When you play a dating Sim, do you play as 'yourself?'

[Hijiri]

I prefer being given a character with their own personality and not a self-insert. Reason being that self-inserts have about as much personality as a brick and we get awkward CG's where the artist goes out of his/her way to hide the person's face. (A pet peeve of mine is the faceless protagonist as well, which usually goes hand-in-hand with those self-inserts.)

[dramspringfeald]

Simple answer "Yes" - Long answer "I do, it's more fun"

[Faze]

I don't play dating sims, but when playing/reading regular visual novels I tend to just pick whatever sounds funnier. I mean if the protagonist is fighting a God and you give me the option of tap dancing on top of a box of oranges to provoke his opponent, you damn right I'll pick it. In general I prefer to have a set personality for a character I'm playing, I have no interest in being myself in a game.

[MiSi]

I usually don't like playing as myself, although the first time I play a game I try to do only things which I would've done in reality. Just to see what would happen to me. After that it's time to get all the endings Also I never put in another name if there's the option; I want to play the game with the character that was basically designed for it by its creator.

[LateWhiteRabbit]

I prefer being given a character with their own personality and not a self-insert. Reason being that self-inserts have about as much personality as a brick and we get awkward CG's where the artist goes out of his/her way to hide the person's face. (A pet peeve of mine is the faceless protagonist as well, which usually goes hand-in-hand with those self-inserts.)

Same.

I try to make decisions the same as the character I've been given, and be honest to their personality. I do sometimes get conflicted emotions with my own personal values wanting to assert themselves. I generally play games as if I am the character's conscious, i.e. their own personal Jimmy Cricket, but I never think of myself as them.

So I prefer a well-developed main character with their own personality. The only time this hasn't worked so well is when I HATE the main character. Like in A Drug that Makes You Dream where the MC never had an option to make the choices I would have in real life, and generally just continuously pissed me off by how much of a whining pathetic coward he was. That game has pretty much everything I want out of a visual novel - a good amount of choices, lots of CGs, high production values, good writing, etc. and I can't play any more of it after completing just one path in the game, because I can no longer listen to the main character's thoughts or voice without wanting to murder him. So I guess, if you give an MC development and a personality and face, make sure they are likeable?



Oh, Kouhei Kagami, how I want to savagely beat you with my fists . . . .

[Midi]

Play as the character, of course.. if it has personality. But, when it doesn't I prefer to play according which guy I want to get Uh.. yeah.. that it, I guess.

Don't well all just do it for that one guy?

... I can't play any more of it after completing just one path in the game, because I can no longer listen to the main character's thoughts or voice without wanting to murder him. So I guess, if you give an MC development and a personality and face, make sure they are likeable?



Oh, Kouhei Kagami, how I want to savagely beat you with my fists . . . .

I had a good laugh with this one. XD I think, in the VN I'm working on, all characters are 'like-able' but it depends on what ending you get first. Depending on if you go after which guy, is on which other one will be the arse.

[Arowana]

For my first playthrough, I make the choices that I think I personally would. Usually, this means I try to be well-balanced and polite to everybody. For games that require your stats to be skewed in a particular direction, though, I just end up alone. ;_; In which case, I'm all "screw this!" and replay with every choice geared towards my favorite character lol.

[wakagana]

First play-through I make choices of how I would personally react if i was in the characters shoes.

But ... it really depends on the game. How can you get into a fantasy/fiction VN if you never get into the mindset that you're playing as a character. If you're playing a generic dating sim in the current time, that's one thing and you're probably encouraged to ignore the fact that your protagonist has a sliver of personality.