Who projects themselves onto video game characters?

[str00dle]

I don't, but i'm interested to know how many people do since this is basically about lack of representation in video games.

[Alpherior]

I wish there was another way of saying this (because it's going to make me sound like a ♥♥♥♥) but it's starting to seem like some people just don't actually understand how to go about 'being' a character or playing as one.

I hate to say that people are "doing videogames wrong" and honestly, it's not even a problem that people want to associate themselves with or be/be inside a character (as I commonly do), but it's when someone says that they 'can't' because the character is the wrong sex, or gender, or skin colour. If those things get in the way of you doing this, you're probably doing it wrong. You're probably having a different expectation and idea of what it means to 'be' a character. I can 'be' the purple octopus on my screen, I 'am' that purple octopus, yet some people can't break through this invisible boundary of the character being.... The wrong... colour...?

tl;dr If you're going to 'become' or 'go inside' a character it should be expected that it is still an extension of yourself. How much point is there even to 'become' a character if it requires it be so similar to who you already are?

[Defiant]

Sometimes I project myself onto a game character and make the same choices I would make if I were in the game, sometimes I like to better relate to a character and sometimes I like to play as something completely different from myself.

Having diverse representations available in gaming is a plus to gaming.

[str00dle]

Originally posted by Alpherior:

I wish there was another way of saying this (because it's going to make me sound like a ♥♥♥♥) but it's starting to seem like some people just don't actually understand how to go about 'being' a character or playing as one.

I hate to say that people are "doing videogames wrong" and honestly, it's not even a problem that people want to associate themselves with or be/be inside a character (as I commonly do), but it's when someone says that they 'can't' because the character is the wrong sex, or gender, or skin colour. If those things get in the way of you doing this, you're probably doing it wrong. You're probably having a different expectation and idea of what it means to 'be' a character. I can 'be' the purple octopus on my screen, I 'am' that purple octopus, yet some people can't break through this invisible boundary of the character being.... The wrong... colour...?

tl;dr If you're going to 'become' or 'go inside' a character it should be expected that it is still an extension of yourself. How much point is there even to 'become' a character if it requires it be so similar to who you already are?

i feel the same. to be honest, i'd rather have characters i don't relate to if it means i'm not going to be locked in an echo chamber the whole time. i think diversity is important not for the sake of representation for the user, but for unique stories and characters - if a game comes out that you find interesting and you suddenly lose interest when you find out you can only play as a straight dude instead of a gay one, you probably weren't interested enough in the first place.

[Alpherior]

Originally posted by Defiant:

Sometimes I project myself onto a game character and make the same choices I would make if I were in the game, sometimes I like to better relate to a character and sometimes I like to play as something completely different from myself.

Having diverse representations available in gaming is a plus to gaming.

I commonly do the same, for instance, It's near-impossible for me to make moral decisions in a game that are the "unempathetic douche" choices because of this...

Yet, that's really how I'm projecting myself, isn't it? My agency over, say, moral choices. I make the choices I would make, but I'm still inside the body of, I dunno, the red frog on a unicycle. Me being a red frog on a unicycle has no hinderance on my ability to make the choices I would make, nor do I have difficulty becoming that frog because it never needed to already BE 'me' in the first place.

Having diverse representations available in gaming is a plus to gaming in the same way that having Ferrari models in a racing game is a plus to its car variety -- This is less of a social/inclusion matter and more of a content variety topic. Why would you not want more variety?

[str00dle]

Originally posted by Defiant:

Sometimes I project myself onto a game character and make the same choices I would make if I were in the game, sometimes I like to better relate to a character and sometimes I like to play as something completely different from myself.

Having diverse representations available in gaming is a plus to gaming.

completely agree, so long as it isn't forced onto developers and that the characters are well-written.

[Grizeus]

Most black gamers will find themselves always having to play in the perspective of a white person. Sometimes that perspective is not one that they can instantly relate to. It can create some emotional distance. I feel just as distant from a protagonist like Deadpool or Duke Nukem. I can't relate at all to how they treat women, so at a certain point, I lose a lot of interest in what happens to the character. Having a variety of characters that different people can more easily relate to can really invest the player more in the character.

[Rampy470]

The concept of projecting yourself onto a game character (especially the player character) has been around for almost as long as video games have.

Hell, it's been stated many times that the reason Doomguy was silent was that he was supposed to represent the player.

Also, thank you for starting one of the few threads on here that's actually meant to start a good discussion and isn't "OMG LE TUMBLR SJWS R TAKIN OVAR STEM"

[Defiant]

Yes, it goes back to some of the very first text adventure games of old, where the player is referenced in a generic second person (eg, "You are standing at the end of a road before a small brick building") right up to modern games where you can make you can make your avatar look like you.

[strask]

I like playing with diverse characters. So my characters, when I get to customize them, are a mix of genders and looks and so on. But I am less diverse in the way I play my characters -- I have basically two modes of operation.

1) I project myself into the character by making all the same choices and decisions I would make if I were in the character's shoes. This is what I do most of the time, especially on first playthroughs. So maybe I play mass effect as a shepard who looks completely different than myself, but I tend to play paragon.

or

2) I go into role-playing mode, and try to play the character in a way that represents a personality other than my own. Usually this is for the purpose of seeing how the game experience or story changes depending on decisions. So maybe I play mass effect as "♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ shepard" just to see the funny moments when they punch people out of the blue, or the consequences of killing wrex on virmire, or whatever.

[str00dle]

i'm glad this is all good and civil, no arguments and such. i'd say we got a good variety of different voices and view points in this thread and it really does show how everyone plays games differently.
i'd like to ask you guys what games you think are good in regards to your previous answers - what games are good at allowing character projection, has a variety of different characters to relate to, or even characters you thought were just so well-written you didn't mind about the lack of relation.

[MuirDragonne]

Originally posted by str00dle:

I don't, but i'm interested to know how many people do since this is basically about lack of representation in video games.

Have you never tried to make a playable character in a game resemble you as closely as possible? Games like Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Dragon Age, and the Sims (just to name a few) all allow this.

It makes sense that if you can make your character resemble you physically, that you would also like for it to reflect other things about you such as your personality and sexuality.

[str00dle]

Originally posted by Muir:

Originally posted by str00dle:

I don't, but i'm interested to know how many people do since this is basically about lack of representation in video games.

Have you never tried to make a playable character in a game resemble you as closely as possible? Games like Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Dragon Age, and the Sims (just to name a few) all allow this.

It makes sense that if you can make your character resemble you physically, that you would also like for it to reflect other things about you such as your personality and sexuality.

believe it or not i don't, however the choices i make are what i feel is morally correct or incorrect depending on if i'm trying to be a good or bad. i tend to use video games to escape reality, to see and experience new things i usually wouldn't.

[strask]

Originally posted by str00dle:

i'd like to ask you guys what games you think are good in regards to your previous answers - what games are good at allowing character projection, has a variety of different characters to relate to, or even characters you thought were just so well-written you didn't mind about the lack of relation.

Fallout 1 and 2 were pretty decent, no character appearance customization beyond male or female but wide open choices all around -- you could play good guy or bad guy, or randomly good and bad, or whatever. And there were romantic options of both genders (at least in one of them) regardless of which gender you played as.

Some games don't have much of a story / role playing element, and combined with decent appearance customization allow for good projection... example of this would be 7 days to die. Sometimes I make different characters and try to assign them personalities and role play in various ways, but most of the time I just play as myself, more or less. I always mix up the appearance of my characters, but there is one person I play with who goes to great pains to make their character look almost exactly like they do in real life.

For so-well-written-you-don't-care, I would have to go with Mass Effect (specifically FemShep, even though 99% of the dialog is the same as MaleShep, because I can't stand the voice acting for MaleShep).

And one of my all time favorite games that allowed limited appearance customization but very good character projection, was Knights of the Old Republic. I don't want to go too far into that one though, for fear of spoiling it for someone who hasn't played it yet.