Shades of Gay is Brig’s culture sections pride month celebration of queer culture, with two articles each week focusing on queer poetry, writing, reviews and artists.
I’ve always been fascinated with video games – everything about them, especially all the human elements. I think a lot about why designers create levels in the way they do and how people react and respond to these choices. Player choices are fascinating and pretty much unique to video games (though there are analogues and similarities to tabletop roleplaying games) and these decisions often start as soon as we boot up a game for the first time – who will we choose to play as? I thought pride month would be a perfect chance to celebrate the diversity of players and characters.
Many games have some degree of character customisation, and a fundamental part of this is always: boy or girl? Unfortunately, there are almost no video games where you can select outside this binary, though increasingly, there are options that are getting there (which is going to become increasingly relevant when we look at the data).
I had a burning curiosity – who chooses what gender, and why? So, I asked, and 121 people responded to my plea for insight. People were candid, insightful, and generous with their opinions and thoughts, and I think the data I gathered paints an interesting picture.
Perhaps predictably, most people play characters with a mix of genders – 34% chose this option. Most of the rest of the respondents usually or always play characters that are the same gender they are – 31% and 15% respectively, whereas just 15% usually play a different gender and 5% always play a different gender.
A running theme through people’s choices was voice acting and aesthetics – 28 respondents mentioned either or both as key deciding factors. Shepard from Mass Effect, and various Assassin’s Creed protagonists were frequently mentioned as examples of superior female voice acting, and several people also mentioned finding that female characters have more interesting customisation options (having the coolest hair was a concern for multiple people). “Often there are more fashion options designed for female characters, while male characters are stuck with boring options,” said an anonymous person.
Quite a lot of people also base their choices around roleplaying decisions. It was relatively common to have a character idea (or an original character design (OC)) for a game and create them specifically. Sometimes this was tied to a mechanical element, e.g. the smaller, slimmer design of female characters suiting rogues or spell-casting characters.
Most of the people who always play a character of a different gender did so for escapism reasons. Sovereign, a non-binary person, said “I can make them look like what I wish I looked like.” A female respondent who wished to remain nameless put it quite succinctly: “I want to either love my character or live a life I can’t.” Mathieu said it allows him to “experiment in a reality that is as disjointed from mine as possible.” Cis male respondent Andi said “When I was younger I chose to play as a female character, wherever possible, because that struck me as the most interesting thing to do. Daft to be given the choice and not take it. Games are toys: have as much fun with them as you can.”
The folks who usually play a different gender of character have a variety of reasons for their choice. Multiple people of all genders stated that they do not feel very represented by the default characters of their gender (usually men who don’t define themselves as ‘masculine’ and women who do not feel ‘girly’).
Andi, cis male respondent, was particularly passionate on this issue. “One of the most exasperating aspects of traditional masculinity – and there was a lot of this about in the late 80s and 90s, when I was growing up – is the absolute insistence that you cannot take a day off. Always be making the man-choice. Perform, perform, perform; don’t fuck about. This has always struck me as stupid in every part of life, but never more so than at playtime.” This sentiment was echoed across respondents and underlines the importance of games as a place to escape societal pressures.
Sébastien, a trans man, also commented on how physical stereotypes can evoke the sense of a character, “Recently saw a trans guy mention he resonates with the ‘thief type’ in games and I get that! He mostly talked about body type but I have some additional thoughts about how a body in a game can carry fantasies of skill and capability and helpfulness instead of domination and I feel like a lot of male characters look like they are created for the latter and it never sits right with me.”
It was also common to choose a character deliberately not alike so as to create a definite character to play rather than feeling like a self-insert. One anonymous respondent said, “I think if I choose a masc character (I present as fem) it makes it more impersonal, and therefore I feel like I can build up more of a story around that character.” Rachel, a mostly cis female respondent said “I love playing as a man. When I start with this option it feels like every choice I make has more thought put into it because I’m creating a person distinctly removed from others’ perception of me. This is especially the case in games with romance plots or options.”
For those who choose to usually or always play as a character of the same gender as themselves, immersion was a key factor. Thomas, a cis male respondent said “In general I create characters that reflect me because it helps me with immersion.” Elloa, a cis woman said “I prefer to play female characters. I get attached to my female characters. I feel that they are an extension of me, expressing one aspect of who I am.”
Something that frequently came up for female respondents was the fact that games in the past always dictated a male avatar, and so choosing a female character now feels like an act of rebellion. “Growing up I was always forced to play as a man, and I still am 90% of the time,” says Siân, a cis woman, “so if the option is ever there I will always pick a woman. A good example is even though Dorian is one of my favourite companions in DAI, I’ve never romanced him as I just won’t play as a man. It almost feels like a ‘screw you’ to the system.”
This sentiment was echoed by multiple respondents, including an anonymous one who said “I am cis female and LOVE being the girl character! It stems from playing games in the 90s being excited when there was one choice that was a lady rather than the usual zero. It was thrilling to ‘be myself’ in screen instead of through the veneer of a another bloke.”
Several other very interesting trends and topics were brought up multiple times – several male respondents mentioned the idea that they play mainly as male characters because they found the idea of men playing women just to ogle them uncomfortable. “I was always kind of skeeved out by guys that exclusively pick the female option in games, especially ones where they can dress them up. It feels a little male gazey,” said Sam.
A male respondent. Lewis, another male respondent said, “I have heard straight guys say that they play as girls because if they’re going to be looking at someone’s backside for 8-12 hours they would rather it be appealing.” The only person who admitted to this was a female respondent who said “I think I tend to choose a character I would like to look at while playing.” While no males openly admitted to this being a factor, males who always or usually play as females frequently cited their frustration at boring male character creators as a reason. “Female characters also tend to have much better customization and outfit options,” said Elliot, a cis male. Nenyi, also a cis male, said “Generally, the options for female customisation are more robust so I can make a female character that I just like the look and style of.”
Multiple people of various genders stated that they found character creation a barrier to entry into games, so in the past had cemented a character in their mind that they simply created an approximation of in every new game. This is an approach familiar to me personally and I frequently make very similar characters in all the games I play.
A factor which drew the ire of people across the board was any content, particularly plot content or mechanical benefit tied to gender selection – Rachel said “There’s nothing more frustrating than content of a game being locked behind your choice of gender. I’ve quit games due to this before. Whether it’s romance options, dialogue choices, or gender locked gear/clothing. It feels unnecessary and honestly looks like more work for the game makers when the only people who notice are those who tried to take a certain path and were turned away.”
However, there are some people who would argue that particularly when it comes to romance options, choices should be gated by the gender of a player character, otherwise NPCs risk being “main character-sexual”. Cyberpunk 2077 for example has NPCs with specific preferences and people find this rewarding and engaging.
Something that became apparent as I analysed the data was that gender non-conforming people, particularly non-binary people, are being underserved by character creators.
While there are some now that allow a great deal of customisation, very few games allow for explicitly non-binary characters, and even fewer make space for genders beyond this. The majority of non-binary respondents remarked on this as an issue they would like to see resolved in the future. “I really wish there were more options for nonbinary characters T_T” said Tenaya, a non-binary respondent. Spirit said, “If there is some sort of character customization such as clothing or hair then I nearly always put the masc character in fem clothing and the fem character is masc clothing it makes me feel seen in a game world where I don’t exist.” The idea that someone feels they don’t exist in a fantasy, wholly created world, is certainly one that needs to be addressed by developers.
“While I understand the extra dev work involved in more inclusive character creation, tying clothing and body types to gender selection frustrates me. Just give me body toggles and/or sliders.
“Strangely, I have less problems playing any pre-created character, from Bayonetta and Princess Peach, to Link and Kirby, to Nathan Drake and Marcus Fenix. A lack of choice when they are offered disappoints me more than no choice at all.”
BrokenArcFae, non-binary respondent
However, not every player was more comfortable with predefined characters. Dragon, a genderqueer trans guy, said “When there isn’t a choice of gender in games I am usually okay (particularly as in many of them male is the default), but sometimes it disrupts my enjoyment of the game, particularly if there is a strong narrative element. For example, I tried to play Life is Strange, but I could not play as a lonely teenage girl without feeling extremely dysphoric.”
Multiple trans respondents mentioned using games as a playground to experiment with their gender safely. “I always gravitated to games where I could play a female character, especially one with a character creation section – and I usually ended up with red hair and a side shave where possible, which is how I’ve ended up looking now I’ve transitioned!” said Serenity, a trans woman. Genderfluid respondent Han said, “It’s sometimes fun to imagine the character is me in different gender presentations.”
Trans woman Victoria said “It always felt more like the style/look I wanted to present to others in game (even if those others are literally just NPCs). Presenting masc just felt generic to me; femme just felt more “right” and aspirational in a situation where I had the option to choose. It took me far longer than it probably should have done to realise this might be “one of the signs” that I was trans.”
This was a fascinating survey to conduct and it is clear that this issue is both very important to people and much more complex than I expected when I started looking into it. Multiple people mentioned that it was fascinating to consider deeply something that had become something of second nature to them, and every answer was interesting and insightful.
I will caveat this with the fact that I didn’t expect such a large response. I thought I’d have around 30 responses to look over and analyse, so I did not design my survey with particular rigour. As a result, this analysis isn’t perfect, but I did what I could. I also was not as attentive enough to the separation between sex and gender, which I wish I had been more careful over.
Featured image credit: Nintendo
Student journalist & freelance writer. Check out Quick Play, where I review video games that are 10 hours or less.
