What are your thoughts on games with female protagonist?

[d1Polterghost]

Here is my problem with games with female protagonist. Whenever I play as a woman I try to protect her, do not let any sex scene even to happen, especially those forced ones. This makes the whole experience pointless and is turning me off. Its like a fathers instinct is kicking in. Also a game in which a woman likes to fuck with different men feels like a game for women. Because of all that Im skipping every game with 'female protagonist' tag (which is a lot I noticed).
What are your thoughts on games like this? How do you enjoy them?

 

[Hadley]

I don't play Female Protag games, I can't roleplay a female.

 

[fidless]

Corrupt innocent nice girl into a slut, toss her, find a new game, repeat. That's what most RPGM games are about. I haven't seen a single RPGM game which would cater to female audience even though MCs are mostly females. You're not suppose to pretent that you're a girl playing those games.
I never roleplay female. A suggestion that you roleplay MC sounds weird. I can only roleplay games with voiceless MC in RPG setting like skyrim where MC has no character development.
VN which invests a lot into character development and story are different. Mostly it's Japanese otome games. The storytelling is different and how the subject is approached is different. Those are games which I would not play. Most of the time it's more about making a player feel like girl instead of corruption.
Most men who play female MC treat those games as playing with "tamagochi". It's not about roleplaying and living your fantasy as a girl.

 

[Stompai]

Here is my problem with games with female protagonist. Whenever I play as a woman I try to protect her, do not let any sex scene even to happen, especially those forced ones. This makes the whole experience pointless and is turning me off. Its like a fathers instinct is kicking in. Also a game in which a woman likes to fuck with different men feels like a game for women. Because of all that Im skipping every game with 'female protagonist' tag (which is a lot I noticed).
What are your thoughts on games like this? How do you enjoy them?

It depend from each person I guess. Guy above said he can't roleplay as a female.

For me it's mostly a mindset "change of setting" if I can call it like that.
When I play a male mc game, I immerse with the male protagonist in a kind of wish fulfillment way.

When I play female protagonist game on the other hand, I'm more in a external mindset, I am some kind of omniscient watcher who control the action of that girl. switching from "being" the character to "controlling" the character.

A bit complicated to explain, my brain do it on its own and manage to dissociate itself when it come to female mc.
That's why I also don't mind *cough* enjoy *cough* when "terrible things" happen to a female mc in corruption themed games for example. Because for me, these things are happening to her, not to me.

 

[lancelotdulak]

The only ones i played and liked were Jessies sins and AWAM. The others all seem to be blah

 

[d1Polterghost]

It depend from each person I guess. Guy above said he can't roleplay as a female.

For me it's mostly a mindset "change of setting" if I can call it like that.
When I play a male mc game, I immerse with the male protagonist in a kind of wish fulfillment way.

When I play female protagonist game on the other hand, I'm more in a external mindset, I am some kind of omniscient watcher who control the action of that girl. switching from "being" the character to "controlling" the character.

A bit complicated to explain, my brain do it on its own and manage to dissociate itself when it come to female mc.
That's why I also don't mind *cough* enjoy *cough* when "terrible things" happen to a female mc in corruption themed games for example. Because for me, these things are happening to her, not to me.

I fully agree with this. I have the exact same problem. I cant roleplay as a woman or fully immerse myself in a game like that and Im not talking about only porn games. I cant even understand dudes who prefer to play as a woman in a RPG for example. "I prefer to look at womans ass all day rather than mans ass" they say but that just feels weird. You are that character, you are looking at your own ass. Do they want to fuck a female version of themselves? Thats narcissistic as fuck imo. I saw a streamer who always makes his avatar to look like his girlfriend. Feels like unhealthy obsession and problems with ego to me.

 

[fidless]

I fully agree with this. I have the exact same problem. I cant roleplay as a woman or fully immerse myself in a game like that and Im not talking about only porn games. I cant even understand dudes who prefer to play as a woman in a RPG for example. "I prefer to look at womans ass all day rather than mans ass" they say but that just feels weird. You are that character, you are looking at your own ass. Do they want to fuck a female version of themselves? Thats narcissistic as fuck imo. I saw a streamer who always makes his avatar to look like his girlfriend. Feels like unhealthy obsession and problems with ego to me.

Maybe they see that character as a bunch of pixels nothing more?

 

[d1Polterghost]

Maybe they see that character as a bunch of pixels nothing more?

Maybe, that would be sad tho. Immersion is big part of enjoyment.

 

[Deleted member 229118]

My thoughts:
They exist.

On a more serious note.
90% of the time i dont care for female protaganist.
The remaining 10% of the time i am trying to playing one as a yandere.
Obsessed with making her master happy.
Enslave woman for her master, help maintaining his harem, backstab and betray her family for him, etc.
You know crazy.

Playing as obsessive woman who crave's her master approval is fun.
Anything less then insane would just bore me.

 

[Kinderalpha]

Most of them assume the role as the player being a spectator of the female MC, acting as somebody who watches the female undergo sexual trials and tribulations. Not the player trying to insert themselves into that role like in a male MC game. So they both play differently, and I understand why some people would be put off from each. RPGM is most popular for using female MC because by default the lens you play the game through is more outward than inward. Giving more of a spectator feeling.

I prefer female MC's because I prefer the spectator role. When I play games where I'm suppose to level with a male MC or be more involved, nine out of ten times the writer will make the male MC do or think things that don't follow in-line with my personal thoughts or opinions on the matter. Therefore creating this gap between me and the male protagonist I'm seeing the world through. Kinda like first-person vs third-person story telling. I prefer third.

Edit: misuse of protagonist vs main character

 

[ThisIsMe88]

Maybe, that would be sad tho. Immersion is big part of enjoyment.

I'll never understand people who attempt to over-rationalize gamers' behaviours and preferences.

I quasi exclusively play games with female protagonists nowadays, and I am a heterosexual male who has never had any issues in the bedroom. I used to spend quite some time playing tabletop in my youth, so I haven't got any issues either immersing myself into ANY character, should it be an attack helicopter, if the story/setting is any good.

To expand some more on eroge and on the topic at hand, since that's what people care about in this thread, for me to enjoy them they need to have an interesting story, aimed at a mature audience, and ideally inventive gameplay. I just happen to find more of such games with female protagonists than the opposite. Not saying they're all good, far from it, but the usual "Let's have a quickie with dumb sluts" trope present in the vast majority of male protagonist eroge just doesn't cut it any more for me.

To illustrate this, I have yet to see the "sexualized" gameplay of let's say the

You must be registered to see the links

genre declined to the other side. If you care to have a look at the one of the most high-voted (and one of my personal favorite) eroge games ever,

You must be registered to see the links

, which has a male protagonist, you'll notice that it has great gameplay/story, but the erotic bits of it are as trivial as a succession of harem CGs : hero sees woman, hero fucks woman, game switches back to non "sexualized" gameplay, before proceeding to the next iteration. This gets stale quickly, and I might as well play a (good but) standard, non-eroge strategy/RPG game instead.

Incidentally, I also am of the crowd that very much prefers to watch the ass of a female toon if I have to play a game for any extended time. To me those are just pixels on a computer screen though, as appealing as they may be, and everyone should be able to make the distinction between what happens in a game and reality.

Anyway, what are you going to do about it ? Quite like with fetishes (as long as they remain legal), you won't convince people that they are "wrong", because... that's like your opinion, and nothing more. Find me some interesting games with male protagonists, and I'll have a look to see if I can enjoy them, sure.

 

[ThisIsMe88]

Most of them assume the role as the player being a spectator of the female protagonist, acting as somebody who watches the female undergo sexual trials and tribulations. Not the player trying to insert themselves into that role like in a male protagonist game. So they both play differently, and I understand why some people would be put off from each. RPGM is most popular for using female protagonists because by default the lens you play the game through is more outward than inward. Giving more of a spectator feeling.

I prefer female protagonist because I prefer the spectator role. When I play games where I'm suppose to level with a male protagonist or be more active, nine out of ten times the writer will make the male protagonist do or think things that don't follow in-line with my personal thoughts or opinions on the matter. Therefore creating this gap between me and the male protagonist I'm seeing the world through. Kinda like first-person vs third-person story telling. I prefer third.

That is more or less also my stance on the topic.

Being a male, I can't exactly imagine myself *being* the female toon on my computer screen, but I can chose to *care* about her (or not) as some kind of narrator (granted with near-divine load/save powers) of the story that I wish to unwind.

 

[Stompai]

To illustrate this, I have yet to see the "sexualized" gameplay of let's say the

You must be registered to see the links

genre declined to the other side.

Find me some interesting games with male protagonists, and I'll have a look to see if I can enjoy them, sure.

Try this : tales of androgyny. but it's special ^^
Violated "heroine" on the other side. Sexualized gameplay
"male" protagonist

 

[Kiroshi]

For me its all about immersion - i always liked to read and put myself in the protagonist shoes - its impossible if MC gender is (or species ) other than mine thats all , no matter he/she is robot/allien/tentacle monster/femprot .

 

[d1Polterghost]

Incidentally, I also am of the crowd that very much prefers to watch the ass of a female toon if I have to play a game for any extended time. To me those are just pixels on a computer screen though, as appealing as they may be, and everyone should be able to make the distinction between what happens in a game and reality.

Here's a thing. Lets say you play an RPG with romance options (Mass Effect/Dragon Age style or whatever). Would you rather choose male character and pick up chicks or choose female to look at that butt. If you would go with female, would you rather romance the lesbian chicks or straight boys?
Personally I always pick male character whenever I can.

 

[Stompai]

Here's a thing. Lets say you play an RPG with romance options (Mass Effect/Dragon Age style or whatever). Would you rather choose male character and pick up chicks or choose female to look at that butt. If you would go with female, would you rather romance the lesbian chicks or straight boys?
Personally I always pick male character whenever I can.

While AAA games, with up to hundreds of people working on it, are a bit different compared to indy eroge games found on this forum, it's also an issue related to the Genre on those game, RPG : Role Playing.
Some have the ability to Role Play, no matter if it's as a male / female / AH-64 Apache / whatever.
Some don't and/or are limited to same sex immersion.
It's not really an issue actually, some are more naturally (or with training) open-minded and manage to do it, some aren't.
In the end it's the freedom of the player to choose what / how he want to play.

For exemple I'm a fan of mass effect / dragon age as well and I did several playthrough with different characters, romancing different npc as well. And I never questioned myself neither did it change anything irl.

 

[Kinderalpha]

Here's a thing. Lets say you play an RPG with romance options (Mass Effect/Dragon Age style or whatever). Would you rather choose male character and pick up chicks or choose female to look at that butt. If you would go with female, would you rather romance the lesbian chicks or straight boys?
Personally I always pick male character whenever I can.

See my post above as to why this logic doesn't apply in those examples. In Mass Effect the games narrative is being told through the lens of the main character. Therefore, you are expected to roleplay or put yourself in the place of that character. So yes, I would choose a male character in a game like that.

The narrative lens between a game like Mass Effect and an RPGM is significantly different. In Mass Effect the writer expects you to associate yourself with the main character and make relatable choices. In RPGM, most writers expect you to not associate yourself with the main character, but mediate the events around the main character instead. That's why their also written from a spectator view instead of a first person view.

Edit: misuse of protagonist vs main character

 

[Iramis]

Regardless of the gender of the MC I don't really self insert myself into the game, it's always a character I'm controlling. It's more about relatability and how compelling I find a character (depending on the game), a hypocritical asshole MC, or a MC who makes erratic and stupid decisions is more immersion breaking than their gender.

One of the reasons for playing games, reading books, etc, for me is to experience things that you can't in real life, these games have themes like incest, scifi, fantasy, mindcontrol, blackmail, rape, corruption, etc which are not things I would deal with in real life, the games allow me to indulge in these via narratives and worlds constructed by the creators, playing as a female protagonist is a similar thing.

Also the fun factor, male protagonists just seem so boring to me, if given the option I always go for female protagonist even in mainstream games like Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Skyrim, Saints Row, and even Dark Souls where it is just irrelevant, it's personal preference I guess. Also don't have problem with my character romancing anyone (M/F/non human), I would go for every single target if possible, although in games like mass effect that would require many playthroughs so I just decide on one or two.

And on a final note, forced scenes aside, IMO if you don't let any sex scenes happen then you are not "protecting" the FMC, you're just not letting her have sex. Imagine if the female protagonist was the target in a male MC game, I doubt most people protecting the FMC would have problem in that scenario, you don't want the character to do anything or something to happen to them, you want to be the one doing the thing, whatever it is, which is totally fine, people interact with media in different ways, no one way is the correct one, it's all valid, I just find it limiting.

 

[Lemon Mint]

I like me a good "female protagonist that gets fucked by everyone and everything"-type RPG from time to time. I don't think you're supposed to get really immersed in those.

Beside those, I don't think I've played more than a couple of VNs with female protagonists, but I don't have anything against those either. They are a nice change of pace, and I should try reading more of them. And maybe write one too!

 

[polywog]

PC - Player Character
MC - Main Character
Protagonist
Antagonist
are not interchangeable

You must be registered to see the links