POLL: Do self insert, roleplay as the MC, or just play games with a third person mentality?

Pick one or more

  • Self insert - the MC is YOU

    Votes: 102 41.6%
  • Roleplay - You get into the role of the MC and pick reasonable choices that make sense for this char

    Votes: 111 45.3%
  • Third person - You are just reading a story and have some powers to guide characters

    Votes: 102 41.6%

  • Total voters
    245

Janice Davis

Newbie
Sep 27, 2020
94
140
I almost always roleplay. It's more fun to imagine myself doing some of those crazy things, even the things I would never do in real life.
 

chainedpanda

Active Member
Jun 26, 2017
622
1,086
I prefer self insert 100% of the time. The issue is that the majority of games makes it difficult to do so. Mostly due to poor decisions or dialogue etc. As a result, I tend to roleplay more than self insert out of necessity rather than preference.
 
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Ertomanto

New Member
Nov 25, 2018
5
1
The thing is, It's not easy to find a game where you can self-insert as a male. Most of the male main characters has their own personality, they speak too much. I always self-insert IF possible otherwise i won't play. Although most likely the games are %100 meant to be non player-insert so... Even some games lets me customize everything about my character(of course i'll be using my own name), but then ruin everything by making him talk nonsense too much.

Here is a good game example where you can perfectly self-insert:
The Dead End
I do whatever i want, whenever i want. It's your canon story... Not someone else's
 

zuulan

Member
Oct 12, 2020
182
162
I 75% roleplay 25% self-insert. Thought i agree with most of the previous posters there is not much games where you can self-insert. I can roleplay both genders, but never futa some reason. If i roloplay female character i prefer to roleplay her as a wholesome woman, thought i can also play slutty or semi lose morals.
 
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LewdCatgirl

Member
Aug 16, 2018
153
222
Yeah I'm also somewhere in the range of roleplaying to self-inserting. Like I can do things I wouldn't do in real life, play both genders, etc. But I have very little interest in playing, for instance, a rapist protagonist
 

haksaw

Member
Oct 10, 2019
141
172
I never self insert, but two other options highly depend on protag. If he's a cool guy who takes no shit from anyone and rapes all the girls he sees, like Rance, then I roleplay as him. If he's a whimpy creeper or clueless virgin-kun, then I just look at his sorry ass from afar.
 

♍VoidTraveler

Forum Fanatic
Apr 14, 2021
5,380
13,837
I never even thought about this. :unsure::coffee:

I guess it's like 50% self-insert and 50% roleplay.
I am becoming someone else but at the same time, i am always myself.
Meanwhile, the role matters not as long as i find it fun to assume this role.
It also matters not whether it's RL or not, for even in RL we are merely assuming roles and playing them.
Life is a game too, after all.

Like, if i am becoming a mage, i will be a mage, but also be myself. Being myself is an unbreakable rule of mine you see.
So, be my mage-self, is probably the most accurate expression and explanation. :giggle::coffee:
 

desmosome

Conversation Conqueror
Sep 5, 2018
6,124
14,130
In hindsight, I should have probably limited the vote to a single choice and prompted people to pick their preferred playstyle. It's quite a bit harder to interpret the data with multiple votes. One thing that's certain is that there are much more self inserters in the general population of porn gamers compared to the NTR-fan subset (which I made a similar POLL for in another thread).
 

Mad_Doc

Member
Game Developer
Jul 5, 2022
227
431
Roleplay if the male protagonist is somewhat defined, has his own goals, personality etc.
Self-insert if the male protagonist is almost completely a blank slate.
Third-person if the protagonist is female ^^("corruption" games).
 

hakarlman

Engaged Member
Jul 30, 2017
2,093
3,266
Always self-insert. That's why I only play games where the MC is a white, heterosexual, retro-sexual male. If he acts or even has a choice to act like a simp, if there is even a hint of NTR, even an avoidable or optional one, I delete it at once. If there's no romance with a virgin, I delete it at once, even if it's a triple A game of the year.
I'm actually making a game with huge amounts of HAREM and NTR content. The Harem path caters to your exact mentality. I specifically ensure that simp options aren't even shown based upon the decisions you make, because to even present the option would be offensive to your style; I understand that and took that into consideration. However, the game is filled to the god damn brim with NTR content (You won't get cucked or NTR'ed as long as you're constantly manning up and not acting like a bitch). Is that enough to make you not play it, even though the game specifically has a path designed for your precise mentality, that would cater perfectly to your pure and utter hatred and disgust for NTR? The game has male competition, so your competing against other males to win the virgin women over. You don't even have to respond, if you're okay with the game I'm making, how about just liking my post? Your perspective is very important to me. If you wouldn't even play the kind of game I'm making, you can just facepalm my post? Thx.
 
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Sphere42

Active Member
Sep 9, 2018
926
972
Picked 3rd person because that's what I actually do but usually I consider that a flaw of the game as I'd like to do one of the other two. But "what would this character do" takes far too much effort in proper characterisation and consistency within mandatory scenes. Meanwhile both direct self-inserting and "escapist self-insert" i.e. roleplaying as a completely custom character quickly hit limitations in the game being unable to account for what an arbitrarily-minded character might try to do.
 

hakarlman

Engaged Member
Jul 30, 2017
2,093
3,266
I voted for all 3. I can enjoy all 3. I have favorite games that span all three choices.

Self Insert - Can be fun, but is the most difficult to pull off, because you need to have a lot of options to cater to different personas.

RP a character - This is just another form of fun gameplay. I don't see this as conflicting with a Self Insert. It's just a different form of gameplay. I can do this or self insert, both can be fun.

Third Person - This can also be fun. I'd say that this gameplay type won't bring you as close to the scenes, and for some people, it might make accepting controversial content more acceptable. Also, if you're playing as the female protagonist, then you won't self insert, this third person perspective would be used, although I have seen some games where you can play as the female protagonist and choose whether the game refers to her as YOU(first person) or as HER(Third person).

If I had to choose one, I would choose SELF INSERT, because it's the most immersive and can bring you the closest to the content, but probably hardest to pull off right; and this is not too far from RP'ing a character. I'd even go as far as to put SELF INSERT and RP'iNG a character in the same category, because for development purposes, you might not be able to put in a lot of different choices to make a fully fledged self insert game; so going with a standard RP based on the game world and having limited choices is fine too, even if they don't fully align with my personal views, I can step outside my own biases and views.
 
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zuulan

Member
Oct 12, 2020
182
162
In realy hard to find 5 games thay allow self insert. but Masters of Raana is definitely one, and its also my favorite game so far. I was around when it had 0 graphics. But it has good Sandbox variety and you can quite choose your gameplay, type of character and how you treat your girls.
 

TwoSeven13

Newbie
Sep 24, 2022
75
126
I don't self insert. Even in first person games, its just not something that seems natural or makes sense to me. Its not me, its a game, and I'm controlling the character on the screen.

Ideally, I like to play 3rd person and have the characters make interesting choices to progress a fun story, and then watch fun sexy times happen. Its a great outlet to explore fantasy situations that I would or could never do in real life.
 

Zero1994

Member
Sep 17, 2021
122
161
Never insert myself with the hot garbage that are the 90% protagonists of this site, I prefer to read as a voyer in the third person

Greetings
 

SoulsSurvivor

Member
Oct 27, 2018
149
540
For me personally it's a matter of what the game is trying to achieve with the mc as I'm playing. I self insert if the mc is a blank canvas, I roleplay if the mc has a defined character, and I have a third-person perspective if the mc solely exists to be a way to view scenes.
 
Jul 11, 2017
39
85
I don't think I ever imagine characters in games (porn or otherwise) to be me, nor do I go out of my way to play them as if they were me, but I will tend to make choices that align with my real world preferences at least where a few things are concerned, especially when it comes to porn games. For instance, I don't have any desire to play a homosexual MC, nor do I have any desire to roleplay one. I don't know if that qualifies as some degree of self-insertion or not.

Ideally, I'd probably prefer to have a game well-crafted and immersive enough to be able to roleplay the MC based on that character and the world, plot, story, events, etc. of the game. But more often than not, I don't find that porn games tend to be all that immersive or well-crafted enough, and usually end up in the third-person mentality, as you put it.
 
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