Ever been put off a game by character appearance?

[segaz]

Just looked over at the Left for Dead 2 boards on Gamefaqs, and some guy said he wouldn't get the game if you couldn't be two of the same characters. He didn't want to be the black girl, because it represents something he isn't. Guess he'd never play Banjo Kazooie then.


As per usual on gamefaqs, the topic turned into a flamebed. But it got me thinking.....do I really care how characters look in games?

I'll be honest, race is the last thing that influences me, if at all. I seem to generally pick a higher ratio of females, which is good in a game like Soul Caliber 2. But in say, Tekken, theres only a few girls I'm good with. Xiaou, Jun....uhhh that's it.

In a game where it makes no difference, like LFD, then I don't really mind who I am. The Biker guy seems a bit generic though. But I wouldn't not buy the game if I had to be him.


But then, I didn't buy Tak, or Ty the tasmanian because they seemed like dumb characters.


TBH, I generally accept the games lead character for who they are, whether I'm Cortez in TS, Billy in Billy Hatcher And The Giant Egg, Viewtiful Joe, Sonic the hedgehog or Samus, or.....I dunno, Liu Kang. I just accept the world and it's characters. As long as the game is good.
Music's gotta be decent. A bad game can keep me playing if it has good music.


So...have you ever not brought a game purely on how the characters look?

[Pervy Stone Cold]

I don't play soccer video games anyway, but this isn't the best cover art:

[Fiddleford H. McGucket]

Honestly, even tho it's a fairly solid franchise and Ivy is one of my better characters, I can't play her in SC4 without feeling like a perv. Tho I do choose Voldo mostly because of how he looks, If you can play him well enough he's a very unsettling character to use.

[Deleted]

Sometimes.

I almost never played Half Life 2 because Alyx always looked like such an elitist snob in every vid and screenshot I had seen for the game, like Gordon Freeman (who at this point is a freaking legend) ain't worth crap and she was so much better.

Afro Thunder bugged me and kept me from renting Ready 2 Rumble for a long time. Turns out thats one of my all-time favorite games now, but I still hate Afro (G.C. Thunder in Rd. 2 kicks ass though).

There are several Soul Caliber characters that seem so cookie cutter or unreasonably arrogant. I think it's Xanghua that would always say "you're going to regret this" or what not. It was someone trying to be intimidating when absolutely nothing about her fighting style, mannerisms, or attitude could be seen as intimidating or arrogant. Same with Yun-seong, except you can credit that to arrogance, which is part of his character.

Jak and Daxter to me has several unlikeable members in it's cast. Daxter's antics get old fast, Pecker is "mute the tv each and every time he shows up" annoying, and then in part 3 theres so many dry, boring, serious characters. That would be the only game I can think of off the top of my head that I just cannot play because of the characters.

I'm sure I got more, but im in between classes and should be doing a report.

[Welfare Willis]

Nov 23, 2009 12:26:21 GMT -5 segaz said:

So...have you ever not brought a game purely on how the characters look?

Yeah any mario game ever. Why is it that Italian Americans must always be stereotyped as overall wearing, mustached plumbers?


No, honestly I can't of a time I rejected a based on the characters looks. Not in the sense of the characters background, but maybe how the character looks graphically (the art style). It's weird to think someone would be mortified to play a girl when mmo's are filled with guys who play females.

[Fiddleford H. McGucket]

Nov 23, 2009 12:47:20 GMT -5 Welfare Willis said:

Nov 23, 2009 12:26:21 GMT -5 segaz said:

So...have you ever not brought a game purely on how the characters look?

Yeah any mario game ever. Why is it that Italian Americans must always be stereotyped as overall wearing, mustached plumbers?


No, honestly I can't of a time I rejected a based on the characters looks. Not in the sense of the characters background, but maybe how the character looks graphically (the art style). It's weird to think someone would be mortified to play a girl when mmo's are filled with guys who play females.

I don't think its the female aspect that turned him off of L4D2......

[Pervy Stone Cold]

Didn't like the way the main character you play as and other characters looked in the game Omikron in screenshots I saw. That may be a subconscious reason why I never picked it up.

I did not have a problem with Rayman even though some might say that he looks strange.

[BayleyTiffyCodyCenaJudyHopps]

Not that I can recall.

Altough sometimes the character designs have helped me purchase a game, and usually that's only if I enjoy the style of gameplay it's advertised as. The designs of Kingdom Hearts and FF9 were a plus for me.

[Welfare Willis]

Nov 23, 2009 12:51:10 GMT -5 Fiddleford H. McGucket said:

Nov 23, 2009 12:47:20 GMT -5 Welfare Willis said:

Yeah any mario game ever. Why is it that Italian Americans must always be stereotyped as overall wearing, mustached plumbers?


No, honestly I can't of a time I rejected a based on the characters looks. Not in the sense of the characters background, but maybe how the character looks graphically (the art style). It's weird to think someone would be mortified to play a girl when mmo's are filled with guys who play females.

I don't think its the female aspect that turned him off of L4D2......

No, your right. I should have explained it more in my original post yet the idea of not playing a character because of gender or race is just a little odd.

[aka Cthulhu]

Well, there have been eroge that I didn't play since I didn't like the character design.