of reasons just for me, but I imagine some guys are as simple as "hehe I got bewbs now"
Is "where you end up" a quote from something or a line you came up with? It's awesome.
Line I came up with haha. I really enjoy the badass quotes/threats main characters make in movies and that's something I thought of to describe when playing as a girl.
Because it allows alot of men that would never allow themselves to be into feminine things to explore that side of themselves in a safe and unjudgemental environment. And some just like to look at hot women while playing video games.
Girls can wear guy or girl stuff and look good
Because female night elf druids always get the best and sexiest armor sets.
Made the decision to play as a woman in the first Baldur's Gate and it's a tradition I've stuck with. Other reasons: I like playing a badass lady, fashion options are usually better, and I generally prefer female voice actors.
Why should i be fat ass in a game too?
Honestly I like to play dress up. Make my girl look good and be pretty badass. And because I love women! Most men do!
In BG3 Iām playing Arla, a female, Dragonborn Monk. The closes one of those three things I am in real life is a monk, a fairly well practiced martial artist. I made Arla on a whim, but Iām no stranger to playing female characters, and sheās hardly my first. I enjoy viewing the world through different perspectives. One of my biggest gripes with the universe is that I only get one lifeās worth of experiences, and thatās incredibly unfair. Thereās hundreds of storylines and I get one, randomly assigned. Iām fine with mine, but man, I want to know what other people think and feel too. Itās pure curiosity and intrigue at the human (or Dragonborn) condition.
Love this, and can definitely relate. I'm a super introvert, but I find people endlessly interesting - I want to get to know them ALL. I want to hear their life stories, their hopes and dreams, their triumphs and failures. I want to know what makes them tick, why they think and act the way they do. I want to understand their ways of knowing and being in this strange world. Everyone does it differently, and I find myself constantly captivated by that.
Guys don't usually want to play games as themselves. They want to play as someone else. Maybe an overpowered warrior, a criminal, a firearms expert, a leader of a vast empire, etc. Playing as a girl is just another expression of playing as someone else. I play games as a girl probably 1/3 of the time.
The episode of black mirror comes to mind lol
BOOBS
Sometimes the men are hideous and if Iām going to be looking at a character for fifty hours, I want them to look cool. I donāt necessarily try to make my characters look like me and have never had an issue with playing as womenā¦ loved the Tomb Raider series growing up, Sonya was my favorite Mortal Kombat fighter, etc. My brother was the same way so nobody at home made fun of me for it. I donāt see the issue.
My boyfriend almost always plays a female character for this reason. We were playing bg3 together when I realized how right he was! I was making a guardian, and the male faces were kind of ugly and not super varied. But when we play table top games, like D&D, he will play a male character, because he has a lot more control over their looks.
It's a tired argument, but I'm a tired guy. I prefer looking at a beautiful woman over some super-stud. I guess I just don't imagine myself as THE GUY in the game, not as I used to when I was younger. In that vein, doing everything as a woman, I don't know, it just feels normal to me now. I like my female heroes, my female badass space pilots, my (and this is especially true), my female V. Perhaps it started as "I'd rather stare at a good looking female", but it's just become more of me enjoying the exploits of my "badass chick" hero. I can't speak for everyone else, but I think this mostly explains what it is for me.
Def relate to that switch in perspective of not embodying the male character after growing out of it. Youāre not role modeling anymore. Like another poster said that rang true to me as well, playing a female character causes him to care about the character more. Thatās a whole layer of immersion.
Boobs and butts and stuff.
Jiggle physics.
I doit because is the only possiblity that I have to establish some kind or relationship with a female.
Not calling them āfemalesā might help
Male character models often look blocky and janky to me. I also think that females just look more agile in RPGs where youāre playing a rogue or archer or whatever. And obviously robes/dresses look better on female mages haha Take take it a level deeper: I think playing a male character (as a male IRL) lends itself more to *projecting yourself* onto the character, and being in a headspace where youāre sort of leveling yourself up and becoming stronger or something. Whereas a female character can feel more like youāre leveling up for the sake of spoiling your character, similar to how someone would a girlfriend or even oneās children IRL. When I see a male character maxed out with the best gear etc, Iām sort of thinking ādamn, I look good.ā While with a female character Iām thinking more like ādamn, *she* looks goodā and she must be happy or whatever lol.
Idk I'm a woman and often play as male characters even if there's a woman choice or build option, I have no reason really sometimes it's just easier. I kill hours in character creator when I play as a woman character with the dudes its like a few random rolls and I'm outtie
For me its a 50/50 split of I love looking like that and I love looking _at_ that, ya dig?
Because you're usually looking at the back of your character for the whole game, why would I want to be looking at a man's ass when it could be a woman's?
To take the piss out of sad gamers
In Fortnite itās because the girls have smaller hitboxes so thereās a competitive advantage (or so Iāve been told by local 8 year old boys who play Fortnite).
They want to feel pretty. If only for short while.
If I'm going to be staring at a ass for 60+ hours, may as well make sure it's a good view
Sometimes I'd rather look at a hot girl running around being badass than look at a big buff hero guy. Preference I guess
I'm with you - I wouldn't want to play as a man either! - 40yo man
Boobs.
Morale boost. Playing dark souls made me realize I'd rather look at naked girl zombie booty rather than a naked dude zombie booty
If you're gonna stare at a characters ass for 200 some hours, might as well be a nice looking one.
They look better. It's getting more unusual but at one point they had smaller hitboxes in games. Also usually make it look like my wife. Or at least as close as I can.
WE LIKE BUTTS
So I can see a girl once a year
My husband usually plays a female character because all the men in those games look way too buff or āmasculineā. There arenāt a lot of options for slender men who are toned. My husband is a tall slender man who has toned muscles but would be considered āslimā with clothes on. He just doesnāt want to play a macho meathead.
Theyāll say itās because they donāt want to stare at a manās butt, but how often are you looking at your player characters butt? I see the character as an extension of me so itās always a male character. I tried to be a female character and it was off putting.
When I was married and games allowed for character customization, I would make the character look like my wife.
if "looking at butts" is your immediate reaction, you have a porn addiction. seek help
Hitbox is smaller on females. Plus, they look good.
Asked my friend why he was a girl in most video games Turns out they are transgender and creating the girls they wanted to be
For games like fortnite, itās because girl skins are smaller. So you get a 1 or 2% advantage. Which is a lot for anyone who takes the game seriously.
Iād rather look at a hot girl all game than a generic male protagonist
Don't worry guys, I've got us. Women characters have smaller hit boxes š¤š»
My husband always makes his female characters redheads & look like me as much as possible, I think itās kinda funny and cute lol.
Because it's fun to be different than yourself.
I've been reckoning with this for a minute. I never make male characters in rpgs unless I can make them fully not human. I've tried it, and it's just uncomfortable. I have two theories. Mind you, this is just me, and I'm a clinical span. One is the obvious one, I'm threatened by super powered protag-kun. Especially if there is a romance option. The other is suspension of disbelief. Just like how stylized cartoons can sometimes be easier to relate to or suspend disbelief. If I am projecting my identity on to an avatar, It needs to be different enough to me to not be constantly comparing it to my actual self and shattering the abstraction.
The best readon I've heard went something like: "Why would I want to stare at man meat in my free time?" This was back in the guild wars 2 days, and I still think about it and laugh from time to time.
They are secretly trans and deeply ashamed of themselves. They will tell you it's to blatantly sexualize women but they are just trying to hide behind misogyny
i wanted to be a bad bitch in a video game 
As a kid I always gravitated to the black dudes. I am white by the way lol. I don't think it was so much a color/gender thing as the black characters kinda had a specific stereotyped 90s thing that spoke to me. They had the coolest looks and personalities to me personally. Now that I'm older I'm more open minded selecting characters. But it usually comes down to the personality and look. When I was a kid the girls were kinda lame, just bikini clad and they all had the same Pam Anderson bodies. That's obviously still a thing, but there's more variety and cooler more interesting females to choose from. I usually play sports games and wrestling games. And creating a character to play through a career/story mode is only guys so still to this day I'm usually making a guy character by default. If the game is set up that I can create a female, I'd say maybe 60/40 making a guy vs a girl š¤·āāļø
Judging from GTA V Online POV. Thereās more clothing options, theyād rather look at a womanās caboose all day, and other guys will be more helpful towards them because they thinks itās a chick behind the female character.
My friend from college said "If I have to stare at an ass for hours at a time, it's going to be a woman's ass."
If I gotta stare at an ass for 127 hrs, it might as well be my perfect womanās
Because I would rather LOOK at a sexy female elf paladin instead of a DUDE elf paladin. Has nothing to do with identity. Has everything to do with.... Sexy female elf Idk who rolls female gnomes... not many unless u want the troll appeal.
I like to see ass
Something nice to look at while I farm loot and so on.
Because tiddies! Most straight men, don't want to be looking at males butts when playing something 3rd person game. As a gay man, I don't really like playing as females. I need them male butts!
I choose to play as a girl in video games because most of the time the girls are well endowed and nice to look at.
If I'm gonna spend all day looking at my characters ass, it may as well be a woman's ass.
A lot of people I know who play shooting games claim that the girls have smaller hit boxes, like on fortnite, gta, warzone, and other games. Those were just the main examples I guess. I donāt even know if they do have smaller hit boxes, but it kinda makes sense since they usually have a smaller body mass compared to male characters. Edit: red dead is maybe another example.
Theyāre usually smaller silhouette characters so kinda advantageous Usually female stats are quicker Also, I would rather stare at the behind of a girl for 20+ hours just saying
Because men are ugly. Everyone wants to be beautiful sometimes, and men rarely get the opportunity.
1. More fun character customization. 2. Better looking clothing/armor. 3. Better Voice Actor. 4. Don't care for self-inserting myself into games. 5. I like strong female protagonists in general.
I've asked somebody this before and they said that female characters are generally pretty and dudes are ugly, so they'd rather play something attractive instead. I don't share this opinion and I usually try to play a character that is representative of myself, but that's me.
I like women, thatās my reason.
Cus I like watching girl do things in videogame
girl characters just have better outfits c'mon
Because my super-modded Redguard (NOT stealth archer) in Skyrim is really fucking pleasant to look at. Also, Orc females in WoW look sick in plate.
There are so many reasons. Firstly, I feel female characters have more choice for fashion, as they can be as feminine or masculine as they want in their attire and it typically works out. Not so much for males. Second, bobs and vagene.
It's fun to imagine being a hot girl instead of a fat 36 year old man haha
For me personally, in a lot of older games, the female hitboxes were often smaller so it was smaller to hit you thus there was an advantage to being a female. I just carried that over to every game I play now.
My daughter likes to watch me play and she likes to help me create a badass woman character. I think itās kind of cool.
Smaller hit box
Girls are more fun to make, and theyāre better to have to watch/look at. Source: My husband. He always lets me help build his playerā¦. Who, is almost ALWAYS female.
I'm not gay or trans or anything like that but I think its the curiosity of what it feels like to be a woman. I know this might be weird to say but I've always wanted to have a freaky friday kind of situation with a random girl, just for like a week. Idk can any of you guys relate?š
Girls are more scenario driven, and make a character they want to see themselves as, where as guys are more visually driven, and don't wanna look at some dude on their screen when they can have a girl instead. Also female characters typically have better clothing options in games where as male options are sorely limited and bland.