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I was playing Metroid Prime Hunters earlier, and it occured to me that I picked my character of choice for different reasons than my brothers did. I selected Noxus because of his background information, whereas my brothers selected Weavel, because he loves the gunturret mode and the splash damage Battlehammer, or Trace, because he loves sniping. Why did I pick mine? Because of his backstory. That's true of me for a lot of things, whether it's the Paladin in Dungeons and Dragons, the Light Side in Star Wars game, etc.

I suppose it's because I don't play games to be someone else somewhere else, I play to be myself somewhere else, so I become drawn to those characters most like me.

Does anyone else take that into account when choosing characters or game paths?

I find that the characters I gravitate towards have similar interests and fighting styles. For example they're usually scientists/mages/explorers or whatever, but the personalities aren't all that similar to me. They're usually amoral or have some stupid obsessive objective. So I guess the answer is no. The characters I choose are different people, and act like me only out of necessity born of being played by me. That's not to say I don't wish I could be like them, but I wouldn't say they're idealized iterations of myself. Sometimes I just wish I was a different person, not simply a better one.

It depends on the game. If it's a serious game, my characters tend to be more like me. I think part of that, as Darth Raptor said, is just because they're from my mind. Every once in a while I come up with a character that is fairly different, but that's not at all normal.

If the game is either not serious or is a video game, it's a whole different ballgame. For KotOR, I love playing the total jackass. Same for NWN. Hell, I go around an slaughter livestock randomly in NWN. Chickens are my favorites. It's a good way to vent stress.

As a roleplayer, I can see where you're coming from, though I have long since divorced myself of such notions. In RPGs, the characters I create are very separate entities from myself, both in terms of their stats as well as in my mind. To some extent, I do gravitate toward melee combatants, often paladin-like archetypes, be they a Lawful Good Aasimar Fighter or a Light Side Jedi Consular.

In action games, I generally just play to my own personal preference. I'll take the rifle over a submachinegun, machinegun, sniper rifle, or whatever.

No. Computer games are too shallow, and proper RP is too flexible, to be vain enough to just make some self-identifying fantasy.

I do, however, have three or four archetypes I seem to constantly gravitate towards. Across many games and different media characters always seem to develop along similar lines - although these lines are thematic.

I am Gordan Freeman!

I notice that unless I make a decided effort to ignore my consience(sic), I always end up lightsided in KoTOR.

I wish I could say that as an experienced player my characters tend to be many and varied, but it just isn't the truth.

They tend to be the same, Paladin-esque characters. I really should diversify.

With CRPGs? I usally go lightside in the first time around, then after I finish the game I start a new one and go darkside. And really the only reason to do that is to see what cool stuff the baddies get. CRPGs are shallow. Fun, but shallow.

*snort*

Fuck no. For most computer games, half the characters are whiny pristine perfect teenage virgins, and the other half are morons who cannot grasp guile or deciet and fall when the obvious villain goes "But I lost my ______!". I play them because of some aspect I enjoy, be it gameplay, story or whatnot...but certainly never because I see myself as said character.

As for role playing, I play those to actually play another character since it's a single point in time and not an entire life.

With roleplaying games, I generally tend to attempt to diversify and play something with interests in something I normally wouldn't do. If you're just going to play yourself, then what's the point in trying to make something at least somewhat original?

General Zod wrote:With roleplaying games, I generally tend to attempt to diversify and play something with interests in something I normally wouldn't do. If you're just going to play yourself, then what's the point in trying to make something at least somewhat original?

When you first start playing you can't help but do that. Usually by placing yourself in the character's shoes. "Ok, I'm a rogue/warrior/wizard in a fantasy world. What would *I* do?"

As you get experienced the mindset evolves, probably because the story has progressed as well. Your character isn't just stuck in a vacuum but has interacted with the world and the NPCs. "What would my *character* do?" becomes the norm.

True?

Stofsk wrote:

General Zod wrote:With roleplaying games, I generally tend to attempt to diversify and play something with interests in something I normally wouldn't do. If you're just going to play yourself, then what's the point in trying to make something at least somewhat original?

When you first start playing you can't help but do that. Usually by placing yourself in the character's shoes. "Ok, I'm a rogue/warrior/wizard in a fantasy world. What would *I* do?"

As you get experienced the mindset evolves, probably because the story has progressed as well. Your character isn't just stuck in a vacuum but has interacted with the world and the NPCs. "What would my *character* do?" becomes the norm.

True?

Naturally. Though I didn't really feel it was essentail to really distinguish the two, since I was more referring to experienced players, but I probably should have.

not really, while there's alot of me in the way my chars act and behave, they're not copies of me.

Yeah, I play a wide variety of characters. But I like having them all connected together. Which means that one day I might be playing my Elven ranger. Then in a few weeks, his half elven warrior son. That way I can justify keeping a few traits in there but still have a different experience.

I always play female characters in any game. Mostly because I like playing fast and quick and that's how female characters are. Also because I don't see any reason why I should be looking at a guy's ass if it's a third person game. In a first person game I don't give a shit as much. Also female characters usually have options that male characters don't. Roll seduce 4d6 for teh win.

If that makes me a horny bastard... hardly. I don't jerk off to it.
at least not anymore.

Brian

In actual games that give you consequences for your actions, I tend to get much more attached, because they are the decisions I would tend to make in those situations. Shallower games, like FPS, Japanese RPGs, and so on, are far too linear to really get attached, but I usually find at least one character that I like in the game (Cid Highwind in FF7, for example).

The list of games where this is really possible, however, is dreadfully short. Off the top of my head, there's Baldur's Gate (potentially Icewind Dale and Planescape: Torment), Morrowind, Oblivion, Deus Ex (and Deus Ex 2, if you can deal with the consolitis), and, to a degree, MMO's.