Avatar Choices, Continued

Does the background of an avatar matter?

Gordon Freeman being an MIT graduate and not a single word about the invasion of Black Mesa, while expertry handling all weapons. I know it was the era of silent protagonists, but he's so empty and characterless that I genuinely despized him in HL1 (played 2 years ago) . By HL2 they upped the storytelling so I got at least enough second-hand impression about him

i could play a game as a pigeon and it would be ok. i grew up playing with male characters all the time and i never thought twice about it, it doesn't change gameplay at all.
the only thing that matters for me is their attitude, what dialogue options i have, how they react/talk, etc.

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i really cant play as characters who are, say, criminals or inherently evil, yet are portrayed by the games developers as being righteous. I can totally play as a bad guy who IS accepted as a bad guy (ie gta or saints row), or turn a generic character INTO a bad guy, but i just cant stand games trying to pass of the morality of a bad character as something heroic.

It doesn't matter, but if I were to choose, I always try to make the character look like me. I also avoid bad characters/acting bad on purpose, even if the character is supposed to be bad.

This is probably going to be the worst answer but the only time I am really specific on the type of character I want to play as, is when I play Mario Kart double dash on my game cube. 99.9% of the time, I choose Peach and Daisy solely because I have always loved the character's voices in that one specific game. No matter what mood I am in, it always manages to make me smile whenever someone bumps into the car or something and they just shout "NOOOO" in such an over exaggerated and echoey tone. Every other time I choose a different character for that game, their voices end up throwing me off for some reason and I end up crashing. If there is a character in the game that I can play as that either the character model is just broken and horrible looking or it has an annoying voice, choosing any other character would annoy me and would stop me from getting further in the game than I would with an annoying/broken character. I guess in a way, the only thing that really excites me for playing a game is having a comically bad or over exaggerated character. Without a character like that, for some reason I just end up seeing it as... just another character for another game which gives me less drive to get through it all.

I'm used to not be able to physically relate to the character anyway. So the only things which bother me is dialog.
When it's imposed, I don't care. When I can chose, but I can't relate to any of the propositions, it totally put me out of the game.

1.Whiny characters are nerve wrecking to me.
If shit's bad there's no point in crying about it. Either we get stronger and figure out how to fix it or tolerate the way things are. Characters who complain and pretty much give up at every point limit agency (and the nagging makes them "un-stand-able"). If I want to fight a boss and get my ass kicked if I am too weak, that's my prerogative.
Or when their problems are laughably unimportant like a teenage girl drama.
Off the top of my head, those 2 cases are the ones that can keep me from enjoying a game.

Oh, and the same could be with guilt tripping characters or ones that push an ideology too hard like the female-supremacist in Divinity: Dragon Commander. Even if I agree with her point, her way of presenting it to the king makes me want to put her down a peg. But all of the ideologies in that one are black and white, so moderation isn't really a mechanic.
I guess the personality of the character can also push me away as well. Trevor was so simply despicable and rude that I wanted him to die at every point, so I didn't much care for GTA V.
This is more a mechanics thing: when you figure something out and have to wait for the character to figure it out too before you can act on that, that's pretty annoying as well. Guess you could rename that as dumb characters.

2.Not really.
When given the choice I prefer upper class for aesthetics. cleanliness, education, and the ability to stick to simpler morals. It's easy to say stealing is wrong when you have enough to eat. I generally play like a shiny paladin, a paragon of good, and prefer being elite (in the sense of the best there is, not the twisted meaning it's used today).

The character itself is pretty unimportant to me in games even though sometime I take my time to create one if the game allows it - this does not help in any way make the gameexperience itself better for me...

Whats way more important is either a compelling story or gamemechanics...can't say I have ever thought about it until now though, but guess that shows how it doesn't interest me at all.

never judge a book by its cover.
so basically I can identify with bread, if the content is great.
for example, I felt a lot of sympathy for Lee from The walking dead.
He's male, I'm female, he's black, I'm white, he's old, I'm... old as well.
and this works both ways btw. well, u get me ;)

so long as the character is consistent I'm fine. if it's free choices (which is rare, although some games do a decent job of giving the illusion) then all is good
what really hurts a game is when you're forced to do something that makes no sense. a good example is Warcraft 3's Frozen Throne expansion during the Illidari campaign. despite being portrayed as a fearless badass you flee from a demon who has no direct influence on the planet you're on and go and hide on... a world that demon has easy access to. the entire scenario killed all immersion both that it went against his character and was mind numbingly stupid

on the other hand there's a little known gem named Dark Earth where you really can just decide to do anything. some choices (especially early in the game when your character is relatively powerless) will go badly very quickly but you are always free to attempt them. you can even use meta knowledge and try to stop the bad guys plot early which makes many later events play out very differently. even though I have very little in common with the character, I found it very easy to get in his head and immerse myself in the game. despite being rather dated and the mechanics being a tad clunky at times it's still one of my favourites

I don't know that I've ever been unable to play as a character, but certainly some have been less pleasant than others - particularly if I wasn't able to identify with them.

I think many factors play a role in being able to identify with a character, or struggling to do so, but here's how I see each one.

Race - very minor. Given the choice, I prefer to play as Caucasian or Asian or fictional races, but I've never struggled to identify with characters that were African American or any other race.

Gender - doesn't matter. I prefer to play female characters, but it's just as easy to identify with a character regardless of gender.

Background - very minor. The background just gives me a better framework for why I may be making certain choices, or gives me a better idea of how they may react in a given situation.

Age - minor. I've played everything from teenage girls to middle-aged men without issue. I think someone very young or very old may be more difficult.

Class - doesn't matter. This ties into their background, and basically just tells me where they're coming from.

Attitude / Behavior - major. You didn't have this on your list, but for me it's the main issue with not being able to identify with a character. If their attitude and behavior is completely different from mine, or out of character, it makes it much harder to relate to them. For example, Niko Bellic from GTA IV was basically a jerk who would kill dozens of people without a second thought and then would have a moral quandary about killing one more. I didn't like the character, couldn't identify with the character, and the moral decision felt completely artificial.

I grew up playing a low-rez pizza, a space ship, a frog, and a ball with a snout
IDGAF what the avatar is, if it doesn't impact gameplay.
on the other hand, if the characterization IS relevant to the gameplay then it MIGHT make a difference

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One obstacle to immersive gameplay for me has always been playing a character with "principles" or "morals". Like, how am I supposed to kill people with that?

None of it matters to me as long as the writing is good. Variety in worlds, stories and characters is what makes things fun and keeps the experience fresh. The same cardboard cutout looking dude being overused time and time again makes a game less likely to grab my interest. A bland protagonist is the worst. (I'm not talking about the same person re-appearing in a continual series, just those games where the player character is about as interesting as a slice of stale bread.)

That said, if Its a game where I can make my own avatar I tend to choose diverse options, fantasy races, unusual character types, etc. I don't feel the need to make myself, and play as myself in games. I play myself in real life, every day. :)

1) I don't care about the race. He can be black, white, purple, grey, I don't care. xD

2) I prefer to play as a male, because I'm male. :P If I have a choice, I'll choose the male one. If I don't have a choice, it doesn't really matter if I control a female character.

3) Background of an avatar? Like, if I had to play as a nazi, for example? I'm not sure if I understood correctly, but if I did, well, I don't really care. :P I won't like being that character, but I will make the choices that fit me anyway (for example, if I have to control a really mean character, I will try to be as less mean as possible).

4) Nah, age doesn't matter at all.

5) Class also doesn't matter. I can play as a spoiled rich kid or as a junkie drunkard that lives in the woods, I don't care. xD

6) Well, an additional factor that would matter is playing the manager or the player of a sports team that I detest. For example, since I support Panathinaikos, I would never (EVER!) play as the player or manager of Olympiacos. But no, size and species doesn't matter, although I'd prefer to control a human-like character (but it's not that much of a problem).

No? Seriously, I don't care.

I don't get it why some people think this is such a big deal - that character is not you. It is the character who you are controlling. They don't need to be like you. If the characters who I control were like me then they'd be miserable depressed losers who constantly whine about how life is pointless, not adventurers who kill god with a giant sword or whatever. Why do people care so much? :P

Must post! Giant! Wall! Of text! ...well no, but I'm too lazy to make it shorter.

There's a difference between

1. characters who are making choices I am not making, that I (try to) empathize with for the sake of the story; and
2. characters who are acting according to choices I am making.

In the first case, I'm not the character, they're just the closest thing between me and the story. In the second case, I am the character, at least partially. It is possible for a game to toss you between those roles involuntarily, though not comfortably.

Even where I "am" the character, in the sense that they won't move/act except according to my wishes, it is still easy for me to disconnect where necessary and see it as a form of roleplaying. If I'm playing a hardened criminal who's executing his opponents, gangster style, and the bullets won't fly until I pull the trigger, I can still pretend to be like that if it's necessary for the story, not because I'm particularly attracted to the idea of violently killing people (since, in general, I'm not). Where the game can fail then is demanding that "I" make choices and do things (and feel a particular way about it), when it's really railroading me there. You can either have me go along with stuff for the sake of the story with the implication that it's not "me" doing it, or give me a choice. Not do the former in the guise of the latter. This would be a failing of the story, though, not the character.

That's all fairly abstract, but that's because I don't have any hangups when it comes to the concrete details of the character. Imagining yourself as someone quite unlike who you really are is part of the fun for me. Obviously, I have to rely on "I guess this is what the character would do/say/feel/think" and be less authentic the more the character's background is removed from mine, but that doesn't make the game worse or less enjoyable. The experience is just different from games that try to fill in as few blanks as possible and encourage you to step into the world as you (those typically have more replayability, because they still allow roleplay as whoever "you" you want to be). Some of the most memorable experiences happen if you get to really imagine what it would be like to be a particular, well-developed character who happens to be nothing like you personally, and it can be really satisfying to get to complete their journey with them, even if "you" would have done things differently.

The hardest characters to play as are probably those who do nothing but cause suffering, for nothing but their own amusement -- hardcore villains who "shot a man in Reno just to watch him die". But games where you play characters like that are fortunately rare, or they have a clear disconnect from reality that redeems them and makes you want to be the villain (like Dungeon Keeper, Overlord and Evil Genius, where the villainy is played for laughs). From what I've read of the story of Grand Theft Auto V, though, that would be an example of a game I'd probably find really hard to play through because of how unlikable the characters are (disclaimer: no actual experience). Crime sandboxes in general are a hard sell for me without something to at least some sort of redemption angle somewhere (your enemies are even bigger scumbags, you tried to do the right thing but failed, you have a rigidly enforced code of honor, anything like that -- or, like the later installments of Saints Row, it's all ridiculous anyway). Otherwise it just becomes an exercise in nihilism, and if I wanted that I'd binge watch the news.

I almost never care, moreover, I'm actually happy if I'm playing a really well-written game (in terms of the story) with protagonist that is exact opposite of myself. Life is Strange is the primary example I'm thinking about right now.

As stupid as it can sound, it can teach you a lot about morality, decisions and their reasoning, sometimes to the point that you don't understand at all why given character acted like that when XXX thing is much more appropriate. It kinda goes against what you'd do, but when you're playing a game you should be trying to act as a character you're playing as, you know, like we used to act during primary school / kindergarten.

I like games that go strongly against my own personality. This goes for movies as well.

To be honest, it's not something that I've ever really considered to any great depth, but I'll throw some rambling thoughts out here. Excuse the lack of structure, I'm braindumping.

When playing games with pre-made characters, stats always take precedence. IE in Team Fortress 2 I main Pyro, but also enjoy Engineer and Demoman. In Overwatch I main Junkrat, but also play Zarya, and enjoy the mechanics of Mei.

So in that situation race, sex, and physical appearance seem to matter little.

If I'm playing something with a character generator I do tend to make white males because, well, I am one, and I always play games as chaotic or neutral good, because, well, that's how I see myself. Games in that way aren't an escape from me, they're an extension of me. IE I played through KotOR as good once, and then a second time, intending to be evil, but I couldn't, so I was good again.

So to summarise: If appearance matters not, I create myself. If appearance is part of a preselected bundle, then it ranks dead last in order of importance for whether I choose that character or not.