I certainly have not felt that way, despite a desire to emulate certain hero characters in a general sense, but if anything that may be more likely to influence style than body appearance (I'm thinking of a strong desire to buy a trenchcoat after playing the original Deus Ex many years ago). Often it is the skills of a character that one desires more than their body (like, say, Ryu from Ninja Gaiden).
As mentioned previously the first person perspective avoids this for many games since one rarely views the characters. The strong soldier-types are often not presented as people one would actually wish to be, either because they are grizzled and scarred so not "attractive" by typical standards, or because they are stylised jocks as in Gears in War.
I would also agree with the statement above about the lack of non-white lead characters in games. It is understandable given the general market but it would be nice to see a shift. On the other hand with players being able to control their character's appearance in more and more games, this may become less of an issue. I think it would be an interesting element to the study to see what sort of characters players tend to create in these games and whether they tend to attempt to recreate themselves (including body shape) or whether they wish to be someone different.
As it may be relevant to your results, I would add that I am a very slim while not particularly muscular, British 21-year-old of Sri Lankan descent.
Log in to comment