Character Customization

[Guest EmmaPark94]

Anyone here play any games with character cuztomization? (For example, the Fallout series, Skyrim, etc.)

I love having that option, I usually choose to play female, but. I want to know, do you typically choose your desired sex, do you make the character look like you, or an idealized version of yourself? I dunno... Anyway, I thought I'd get the ball rolling, so. Leave your thoughts here! :3

[Guest LauraJen]

Unfortunately I don't really have time for games anymore sadly but I always used to enjoy playing as female characters in the Pokemon games, the crystal version onwards. The role playing aspect helped me through some otherwise dark and lonely times, actually. They didn't really have any way of allowing you to change the appearance of the characters, but you could at least choose the gender and the name, which was good enough for me,

[Guest sally-jane]

im the same i play as a female toon in most of the games i play the best game for customization is apb reloaded it has the highest customization of any game i have played so far

[JJ]

Somehow I have not been gaming since I started transition though it was once a big part of my life. I only played male characters. I felt like I should play female before I understood exactly why and who I am but I always dropped those characters. Just could not get into them or enjoy them.

My daughter told me when I told her I was trans and explained it that she had always wondered why i always gamed male. Just as she had wondered why the protagonist in a book I was writing was male. It had never occurred to me to make him female. And she had been uncomfortable about asking or saying anything. That surprised me too because we have a very open relationship.

Funny the way we express this even before we understand what it really is

Johnny

[Guest Sarausa]

That's an interesting question... I always tended to avoid female characters because of this uncomfortable 'forbidden' feeling i associated everything feminine with. But it's true i enjoyed far more playing female characters in video games, when the choice wasn't the player's (Tomb Raider is just one example) ; and one female character in Skyrim, with the excuse of 'trying all sorts of characters', wich was by far my favorite. Now that i came to terms with my gender identity, i don't have time anymore to play as much as i used to, such a shame... I have a girl minecraft skin, though

[Guest]

I played WoW and EQ for several years and always rolled male toons. I didn't really even know why until I was older. I've just never been able to stick with a female character. Except the Sims, and that's only because I'm six people, a cat, and two dogs.

[Guest actuarylilium]

For me personally, it's always been more about the individual characters, their personalities and whether or not I "get them" than it is about their gender. For example, I'm not a huge fan of either Lara Croft or Link (from Zelda) - at least not enough of a fan to overcome linearity.

In games where I've had a choice (eg. Mass Effect, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic), I've always played a mixture of both. I like getting to play the game from both perspectives. Whilst I've almost certainly played more Male characters overall, I've played a significant number of female characters too. I certainly played many females in KOTOR (I love that game, played it to death and beyond), and am currently playing my first Female play-through of the Mass Effect series (near the end of the 2nd game). It is going really well, I'm enjoying so much seeing the other side. In addition, whilst I really liked the Male Shepard voice actor (Mark Meer), Jennifer Hale sounds so natural voicing the Female Shepard. Particularly when Shepard is being evil or sarcastic

PS. I don't outright hate linear games: I'm not a fan of Skyrim (but loved Oblivion) either. And Final Fantasy is amongst my favourite games of all time. It's just my tastes have changed a bit, and it takes alot from me to like linear games now

[Guest CelesteSky]

I normally play RPGs and if there is no customization option it usually doesn't sit well with me because I can't get into the role

my favorite customizations are in mabinogi, PSO 2, and then any of the elder scrolls titles especially if you have a few mods installed ^^

if you really want a crazy character creator to play with you can check out this game black desert

I'm not sure what countries it is available in but the video is nice

Edited June 10, 2014 by MaryEllen
Non-transgender video removed per rule 26 of the site Terms and Conditions

[Guest Nick]

Most of the time I'll choose the male option and make the character look like how I wish I did, but I'll occasionally choose the female option. Usually because I don't the customization options for the guy...

[Guest jtgasv]

i love online games with a lot of character customization. and fashion. fashion > function, any day of the week. can never have too many free in game outfits. is where i can express myself with a degree of anonymity and can be myself without worrying what anyone else thinks. dont play games much anymore though.

[Guest Rei]

i play a mix of female and male characters. my favourite games include dragon age, mass effect and skyrim and i've played both. my canon characters are:

DA:O - fem cousland x alistair

DA2 - m!mage hawke x anders

ME - fem shepard x kaidan (and m!shep x kaidan)

and i'm currently playing skyrim with a male dragonborn and married to argis 8D

i don't know what i'm gonna play yet in DA:I, although i'm leaning towards rolling a female inquisitor for my blind playthrough just so i can romance sera (i think she's gorgeous). i don't know who my canon inquisitor will be though.

in mmos, i played mostly female characters, but mainly because i preferred the female armour and outfits over the male ones.

[Guest abigus]

I love games with character customization. I can spend WAY too much time just in character creation because of that xD I like making a variety of characters, but usually I'll go for an idealized verion of myself (red haired, as I've always wanted). While I prefer playing female characters (I too prefer the female outfits), it would be nice to be able to play a game where I could play both genders without having to build two seperate characters (actually... I don't know if any of you are familiar with the Smash Brothers games? Zelda is an example, because she has both female and male forms). I guess that's off topic though xD Saints Row 2 doesn't really have a gender option, but a slider bar... and you choose your voice separately, so you could be a male with a female voice, vice-versa, or something in between. And I agree with the fashion part. I feel like a stereo-typical girl when it comes to clothing lol. Games are one of the few times and places where I can express that part of myself.

[Guest]

Depends on the game. I sometimes just make the coolest looking person in a guy then make the coolest looking girl character. But I usually just make my character a chick who looks like me. Haven't played a game with custom characters in awhile. Maybe now I'll switch it up.

Interesting thought!

[StephanieVikingGirl]

Yep, I started playing some female characters in High School "D & D" sessions, later on in College I mostly played female characters in "Call of Cthuhlu" games. When computer RPGs with good character optimization came about, I always played female characters. The fallout series, elder scrolls series, afraid of the dark series, no one lives forever, etc,. These tendencies were duly noted by my old college friends, and they mentioned it when I "came out" to them this year. It kinda made it easier for me knowing that it might have been noticed (I know that I have sharp, perceptive friends). In fact, despite my nickname of "the Viking" and some macho things that I accomplished over the years, no one was shocked when I admitted that I was trans.

Stephanie

[Guest Janice24]

To be honest it's complicated, or at least was. My history has always been a mix of playing male and female characters in games. For instance in Mario Kart I always loved playing both Luigi and Peach; to this day they are my #1 and #3 favorite characters in that series (Princess Daisy is #2). In Super Smash Bros. Melee I instantly picked up Peach and always played her (I didn't own the game, but played her when I would play with friends). In other fighting games I loved playing fast, smooth female characters over slow, strong male characters (great examples are Sophitia and Xianghua in Soul Caliber II). I loved playing Perfect Dark on the N64 and would always play a girl in multiplayer. In MMORPGs like City of Heroes I would spend hours making both male and female characters.

Problem was that in all of these cases I was terrified of playing the female characters even when I did so. I was drawn to them but most of the time I had no idea why because I didn't identify as transgender until my early 20's. I was terrified of being seen as girly or gay or any other sign of rejection.

Once I identified as transgender (Crossdresser specifically) I became a lot less stressed out about playing female characters. Funny thing is that after that day that I realized that nobody really cared about what gender your avatar was online; in fact a lot of guys had female avatars for many reasons (some perverted, some just because the male models were that bad). I still played a male character primarily (my main character in World of Warcraft was a male priest) but a lot of my alts were female.

Nowadays I struggle to not play a female character when I can. I play male sometimes just to keep up appearances, but my primary character is always female now. It's not like I act different or anything, but for some reason it just feels as natural as can be. Funny thing is sometimes I don't even need an excuse; either the game has predefined characters (League of Legends) or playing a female is actually better (Fire Emblem: Awakening). I don't play MMORPGs anymore due to time constraints and my laptop's poor power, but if I return my main is definitely going to be female.

Oh yeah and I'm super excited about the large influx of female characters in the new Smash Bros. I really have to get that game for my 3DS.

[Guest Ashlyn M]

Oh my gosh yes! Usually, when I get the option to do so, I make my characters female. I was worried about it at first when I played the games in front of others but now I can do it whenever. In fact, a few months ago I was gonna start Skyrim over again and make another female Nord but I couldn't find it sadly.

[Guest piinyouri]

I'm an alt-oholic.
I love character creation so much that I almost always have 2-3 of each race/class, if they are different enough.