What does your character customization say about you?

[MrNash]

If I have interest silly options, those are my first port of call when making my character. As you can imagine, my Saints Row 3 character is fantastic. :p I'm always a little disappointed when all I can choose from are sensible looking characters.

[MrPopo]

I always make my characters male, unless there's a different experience for each gender (ala Resident Evil). Everyone seems to want to make their character female. so I choose male just to be different. I tend to make my character middle-of-the-road as far as skills go (especially on the first playthrough), then as I get the hang of things I figure out what I want to specialize in.

Bioware shared some numbers for the ME characters; about 20% are female Shepards while 80% are male.

[CFFJR]

Bioware shared some numbers for the ME characters; about 20% are female Shepards while 80% are male.

Interesting. I figured there would be more female characters than that. For the record, my Shepard is a woman.

As for myself, I frequently use female characters. I honestly can't explain why, because I seriously don't know.

Male or female, style wise I occasionally try to make representations of other existing characters that I like. Whether or not I do that, I try to make an appearance or clothing style that I think looks cool, or sometimes in the case of male characters, looks like me. Or an idealization of me. Why should I add my real life extra pounds (only a few nowadays, I promise) to my muscle bound fantasy avatar?

Morality wise, I tend to be a candy ass nice guy. I'm one of those people that genuinely feels bad if I do something nasty in a game (in contrast, my wife takes disturbing pleasure from screwing with characters in games. Watching her cackle with glee while she plays the Sims is kinda creepy) I'm perfectly willing to do those nasty things if there's some kind of reward for doing so though, like making an evil story choice that maybe awards an achievement or something. Beyond that, I do usually make the choices that I would make in real life, so even if I'm playing the nice guy, if a situation in a game pisses me off I'll act accordingly. Remember the reporter in Mass Effect? I was a total Paragon, but I made it a point to sock her one.

Skill wise, I'm willing to experiment with any play style in a game that allows the flexibility, but most often I make my characters fast and agile, even at the expense of strength. Like fighting games, I prefer characters that allow me dash in and overwhelm the enemy with speed while dodging any strikes that do come my way.

[o.pwuaioc]

When I can customize the main character I tend to make it a close depiction of my actual self, either literally or in spirit. It my not look or act exactly like me, but I identify so strongly with my avatars that all of my decisions will be coming from a somewhat personal space, instead of from a detached watchmaker's perspective. It won't have a hairstyle that I simply think is cool so much as a hairstyle I'd hypothetically like to have, if that makes any sense. As another example, when I choose race and class, I think something like, "Which fits my personality best?" or "Which would I actually be, if I were in this world?" as opposed to "What would be most interesting/easiest/hardest to play?" or "What would make for an interesting character concept?" I'm just so thrilled with the idea of being in the worlds of the video games that I can't help but reimagine myself over and over again as characters in them when given the chance.

Along these lines -- and this is something I've always found a little strange about myself -- I have immense difficulty having my avatars carry out actions in-game that run counter to what I might personally do, were I actually the avatar in the adventure. I am always the paragon of paragons if it's a game with a morality scale, and I'm not sure why this is the case when I know I'm playing a made-up character in a fictional reality. In Fable II, there are certain achievements I can't unlock without being evil enough -- which means having to killing innocent NPCs. It actually causes me stress to do things like that! Anybody else have this problem?

I'm the same way on both counts. I'm always the person in the games, or how I imagine myself to be.

[Erik_Twice]

I almost always choose females. Don't know why, it's just more fun. I also tend to make my character a redhead, and maker her kind of cute in an aggresive way.

I think my characters are Mary Sues

[GameMasterGuy]

Bioware shared some numbers for the ME characters; about 20% are female Shepards while 80% are male.

Interesting. I figured there would be more female characters than that. For the record, my Shepard is a woman.

As for myself, I frequently use female characters. I honestly can't explain why, because I seriously don't know.

Hey, if you're going to be spending 100 hours in a third person shooter staring at your character's butt, it might as well be a girl's

[Key-Glyph]

I'm the same way on both counts. I'm always the person in the games, or how I imagine myself to be.

Nice to know I'm not alone, and that my mental image of you as an armor-clad knight is actually fairly accurate to your idealized authentic self.

Morality wise, I tend to be a candy ass nice guy. I'm one of those people that genuinely feels bad if I do something nasty in a game.

More company! Here here. Do you save before you do something awful and then reload after unlocking an achievement too? I know you're a Fable player; if you've played II, could you live with your file after you turned safety off to shoot a wild rabbit? Because goodness knows I couldn't.

I think my characters are Mary Sues

Yeah... me too. ;__;