Just wanted to ramble about a couple of things I've thought back on and noticed recently. Looking back at some of the things I've done before and after I knew I wanted to be a girl, I've noticed some interesting stuff. When I was a kid, me and my friend would play pretend, as most kids do, and often I would be a female. I would never really know why I wanted to be a girl, I just kinda wanted to be. And I would always feel slightly weird about pretending to be a male character. More recently, even before I knew I wanted to be a girl, in games with character customization I'd always be tempted to have female characters but then I'd be dissuaded because it was a bit weird for a guy to have female game characters. At one point I think I had a Pokemon Sapphire save as a girl. Playing Overwatch, I've really gravitated towards playing female heroes. All but one of the characters I regularly play are women (Tracer, Sombra, Soldier, D.Va, Zarya, Mercy and Ana if you're interested.) Maybe it's like a for of escapism? I can sort of pretend for a while that I am that female character? I dunno. Anyway, in general I've always had a pull towards female characters. In writing I've usually made my first-person character a girl and I like stories where the protagonist is a girl a lot more. So, is this something that you guy have noticed? A pull towards the gender that you were meant to be born in? Just thought it was interesting! Kim x
I think it's pretty common, most people pick characters or avatars based on either something they see in said character, or because they are attracted to them. I know MANY men that only pick females in... Everything. Female character in Pokemon, female heroes in Overwatch, female avatars in MMOs, female characters in fighting games, etcetera. Think it really boils down to just that, for some projection, for some attraction, and some a complex mix of both.
I definitely find this is true for myself. I always felt a little pull towards being a female character, even if I didn't allow myself to actually do it. It's like you said, it's a way for me to pretend I'm that character for a while. I get to actually be(if only virtually) my preferred gender for a bit.
(edited part of the post out, I realized I somehow answered to two threads at once... lol) For me, I've had similar experiences but not only such. I could relate to men sometimes too, or play such characters. Depends on context and why I did it.
I've done all of these things. Although I didn't avoid playing females in games in fear of being viewed as weird. I just went with it and if somebody asked, I just said that if I was spending tens of hours looking at an ass, it might as well be a female ass.
For me, the picking a male thing was mostly because, when I was younger, it was actually not as common for female toons to be available. Actually many games didn't let you select a character at all. As I got older going with the male was often just because I was used to seeing and playing male toons, but it did eventually wear off. I do remember picking the girl characters often in Mortal Combat and some other games that allowed it. I also had a slight bias toward Ms. Pacman as opposed to regular Pacman....lol
This seems to be very common for transfolk, but I also know plenty of cis (I assume) guys who usually choose female characters. I've usually gravitated towards female characters as well before I knew I was trans. They usually look cooler imo, especially in WoW which was my main game. I do play male characters now usually. Still think the girls usually look cooler though. Oh and I always looked playing Zelda/Sheik in melee.
Well of course a lot of cis guys play female characters and I don't think there is anything special about it. I mean, look at Tomb Raider. It only recently started being marketed towards a female audience as well, in how they gave the character more personality and appeal to women (at least it seems that way to me). Before the refer reboot of the series, it was a saga that mainly men played, just as men in general are a majority of action packed games players. And a side note is that I'm not saying here that Tomb Rider is/was sexist, it never was. But, these days the way the character is presented feels more appealing to identify with for a woman, at least from my perspective. So rambling aside, yeah, guys like to play female characters and mainly because they are attracted to them.
If I play a game, I usually play either male or female depending on what I want at the time. So, I have a couple of standard characters made up in both genders. I don't think it really matters, personally.
