Is your MC 'you'?

RopeMaidenKirie · Post Posted: Feb 22, 2017 6:06 pm

It's weird because I use one of my irl nicknames for my character, but I definitely don't see her as me. I really like my name (that sounds conceited whoops) so I tend to use it most often when making characters in games.

If I did self-insert I'm not sure I'd be able to ever make my character marry anyone because I'm way too old, lol

FoolishGhoul · Post Posted: Feb 22, 2017 6:12 pm

RopeMaidenKirie wrote:It's weird because I use one of my irl nicknames for my character, but I definitely don't see her as me. I really like my name (that sounds conceited whoops) so I tend to use it most often when making characters in games.

If I did self-insert I'm not sure I'd be able to ever make my character marry anyone because I'm way too old, lol

you're not old you're just experienced

also idk like I name my MC after me and then kind of base her looks off of me at first, but I don't really put myself in their place a lot?? idk I don't really get super deep and invested into it since it's just a fun, relaxing game that I don't take super seriously. So I guess I kind of put myself in the MCs shoes but not a lot

Kikki · Post Posted: Feb 22, 2017 6:14 pm

cinnamon_yuki wrote:It feels awkward in otome games especially if the settings was in historical Japan or Japanese school setting. XD

Otome games! I love them, but I cannot use my own name in them. Even if the setting was one I felt natural in, I just could not do it. It would be so embarrassing, with some of the dialogue and scenes going on, to see my own name stuck in there...*shudder* I just want to read it like a story about someone else, not put myself in that situation! I don't want any of that to happen to me in real life...it's only fun in a story, lol.

I mean, I felt awkward seeing Neil use my nickname in ANB to the point that I had to make a name change. Plus sometimes the feMC is scripted to do things that really bug me, lol...like she always seems to be clueless about everything during events. (Don't know if that's true in Trio, though.) I don't want to be that big of a dodo, lol.

RopeMaidenKirie wrote:If I did self-insert I'm not sure I'd be able to ever make my character marry anyone because I'm way too old, lol

Kirie, I'm older than you by a full handful of years if I recall correctly, so...please don't be old, lol. I like my real name, too, though I've noticed that only really unpleasant people are named my name. Well, of the ones I've met in person, that is. There must be nice ones somewhere, lol. So on that side, my own name also has a bad association for me, ha ha...

Autumn_Song · Post Posted: Feb 22, 2017 6:15 pm

It feels too weird for it to be me. The closest I'll get is using Rose, which I've used online for ~8 years lol. Mostly though I just pick a name and run with it. I'm a writer, creating characters comes naturally, and it's a lot more comfortable for me.

FoolishGhoul · Post Posted: Feb 22, 2017 6:21 pm

Kikki wrote:
RopeMaidenKirie wrote:If I did self-insert I'm not sure I'd be able to ever make my character marry anyone because I'm way too old, lol
Kirie, I'm older than you by a full handful of years if I recall correctly, so...please don't be old, lol. I like my real name, too, though I've noticed that only really unpleasant people are named my name. Well, of the ones I've met in person, that is. There must be nice ones somewhere, lol. So on that side, my own name also has a bad association for me, ha ha...

My mom is plenty old, it's why I got her a life alert and DBZ shirt. only old people like DBZ

Getaris · Post Posted: Feb 22, 2017 6:22 pm

My name is weird enough to fit in a game so I use it in all my files.

That doesn't mean I kind of default to "this character is now me" though. I name them after me, and I decide what they do, but they're obviously "them", not "me"

Kikki · Post Posted: Feb 22, 2017 6:25 pm

FoolishGhoul wrote:My mom is plenty old, it's why I got her a life alert and DBZ shirt. only old people like DBZ

Pft, ha ha. I, um...like DBZ.

(I'm 38, btw, though I think everyone already knows that?) Kirie is so 'old' you call her 'mom'? Lol. Well, moms ARE the best things in the world, so that can't be an insult anyway.

Getaris wrote:My name is weird enough to fit in a game so I use it in all my files. That doesn't mean I kind of default to "this character is now me" though. I name them after me, and I decide what they do, but they're obviously "them", not "me"

Yeah, using your own name doesn't have to mean you're self-inserting

For ME, somehow using my own name makes me uncomfortable, so I can't do it. But on the other hand, I do always give my MC dark hair and pale skin like mine, and I'm not self-inserting, either. Just giving myself a connection with my feMC.

RopeMaidenKirie · Post Posted: Feb 22, 2017 6:31 pm

FoolishGhoul wrote:
Kikki wrote:
RopeMaidenKirie wrote:If I did self-insert I'm not sure I'd be able to ever make my character marry anyone because I'm way too old, lol
Kirie, I'm older than you by a full handful of years if I recall correctly, so...please don't be old, lol. I like my real name, too, though I've noticed that only really unpleasant people are named my name. Well, of the ones I've met in person, that is. There must be nice ones somewhere, lol. So on that side, my own name also has a bad association for me, ha ha...
My mom is plenty old, it's why I got her a life alert and DBZ shirt. only old people like DBZ

What's funny, is that from my experience that's actually the case oddly enough lol

@Kikki - yeah a lot of users around here call me mom because I'm apparently pretty motherly at times, whoops >_>

Though when I said old I meant more of old compared to a lot of the bachelors in the games. Most are usually around the 18-20 age so if I was to self-insert I'd probably feel pretty weird about it :p Then again you do have guys like Klaus sometimes that are closer to my own age, but then MC is always canonically younger (and sometimes way too naive, looking at you SoS) so yeah

I do understand that I'm definitely not this game's target audience and can enjoy it regardless of that fact, so I don't really mind honestly :D

gossipstone · Post Posted: Feb 22, 2017 6:31 pm

Truth be told, reading these responses is kind of making me confused about what exactly a self-insert is.

I always thought naming my character after myself and making her look like me was self-inserting. Is this the case, or do you guys see it a different way?

K8sMum · Post Posted: Feb 22, 2017 6:35 pm

Good grief! You are young'uns! lol. I'm a real little old lady, albeit a very cool little old lady. :-)

As I mentioned elsewhere, I always play as my late daughter. She was dx'd with leukaemia at 14 and died at 19. That was in 2005. I still miss her every second of every minute of every hour of every day.

I go crazy making the character look like our Cait. I've read there are glasses available, which I hope is true: she was blind as a bat. She gets her purple hair. It helps me feel close to her. She loved HM games and got me hooked on them.

It may seem silly to some, but it means a lot to me.

ryume · Post Posted: Feb 22, 2017 6:36 pm

I think there's different levels of self insertion, i.e. you use your own name and base their looks off of yours, but that's it, versus you base EVERYTHING about the character off of you physically AND your own life and people you know and basically treat them as an extension of yourself in the game world. At least thst's how I see it.

Edit: K8smum, I think it's a fantastic, special way of remembering your daughter. Not silly at all.

Kikki · Post Posted: Feb 22, 2017 6:39 pm

In my opinion, a self-insert is where you intend for the character to be a representation of you. Not just a few things, but like you're actually thinking of that little character running around as being you, fantasy-style, not thinking much about your MC being a character that exists in the game with our without you.

Ahh...it's really hard to define what I think a self-insert is. I don't think I put that quite the way I wanted to...doesn't hit me quite right.

EDIT: Yeah, ryume's explanation is good. Simpler than what I was trying to say...works better

EDIT 2: I'm very sorry for your loss, K8sMum. I bet she'd like being part of your game, though.

hanajimaismycat · Post Posted: Feb 22, 2017 6:40 pm

reading all the responses, I guess I do self-insert as it's my name/red hair/freckles but I don't feel like I'm in the game or it's truly me, I'm just having fun playing and escaping the real world. I'm long past the having babies stage but I don't feel uncomfortable putting a teeny likeness into HM/boku games, maybe that's strange?

gossipstone · Post Posted: Feb 22, 2017 6:41 pm

ryume wrote:I think there's different levels of self insertion, i.e. you use your own name and base their looks off of yours, but that's it, versus you base EVERYTHING about the character off of you physically AND your own life and people you know and basically treat them as an extension of yourself in the game world. At least thst's how I see it.

I think I see what you mean. I suppose I always linked the former to self-insertion because imo there isn't a whole lot of room for making the caharacter more like you in terms of in-game dialogue. I'm also not the most imaginative person when I play haha. I tend to just kind of go with whatever is presented in the game and not make up a bunch of backstory.

GemiMini · Post Posted: Feb 22, 2017 6:46 pm

I've always thought of self-inserting as completely putting yourself into the game. You don't think of the MC as an MC, you think of them as you. Just a representation of yourself in a video game world. A lot of people naturally just name their characters after themselves and base parts of the MCs design on themselves, but not to the extent of thinking the character is them.