Got the idea of posting this when I watched this YouTube video that talks about reasons men love playing as girls.

Why do you do it?
Are there more than one reason?
What do you enjoy about it the most?

  • No one has said this one yet:

    I play a mix and generally want to create a distance between me and the character. I’m not thinking “what would I do?” I’m thinking “what would this person do?”

    Having said that, if I pick a girl I won’t pick a heterosexual romance option. Romance in games is strange.

  • There’s an absurd gender dimorphism in most games where every guy is a mountain of muscles by default. I don’t enjoy that body type - for myself, as a 5’5 dude, or even romantically - and women are usually on the softer, thinner side, so I tend to pick them at first.

    If its a game where I can easily change genders, I’ll flip around to my tastes, depending on which clothing looks better on whatnot. - Aliens:Fireteam Elite and Dragon Quest Builders 2 come to mind as examples that did that. Also games with intricate character creators, like Saint’s Row (RIP) are welcome, but rare.

    Eastern games tend to have softer men, so those tend to be exceptions. I recall picking male options in both Genshin and Path To Nowhere, and I usually enjoy the male leads in jRPGs.

    • I think this is my reason. I like lithe, acrobatic archetypes and will, for instance, usually prefer playing stealthy character classes when given the option. Guy bodies in games are (or at least used to be) blocky rectangles; they look like walking refrigerators. Gals usually have a more dynamic and nimble appearance.

      Two more relevant reasons: (1) traditinally, non-customizable main characters are predominately male, so when given a choice I’ll choose the less common option to mix it up and (2) I am a guy in real life and am bored enough of it that I feel incentivized to play the other side in game world.

  • I just want you to know there are pills which are fairly easy to get your hands on which if you take will make your skin softer and cause you to grow breasts.

    If that sounds intriguing to you, I further inform you there exist many people who happily take these pills for the entirety of their lives and the kind of person who would want to take such a substance is in no way a freak.

    But yeah, girl avatars can do sick acrobatics, huh?

    • I second this and wanna add, that it’s also totally cool, to feel like switching into a different body whenever would be neat. Maybe being whomever you want to be whenever feels just right to you.

      This is also attainable with outfits though honestly your appearance is completely secondary to how you personally feel about being your self.

      Shapeshifters are just awesome characters anyway right?

      • Yeah, in discussions like this it’s important to put out both the “it’s okay if you’ve got a deep curiousity/desire to be the other gender that you want to explore to see if it leads somewhere more” and the “there’s nothing wrong with just having fun exploring other identities or bodies without it being some kind of deep-seated transgender thing.” I think the “egg_irl” reaction is sometimes harmful because it ends up pressuring people who really aren’t transgender but who would be perfect allies if they weren’t ending up feeling annoyed by the whole thing.

        • who would be perfect allies if they weren’t ending up feeling annoyed by the whole thin

          No one who can be annoyed out of allyship would have been a particularly steadfast ally regardless how many eggshells one stepped around while dealing with them.

          • You may not be aware of just how annoying and downright offensive it is to have eager “helpful” people instantly jumping to “aha, you’re trans and I will help you come to terms with that!” When you mention that your roleplaying characters or whatnot play around with various genders. It’s probably not quite on the same level as people assuming gay people are just “rebelling” or “going through a phase” or whatever and will just get over it, but I imagine it feels along those same general lines.

            There surely are some people who are indeed a metaphorical “egg” just waiting to crack, but everyone should have the right to feel comfortable with themselves regardless. Dismissing those offended feelings as walking on eggshells misses that point.

            • There is something my therapist pointed out to me, who was feeling like fraud about being trans. There is some peer pressure out there on how you have to be to be trans. We are not talking about mean peer pressure, but if you see that bodily transitioning is the way for apparently every trans person, then that must be the way for you too, right? And what if you really dread procedures or meds? Or if you are maybe not super happy with your body, but who ever is? Does that make you less trans? I think it really helps to think of trans as a spectrum and exploring it slowly. And maybe you find your gender identity on that spectrum or you feel role playing etc. is just some good fun. And if you find yourself on that spectrum you can go into character creation and say, I’m fine with the presets or change things up, the result will always be beautifully you.

            • Dismissing those offended feelings as walking on eggshells misses that point.
              reply

              I said “around”, not “on”. It was rather clever wordplay.

              Telling every single person in the world there are possibilities they can explore is a good thing and no level of unease at that self-examination is any person counters that good.

              A person who is trans will be better off knowing and dealing with it and the sooner the better.

              A person who isn’t trans is part of the dominate social hierarchy and will be fine, even if they are exposed to info that doesn’t apply to them or the consideration of that info makes them feel icky.

              I empathize if you’ve been tied to a chair and forcibly boofed with horse urine, I condemn such an affront to your autonomy.

              I do point out that that this is a reply thread than began with someone informing a person hormones existed and describing their effects. No comment was made that the person to whom this info was proffered should take the substance, nor was any comment made about what it would mean for anyone’s identity whom did.

              If it is being suggested to me I should consider the “harm” a hypothetical cis person may come to in being told it’s possible to not be cis and in so considering refrain from or hesitate in informing a hypothetical trans person of the same, I never will.

              A person can say, “I am confidently cisgender and enjoy typical pastimes generally associated with my sex.” That is a great time to tell them hrt exists and what it does.

              A person can say, “Nice weather today, huh?” That is a great time to tell them hrt exists and what it does.

              Rose Tyler can walk into the time vortex of a TARDIS heart, and that would be a great time to write that hrt exists and what it does across all of time and space.

              No one is better off not knowing transition is possible, and the implication mention of trans existence should ever be avoided for the benefit of non-trans persons I find just-this-side-of troubling.

            • Didn’t cross my mind that someone would suggest that I’d be trans (just) because I want to play female characters too (and sometimes robots and others).
              The thought alone feels so strange to me (to me personally)!

              Of course a joke is a joke and OK in my case (when the intention is good) but if someone insisted that I’m a trans based on my game characters only, I would get upset.

          • So you know how annoying it is when someone tells you they know your gender better than you. That you are wrong about your gender and should do therapy to be the gender they think you should be? Oh, you do? Then please stop doing it. Thanks.

            • Acknowledging non-cis gender experiences exist is not telling anyone what their gender is, but having a huff when people express that it is possible to have a non-cis experience of gender is doing the thing you seem to be complaining about.

        •  Azzu   ( @Azzu@lemm.ee ) 
          link
          fedilink
          16 months ago

          And most of the time, unless you’re lucky or have lots of money, your past bodily development is going to get in the way of a clean transition… :/

    • Not everyone who play female characters do so because they are secretly trans.

      I don’t identify with the character I play, I just like girls. They are a lot more aesthetically pleasing.

    •  starlord   ( @starlord@lemm.ee ) 
      link
      fedilink
      English
      26 months ago

      RPGs present the opportunity, and even the excitement, to be something you’re not. There’s allure in trying on something you’d normally never get an organic chance to wear.

  • Female outfits are typically more interesting, like in GTA maybe it’s not as bad but I’m tired of every endgame male armor in rpgs of MMOs being a guy in a giant mountain of metal. It doesn’t look “badass” it looks stupid and bland. (On the flip side bikini armor is also stupid)

    That and female voices are just more… appealing? Idk the science behind it but there’s a reason AI assistants are like 95% female voices.

  • I don’t really like looking at men. Yeah, the Witcher games are pretty alright but Geralt is kind of boring for me to watch. Given a choice between watching a buff dude throw a goblin at another goblin in bg3, or a buff woman do the same? Probably want to see the woman. Maybe it’s just low grade ambient horniness.

    I never think of the character in a game as “me”. I had a friend who would always make himself. White guy with short hair and a short beard. That’s not for me. I don’t want to watch myself get blown up, stabbed, eaten by a dragon, whatever.

    I don’t like when games feel like they’re just giving me eye candy or lazy titillation, though.The whole bikini armor thing I’m not into. Someone else mentioned they hate heels. Same.

  • Because catboy isn’t an option yet.

    But really it’s because in fps they have abilities that make them quicker and it’s more my style of gameplay. I rush to a choke point and try to make it look like there are many players there to push them towards my teammates.

  • Pretty shallow and lame reason: I vastly prefer staring at a woman’s ass all day over a man’s. I’m already a man 24/7 of the day, might as well mix it up.

    That, or if I have to follow the internet I don’t realize I’m trans?

  • I don’t relate with masculine characters at all. No idea why as I don’t identify as a woman. I have very little association or ownership of my gender.

    Also character creators traditionally don’t have a ton of options beyond the binary. Hair, pronoun options tend to be most of the extent.

    Also feminine bodies tend to be more interesting. More curves and interesting shapes while a lot of masculine bodies are rendered as blocky.