Choosing the female character

[Meat Target]

i do it if i have a character in mind for the game. for instance, first v i did for cyberpunk was a corpo fem v who was going to be a silent weapons user (blades and suppressed guns). i ended up abandoning this v because this was around launch and we all know how that game was then. did a male nomad v later that specialized in netrunning quickhacks.

She has to be "someone else", not my R63 self-insert. I've tried that before just out of curiosity, and every time, it gets boring and immersion-breaking after maybe 30 minutes.

I lack the roleplaying skills, attention span, and/or autogynephilia to commit to an entire playthrough as a chick.

 

[Lone MacReady II]

There are certain games like Fire Emblem Awakening where the story is objectively better and more interesting if you pick female Robin. The twist of the game is that Robin is essentially a reincarnation of the main villain. If you pick male Robin, there's no real extra drama apart from that... however, if you choose female Robin (especially if you pair her with the main Lord Chrom) suddenly the game's drama and intrigue goes up ten fold. Now the wife of the MC and the mother of Lucina (a future child) is actually the main villain of the game. That version of the story is simply too cool to pass up. There's also additional dialogue and story beats that come from this choice, meaning you get more content overall if you choose female Robin.

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

The Garrus romance which is unquestionably the best one in the game is exclusive to Femshep.

While playing as a woman in games doesn't bother me in the slightest, it feels just a little gay to be romancing male characters.

 

[H3H3 Podcast Higlights]

Does it promote moronic feminist ideas that women are just as strong as men?

I don’t think so.

 

[Racial Slurs the Movie]

Depends on the game. If it's a game where you pick one character and you play it permanently: troon shit. If it's a roleplay game or some game where you play it multiple times: fine.

If a guy tells you that he's just doing it because he doesn't want to stare at a man's ass? Troon shit.

Imagine being this desperate to be seen as manly.

It's okay Consooooomer you can admit you deep throat cocks we're an accepting website.

 

[Baraadmirer]

Really depends. I generally like playing as male characters, but there are of course exceptions. One that comes to mind is Dishonored 2; I could play as Corvo again, but it makes more sense to me narratively for Emily to have her own journey and grow into becoming an empress.

 

[Smashed & Slamed]

>Banned Tags: Anime, Female Protagonist
But at the same time if the shape on the pixels on your screen have any effect on your psyche then you are weak willed. I don't play female characters cause they are trash or the games they are in are trash.

 

[PrettySneakyCis]

>Banned Tags: Anime, Female Protagonist
But at the same time if the shape on the pixels on your screen have any effect on your psyche then you are weak willed. I don't play female characters cause they are trash or the games they are in are trash.

I ban "female protagonist" as a tag, because people only use that when the protagonist being female has some sort of social weight to it. Either the game is going to be a sassy down-with-the-patriarchy simulator, or it's being done in an ironic "hurr hurr she has a fat ass, take THAT, reddit" manner. I almost certainly want to play neither of those types of games.

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

I ban "female protagonist" as a tag, because people only use that when the protagonist being female has some sort of social weight to it. Either the game is going to be a sassy down-with-the-patriarchy simulator, or it's being done in an ironic "hurr hurr she has a fat ass, take THAT, reddit" manner. I almost certainly want to play neither of those types of games.

View attachment 7734866View attachment 7734867

Stellar Blade is good.

 

[Chieftain Coke Peanut]

It's fine as long as the game doesn't have dating elements. Then it's gay.

Very true. I played Mass Effect as female Shepard and I was going to bang Garrus since he's my bro... but that's just the thing. It just felt like I was letting a homie hit it. Who would have thought hitting on a dude as a dude feels gay?

One that comes to mind is Dishonored 2; I could play as Corvo again, but it makes more sense to me narratively for Emily to have her own journey and grow into becoming an empress.

Blink is way too fucking good to give up for a stupid ass leap power. Corvo all the way. Same for possession versus the shadow monster thing.

 

[Jace on ice]

While playing as a woman in games doesn't bother me in the slightest, it feels just a little gay to be romancing male characters.

Idk I know everyone on the right leaning side of the internet and this site in particular is utterly terrified of being a troon or being mistaken for a troon, or whatever but isn't that kind of the point of fiction? The immersion of experiencing another world and another existence through someone else's eyes?

Ngl if you can't do that it it strikes me as a lack of imagination or a lack of processing power.

I love me some Blood Meridian but guess what, I am not a rough riding scalper in real life.

 

[Asian tech support]

Blink is way too fucking good to give up for a stupid ass leap power. Corvo all the way. Same for possession versus the shadow monster thing.

I have a theory about Dishonored 2 and why Corvo functions and feels better to play than Emily.

Spoiler: autistic

Short version: all the groundwork was laid in the first game and it was easy to implement it almost as is. Arkane Lyon is the shit branch that can't make games and Dishonored 2 is their project.
Long version: while I can only speculate about its development, it wouldn't surprise me if either 1) Emily was conceived as a playable character later into development or 2) Corvo initially wasn't an option at all and 2a) was added due to either internal testing determined Emily was both less interesting a character and didn't play as well as Corvo did in D1, or 2b) someone high up at Arkane/Zenimax got cold feet at the prospect of only being able to play as Emily. I'm leading towards Corvo being added after Emily due to the conditions D2 was made under. Harvey Smith brought in Anita Sarkeesian as a consultant so it's no surprise that the game is full of mid 2010s leftoid nonsense and would be the trend going forward with Arkane. The game was build around these elements which included Emily as the sole protag until something forced their hand. That doesn't explain why Emily is worse though. That's harder to say for sure but again, it's likely due to some combination of Lyon being less in tune with direction of the first and what made it tick, and less talented designers working on the project.
It all becomes very apparent once you go into NG+ and experience a character with the complete power arsenal, only to realize you're mostly using Corvo's powers

 

[The Ugly One]

The immersion of experiencing another world and another existence through someone else's eyes?

Why would I want to see the world through a woman's eyes? I already know what it feels like to be irresponsible and retarded.

I kid.

But more seriously, I don't want to play a game where I have to find a husband and become a mother, where I'm too weak and fragile to directly impact the world and have to rely on social leverage to get men to do things for me that I can't do myself. Women in video games are almost never really women, they're male fantasies, like Lara Croft, or a mish-mash of retarded feminist tropes, like that ugly chick in the last Mass Effect game. I don't mind at all playing a female character in a game like the old Tomb Raider titles or Jade in Beyond Good & Evil, or whatever that chick's name was in Mirror's Edge. But it's a very shallow experience in terms of characterization.

I have zero interest in playing a lady fighter in Dragon Age and getting banged by a dwarf.

 

[Prophetic Spirit]

Always picking male MC 'cus of the chadness.

 

[NerdShamer]

Idk I know everyone on the right leaning side of the internet and this site in particular is utterly terrified of being a troon or being mistaken for a troon, or whatever but isn't that kind of the point of fiction? The immersion of experiencing another world and another existence through someone else's eyes?

That's mostly because it's usually presented as something for coomers or it's somewhat obnoxious with the writing for the times when it isn't presented as an option. Otherwise, it mostly depends on a individual basis, since Alien: Isolation is fairly good where shit like Horizon is mainly just woke politics being shoved into your face.

 

[Lurkerish Kandor]

Situations where I pick a female character over a male when both are available:

- It noticeably changes gameplay or story

- I'm on playthrough 10+ of an RPG and I'm starting to somewhat RP characters rather than just be 'myself, but game protagonist"


Examples for the former are rare, and the word "noticeable" is pulling a lot of weight:
People were talking about Dishonored 2 above, for me it would probably qualify since Emily gets a different moveset/gameplay to Corvo's.
I've been told FemShep's voice actress in Mass Effect gives a different enough performance (especially if going Renegade) that it's worth doing a female run at least once, even if the story itself doesnt really change.

Elden Ring is one of my few examples of the latter: I've done so many fucking playthroughs that I now RP characters as a way to decide what build I'm sticking to for this run and what order to explore things.

In games where basically everything is the same like The Eternal Castle, I just play as a Male. Skyrim is an obvious one, but I'd consider Oblivion and Morrowind to be similar as I don't think the starting Stat differences are enough (especially in the long run) to make it matter.

EDIT: I also just thought of the Mount & Blade games, but I don't know too much about deeper mechanics in those. As far as I'm aware, playing as a woman amounts to having a big debuff to your relations with NPCs and Lords. If that IS all it is, I really only perceive it as basically a 'challenge run', which in sandboxy games just means a long tedious process to get back to baseline stats and then it's just a normal run from there (read: Kenshi Torsolo runs that are just several days of grinding for artificial limbs, and then it's just a normal run with a long preamble).

 

[DeadwastePrime]

where shit like Horizon is mainly just woke politics being shoved into your face.

ah, so you havent played the game then

 

[NerdShamer]

ah, so you havent played the game then

Well, starting off with an isolationist tribe that's coincidentally led by women isn't exactly promising; especially if their leaders narrowly managed to avoid permanently exile you after you've saved them. The rest of the first one is mainly just aping ancient Roman politics with the occasional reminder that Faro was an idiot for not accounting for an runaway AI...And for trying to sabotage the Zero Dawn Project and eventually admitting to it.


But I've heard that the sequel was hot garbage for a different reason

 

[DeadwastePrime]

But I've heard that the sequel was hot garbage for a different reason

its honestly not that bad but it does have a pacing issue due to feeling kinda bloated

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

Idk I know everyone on the right leaning side of the internet and this site in particular is utterly terrified of being a troon or being mistaken for a troon, or whatever but isn't that kind of the point of fiction? The immersion of experiencing another world and another existence through someone else's eyes?

Better to be afraid of being mistaken for a troon and to think being one is good, so that still doesn't read as a very strong criticism of the right. But yeah, people are silly about playing as a girl, but why would anyone wanna see through the eyes of a troon?

Playing as a woman is fine generally, even if there's dating elements, but I certainly won't be enjoying those parts because they're uninteresting.

Ngl if you can't do that it it strikes me as a lack of imagination or a lack of processing power.

I love me some Blood Meridian but guess what, I am not a rough riding scalper in real life.

I don't think video game preferences are a strong indication of anything, least of all processing power.

ah, so you havent played the game then

Ah, so you're lying then.