If im a guy, is it weird to play as a female

[Psiberzerker]

With all due respect, I'm having a hard time seeing how I can play exactly the same thing I do in real life. I mean, in Skyrim, at some point I'm going to have to defend myself. In real life, I'm not capable of doing this. The best I could imagine is pepper spraying a bear and hoping the hell it backed off. I live in a world in which it's wiser to walk through the forest wearing freakin' bells than trying to sneak. If bandits attacked me, I'd give them ALL of my stuff and beg for my life. I have met very few political leaders, and not one of them has ever shown any interest in who I am or what I have to say. I have to budget my money because I can't just spend 10 minutes knocking gold out of a shallow mine or transmuting metal. I never go camping because I can't stand having to take a crap in the woods.

I don't see how playing a light skinned human female would in any way make my character like me at all. I'm a pacifist wimp with PTSD. I'd die in Helgen every time.

It doesn't matter what kind of character I pick in Skyrim, her experience will be absolutely nothing like my real life.

Of course not, but those were just examples. Guys get all insecure about playing females when there's just no need. Especially in Skyrim, where the girls can kick just as much ass as the guys. (Look at Delphine, she's a shrimpy little Breton girl, and she takes on Dragons solo. Next time you're in Kynes Grove, just stand behind a rock, and watch, she doesn't need any help with Salohknir.)

Do it, or don't. My point is it has no bearing nor reflection on who You are IRL. It won't make you less of a man, or woman, start looking at the same sex, or crossdressing for fetishism. It's just a game, and the gender of your character is one of the least important decisions. I agonize more over each Perk point.

 

[Moris]

Of course not, but those were just examples. Guys get all insecure about playing females when there's just no need. Especially in Skyrim, where the girls can kick just as much ass as the guys. (Look at Delphine, she's a shrimpy little Breton girl, and she takes on Dragons solo. Next time you're in Kynes Grove, just stand behind a rock, and watch, she doesn't need any help wil Salohknir.)

Do it, or don't. My point is it has no bearing nor reflection on who You are IRL. It won't make you less of a man, or woman, start looking at the same sex, or crossdressing for fetishism. It's just a game, and the gender of your character is one of the least important decisions. I agonize more over each Perk point.

Sorry.... Yes. Re-reading I do see what you're saying. I think I mis-read you a bit. We are totally on the same page.

Well, mostly. I actually think that, given my characters in Skyrim are so totally different from me, it helps that I can play a human female so I don't feel like I'm trying to RP someone who is completely alien to me. I need some points of similarity to get a connection with the character. Otherwise it feels too much like an arcade game, and I'm reminded far too often that I'm really just commanding pixels to move around.

It never would occur to me that my choices in game would have any reflection of me IRL. I mean, I've eaten people in the game. I hope this isn't saying too much about my lack of culinary discretion in real life.

 

[Hildolfr]

Sorry.... Yes. Re-reading I do see what you're saying. I think I mis-read you a bit. We are totally on the same page.

Well, mostly. I actually think that, given my characters in Skyrim are so totally different from me, it helps that I can play a human female so I don't feel like I'm trying to RP someone who is completely alien to me. I need some points of similarity to get a connection with the character. Otherwise it feels too much like an arcade game, and I'm reminded far too often that I'm really just commanding pixels to move around.

I find that my characters and I have the common ground of badassery to the point where gender is a moot point.

LOL, I'm sorry, this just popped into my head and I realize you're having a relatively serious discussion. To be fair, though, you bring up an interesting point. Your character is so wildly fantastic that you use gender to tether your mindset so it doesn't feel completely fake. I think that makes a lot of sense.

 

[Psiberzerker]

Immersion is a completely personal thing, if it distracts you from the suspension of disbelief to play as the opposite sex (And you're into roleplaying instead of playing with the express purpose of Dominating the game with exploits) "Then don't do that!" ~Dr. G. Marx. I regularly play as males, or females for the Character, but I'm Gender Disphoric anyway, so it doesn't bother me.

 

[Moris]

I find that my characters and I have the common ground of badassery to the point where gender is a moot point.

LOL, I'm sorry, this just popped into my head and I realize you're having a relatively serious discussion. To be fair, though, you bring up an interesting point. Your character is so wildly fantastic that you use gender to tether your mindset so it doesn't feel completely fake. I think that makes a lot of sense.

LOL @ your badass self.

Ah, you put it so much more succinctly. Thank you. It's not that I'm not capable of RPing a male. I've RP'd plenty of male characters in MUDs. Perhaps it's easier if you have interactions with other real people who will validate your RP choices by going along with them, and that drives you deeper into the character.

Immersion is a completely personal thing, if it distracts you from the suspension of disbelief to play as the opposite sex (And you're into roleplaying instead of playing with the express purpose of Dominating the game with exploits) "Then don't do that!" ~Dr. G. Marx. I regularly play as males, or females for the Character, but I'm Gender Disphoric anyway, so it doesn't bother me.

It doesn't bother me. I'm regularly a male character in D&D. In fact, in tabletop RPGs, male is my default choice.

But for some reason, the immersion in Skyrim isn't quite as deep as it is in tabletop games, possibly because I'm never making up my own lines and actually vocalizing them in an audible way. Not sure. It's hard to say the game mechanics in Skyrim are more immersion breaking than pushing miniatures around on a grid and rolling dice. But maybe the mental effort of imagining the scenes being described by the DM (rather than just seeing them on a screen) helps to bridge the gaps.

 

[Psiberzerker]

But for some reason, the immersion in Skyrim isn't quite as deep as it is in tabletop games, possibly because I'm never making up my own lines and actually vocalizing them in an audible way. Not sure. It's hard to say the game mechanics in Skyrim are more immersion breaking than pushing miniatures around on a grid and rolling dice. But maybe the mental effort of imagining the scenes being described by the DM (rather than just seeing them on a screen) helps to bridge the gaps.

I vocalize my lines all the time, because I'm pretty jaded to the same-olde' scripted responses in the dialogue. It's fairly obvious that these lines for the Dragonborn were written to be as vague as possible to take into account all the variations that the CG system allows. So, I say what my Character would, even if it boils down to the same meaning, just not in so many words. For instance, if I'm running the DBH as a Brute/assassin (Think Anbjorn) instead of "Remain Silent", I Grunt, or Scoff wordlessly instead, but pick that dialog option for the voice-actor's reply.

This is the essence of RP for me, Immersion is the responsibility of the Player, and hir Imagination. Bethesda can only do so much, if you lack the creativity, no amount of writing will make it more compelling.

 

[Gunnbjorn]

No.

 

[Moris]

I vocalize my lines all the time, because I'm pretty jaded to the same-olde' scripted responses in the dialogue. It's fairly obvious that these lines for the Dragonborn were written to be as vague as possible to take into account all the variations that the CG system allows. So, I say what my Character would, even if it boils down to the same meaning, just not in so many words. For instance, if I'm running the DBH as a Brute/assassin (Think Anbjorn) instead of "Remain Silent", I Grunt, or Scoff wordlessly instead, but pick that dialog option for the voice-actor's reply.

This is the essence of RP for me, Immersion is the responsibility of the Player, and hir Imagination. Bethesda can only do so much, if you lack the creativity, no amount of writing will make it more compelling.

Well, that's a very good point, and I'm sure we all do this to some extent, even if we're not RPing at all. But I think that, at least for me, there's a qualitative difference between subvocalizing a response and actually speaking. In interactive RP situations that are, nevertheless purely textual, you can get past that because social interaction is a very strong immersive pull.

 

[Psiberzerker]

Well, that's a very good point, and I'm sure we all do this to some extent, even if we're not RPing at all. But I think that, at least for me, there's a qualitative difference between subvocalizing a response and actually speaking. In interactive RP situations that are, nevertheless purely textual, you can get past that because social interaction is a very strong immersive pull.

That's a good point, in that saying it Out Loud isn't as important as putting the rather bland responses into the character's own words. For instance, my Beast race characters (Almost always Khajiit) use the accent/dialects, speak in 3rd person, and say "Thees whan," instead of "I" or "Me". Just those little things make a big difference in Immersion, at least to me.

 

[Moris]

That's a good point, in that saying it Out Loud isn't as important as putting the rather bland responses into the character's own words. For instance, my Beast race characters (Almost always Khajiit) use the accent/dialects, speak in 3rd person, and say "Thees whan," instead of "I" or "Me". Just those little things make a big difference in Immersion, at least to me.

That makes sense. And I probably ought to pay more attention to these little details. It might well surprise me.

 

[Gehenna]

I'm not going to go and read the entire thread just to give my 2¢, so if someone else said something similar I guess I'll just be repetitive.

I'm female, so I'll flip the original question around and answer "If I'm a girl, is it weird to play as a male character?" Most of the time I do play a female character because it feels weird to me to play a guy and I realize that's because I project some of myself onto the character. Occasionally I have been known to play a male character, but it's usually because there is some sort of significant difference in gameplay or NPC reaction. I am really into replaying some games in differing ways just to see different dialog options and events happen, for example. Most of the time I just save before something like that happens, but if gender means a really different outcome I usually will go back with a male character just to see.

Then of course there are some older games that didn't give you a choice, like Vampire the Masquerade Redemption, Legacy of Kain series. Those didn't bother me to play males, and the difference there was that those characters already had a fully written story, not the kind of thing Bethesda does with "here's a basic story, insert any character here."

 

[Irish]

I thought it would be somewhat difficult to play as my male Redguard character, Azzedine, but I'm kind of a tomboy so it really isn't as hard as I anticipated. It's fun scoping out potential marriage partners for him and playing the macho guy. It takes me out of my comfort zone and forces me to think outside of my reflexive, womanly thought processes.

 

[JClarke1953]

I have 3 char's at the moment, and all are female. For myself, I prefer watching a feminine char do her thing (or me sending her), as far as the quest's and job's. Even on WoW, my char's were Fem.

Why? I prefer watching the Fem form run, fight or whatever as opposed to male. I also think they look way cooler in the armor that "they" enchant, although I do wish it didn't cover so much, lol.

Also, it's extremely difficult to determine a female's thoughts on what and why she does what she does. Even tho' it's all code and pixel's, there are many moral choices as far as who she kills or not. Why should she kill that NPC? The Thieves Guild, Dark Brotherhood? In many stories (and movies) the female is the most preyed on, yet, she mostly ends up on her feet (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo). That character is a warrior in a sense. She went thru' Hell, then returned it in Spade's.

Take Babbette in the Dark Brotherhood. She uses her gender, and age (even though she is much older) to lure her prey. If she was to appear older, she'd be using her gender still to lure her victims.

It's too bad, I think, that the play of Skyrim isn't determined on the gender of your char. A female has many more "methods" at her disposal to make use of than the male. Yet, toe-to-toe, could she beat the male? Or are her abilities to be physically and mentally flexible in her favor? Because this is a game, we may never know, unless the software can be made, adjusted or whatever to make it easier, as well as interesting to immerse oneself in the char, and what she, or he can, can't do, won't or will do for what kind of reason.

 

[Moris]

I have 3 char's at the moment, and all are female. For myself, I prefer watching a feminine char do her thing (or me sending her), as far as the quest's and job's. Even on WoW, my char's were Fem.

Why? I prefer watching the Fem form run, fight or whatever as opposed to male. I also think they look way cooler in the armor that "they" enchant, although I do wish it didn't cover so much, lol.

That's hilarious, as I think the armor suits the men better.

But I don't play a male character for eye candy. Boys in Skyrim have ripped bods, but unless you deck them out with mods that make them look like the Nord version of Chippendales, you don't get to see them anyway.

Well, I did once take a heavily modded mercenary as a follower (Stenvar, I think it was) and decked him out in the skimpiest fur armor. But he kept complaining about the cold. When he finally admitted, "I shouldda probably dressed warmer, huh?" I had to give him up for a REAL NORD.

 

[JClarke1953]

Well, I play on an XBox, so putting in mod's is out of the question for me, altho' I understand there are ways. And since Skyrim is rated M, I don't understand how. It isn't that bloody, no swearing, and not much to see as Bethesda put too much restraint on how the char's are dressed or armored.

Btw, I play Reckoning as well, and have her in no armor, nothing. Mainly to see how far I can get her without putting armor on her.

 

[Moris]

Well, I play on an XBox, so putting in mod's is out of the question for me, altho' I understand there are ways. And since Skyrim is rated M, I don't understand how. It isn't that bloody, no swearing, and not much to see as Bethesda put too much restraint on how the char's are dressed or armored.

Btw, I play Reckoning as well, and have her in no armor, nothing. Mainly to see how far I can get her without putting armor on her.

I guess that's one way to play. LOL. I don't use my main character as eye candy. But, now that I think about it and my reply above, I apparently DO use followers for that purpose at times. But then I spend much more time in first person, too.

I guess the beheading in the opening scenes (and in kill cams) rates an M rating? It seems overly conservative, if you ask me. But then, perhaps they are using the rating to their advantage so that lots of people will buy it thinking it will be more violent or "mature" than it really is.

 

[Nocte Aeterna]

I never understood the gender issue. I mostly play male characters because I'm often too lazy to switch the sex on the creation screen. But there's nothing wrong with a guy playing a female character. I actually tend to prefer the female characters over males.

 

[JClarke1953]

Well, a couple of times I had my char just in her "gotchas", and an NPC here and there would tell her to put some clothes on, lol!

 

[Moris]

Well, a couple of times I had my char just in her "gotchas", and an NPC here and there would tell her to put some clothes on, lol!

Yes. They do that.

The funniest time I had that happen was when I came across a couple of hunters in their skivvies, bathing in the hot springs south of Kynesgrove. I figured this was a great idea. So I disrobed and joined them. And the moment I did, one of them snapped, "You'd better get some clothes on!" Ummm....

 

[Psiberzerker]

Yes. They do that.

The funniest time I had that happen was when I came across a couple of hunters in their skivvies, bathing in the hot springs south of Kynesgrove. I figured this was a great idea. So I disrobed and joined them. And the moment I did, one of them snapped, "You'd better get some clothes on!" Ummm....

Irony.