Visit the Ironworks Gaming Website Email the Webmaster Graphics Library Rules and Regulations Help Support Ironworks Forum with a Donation to Keep us Online - We rely totally on Donations from members Donation goal Meter

Ironworks Gaming Radio

Ironworks Gaming Forum

Go Back   Ironworks Gaming Forum > Ironworks Gaming Forums > General Discussion > General Conversation Archives (11/2000 - 01/2005)

 
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old 08-20-2003, 11:43 PM   #11
Luvian
Ironworks Moderator
 

Join Date: June 27, 2001
Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Age: 42
Posts: 6,763
Quote:
Originally posted by Arledrian:
I can't understand why people would want to play their opposite gender when it comes to roleplaying, except for the odd once or twice out of curiosity. It's moulding my character into me that I enjoy most in CRPGS!

I'm actually quite thorough in this - I often roll ability scores to match how I think I'd personally measure up had I been born in Fae'run or Krynn, or what have you. I also go to the trouble of giving my character dark blond hair, and beige, white, blue or black clothes - the colours I like to wear myself. Also, I use my own photos as character portraits. I even think along the lines of "well let's see, I'm a big guy in real life, and I study geography and love nature in general, so I think I should play a ranger" - so that I even personalize my choice of class. My character is always called 'Alexander' as well [img]smile.gif[/img]

I suppose there are a lot of elements that come into this - perhaps insecurity, in that some people prefer not to play themselves because they aren't happy with who they are, but also there's the aspect of escapism - the fact that some people just want to break free and be a radically different person for a little while, if only in a video game.

Interesting topic, Cloudy [img]smile.gif[/img]
There is also the fact that if you play yourself, you are not playing a role, and so, you are not ROLEplaying. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

The goal of roleplaying game is to assume other identities. I've never ever played an rpg as myself, let alone a pen and paper one.
__________________
Once upon a time in Canada...
Luvian is offline  
Old 08-20-2003, 11:56 PM   #12
Gabrielles blades
Baaz Draconian
 

Join Date: April 26, 2002
Location: florida
Age: 42
Posts: 761
i play most of the time as female, and only play male to explore various romances only available for that gender (im a guy rl)
Reasoning...
in offline games
female portraits are typicaly far cooler looking
its easier to roleplay a fem personality for me
all of my favorite rolemodels are female so it kinda goes hand in hand to play as their gender.

in online games
the female form & equipment on said form is typically nicer looking or cuter than the male counterpart.
people in general are nicer to you
Gabrielles blades is offline  
Old 08-20-2003, 11:56 PM   #13
Cloudbringer
Ironworks Moderator
 

Join Date: March 1, 2001
Location: Upstate NY USA
Posts: 19,737
Well, Luvian, some people like to put 'themselves' into the new or different circumstances. I've never been a bhaalspawn, bard or sorcerer but I play a character similar to myself in my BG2 game- ie: she makes the decisions I'd probably make under those circumstances.

But then I also have played pc's differently from the way I'd answer/choose as well. I think everyone has their own style and reasons for doing things the way they do! In my case, my first pc's were alot like me because I was new to the idea of rp'ing, but I got used to it and am expanding to various classes and personalities for my pc's now.
__________________
"Don't take life for granted." Animal (may he rest in peace)
Cloudbringer is offline  
Old 08-21-2003, 12:16 AM   #14
Wolf Blade
Dungeon Master
 

Join Date: August 16, 2003
Location: Temptation Island
Age: 36
Posts: 78
Quote:
Originally posted by Gabrielles blades:
...
female portraits are typicaly far cooler looking...
I noticed that myself...

Anyways, I always play as a male, being a male myself- however, the only time I've EVER played as a female was in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo64- Samus- I thought "she" was really a guy!! I was so disappointed after hearing the news, but hey, samus is a good character, LOL
Wolf Blade is offline  
Old 08-21-2003, 12:21 AM   #15
Luvian
Ironworks Moderator
 

Join Date: June 27, 2001
Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Age: 42
Posts: 6,763
Quote:
Originally posted by Gabrielles blades:
female portraits are typicaly far cooler looking
Too true. Now that I think about it, it's one of the main reason I play female a lot more than male. The female portraits are almost always cooler. Just take a look at arcanum, there is only one decent male portrait in it.

It's especially true for portraits avaible on the net. Most male portraits are either "Conan like" almost naked warriors, or ugly "Elmisnter like" extremly old mage with a beard longer than he is tall. Female portraits are usually cooler and more varied.

Quote:
Originally posted by Cloudbringer:
Well, Luvian, some people like to put 'themselves' into the new or different circumstances. I've never been a bhaalspawn, bard or sorcerer but I play a character similar to myself in my BG2 game- ie: she makes the decisions I'd probably make under those circumstances.

But then I also have played pc's differently from the way I'd answer/choose as well. I think everyone has their own style and reasons for doing things the way they do! In my case, my first pc's were alot like me because I was new to the idea of rp'ing, but I got used to it and am expanding to various classes and personalities for my pc's now.
Most people that play as themselves take what happen to their character personally, so can't really play "fair". They usually want to take the most personally gratificating solution possible, and are prone to use metagame thinking, they just can't tell the difference between what they know (the player) and what they know (the character). It's possible to act as ourselves and still be a good and fair player, but most of the time, that kind of players are immature. That's what I've learned from personal experience, and so far, this stereotype has held true.

Here's a post I made about it in another sex change thread:

"I had a cousin that always thought the character he was playing was him. That was so damn anoying in Pen and Paper. Something bad would happen to his character, and he'd take it personal.

People who think of the character as an extension of themselves are not roleplayer at all...

It can be creepy, too. There's that guy I "know" who is a big Vampire: The Masquerade fan, and I'm sure he think he is really his character, you should see the way he act in real life, and he is always mumbling too, which make him look even more psycho. I was suposed to join his group once, but when I found out how he acted in real life, I changed my mind. I realy don't want to see how they play.

To get back on topic, in CRPG, 90% of the time I play as a female.
"
__________________
Once upon a time in Canada...
Luvian is offline  
Old 08-21-2003, 12:35 AM   #16
Aelia Jusa
Iron Throne Cult
 
Tetris Champion
Join Date: August 23, 2001
Location: Brisbane, Australia
Age: 42
Posts: 4,867
I usually play a female. Mostly because I am a female, and also partly because, as someone else said, the portraits are often nicer. I have though played a male character in BG2, but only so I could do the female romances since I liked to do a different romance each time I played. I found it quite interesting, although in that case I found I kind of 'related', in so far as I do, to the female members of the group rather than my male lead character.

When you get to make your own group, I usually choose a mix of characters, but with the 'main' person (like the one who talks to NPCs) as a female. I have sometimes made an all female party, but never an all male group. In that case mostly because I think picturing a group of guys going about adventuring would be so boring - they'd all grunt at each other and try and pick up tavern wenches and that'd be it! [img]graemlins/heee.gif[/img] With a mixed group you have all the sexual tension, and party members getting together... lol basically my games are just big romance novels with stats [img]graemlins/blush.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/biglaugh.gif[/img]
__________________
Aelia Jusa is offline  
Old 08-21-2003, 01:14 AM   #17
Cloudbringer
Ironworks Moderator
 

Join Date: March 1, 2001
Location: Upstate NY USA
Posts: 19,737
Oh I won't disagree that there are a lot of really great female portraits out there, but then it's mostly male artists for the genre! [img]graemlins/laugh2.gif[/img]

Luvian, I see what you're saying and I guess I can go along with that reasoning for the most part. I always tried to separate what my character was doing/saying from what I knew about the game when I played the online version of Pen and paper games.

Aelia, you're the first woman that's told me she created a male pc for BG2! I have heard many guys say they played a female part "for the romance" or just to try their hand at something 'different' or because they thought they would like to see how it was to be female in a game (some npc's react differently etc), but women don't seem to say the same about playing male characters, at least not in the same numbers.

I guess it just never occured to me to start a game with a male pc to try out the romances. I did play multiplay once where the host was a male playing a male pc (and he never played female characters) so I saw one of the romances from that perspective. I was beginning to wonder if it was one of those things the guys do more often than women do (play the opposite gender).
__________________
"Don't take life for granted." Animal (may he rest in peace)
Cloudbringer is offline  
Old 08-21-2003, 01:20 AM   #18
Cloudbringer
Ironworks Moderator
 

Join Date: March 1, 2001
Location: Upstate NY USA
Posts: 19,737
Quote:
Originally posted by Gabrielles blades:
i play most of the time as female, and only play male to explore various romances only available for that gender (im a guy rl)
Reasoning...
in offline games
female portraits are typicaly far cooler looking
its easier to roleplay a fem personality for me
all of my favorite rolemodels are female so it kinda goes hand in hand to play as their gender.

in online games
the female form & equipment on said form is typically nicer looking or cuter than the male counterpart.
people in general are nicer to you
This is where I get confused! Do you find it easier to play a female pc because it's nothing like yourself and you can pretty much do whatever comes to mind and it's 'in character'? Or do you try to relate to the rp world as a woman and play it very much in character from that perspective?

My fiance says he played female characters to do something different and because it was a 'stretch' to see if he could play a good one.

This brings up another really interesting question for those of you who play characters the opposite of your own gender. Do you play the characters differently? How do their actions or behavior differ from characters you play that are your own gender? I mean if you're a male playing a female, how do you play her? Does she do things differently from your male characters? Does she flirt with the bartenders or just bash and smash with the best of 'em? LOL

[ 08-21-2003, 01:21 AM: Message edited by: Cloudbringer ]
__________________
"Don't take life for granted." Animal (may he rest in peace)
Cloudbringer is offline  
Old 08-21-2003, 01:46 AM   #19
Luvian
Ironworks Moderator
 

Join Date: June 27, 2001
Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Age: 42
Posts: 6,763
Quote:
Originally posted by Cloudbringer:
This brings up another really interesting question for those of you who play characters the opposite of your own gender. Do you play the characters differently? How do their actions or behavior differ from characters you play that are your own gender? I mean if you're a male playing a female, how do you play her? Does she do things differently from your male characters? Does she flirt with the bartenders or just bash and smash with the best of 'em? LOL
It all depend on the character, there is a huge difference between a bitter and power driven mage, a daring swashbuckler, and a noble turned priest of Selune.
__________________
Once upon a time in Canada...
Luvian is offline  
Old 08-21-2003, 02:09 AM   #20
Cerek the Barbaric
Ma'at - Goddess of Truth & Justice
 

Join Date: October 29, 2001
Location: North Carolina
Age: 61
Posts: 3,257
Interesting topic, Cloudy, and some interesting answers so far too.

As for myself, I never created a female character when playing PnP - I always played a male. I did play just about every race (except of gnome), but my characters were always male. However, two of the best players in our group DID create at least one female character in their portfolio and these "ladies" were quite powerful.

In the CRPG world, I have created a female kensai that I plan to dual to a mage. I will play her after I FINALLY get Cerek and his crew into ToB and give my assassin a few more levels.

Why do I normally play male characters? Because it is easier for me to roleplay them. I guess I do view each character as an extension of myself - or at least one facet of my personality. I've roleplayed a barbarian, dwarven fighter, human cleric, halfling thief, half-elf ranger/cleric, a mage, and more than one ranger during my PnP days. Each character had their own, unique personality and that made it much easier to roleplay them in different situations. While none of them were representative of my own personality as a whole (although the rangers came the closest to my "real" personality), each one was representative of a different aspect of my personality and fantasies.

Ah.....I just remembered that I DID actually create a female character once, but didn't get to play her very much. She was a female mage, but was patterned after the witch character in Dragon magazine (#114 IIRC). I never got to roleplay her much as a character, but I later developed her as one of my best ever NPC villains for use in my campaign. I ended up playing her much more when I was the DM and I had a lot of fun with her.

Still, I predominantly play male characters simply because it is easier for me to envision how they would act or react in various situations.
__________________
[img]\"http://img.ranchoweb.com/images/cerek/cerektsrsig.jpg\" alt=\" - \" /><br />Cerek the Calmth
Cerek the Barbaric is offline  
 


Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is On

Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
EDIT] Gender,nature question sorab Baldurs Gate II: Shadows of Amn & Throne of Bhaal 12 05-05-2003 02:42 PM
Gender = ? eagle123 Baldurs Gate II: Shadows of Amn & Throne of Bhaal 1 06-10-2002 06:47 AM
Your Computer's Gender Jerome General Conversation Archives (11/2000 - 01/2005) 35 05-14-2002 10:19 PM
The Gender Gap at the ATM Arvon General Conversation Archives (11/2000 - 01/2005) 7 01-25-2002 10:12 PM
What Gender is Your Computer? Arvon General Conversation Archives (11/2000 - 01/2005) 12 10-30-2001 03:52 PM


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 06:00 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.3
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
©2024 Ironworks Gaming & ©2024 The Great Escape Studios TM - All Rights Reserved