Female Protagonist vs. Male Protagonist

[Nagozo]

However, playing as a woman feels like you're somehow taking power over sexuality and making choices that changes the character.

That's a really interesting argument, actually. Aside from the obvious 'noone likes stereotypical deviant chad MCs', I didn't really see the appeal of playing as a female, mostly because of immersion reasons (it feels a bit silly to be talking about immersion in erotic games, but hey, I like me a good story). Your argument gives me the impression that we're all after the same thing though: a good sense of control over our character. For me, I mostly care about the characters surrounding the protagonist, since they're generally where the interesting bits are at (I recall plenty of memorable characters from VNs). I just want to be able to relate to the protagonist somewhat (like being the same sex, as petty as that may sound) and focus on the story/rest of the gameplay. Reading this thread has given me a new appreciation of female protagonists, though!

 

[Hadley]

I don't play Games with Female Protagonists, because I'm a Male and I can't immersive myself into a Story where the MC is Female. I tried playing Skyrim as a Female and I ended up being a Lesbian because I could never romance a Man in a fucking Game, that just feels WRONG!

 

[Xalenda]

Plain and simple: I am a man, and I want to have sex with the woman, not try to figure out what it’d be like to be a woman and then trying in vain to find the man sexually attractive.

Plus, I think you’re being a little too hard on the male MC there. Yes, a lot of the games/stories created have a complete jerk for a male protagonist, but in the stories I write, I make sure to give them entirely human faults, like being childish, or clingy, or get called out for their roughness and treatment of women around them.

Yeah, he may have a harem of six women, but that doesn’t mean he can treat them like shit and never work again a day in his life. There are things that have to happen after the sex, and that’s where I fear this disgust of male MC’s comes from, never dealing with the aftermath. In, cum, out, gone, and that’s it - but there are lots of women who act the same way hen it comes to sex, hurrying the man up so they can get back to whatever it is they want to do.

In any case, I find it more enjoyable and entertaining to pretend I’m the guy in the story, rather than trying to figure out what a dick would feel like going inside of my nonexistent vagina.

 

[Joshua Tree]

Plain and simple: I am a man, and I want to have sex with the woman, not try to figure out what it’d be like to be a woman and then trying in vain to find the man sexually attractive.

Plus, I think you’re being a little too hard on the male MC there. Yes, a lot of the games/stories created have a complete jerk for a male protagonist, but in the stories I write, I make sure to give them entirely human faults, like being childish, or clingy, or get called out for their roughness and treatment of women around them.

Yeah, he may have a harem of six women, but that doesn’t mean he can treat them like shit and never work again a day in his life. There are things that have to happen after the sex, and that’s where I fear this disgust of male MC’s comes from, never dealing with the aftermath. In, cum, out, gone, and that’s it - but there are lots of women who act the same way hen it comes to sex, hurrying the man up so they can get back to whatever it is they want to do.

In any case, I find it more enjoyable and entertaining to pretend I’m the guy in the story, rather than trying to figure out what a dick would feel like going inside of my nonexistent vagina.

Uh.. ponders....

"The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.” “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If youknow yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat."

Maybe better understanding of women is a win in itself, for the purpose of future conquests

Fault come at 99% of female protags in games is horrible written and so far from real world as they come.

action, re-action and consequence is something that is almost void totally in these games though. It's more or less, plow them down and line up the next one.

 

[Xalenda]

Ehhhh.... I just can’t suspend my disbelief so far as to play as the opposite sex and pretend I get the same level of enjoyment from it. And I’m cool with suffering defeats with my wins, as it is vastly more important to stay humbled than believe you are infallible and omnipotent.

 

[Carion_Crow]

In a game if your a female protagonist CG and scenes often focus on the protag more than the men fucking her. Meanwhile in a male protag game it focus' on the women protag is fucking more than him, (the protag might not even have a face). So do you want lots of lewds of one girl AKA protag-chan or do you want a few, often 1 or 2 lewds, of many girls?

 

[Xalenda]

As long as they aren’t “wooden” (boring, flat, no characterization) I don’t really care overall.

 

[SAFFID]

Oh god. This response is SOOOO late. I kinda let go of this thread. But re-reading it, I just now stumbled upon this comment and I gotta say! WOW! This response is amazing. You are my muse, my love, my lover from another mother. Strap in. We got a lot of talking to do. Cos I see a future here. You and me... 4...EVAAAR!

I don't know how we feel about necromancy here, but I'll cast a spell and join in.

Let's start with a compliment... You are funny!

As someone that most likely would be defined as 'queer' - even if I just call it bisexual myself - or something similar by today's status quo, I don't really mind playing as either male or female. I do however, have a strong preference or even fetish for lesbianism, so if I'm given the option I'll almost always play as woman for that very reason. And most of the time, I will look for strictly homosexual narratives, male or female. And oh, do I wish we had access to more strictly lesbian experiences in the erotic games market in general. And preferably not 'Just Another Googly-Eyed Girl x Girl Kinetic VN'.

So this speaks to immersion, as many users on this thread do. Your IRL persona is just a bit different. So you still seek a protagonist closely resembling yourself. Your IRL persona is just not hetero male, as it is for most users on this thread.

I guess that puts me in some kind of homosexual-fetish closet, or whatever that would be called.

I don't think you are in a 'closet' per se. If by 'closet' you mean, being very singular, specific and unique in your taste. Alot of pleople enjoy female MC lesbian content. I mean; I prefer female protagonists and I'm a very stereotypical hetero male. I however do not enjoy lesbian content as much as straight content. Soooo... I think I'm just a freak maybe. But that is neither here nor there. My point is simply, that you are not alone in your taste. We all like different things, but those things do not necessarily have to be dictated by our real life sexual preferences or gender identifications. But I don't think I have to tell you these things. You seem very thoughtful, intellectual and self-analytical.

However, there's something that usually eek's me out when it comes to male protagonists, the rapey feel so many games with straight male PCs give off really creeps me out. I don't mind characters being submissive or dominant, but the sheer amount of domination by force present in so many games eek's me out. This seems to be especially strong in Japanese VNs, where a high amount of sexual violence* seems to be the norm rather than the exception. I'm not judging people here, just saying that this really isn't my cup of tea and scares me away. But even here, I do have exceptions.

I could not agree more. That is my exact issue with male MCs. And going even further in my agreement with you; I too do not mind female submissiveness. But the difference lies with the gender of the MC. If I'm playing as a female, then I get to consent to being dominated. But (in most cases) if I'm playing as a male MC then I'm basically just dominating unwilling 'bitches'. I more or less feel like a rapist in those situations.

And I guess I'll voice my concern for the female protagonist in heterosexual games as well. The whole idea of the female PC just being a mindless penis devourer has always been very off-putting for me as well. The only game that comes close to this that I've enjoyed was '

You must be registered to see the links

'. It felt somber enough to kinda-sorta justify the madness. And I do believe the game contains the only character in an erotic game that I've ever felt invested in, even if that investment was slight. And the bi-curious exploration part of the game made me smile, it's cute and quite heartfelt despite the gloom and doom.

Again I agree. However, If I'm playing as a 'penis devouring' female MC, I feel completely fine with it, because I'm playing the part of the MC. Meaning; I'm in the drivers seat. I don't feel like a sleezebag pushing my erection on powerless, non-suspecting females. I am instead (as the player) fully aware of the consequences of my choices, and I'm in a position to make an informed decision.

This is also applicable to the paper cutout male MC that we see in some games. With their only ambition being to release their seed in as many holes as possible. If all I wanted was animation loops and pictures of characters shagging, I'd just use my browser instead. Or heck, pick up an erotic comic. But games have to dig a little deeper than this to attract my interest. It's an interactive medium, exploit it.

Could not agree more.

I generally loved your comments. And I find you very interesting.

 

[fidless]

Hey man. Thanks for your thoughts. I respect your opinion, but I'm sorry, your response makes very little sense to me. I don't understand how you are able to separate the character of the story from the story itself (story as it is written)? Maybe I misunderstood. Feel free to elaborate, if I got this all wrong. Cos I don't really see your point.



Firstly, I disagree with Melty's Quest being one of the greates female led games, but that is really just a question of preference. Secondly, you make it sound like every game is either remain pure or become deviant, in many cases you are right about that, but you forget, that there is hopefully a looong journey in between those two points. For me it's really about the journey of the character; from A to B and through C, D, E, F etc and all the way to Z (last stop: train running). Hehe.

All in all, when it really comes down to it, we could break down the difference between male and female protags to the following:

1) Female Protagonist: Internal journey of sexual self-discovery. The female will (in most games) start out 'pure' and external forces will then have her faced with choices which will corrupt this purity (aka guys and/or girls will hit on protagonist). Meaning: The protagonist will end up a different person from when we started.

2) Male Protagonist: External journey of sexual conquest. The male will (in most games) start out 'deviant' and internal deviant forces will then have him attempting to corrupt the purity of surrounding females (aka protagonist will hit on girls). Meaning: The protagonist will remain the same person as when we started.

My point is, and this is where personal preference plays a significant role i quess; I find male protagonist games to be quite repetitive, and forgive me for generalizing here: In these games it becomes merely a question of conquest, of tallying up points on a scoreboard, and I personally don't find that to be very interesting. Whereas with female protagonist games, there is a journey, an exploration and development of character that evolves thorughout the storyline as we slowly transition from a state of purity into a state of deviancy.

That's all for now. I hope you could follow my logic. I don't know quite how well I explained that.

When playing The Witcher, you think you're the Geralt, the white wolf yourself?

For me it's like a car. When I drive, I don't think that I'm a car, but a driver driving a car.

Unless the game is specifically have silent protagonist and choices do whatever within the world. But unfortunetly that type of games are pretty bad plot, story, character wise.

Geralt is already established character. Can't see myself immersing myself so much that I would think IAm a protagonist myself.

That's why I don't mind female protagonists. It's like driving a car. It's not me getting pummeled into the exhaust pipe, but a car. I'm just a passenger enjoying the view. I'm ok as long as I like the girl get to see some lewds. Not that much different than watching an adult movies, just more interactivity.

 

[Crossett]

Female. I like watching someone beautiful and strong slowly lose control and fall into hedonism, while I'm a little invisible imp sitting on her shoulder whispering bad ideas into her ear. If she is strong enough, I want her to beat the odds, survive her humiliation and get revenge. If not... Well, I'm hardly an angel here. I love watching someone stuck in what seems like a hopeless situation. Male protags are mostly just cocks with too much excess baggage. I'd rather keep a tentacle monster around for that. Lot of cocks, no baggage.

 

[Avaron1974]

When playing The Witcher, you think you're the Geralt, the white wolf yourself?

Different thing entirely.

Playing named protag is never self immersive.

I'm not Lara Croft so I don't self insert when playing Tomb Raider but if i'm playing an RPG with a character creator I can do.

Unless it's Fallout 4 because adding voice to the protag was a thing and i'm not American so no matter how many mods and how accurate I can get the character to me the voice takes me right out of the immersion. I could mute the game but listening to power ballads is also kinda immersion ruining in a alternate 50's setting apocalypse.

Same for games like Dragon Age, Mass Effect and more recently with Kingdoms of Amalur Re-Reckoning (loved it the first time and the changes are great). I get to make a character and live out my fantasy.

That can transfer over to adult games but there are so very few lesbian themed adult games that I don't get to immerse myself often.

I assume there are others in a similar situation but I also have no doubts that there are people that do imagine they are Geralt when playing Witcher 3. He's an awesome character, if I was male i'd want to be him ... in a less hazardous job though. Closest to anything resembling me there would be Shani. Triss is too badass, Shani is average enough while still being a great character.

Though I am gutted they took her out until Witcher 3 DLC, she was my main LI in the first Witcher but vanished by the second. Triss was great though and now i'm rambling about Witcher so i'll leave it there.....

tl;dr a lot of us like to self insert but it can be situational.

 

[Fliptoynk]

back when I was new to this kind of gig, I tried one with lots of hot ladies from its screenshot. put my real name to fully immerse myself with the mc... then shit started to hit the fan...

gf> oh no! Mike Hunt! I can explain!!!
bbc> just ditch'im and open wiiiiide bitch umf! umf! umf!!!
me> (rage quit) what the fuuuuuuuuuuuuck!

after that:
me> yeah... show him... let him at it... fire up his old loins! spread yah leeeegs! neeeext? p-p-p-p-p-penta penetration!

 

[hewhocumsbynight]

I usually prefer female protagonists, because that way there's always a nice target at hand to toy with. I also enjoy JRPGs where the main character experiences suffering heaped on suffering, and I can enjoy watching the destruction and defilement of the heroine.

The exceptions are the case of trainer games and games like Lab Rats or Hentai Highschool, where you can corrupt girls and enjoy a "Gotta Catch'em All" approach towards every female NPC unfortunate enough to fall into your orbit.

Essentially, if it's a story based game, I enjoy female protagonists, so long as they're the victim. For sandbox games with many characters, I tend to prefer male protagonists. Unless the sandbox is just all about the MC suffering, in which case, gotta go with a female protagonist again.

 

[SpoiledPrince]

A female protagonist excludes all chances of M/M content in 99,9% of cases, so my interest in porn goes down the drain
I could still play hetero games and enjoy them that way (there´s still a nude male -or several- in there) but the chances of futa or lesbian content are too high, since a lot of hetero folks are into that, which is like cyanide for my personal libido.
That´s why before playing an Hetero/fem protagonist game I check the comments, looking for a good story that justifies the time investment, so the plot and drawing must be enjoyable even if I skip every single sex scene.

 

[SAFFID]

tl;dr a lot of us like to self insert but it can be situational.

Perfect summation of, not only your post specifically, but this thread in general. Could not agree more.

 

[Pretentious Goblin]

People keep saying they can't identify with a female protag, well I can't identify with any male protag either. Certainly not if he's handsome. Or confident. Or socially-competent in any way, shape or form. Or has a big willy. So might as well cut out the middleman and give me direct control over the real character of interest. The only games where I choose male protag are ones with indepth customization so I can recreate the pathetic creature I am irl, and Degrees of Lewdity is a good one thanks to all the opportunities for femdom.

 

[SAFFID]

When playing The Witcher, you think you're the Geralt, the white wolf yourself?

For me it's like a car. When I drive, I don't think that I'm a car, but a driver driving a car.

Unless the game is specifically have silent protagonist and choices do whatever within the world. But unfortunetly that type of games are pretty bad plot, story, character wise.

Geralt is already established character. Can't see myself immersing myself so much that I would think IAm a protagonist myself.

That's why I don't mind female protagonists. It's like driving a car. It's not me getting pummeled into the exhaust pipe, but a car. I'm just a passenger enjoying the view. I'm ok as long as I like the girl get to see some lewds. Not that much different than watching an adult movies, just more interactivity.

I understand what you are saying completely. I do not, however, understand how this relates to the comment you've chosen to quote. The comment you elected to quote (my comment) was not at all about IRL self immersion, but (and I think I explained this quite clearly) it was speaking to a sense of character development in very general terms, and what this sense of MC development does to the player's feeling of story progression (ie: female protagonist = internal journey of sexual self discovery, vs. male protagonist = external journey of sexual conquest.)

But be that as it may, your point still stands...
Do we, as players of these magnificent games, feel like we are the MC?
In my case, the answer is not so simple:
- When it comes to male protagonist games I do, to a somewhat certain degree, which is why I have issues with male MC games, given the fact that; if I am the protagonist, that means I am a douchebag womanizer, carelessly sticking my dick in any willing or unwilling broad with a pulse and a credit card number. This is of course a gross generalization of such games but in my experience it rings true for most male protagonist games.
- Do I, however, feel like I am the MC in a female protagonist game? The answer is suddenly not so simple anymore... I both do and I don't. I empathize with the MC to such an extent, that I feel like I am her. However, she is a she, and I am a he, which automatically and instantly removes me a bit from the MC. But this results in something interesting... because I am clearly not her, this allows me to distance myself from the character itself, to such an extent, that I feel like I can make choices more freely, which then counter-intuitively allows me a greater sense of general freedom of mind and sexual promiscuity. I can do whatever I want, cos I know it's not me. Which allows me to play the character free of ego and hence allows my true sexually deviant self to shine through. And THUS... I end up feeling more like myself. I feel more like myself playing a female protagonist than a male one.

JESUS! I did not even know I felt like that, I just kinda realized it as I was writing.

 

[SAFFID]

People keep saying they can't identify with a female protag, well I can't identify with any male protag either. Certainly not if he's handsome. Or confident. Or socially-competent in any way, shape or form. Or has a big willy. So might as well cut out the middleman and give me direct control over the real character of interest. The only games where I choose male protag are ones with indepth customization so I can recreate the pathetic creature I am irl, and Degrees of Lewdity is a good one thanks to all the opportunities for femdom.

Love you dude!

 

[fidless]

I understand what you are saying completely. I do not, however, understand how this relates to the comment you've chosen to quote. The comment you elected to quote (my comment) was not at all about IRL self immersion, but (and I think I explained this quite clearly) it was speaking to a sense of character development in very general terms, and what this sense of MC development does to the player's feeling of story progression (ie: female protagonist = internal journey of sexual self discovery, vs. male protagonist = external journey of sexual conquest.)

But be that as it may, your point still stands...
Do we, as players of these magnificent games, feel like we are the MC?
In my case, the answer is not so simple:
- When it comes to male protagonist games I do, to a somewhat certain degree, which is why I have issues with male MC games, given the fact that; if I am the protagonist, that means I am a douchebag womanizer, carelessly sticking my dick in any willing or unwilling broad with a pulse and a credit card number. This is of course a gross generalization of such games but in my experience it rings true for most male protagonist games.
- Do I, however, feel like I am the MC in a female protagonist game? The answer is suddenly not so simple anymore... I both do and I don't. I empathize with the MC to such an extent, that I feel like I am her. However, she is a she, and I am a he, which automatically and instantly removes me a bit from the MC. But this results in something interesting... because I am clearly not her, this allows me to distance myself from the character itself, to such an extent, that I feel like I can make choices more freely, which then counter-intuitively allows me a greater sense of general freedom of mind and sexual promiscuity. I can do whatever I want, cos I know it's not me. Which allows me to play the character free of ego and hence allows my true sexually deviant self to shine through. And THUS... I end up feeling more like myself. I feel more like myself playing a female protagonist than a male one.

JESUS! I did not even know I felt like that, I just kinda realized it as I was writing.

I was curious about how you view playing characters like "Geralt", that's all. You said you insert yourself into characters.
In contrast, when I play games, I can't. Unless they're completely "blank" boring characters without their own ideas, minds, and voices. (most Bethesda stuff for example)
For example Rance. It's not me going around raping women, but me playing a character and witnessing our story. If that makes sense. So playing games with a male or female protagonist is the same to me.

 

[wittnotyoyo]

I was curious about how you view playing characters like "Geralt", that's all. You said you insert yourself into characters.
In contrast, when I play games, I can't. Unless they're completely "blank" boring characters without their own ideas, minds, and voices. (most Bethesda stuff for example)
For example Rance. It's not me going around raping women, but me playing a character and witnessing our story. If that makes sense. So playing games with a male or female protagonist is the same to me.

Your example makes sense, it's interesting how different people experience these games.

I am more in the self-inserting camp. With an established character like "Geralt" it isn't like I see myself as him but within the confines of the game I am responsible for his actions. If the character wins a boss fight I take the credit, if the boss wins then I take the blame. If there is an option to burn down a village and I take it then that's on me.

If the rape in Rance is by MC choice then I couldn't see it as just a story playing out. If it isn't a choice then I'm probably best off skipping it.

I don't even know if I can enjoy a female MC game. From what I can tell they seem to almost all be built around corruption/blackmail/rape so I have only tried a few.