About one out of three men prefer playing female characters. Rethinking the importance of female protagonists in video games.
quanticfoundry.com
Survey data on player gender and character gender preference.

Well, as a guy, I’ve been asked multiple times why I systematically play games female characters in video games, to the point of skipping a game if I’m forced to pay a male one, with a few exceptions (I really liked Albus from Troubleshooters for example). Whenever there’s romance in a game, I’ll also take the F/F route. Yet, I don’t think I fetishize those in general. There’s a thing about not liking most M characters in games, but also something about playing someone really different from who I am. We’ve had an interesting conversation about this with my gf who always plays F characters and woyd never play M.

Although I’m a straight guy, I’ve always more identified to female friends and characters, although I have a few male friends too. So I’m wondering who else does that (playing a character not matching your gender), and if you found your own explanation.

Edit : It’s not really an oversexualization drive for me, I try to play a female character that looks like me, even though I’ve never thought about actually becoming a woman.

Edit 2 : So far, I think we have, hmm…

  1. Playing someone that differs from one’s irl identity
  2. Physical Attractivity
  3. Male character writing and design
  4. Lara Croft effect
  5. Lady Dwarf
      • RoosterBoy@lemm.eeEnglish
        82·
        9 months ago

        Because the game designers went out of their way to give the female character model a nice ass.

    • Avg@lemm.eeEnglish
      2241·
      9 months ago

      It’s ok to say you like playing as the opposite gender without fear of anyone thinking you’re gay, you don’t have to objectify women to make a point.

      • grue@lemmy.worldEnglish
        132·
        9 months ago

        The point is that the difference between 1st person view and 3rd person view matters.

      • RatherBeMTB@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        84·
        9 months ago

        I also like to play woman characters in games, tomb raider being my favorite one. And it’s because I don’t like to watch a guy’s ass the whole time! I’m playing Cyberpunk right now and I chose a female character for exactly the same reason.

            • Jakeroxs@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
              2·
              9 months ago

              I disagree, in most 3rd person games I’m hardly ever looking at my character model, but I don’t usually play games with a lot of downtime like MMOs I suppose.

              Still though when I’m running around a dungeon in Elden Ring, in not staring at my characters ass, I’m looking at the dungeon/monsters/next thing I’m doing. It’s kind of like a nose, it’s always there and you can see it, but it’s rarely the focus.

          • GBU_28@lemm.eeEnglish
            21·
            9 months ago

            In a game like WoW your character is dead center of the screen for hundreds of hours. You didn’t a lot of time looking at your character’s movements

          • Honytawk@lemmy.zipEnglish
            12·
            9 months ago

            Try playing a game in third person with an invisible character then