I’ve been thinking about the games I’ve played over the years, and it’s the games that allow you to play a female character that really stick with me. In fact, going slightly further, it’s games that allow you play a female AND don’t give you a pre-formed character (so games like The Witcher and Dragon Age 2 I find enjoyable but not quite as immersive).
I also really just play one character in all my games and have done so for *ahem* over 25 years now.
She’s generally a wood elf (reading The Hobbit at age 8 or whenever left a lasting impression) and generally red or auburn haired (I started making game characters when I had pillarbox-red hair and I miss it). Personality wise, she’s generally cheerful, generally on the good spectrum so long you don’t mind a bit of thievery and rule bending (I tried being evil once but the best I could manage was at a sulky teenager strop level and then chose the good option anyway after I’d been told off/felt guilty), she also excels at stealth and snipe / backstabbing style combat. Beyond that, it’s fairly flexible (and depending on the game, even character race and appearance has to be somewhat flexible). There’s nothing original about my characters, in fact they’re definitely on the Mary Sue spectrum, but that doesn’t matter – I enjoy it.
So, games like the Elder Scrolls, Dragon Age, and MMOs (to a certain extent), I do get very involved with. I find these a lot easier to sink into and have some pure escapist indulgence. Here, you will find an army of mostly red-haired elves cheerfully fighting the forces of evil (with some occasional pick-pocketing).
I have, of late though, found that I’ve started to create slightly different characters – I am tending towards white or grey haired characters now, and if I can make them slightly older I do so. I have also started to enjoy playing magicka characters in some games (which was quite a shock at first!)
One notable exception to the red haired army, was Guild Wars 2. They don’t have an Elf race, I think the equivalent in concept is the Sylvari and I just didn’t like the look of red hair… I love the races in GW2, but Sylvari (and their idle animations) were my favourite. I love the racial gear for Sylvari, my main (Ranger in green and white below) went for a kind of fairy look but with my necromancer, I tried to pick colours that hinted at decay. Anyway.
I do occasionally play a male character even when I have the choice to make a female. It’s fairly rare but it does happen (well 4 times so far).
1. Flash – Dragon Age Inquisition. This was my 3rd playthrough on Nightmare difficulty, and I thought it might make a nice change. I didn’t know how I wanted him to look but when I found that goatee, there was only one way to go with it.
2. Musa class in Black Desert Online. This has the weird concept of classes that are gender locked, I found the (female) ranger playstyle incredibly boring so I switched to this. He’s a lot of fun and really suits the pirate look…
3. Warden in Lotro. I really got creative here and instead of yet another pointy eared female character, I created a pointy eared male character. He was fun to play, but I think I’m going to delete him….
4. Sorceror in ESO. I can’t remember why I made him, I think I was bored and couldn’t get a new female character concept going so I decided to experiment. Ended up with a King Thrandruil looky-likey and I really love playing him.
There’s not really a huge point to this post (!) but I had been struck by how similar my characters were and then realised there was a change to trying different style characters. I do prefer playing female characters and I still find them the most immersive, but an occasional male character is fun.