Female Protagonist vs. Male Protagonist

[LostKing]

If the game has a female protagonist I put the thread on ignore. Just have no interest in seeing the sex from that perspective.

Only for erotic games though, standard video games I love having a female protagonist and wish more games would.

 

[fidless]

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.

Well, yes. For choices, that's too, my choice. Geralt, Rance doing stuff is my choice, but I just can't see ME being them. IDK, probably it's confusing, but it just this is how I feel playing games. Easier to explain, it's 50% me, and 50% of the actual character of the game.
I guess it depends on the game also. For romance VN where the main character is blank nobody (most Japanese VN), I can see myself inserting somehow trying to live within that game universe.
But for "Rance", nah. He's just too much "Rance". He has too much presence of his own. He's just too much of a character to take his identity as my own.

 

[SAFFID]

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.

It makes complete sense. Thanks for clearing that up. And I'm with you. I also find it very interesting to try and understand how others view their roles in these games and how invested they get in the character. It's an interesting subject. Especially when dealing with a fluctuating factor such as MC gender.

 

[SAFFID]

HA! "MC Gender"! That sounds like a very hip SJW rapper-name.

 

[Fliptoynk]

Don't touch her
by MC Gender

(anita)
my, my, my, my
beauty hits me so hard
makes me say, aw mah lord
thank you, for blessing me
with a mind so fucked and two closed knees

it feels good, to put men down
a superdoped fem from the ole' down town
and I'm known, as such
and this is the biatch, yah can't touch

(men in the background)
I told you homeboy (don't touch her)
Yeah, that's how livid she is, and you know (don't touch her)
Don't look at her eyes, man!!! (don't touch her)
Yo, let's bust the outta here (don't touch her)

 

[ogr blanc]

I prefer male protagonist games for the same reason I play as a male in regular videogames if it's an option: I project myself onto the MC. So when I'm playing, often times I disregard the MC as a character and just view him as an extension of me. So in a game like Personal Trainer (just a random shoutout to a game I've enjoyed lately) it's not the MC that's sleeping with those women, it's me.

I don't disagree that a lot of games write their characters to be like creeps, but depending on my mood I could see myself going along with it. Or if I'm being perfectly candid, I just let it slide since that's not what I am personally playing the game for. A lot of these games for a lot of players is fantasy fulfilment

Also on a side reason that's much less relevant, I just don't like Female Protag games because I prefer games where there are multiple women to have sex with, where a FP game is the reverse and instead just switches up the men (other than lesbian content but that's not really something I go out of my way for.)

yeah, im the same, i have no problem playing as female in many games, tomb raider, order of ecclesia, and many others, however, when given a chance, i tend to go the male mc route. BUT, when it comes to ero games, its a diferent story, i just dont enjoy playing as female characters, its kinda like ntr games, i just dont enjoy those routes/games. as for being seedy, it really depends on the game, i would even argue that female mcs are the worst when it come to this, as most are heavy into rape stuff.
and those that do not, have the slutty route be the main one.

 

[LewdCatgirl]

I tend to prefer female protagonists. Though to be honest I tend to prefer female PCs who start off lewd rather than those who start off innocent and feel shame and all that so it's for different reasons to the OP.

Part of it is that male protagonists are often creepy/rapey. Like I see "immersion" getting brought up in this thread but there's no way I can immense myself in the perspective of these awful people who see women as trash. It's much easier to imagine myself as a woman who shares a similar mindset to me than to imagine myself as a man who does not.

But that's not all of it. There are after all still many male PCs that aren't rapists but I often still prefer females. Part of it is that I'm not really interested in a male's sexual adventures if that makes sense? Like with a female PC if she's having sex three times a day that's interesting to me but if a man is having sex three times a day that doesn't arouse me - the individual encounters with women might still be good but the combined context of all these different sexual acts taken together doesn't. I don't care about the sex life of a man who isn't me.
And the fact that with a female MC, everyone is a potentially sexy encounter since men result in straight sex and women in lesbian sex is also a plus.

My ideal protagonist is female, intelligent, ambitious and really lewd (and not like becoming a bimbo or anything, being intelligent and lewd at the same time). Like a sorcerer girl in a fantasy world searching for the secret to immortality while fucking everyone she's interested in and ending up with a bunch of kids as apprentices to help her work. Or like a harvest moon style game where you make a great farm and fuck everyone in the village.

I do have a strong impregnation/pregnancy fetish but the female MC getting pregnant can definitely fill that need.

That being said there are some male PC games I do enjoy such as Haramase Quest (though I wish it was less rapey and didn't have the HFF organisation thing) or the male campaign in Love and Sex: Second Base (Bree is best girl).

 

[CorwinFr]

First of all this is a very interesting thread.

I mainly play Female protagonist for these reason :

- I'm very excited by how a wife life can be and how a woman can become a bitch / slut for her personal interest or by corruption / blackmail.

My favorites are Leave2gether games, Defenestration, Unyelding (I hate this game and love it, to much text vs few CG BUT I like a lot the concept)

- Male protagonist game are often boring cause it's just "how fuck them all" se I like few Male protagonist game like :
Ravager, Dr Bones'games, ... quite all male protagonist with incest tag (OMG I'm a fucking perv...)

 

[SAFFID]

Don't touch her
by MC Gender

(anita)
my, my, my, my
beauty hits me so hard
makes me say, aw mah lord
thank you, for blessing me
with a mind so fucked and two closed knees

it feels good, to put men down
a superdoped fem from the ole' down town
and I'm known, as such
and this is the biatch, yah can't touch

(men in the background)
I told you homeboy (don't touch her)
Yeah, that's how livid she is, and you know (don't touch her)
Don't look at her eyes, man!!! (don't touch her)
Yo, let's bust the outta here (don't touch her)

Holy shit! We gots da real MC Gender up in this bitch... Bow thine heads in respect moddafuckars! Cos he be bustin mad rhymes, spitting truth to the public. Oh lordy lord, mad inspiration, mad talent, madness.

You're awesome dude. You just made my day!

We should start a rap group, man! A leftist, SJW, abstinence-preaching, feminist, hard-core rap group... A modern day Wu Tang Clan, if you will.

 

[SAFFID]

First of all this is a very interesting thread.

I mainly play Female protagonist for these reason :

- I'm very excited by how a wife life can be and how a woman can become a bitch / slut for her personal interest or by corruption / blackmail.

My favorites are Leave2gether games, Defenestration, Unyelding (I hate this game and love it, to much text vs few CG BUT I like a lot the concept)

- Male protagonist game are often boring cause it's just "how fuck them all" se I like few Male protagonist game like :
Ravager, Dr Bones'games, ... quite all male protagonist with incest tag (OMG I'm a fucking perv...)

Agree with you completely.

You must be registered to see the links

 

[ogr blanc]

I tend to prefer female protagonists. Though to be honest I tend to prefer female PCs who start off lewd rather than those who start off innocent and feel shame and all that so it's for different reasons to the OP.

Part of it is that male protagonists are often creepy/rapey. Like I see "immersion" getting brought up in this thread but there's no way I can immense myself in the perspective of these awful people who see women as trash. It's much easier to imagine myself as a woman who shares a similar mindset to me than to imagine myself as a man who does not.

But that's not all of it. There are after all still many male PCs that aren't rapists but I often still prefer females. Part of it is that I'm not really interested in a male's sexual adventures if that makes sense? Like with a female PC if she's having sex three times a day that's interesting to me but if a man is having sex three times a day that doesn't arouse me - the individual encounters with women might still be good but the combined context of all these different sexual acts taken together doesn't. I don't care about the sex life of a man who isn't me.
And the fact that with a female MC, everyone is a potentially sexy encounter since men result in straight sex and women in lesbian sex is also a plus.

My ideal protagonist is female, intelligent, ambitious and really lewd (and not like becoming a bimbo or anything, being intelligent and lewd at the same time). Like a sorcerer girl in a fantasy world searching for the secret to immortality while fucking everyone she's interested in and ending up with a bunch of kids as apprentices to help her work. Or like a harvest moon style game where you make a great farm and fuck everyone in the village.

I do have a strong impregnation/pregnancy fetish but the female MC getting pregnant can definitely fill that need.

That being said there are some male PC games I do enjoy such as Haramase Quest (though I wish it was less rapey and didn't have the HFF organisation thing) or the male campaign in Love and Sex: Second Base (Bree is best girl).

i would argue that your "ideal mc" is VERY specific, even the "lewd" part, alot of games with female characters actually make them out to be even seedier than most male mcs, to the point of calling them sluts is just being generous.

on the other hand, there are alot of seedy rapey male mcs, but there as many, if not more, male mcs that are closer to what you are looking for in a female mc, it really depends on the game.

it also doesnt help that many female mcs have games that are basically lose=rape, and you are severely underpowered on purpose.

and for every SU, taffy and cohabitation, there are those games where the mc is either a normal dude who is into sex, like summer time, aurelia and mythic manor or just given a choice to not be an asshole, like four elements trainer, glassix or long live the princess.

 

[PrimeX]

In porn games I only play male protagonists. But in other video games in general, even though I still tend to prefer male protagonists, I don't mind playing female protagonists, as long as there's little to no romance involved. Horizon Zero Dawn, Tomb Raider series, Tales of Berseria, and Bloodstained Ritual of the Night, to name a few of these great games.

 

[7layla]

Female characters are mostly whores/sluts, but I like the game only if there is a slow corruption process and some emotion in it.
Male characters are either extreme toxic douches or extreme betas

 

[7layla]

anyway when i play a female protagonist game i cannot let the girl fucked by anyone ... i don't know why iam over protective for her but i really tried many game because when i play with a girl i consider my self the girl and that's wrong so i avoided

but when i play as male i feel like iam in a new world with new girls to discover them

but believe me you problem is simple if what you are saying is true that the problem with character development and the story
then ..
why don't you just try the right male protagonist game ??

let me as you another question if you are watching a porn movie so do you consider yourself the male who is fucking the girl
or the female who is being fucked my the man (of course you are the male) unless you watching it as a third person too

then maybe you are just a voyeurism (discover what you really like and you will be more stasified with the game you play )

@Avaron1974
you specially should avoid female protagonist games because
-most of them about the female getting raped
-the rest about a lesbian woman turned to be a straight woman
-every female western game until now developed for male too
-they are mixing tastes and making it impossible
-so me as a male and have no experience about lesbians i could get the wrong impression

excatly

 

[KeypressingMonkey]

I usually prefer playing male characters unless the game is well-made with an actual storyline instead of just giving us a female character as a novelty.

 

[Lunamaria]

I completely avoid male protagonist games. I can't even think of one where I liked the guy and wanted to see his journey. The guys are always bland or over the top in a bad way and the girls are brain dead and let sex with this one guy completely shape their life.

 

[SAFFID]

Just checking in with this thread again, only to see, that Female Protagonists are still in front in the poll (58 percent to 42). So can we maybe get the creators to make more female MC driven games? I, for one, would be much appreciative.

 

[Joshua Tree]

Just checking in with this thread again, only to see, that Female Protagonists are still in front in the poll (58 percent to 42). So can we maybe get the creators to make more female MC driven games? I, for one, would be much appreciative.

Tbh, think we would need some "female" creators to make some good stories/games with female protags, because, most "male" creators struggle even make good male protag/stories, and end up compensate with giant schlongs...

 

[SAFFID]

Tbh, think we would need some "female" creators to make some good stories/games with female protags, because, most "male" creators struggle even make good male protag/stories, and end up compensate with giant schlongs...

Yeah... The infamous "Big Dick Phenomenon". I know it only too well. It's currently ruining one of my favorite games, "Fragile Innocence". It was such a promising game, but as it progresses, you realize that everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, in this universe just has elephant sized dicks. That kinda ruins it for me. And don't get me wrong, I enjoy a big clopper of a triple-A sausage as much as the next man, but this is ridiculous.

 

[SecretSal]

There does seem to be a decent number of female protagonist games these days. I don't really play too many of them myself (Lily of the Valley is one exception, tried A Wife and Mother but didn't care for any of the main LIs - mostly either kids or predators). But since there's no shortage of male protagonist games, I appreciate the diversity.

Although I agree that too many of these games just have the woman as a victim of abuse/manipulation, which isn't that interesting a perspective. Always better for me to play a character with agency who can influence a story rather than just endure whatever gets thrown at them. It's interesting that the few female devs I'm aware of (Nottravis, Tlaero) primarily have male protagonists or optional male/female characters but with mostly 'male gaze' perspectives. But I guess that's the safest route to take for an indie dev.