Avatars and Sex

Will you play a game that restricts you to playing the opposite gender?

  • Yes

    Votes: 112 85.5%
  • No

    Votes: 19 14.5%

  • Total voters
    131
Generally, I find that those who want to play evil seem to be deeper into the role-playing aspect.

I don't know about that one. You'd really need to identify what type of "evil" you're talking about. In discussions on various boards, it usually boils down to two main types of evil: the subtle manipulator, and Bioware's petulant adolescent.

The evil manipulator role allows you to trick NPCs into doing things, relies on deception, and is pretty well personified as a Moriarty-type character. Your character may even be perceived as "good" while you're sowing the seeds of evil. It's something that heavily relies on dialog, is hard to define, hard to implement, and almost never seen in RPGs. This is the one RPG fans often dream of, but we seldom get more than brief touches of it.

The other standard category of "evil" is the personification of Bioware: threaten people, make smart-arse remarks, and alternately act like a dimwitted street thug or out-of-control adolescent. It's an approach that certainly appeals to younger gamers, but it turns stale real quick.

I dislike the "evil" options in games, but that's because most of the games that offer "evil" options are either from Bioware, or follow close in the Bioware design. If the game gives me the option to act like a hero or a jerk, I'll pick hero every time.

But if someone makes a good Moriarty game, I'll definitely play it.
 
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I don't know about that one. You'd really need to identify what type of "evil" you're talking about. In discussions on various boards, it usually boils down to two main types of evil: the subtle manipulator, and Bioware's petulant adolescent.

The evil manipulator role allows you to trick NPCs into doing things, relies on deception, and is pretty well personified as a Moriarty-type character. Your character may even be perceived as "good" while you're sowing the seeds of evil. It's something that heavily relies on dialog, is hard to define, hard to implement, and almost never seen in RPGs. This is the one RPG fans often dream of, but we seldom get more than brief touches of it.

The other standard category of "evil" is the personification of Bioware: threaten people, make smart-arse remarks, and alternately act like a dimwitted street thug or out-of-control adolescent. It's an approach that certainly appeals to younger gamers, but it turns stale real quick.

I dislike the "evil" options in games, but that's because most of the games that offer "evil" options are either from Bioware, or follow close in the Bioware design. If the game gives me the option to act like a hero or a jerk, I'll pick hero every time.

But if someone makes a good Moriarty game, I'll definitely play it.

Exactly. Bioware's brand of 'evil' is so juvenile and over-the-top, that it makes me feel stupid to roleplay a character that way. It's simply not believable. In PS:T, the Nameless One could potentially administer his 'evil' in a fairly credible and intelligent fashion.
 
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I prefer to, myself. In NWN, my favorite character is a Chaotic Evil Female Elf Sorceress, and in real life I'm a Chaotic Good Male Human Thief.
 
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This is not an issue for me. In fact, I often experiment and create female characters in mmorpgs, for example - it can be rewarding sometimes (teens giving you free stuff, believing/hoping you are a girl - tho I always say I am not if they ask :).

Also, after playing female avatar online, along with a couple of friends, we really learned to understand how tiresome gaming can sometimes be for real female players, who can become a center of "unwanted" attention (fault of those already mentioned "teens").

As, for the previous post - I do not really have real life alignment, not in that way :)
In games, I try to role play True Neutral or Neutral Good (rarely Evil) character. As, you said evil is often = rude. Shame.
 
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I will always play a good game regardless the gender of my character. I strongly feel that having the choise isn't always the best for game's storyline. For example Kotor was clearly writen a female hero in mind.. Male option was just added later. The witcher on the other hand as it seems to be the common example here is writen for a male character. If they had allowed a female hero, she couldn't have been a witcher. A sorceress sounds more likely, but then it had requireded a huge load of extra work. I wouldn't mind to choose between geralt and triss. Both are equally strong characters, yet totally different, but then devs should write two different storylines and its a bit too much to be asked.. :).

As, for the previous post - I do not really have real life alignment, not in that way
In games, I try to role play True Neutral or Neutral Good (rarely Evil) character. As, you said evil is often = rude. Shame.

A clever notion. If being is evil saying rude things to others and killing everyone on one's path is not something i'd like to do (maybe because i'm not evil enough or because I don't want to look like a stupid street thug). I want my character to be polite and somewhat intellectual. A person who crushes everyone on his path verbally or physically isn't very bright nor belivable in my eyes. Ok there are expections ofcourse. Darth Vader a rare case when it works. you wouldn't question his motives if he said "obey or i kill you, your family and everyone you care about", but usually that kind of evil doesn't work outside star wars ;)

An evil character should be subtle and cunning. Evil is much more than mindless killing or being rude. A real mastermind won't dirty his own hands. He "uses" others to get what he wants. However it doesn't mean that evil character can't have feelings. For example the emperor's son Commodus in the movie gladiator is twisted and complex evil character. Commodus murders his own father thinking that his father didn't love him enough, yet he mourns and cries as he knows that he did wrong, but at the same tries to justify a murder with false reasoning. Soon after he sends soldiers to murder and rape his "brother's" family. Later we'll see him trying to seduce his own sister because he thinks its his right to have a child of pure blood...all because of love. Evil can twist even the most beautifull thing.

Usually the choise in games is just too damn obvious. Witcher is a rare gem because it doesn't allow you to pick up the best choise from the shelf. Sometimes you will have to choose the lesser evil. Everyone who has played witcher knows the difficult choise in the Queen of the Night's house :)
 
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It took me a long time to play evil characters. At first it just felt wrong, but now I find them to be amusing. Sure, most of the time it is a fairly immature, I'll agree, but it's usually worth a few laughs.

If you think that evil paths are only for idiots and people of low intelligence then maybe I am an idiot (well, actually, I am an idiot) or maybe it is meant for the people that are bored of the noble hero archtypes and like to have a flawed character.

Personally, I love flawed characters.
 
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I like to play as a the good guy, not the all evel guy, most of the times. But i will never play a goodie good guy. I willmostly play a guy who will do the right thing at the end, but the means justify the deeds. Just lie gothic I like to play more of a mercenary guy, strong, violent if needed to get it done, but still at the end he is a godo guy
 
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It took me a long time to play evil characters. At first it just felt wrong, but now I find them to be amusing. Sure, most of the time it is a fairly immature, I'll agree, but it's usually worth a few laughs.

If you think that evil paths are only for idiots and people of low intelligence then maybe I am an idiot (well, actually, I am an idiot) or maybe it is meant for the people that are bored of the noble hero archtypes and like to have a flawed character.

Personally, I love flawed characters.

It isn't stupid at all to play evil bullies, but it can feel quite artificial compared to default good path.. Sometimes it works and fits the game (Fable, star wars, games using dungeon and dragons rules), but most often its just as boring as playing overly good characters.. I don't want my character to be uber good or uber evil. Just like you said flawed characters are fun to play, extremes are unrealistic. The way evil is presented in the games, is usually there simply to offer "couople of good laughs". Its fun, but its a rare case to see the evil path truly worth while.
 
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very hard to gain xp and quest in most games , if you play evil, look at divine divinity and i bet there are a lot more examples where you can play the evil side but benefit more by playing the goodie good
 
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I've a few characters that I play in games that are female. I played one for a long time in EQ though and after awhile it felt funny when male characters kept giving me shiny things. I never had anyone give me anything as a male. :S
 
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Time for a new poll!
Will you play a game that restricts you to playing the opposite gender (i.e. female if you are male)?

Uhm. Im male, so the question is if I skip to play games that do not allow me to play female then. The answer is no. Half-Life 2, Final Fantasy, Gothic etc. Many games have I played with a male character.
 
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Uhm. Im male, so the question is if I skip to play games that do not allow me to play female then. The answer is no. Half-Life 2, Final Fantasy, Gothic etc. Many games have I played with a male character.

No - it means the opposite ... if you are a male will you play female-only games (Tomb Raider, Kult: Heretic Kingdoms, etc) and vice versa for women.
 
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Corwin said:
Perhaps this could form the basis for another poll!!
Excellent idea! :)

I tend to agree personally I would prefer a developer spend time making a game Coop instead of spending time on making an evil path, it appeals to so few people while Coop is hugely popular and will give a game years more selling power.
 
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I just cannot play evil. It's somehow not built into me.

I even can't kill people in Evil Genius without reason.
 
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I have the same problem, so you're not alone!!
 
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Whether a person could make him/herself to play an evil character depend on individual real life character alignment :biggrin:. My in game character rarely a goody two shoe in recent years (except when playing the paladin character in Baldur's Gate years ago) but instead a neutral alignment with streak of mischievousness, occasionally evil and like to smack someone's head with huge two handed sword that does +12 fire damage if pissed off... ;)
 
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I just cannot play evil. It's somehow not built into me.

I even can't kill people in Evil Genius without reason.

I'm also like that. It actually disturbs me a bit if I play a game where you are inherently evil... I usually don't finish games like that.

And it's not because I have a problem with the depiction of evil... I just can't get myself (or my character) to be the one who is evil.

On the other hand one of the groups of people that I have been playing PnP D&D for years with really enjoy being evil. I usually make them play at least a neutral role (I'm always the DM)... but sometimes I give in to their blood lust and let them play a campaign with completely evil characters... interesting note on that though, is that those campaigns usually end abruptly due to the fact that none of the characters in the party can get along (the players get along... it's their characters that don't). So they usually end up disbanding, or killing each other off...
But when I make them play neutral or good in a campaign... it will always last much longer, since the characters are more likely to get along. Odd....
 
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I enjoy being an 'evil', scheming and mostly misunderstood NPC when GMing, and I let my gamers play the way the want to, but they'll have to live with the respective results of their deeds; most of them adapted to the style of play of the rest of the group, so campaigns usually went on for years. There was the occasional gamer whose character died a sudden and grisly death as a result of his or her evil actions, but then again there was the occasional gamer whose character died a sudden and grisly death because of his or her good actions, too.

My aversion to playing evil folks just kicks in when I'm not the GM.
 
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I was wondering about Dhruin's comment, especially the role of immersion: is it true, that immersion is mostly irrelevant for people who are really into roleplaying?

Immersion is certainly important for me, and depite my preference of playing same gendered characters and a strong aversion to "playing evil", there is still some variety in the personalities left I do roleplay, among them treehugging druid, arrogant know-it-all wizard, brutish warrior and mischievous thief. On the other hand, I do play myself some of the time - and the roles I play are pretty much extreme versions of my own personality. Also, while this is not at all important for me, my avatars do tend to look similar to me if I have this option (I never could get them to look as handsome, though ;)). I guess this makes me only a moderate roleplayer. Is immersion really irrelevant for others?
 
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I don't think it's ever really irrelevant in roleplaying, coyote, but for some it may not revolve around the avatar's appearance. I find the simpler the game, the more I want to dictate my character's gender/looks, as the story and gameworld isn't doing a sufficiently good job of pulling me in in other ways.

Therefore in The Witcher/Gothic, etc I have no issue with playing a male character--because it is the central, defined character in the game--sort of automatically "immersed" if you will, whereas in a game like Eschalon, I really resent having to wander around as an unattractive lumpy looking male with his shirt out, because the character customizations aren't enough for me to give the guy a real personality I can identity with, and the story doesn't do it for me (at least in the demo--perhaps playing the full game would be a different experience.)

So in the later case, my immersion ( in terms of personal identification with the player character) is much less even though I'm given a pretty deep and varied choice of character class with a great many options to customize. Maybe it's a failure of my imagination rather than the game, but in this case the gender/looks of the only available avatar is a separating factor.

I can see how for many though, the appearance of the avatar would be unimportant, and the ability to class customize and develop skills would be the main deal, and provide the immersion factor--i.e., get them to identify with their creation. I also think story and dialogue are important immersion tools as well and if those are doing their job, the avatar's appearance, including gender, might be secondary.
 
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