Why do many males play as female characters?

This is an honest question and I may get flamed after pointing out my hypothetical opinion on the subject, but why do males play female characters? I am leaning towards being somewhat brainwashed from the liberal agenda, the demasculinization of men. Many of the people I have talked to seem to be liberals, anti-gun, etc. Wouldn't the equivalent of playing a female character today be the same as a boy playing with barbies in the 80's? I mean to offend noone, just trying to understand.

When I was little, I wanted to be Rambo and he-man and terminator. In a game I want to be the rough looking badass looking super soldier looking guy. Now for FPS games I see why people do it, because it seems to make the character smaller, therefore harder to hit, but that doesn't explain it in games like WOW, etc. Is there something psychological behind it? I have no problems with people who do, whatever floats your boat.Cheers!


Pcg

the reasoning i always heard was "if im gonna be staring at this character for hours on end i wanna at least look at a sexy lady" lol i always pick male because thats what i am and it helps the immersion.

a reply to: pcgamer11
Well I can't deny playing with beautiful Lara croft , tomb raider on the xbox one and seeing that cute butt wiggle, that it would be nice thinking that if my wife had this posture and kick ass character I would marry her a second time in a row..

not that my wife aint cute , but ya men know what I mean

a reply to: pcgamer11

To give a false sense of security to the opponent. And they are closeted crossdressers.

originally posted by: Rabb420
the reasoning i always heard was "if im gonna be staring at this character for hours on end i wanna at least look at a sexy lady" lol i always pick male because thats what i am and it helps the immersion.

Lol yea I have heard that one too in my searches.

Pcg

My husband plays male & female characters, but prefers female ones because they have a wider array of customizations (clothes, hair, makeup,etc) Having played both genders in multiple games myself, I agree -- male customization is often severely limited. I.e, not much fun to tailor.

a reply to: pcgamer11

Because in a lot of games the woman characters can dress up in some damn sexy armor.




And that's the truth.

Most games i play are 3dr person view and i enjoy more seeing a female ass than a male one

Having been playing games for decades, generally a female character is better, if you're playing a 3rd person i'll prefer to be staring at a female butt for hours rather than some blokes thank you very much.

a reply to: pcgamer11

Do you by chance play destiny?
I notice it there more than anywhere else combined.

If not, there's 3 main classes. Titan, Hunter, AMD Warlock. I see lady hunters almost exclusively. The first time I saw a male I said, "WTF is that?!" Not realizing EVERYONE uses the female version. I see a LOT of she Titans lately too.

I have no idea why, everyone just seems to say, "Idk I just felt like making a girl". In a game where not once do you see more than the face. Your character is always in their armor.

But, at any rate, you're definitely not the only person that's noticed. Maybe they are all brainwashed.

All my characters have always been male.

as a girl, i play a lot of games with male and female characters. i play a lot of male characters. i pick the characters that have the coolest back story or the best strategic edge basedon my playing strategy. it's like reading a book with a male or female protagonist. who cares? so what if u play a female character in a game like resident evil? it's still a male type of game. be more curious about the guy playing candy crush or littlest pet shop. even still, i wouldn't be TOO worried about him either. i like civilization type games and i'm ok. i think if you're willing to do some things outside gender norms without worrying that it compromises your gender identity in some way, actually it's a sign you're healthier and more well adjusted than the guy who's afraid to play the princess in mario cart cuz someone might think he's gay. (there's a princess in mario cart, right? i SUCK at all driving games so i don't play them.... insert female driving stereotype here....)

I don't think you have to make up a deep psychological reason, OP. I have 12 characters on SWTOR and I think 3 or 4 of them are female. I name the characters after family members, so if the family member is female, so is the character. I even include my cats, but both of them are male. Females get a better choice of clothing. My grandson plays many female characters, and he says it's because other players give him stuff. But since he plays with full helmets on and big armor suits you can't hardly tell anyway.

Besides, your data is anecdotal. No one really knows since the studios don't release those kind of statistics. So you're in the position of making up data and then making up a reason to explain your made-up data, a Straw Man all the way around.

a reply to: pcgamer11

Many of the people I have talked to seem to be liberals, anti-gun, etc.

What games are you playing?

originally posted by: pcgamer11
This is an honest question and I may get flamed after pointing out my hypothetical opinion on the subject, but why do males play female characters? I am leaning towards being somewhat brainwashed from the liberal agenda, the demasculinization of men. Many of the people I have talked to seem to be liberals, anti-gun, etc. Wouldn't the equivalent of playing a female character today be the same as a boy playing with barbies in the 80's? I mean to offend noone, just trying to understand.

When I was little, I wanted to be Rambo and he-man and terminator. In a game I want to be the rough looking badass looking super soldier looking guy. Now for FPS games I see why people do it, because it seems to make the character smaller, therefore harder to hit, but that doesn't explain it in games like WOW, etc. Is there something psychological behind it? I have no problems with people who do, whatever floats your boat.Cheers!


Pcg

In reality, more women are going into combat positions in the military and work side by side with men. With their bulky uniform on with all the gear, there's no shape of the ass or bossom to make out if your female comrade is in front of you or beside you. Also, you know your in the real deal, not in some game with your soda or coffee beside you.

Turning killing into general entertainment and to pass time comandeering overtly sexualized humanoid cartoon like characters isn't really normal but normal to the newly emerging adult and middle aged adult generations.

This all leads to a deeper question as to why play these games in the first place and the psychology behind people actually enjoying and looking forward to doing so.

As a general rule kids play with dolls and barbies. Not adults. And kids use their imagination when they do. In all these games adults play, there is nothing to imagine and rules have been picked for you. At any given time of the day, literally hundreds of thousands of people are engeged in conflict online using weaponry or playing mindless candy crush games like spaced out rhesus monkeys hungry for shiny blinking treats. Terrorist hide out and communicate on the online live games making threatening talk extremely difficult to track because it's part of the game.

Ask youself why you have to be someone else and not you and shoot. Because the evil agenda has manifested to no one recieving rewards in real time from their employer, if they are lucky enough to be employed, or rewarded at home, as in spending time with a family member your rewarded with a smile vs save the world in a video game you get a concert and boasting points among other live players, litterally thousands of real people. So that one smile that was once so meaningful is nothing any more in comparison.. Compliments are few in these days in real time face to face human interactions. Goals minimal due to standard goals everyone used to have, now unobtainable to most. Face to face social awkwardness is common and people feel at home on the internet or gaming.

So many cry for you all because you don't see what is coming. It's terrible. Stop playing. Spread the word.

It's simply natural. All of us are female during the first sixty days as an embryo so you're just going back to your roots. It's why men have nipples.

www.livescience.com...

Really it began as a way for people to get "free stuff" like so many others. I remember in the early days of MMORPGs like Meridian 59 and Ultima Online all the way to EverQuest and the current batch how people would use female characters to get preferential treatment and free loot. Preying on the naive computer virgins. If I recall EverQuest was the beginning of the term "Mangina" to describe men playing female characters. I am sure there are plenty that do it based on aesthetics and other reasons but originally it was a sort of scam in the online communities.

ETA: Limited character models also played a role. In a lot of early online games everyone looked the same and the bulk of the playerbase were male leading some to go with females to avoid looking like everyone else. It was a major gripe when we had games as advanced as WoW and all of the armor sets began to look identical.

a reply to: pcgamer11

As a woman, it sort of depends on how deep the immersion and story is.

With a BioWare style game, the protagonist I tend to play first winds up being the gender I stick with because it just seems "wrong" after that to play with any other gender, so I play female which is what I am in RL. I tried playing a Sheploo (male) after playing femShep in Mass Effect, and it just seemed "wrong." I identified the story as having a female protagonist by then, so playing with a male seemed off.

In a Sims game, I can play with Sims of either gender and any sexual orientation. I am on the outside watching them.

When I was playing City of Heroes (MMO), I would up playing mainly female 'toons, but I did have a few males in my stable, including one of my two "mains" - my fire/ice blaster Tempered Flare. Again, I could role-play Flare's personality and he had his own story, but I didn't identify with him or with my other 'toons nearly as closely as I identify with the singular story protags in BioWare games (and RPG singleplayer protags in other games).

So for me, what gender assortment I play tends to depend on what kind of game it is and what kind of immersion I personally have and how the game is structured around the character.

a reply to: pcgamer11

Free loot.

a reply to: NihilistSanta

Those damn wood elves in EQ.

originally posted by: pcgamer11
but that doesn't explain it in games like WOW

I never played a female character (except for my bank toon), but it's much easier to be accepted into groups or make gaming friends when people think you're a female... Simple as that. There's sometimes a huge difference to how you're treated in-game between the perception of male or female player.