inherit
1606
0
3,219
Sweet FA
Cyberdrunk 2024
1,646
Sept 16, 2016 21:33:47 GMT
September 2016
standardorbit
Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, KOTOR, Mass Effect Legendary Edition
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Post by Sweet FA on Feb 14, 2017 13:42:51 GMT
I pretty much like to play my characters as anything but me. I get to play me all day long. When I get into a game I want to be someone else for a while. I tend to look at it like reading a book--the main character shouldn't have a life anything like mine or why would I bother investing my time in it? I tend to play my characters as crazy, whether just snarky and inappropriate or totally gonzo goofballs. I don't have a lot of trouble with male PCs, though I am female, with the caveat that I hated M!Shep's voice direction so I can't play him because he's boring. I don't much enjoy straight romances as a guy PC, though, so it's reason 127 I love BioWare--Zevran, Anders, and Dorian. I wholeheartedly agree with your sentiment. The rpg gives us a wonderful opportunity to see and experience things from a different POV, to switch off and escape ourselves, our friends family etc. and the everyday "groundhog day" familiarity and banality of reality. Break your programming and take a walk on the wild side. We can be ourselves 24/7, 365. When we get the opportunity to take a break, lay down your burdens and leave yourself behind.........just for a little while. "This isn't reality, this is fantasy" Uhura ST III. Additional
For anybody starting out or having trouble with RP don't try to overthink/overanalyze things, have fun with it and don't take things too seriously. Use your imagination and pretend you're a kid again playing with your friends some of them would play the heroes and some of them would play the villains, some of them would be Jedi and some would be Sith or Imperials.. Just because you play a bad guy doesn't make you evil.
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1901
0
Dec 28, 2020 18:04:35 GMT
4,530
Melra
Better Call Davos
1,967
October 2016
mel
Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, KOTOR
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Post by Melra on Feb 18, 2017 21:09:34 GMT
Roleplaying was always easy for me, I think a lot of people who were bit different to the crowds they grew up in were forced to pretend to be something they were not at one point or another. I don't do much roleplaying anymore though haven't for almost a decade soon, I never enjoyed it as single person activity as it lacked certain kind of unpredictability. I simply make my characters as something to experience the story through, I don't think too much about them. In a way in most games they aren't even my characters, games like Mass Effect and Dragon Age have the lines already written in there, the paths you can take and what they can account to, you are just following the tracks. In for a ride without really affecting it that much in the end. I enjoy the ride, but I wouldn't say that the way I experience them is roleplaying. It is more along the lines of...
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TEH EVUL CREEP
1008
0
Sept 27, 2021 23:28:25 GMT
3,757
BamBam the Destroyer
I hunt, therefore I am
2,774
August 2016
jockcranley
Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age Inquisition, Mass Effect Andromeda
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Post by BamBam the Destroyer on Feb 18, 2017 21:19:19 GMT
I can only do the goody-two-shoes choir boy or evil incarnate.
That's about it.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
Deleted
inherit
guest@proboards.com
1692
0
Deleted
0
January 1970
Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 18, 2017 21:57:25 GMT
I love roleplaying. It's a great way to spice up things with the misses. But to answer OP, I think you are way overthinking this. It's a video game that was intended to be a pleasurable leisure pass time. However you enjoy playing is up to you. There are just multiple options to accommodate a larger variety of people. As for my playthroughs, I usually just do one however I want without worrying about the consequences. I don't need some epic adventure with every game I play a video game. Roleplaying is easy for me because I hate myself. Come on, you're a fun guy.
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1508
0
6,773
Nightman
" A wise man once said, forgiveness is divine but never pay full price for a late pizza. "
1,841
Sept 8, 2016 22:23:49 GMT
September 2016
dayman
Mass Effect Trilogy, Mass Effect Andromeda
Kaiju Sozay
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Post by Nightman on Feb 18, 2017 22:32:06 GMT
I don't really role-play as the characters in video games. I tend to think of them as completely separate people and I am just observing their journey / story. Yes, I am controlling the majority of what is happening....but I think of myself more as that characters conscience than me actually being that character.
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376
0
Oct 17, 2016 19:19:36 GMT
3,474
opuspace
2,129
August 2016
opuspace
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Post by opuspace on Feb 18, 2017 23:33:35 GMT
It's fun to create a character, pick the choices that come naturally and then analyze what kind of person they are and why they act the way they do.
I think, for me, it's about watching the outcomes, and telling the story afterwards. It's not intentional, just the byproduct of seeing what happens if I choose this and see how it goes. There's a few templates I keep, but the characters I create become their own person instead of self-inserts.
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Mr. Rump
46
0
Apr 28, 2024 20:19:57 GMT
8,986
Lavochkin
6,786
August 2016
lavochkin
Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Jade Empire, Mass Effect Andromeda
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Post by Lavochkin on Feb 18, 2017 23:57:16 GMT
It's fun to create a character, pick the choices that come naturally and then analyze what kind of person they are and why they act the way they do. I think, for me, it's about watching the outcomes, and telling the story afterwards. It's not intentional, just the byproduct of seeing what happens if I choose this and see how it goes. There's a few templates I keep, but the characters I create become their own person instead of self-inserts.The problem i usually run into when trying to create a self-insert is that I can never create a male character that's even half as handsome as I am in the character creator.
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376
0
Oct 17, 2016 19:19:36 GMT
3,474
opuspace
2,129
August 2016
opuspace
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Post by opuspace on Feb 19, 2017 0:33:08 GMT
The problem i usually run into when trying to create a self-insert is that I can never create a male character that's even half as handsome as I am in the character creator. The Character creator does have a ways to go, especially when it comes to hairstyles
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Mr. Rump
46
0
Apr 28, 2024 20:19:57 GMT
8,986
Lavochkin
6,786
August 2016
lavochkin
Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Jade Empire, Mass Effect Andromeda
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Post by Lavochkin on Feb 19, 2017 0:43:31 GMT
The problem i usually run into when trying to create a self-insert is that I can never create a male character that's even half as handsome as I am in the character creator. The Character creator does have a ways to go, especially when it comes to hairstyles That it does, i once tried to recreate myself in ME1 and ended up with a middle aged filipino instead. I prolly would've had just as much success in trying to create a femshep that resembled me with that POS CC.
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Pissed Away His Degree
42
0
2,195
LightningPoodle
Step into the light.
2,042
August 2016
lightningpoodle
LightningPoodle
Lightning_Poodle
20,477
9578
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Post by LightningPoodle on Feb 19, 2017 8:44:30 GMT
That's how I feel about roleplaying games. Whenever there is a moral choice presented, to me there is only one right choice because it's the one that I would personally make. If I went back through the game a second time making the other choices, I wouldn't enjoy it because I can't fully separate myself from the character that I have created. It's me playing it. It's me making those choices. Not my character.
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1606
0
3,219
Sweet FA
Cyberdrunk 2024
1,646
Sept 16, 2016 21:33:47 GMT
September 2016
standardorbit
Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, KOTOR, Mass Effect Legendary Edition
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Post by Sweet FA on Feb 19, 2017 10:08:49 GMT
It does get more difficult when you a have default voiced protagonist with a back story, image and name. It can be hard to make the character your own as you can feel like it's somebody else making you go in a certain default direction. So you have to work harder to put your own spin on a character. So the imagination has to go into overdrive.
It may help some people to write down the character bio including your own custom tweaks. Here are a couple of vanilla examples from Star Trek TOS.
"The 'skipper', about thirty-four, Academy graduate, rank of Captain... a shorthand sketch of Robert April (James T Kirk) might be 'A space-age Captain Horatio Hornblower', lean and capable both mentally and physically. A colorfully complex personality, he is capable of action and decision that can verge on the heroic – and at the same time lives a continual battle with self-doubt and the loneliness of command. As with similar men in the past (Drake, Cook, Bougainville, and Scott), his primary weakness is a predilection to action over administration, a temptation to take the greatest risks onto himself. But, unlike most early explorers, he has an almost compulsive compassion for the plight of others, alien as well as human, [and] must continually fight the temptation to risk many to save one."
"Science Officer Spock has a precise, logical turn of mind inherited from his father (a native of the planet Vulcanis, who married an Earth woman). Because Vulcanians regard any display of emotion as a breach of good taste, Spock rarely betrays what he is thinking or feeling, either by his speech or his facial expression. He cannot, however, mask his cat-like curiosity about everything of alien origin. This sometimes proves to be his Achilles-heel."
"He has a strange Vulcan 'ESP' ability to merge his mind with another intelligence and read the thoughts there. He dislikes doing so since it deprives him of his proud stoic mannerisms and reveals too much of his inner self... "We now realize that Spock is capable of feeling emotion, but he denies this at every opportunity. On his own planet, to show emotion is considered the grossest of sins. He makes every effort to hide what he considers the 'weakness' of his half-Human heredity."
Finally, I'll digress for a moment. I've even role played a few posts in different forums. I think the last one was when I was day dreaming about what kind of thread Quark the Ferengi (ST DS9) would start at the end of last year on this forum. As he has a rather high opinion of himself I called the thread Beautiful People's Club. It was a tongue in cheek post, probably a need for a little respite from the relentless and very earnest protagonist imagery aesthetics posts. Those angry one's where everybody reaches for their pitchforks. Also I needed to vent my genuine frustration with poor character creators and presets. Most people got that it wasn't serious, the big clue was the avatar picture. Ah, the life of an idle daydreamer and the victim of an over active Imagination. I really must stop gazing out the window.
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∯ Alien Wizard
729
0
Sept 14, 2023 6:08:41 GMT
9,897
Ieldra
4,771
August 2016
ieldra
Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, KOTOR, Baldur's Gate, Mass Effect Andromeda
25190
6519
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Post by Ieldra on Feb 19, 2017 11:21:24 GMT
Whether it's Mass Effect, Dragon Age, or any other roleplaying game, I've always noticed this general problem that I think effects most casual players. I mean, what's the idea behind role-playing, you're pretending to be someone in a fantasy world right? Well, often times the first character you make in a game is modeled after you, similar look, same gender, and often times when prompted to make a choice its based on what you were thinking at the time. Then you decide to try the ultimate form of roleplaying, where you pretend to be an entirely different character, and when you do that...it doesn't feel right does it? Regardless of which game I play, I can never make my character be completely evil (some nasty things okay, like punching someone that makes me mad, but never anything super evil), and when romance is involved, it's hard to romance someone else and feel you're making a pure bond, partly because there's something missing that your first romance option had. For example in Mass Effect, even though I'm trying to play as a female shepard, I keep feeling it's not proper because I first played as a male (because I was a male). Similarily, I'm trying different romances out, but for some reason, I'm just not into them. The first time I've played the whole trilogy, I was always for Liara in all three games. Sometimes it gets stranger. Whenever I play Dragon Age Inquisition, I'm always picking a female human, heck, my first time playing was with a female human. And I don't even know why? Maybe it's because I've seen too many male fantasy heroes and want to give a female one a go? The point is, roleplaying games can be tough if the only role you feel comfortable with is yourself. I'm pretty sure you guys had similar experiences right? That's not at all a problem, isn't it? I'm very similar. I like to project myself into a fictional world as a woman (which I'm not in RL), and I dislike playing evil jerks. The reason for the former is pretty much what you mentioned: I hate male action hero stereotypes, and action heroes are pretty much what we play in these games, so at least I can make it an action girl. I would rather like to play a really smart person, who wins through superior strategy and knowledge, and then I'd be happy as either sex, but as it is I prefer female protagonists. As for the latter, well, why the heck would you want to be an evil jerk? I can play ruthless if the reason seems important enough, I can be a little manipulative, or try to uphold an order I make my character believe in by any means (though it has to be a somewhat convincing order). I can also be cynical and uncaring, but evil, in the sense of letting others suffer just for my own greed, no, I see no reason to play that. As for the desire to play as myself, well, that gets triggered in any story with strong main themes that are important to me. In DAI, I could never play a templar, because I hate religious fundamentalism with a passion. I'll be hard-pressed to play Andrastian in the first place because I'm atheist in RL and I can't get into the religious mindset. It used to be I could do that, but the more the games seemed to push Andrastianism as something good, the more I resist, and that's that.
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