I read a fair few gaming sites/forums, I have no problem believing that it’s 100% real.
Gamers be dickheads, yo (**/**selfawareness!)
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And here i was thinking overwatch was cartoony quake 3.
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Nah, it’s too fun to be Quake 3.
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UT 4 EVA!
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This post is a long-running variation on a 4chan in joke, and this specific template is based on a strain that made the rounds as posted by a fictional Bernie supporter during the primary season - so almost certainly satire and not serious.
To the points being raised: as socially awkward man in my 20s, I remember feeling very oddly personal connections to female characters in games. I suspect this was because it simulated human contact that I was not finding in my own personal life - specifically, making eye contact with someone I found attractive. I can’t imagine raging about it online, however.
Presumably, a lot of young men that have a significant portion of their identity invested claiming masculinity as a trait and/or feel a sense of entitlement in human relationships. I would offer this article on Lara Croft Syndrome and men that upload the likenesses of their ex-girlfriends into video games as a coping mechanism when the relationship ends. And yes, that’s just as creepy as it sounds.
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This comment thread…
Poe’s Law all the way down.
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Hilariously… I never read that as a male fan…
Perhaps I spend far too much time on Tumblr, where it skews female, but I just assumed the posted was female… inneresting.
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Thanks for the link to the Lara Croft Syndrome article. A while ago there was an article that talked about that and concluded that men play female characters because they like to look at butts, which I just couldn’t swallow. I mean, certainly some are, but there’s no way that’s the only reason and I find it hard to believe it’s the majority. I liked that this article recognized that you can’t just poll men on this too - they might not know, and if they know there is a good chance they won’t say.
I was thinking a lot about this. I formerly thought of myself as a man who played female characters all the time. I don’t identify as a man anymore, but I sure play characters who don’t have bodies that look like mine.
The language that gamers use to talk about their actions in a game is usually first person. If you are describing Super Mario Bros. you don’t say, “Then Mario got fireworks, which added like 3 seconds to my time” you say, “Then I got fireworks, which added like 3 seconds to my time.”
When you are playing a squad tactics game of course it does become third person because it has to. You start talking about character names or roles because there is no “I”, the “I” is the observer. Still, I feel like there is a huge range of ways that people interact with the characters. I’d assume most XCOM players regard the characters the same way you would regard a game piece in a board game. But somewhere out there is someone playing it and investing each character with a personality - even making different moves depending on which character is the one making the decision and whether they are personally bold or cautious or whatever.
Either way, the language is just a clue.
To the extent that a man plays with woman-shaped toys by putting himself in the character of those toys, I think that shows/builds empathy. To the extent that a man plays with woman-shaped toys to watch things happen to woman-shaped bodies it shows a lack of empathy. To the extent that latter kind of play is to watch harm come to those woman-shaped bodies, it shows misogyny or misanthropy.
So the story of the guy who made all his ex-girlfriends to play XCOM and felt attached to them because they looked like people he’d known and cared about was working through his emotions and maybe finding some empathy by doing so (even though it’s creepy), whereas the guy who said he hopes people download his mod that adds his ex as a marriable companion in Skyrim and sacrifice her to a Daedric Prince comes across as a misogynist (realizing that all I know about either of them is a few sentences I read about them).
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O/T I was so pissed off that I couldn’t sacrifice Cicero. In the end I had to go with the guy that kept telling me how much he fancied my wife instead.
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Well, since the topic is General Gaming Chit-Chat I think you’re well within the limit. I never tried to sac Cicero. To be honest, I think I only did that quest once when I was trying to finish the achievements on Steam. I believe I sac’d the follower unfortunate enough to be the first man that appeared on a wiki list of followers after telling Lydia to wait for me at home (too bad she couldn’t come, I’m sure she’s just as much of a man hater as me).
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Er, I’d say that’s 90% true. The male gaze is a hell of a drug. I don’t even want to look most of the time but I can’t help myself. Thanks testosterone!
Yeah, but the vast majority of men choose male avatars. I don’t think the minority choosing female avatars represents those with such hyper sex drives that they can’t stand to not look at a woman’s body long enough to get through Fallout 4. I think those men are more likely to pick male avatars and pursue romance with female NPCs if they are inclined to bring sex into the game. (This is based on my rigourous study two data points.)
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I’ll always choose female avs. Can’t say I’ve ever really got horny about them. The real reasons break down somewhat more complicated but include gameplay, options, representation and mostly trying to find something as far away from the default hyper-muscled white dude as possible. Because that’s just so dull and played out.
But then I’ve spent more time inside the plastic surgeon messing about the customization than I did actually playing Saints Row, so, edge case. 
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Yeah, as a male-bodied female-avatar player I have to say I’ve never been like, “dat ass 'tho!” when I was playing. I actually like playing dress-up with my dolls.
I know there are mods for skyrim that make women nude. I wonder whether the majority of men who download those mods play as a nude woman or play as a man in a world filled with nude women.
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Like this (which I’m as guilty of as anybody):
I’ve always been partial to playing female characters in games where I’m given a choice. I think this is because many times where there is a selectable gender (especially in fighting games) I’m just more partial to the characteristics of female characters (sacrifice raw power for being fast and nimble as an example). Beyond that I like playing as female characters given the choice just because I simply find them more interesting to play – even if there’s zero gameplay difference.
Maybe part of it is the “I’d rather look at a female” but I’d say a bigger part is I’d rather not look at and listen to yet another “white muscular grizzled space marine” if I am given the choice.
I guess it’s no coincidence that one of my favorite games of all time, Phantasy Star was one of the first video games to have a female protagonist (and I later learned was written and designed by a female as well).
The Saints Row series did a wonderful job with this giving you a huge toolbox to create a character just about any way you would like – from the mundane to fantastical. You could change your character’s appearance and gender pretty much any time you want, you could choose from multiple voice actors, and you weren’t restricted by character gender for which VA you wanted to use. You could wear any clothing you wanted, too. It even encouraged you to try different genders by giving you an achievement/trophy for playing a certain amount of hours as both. Jim Sterling touched on the irony of how a game like Saints Row (which definitely earns its M rating) could somehow be one of the most inclusive games out there.
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Oooh, new Terry Cavanagh game!
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I’m in the “choose a character by the voice” camp, so I tend to play a variety. For some reason Diablo 3 is what I keep thinking of where I played a female barbarian and male monk for that reason. In a game like Terraria I just play something randomized; in fact I love randomizers in games. More need them.
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Ick.
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