This is a pet peeve of mine that I’ve only recently discovered and now I just can’t unsee it.

So many RPGs (specifically the ones where you get to create your own character or choose a gender) have the tendency to make the animations seem very “masculine”. I think the best recent examples I can think of are Cyberpunk 2077 and Baldur’s Gate 3.

Now obviously I understand why that would be the case as I’m sure if the Main Character had a flamboyant or cute animation style many male gamers would lose their mind but I still find it fascinating how extremely common the typical rugged and nonchalant animation style for PC of RPGs is. And I want to preface that this is usually not noticeable yet as soon as the PC shows up in a cutscene it is so entertaining especially if you made a very cutesy character.

I also understand that Animations (especially Mocap) cost a fortune to make and are an immense amount of work, I just find it interesting that the default animation for any Main character in an RPG seems to always be more masculine.

I guess in an idealistic world we would be allowed to choose how our character moves and acts in cutscenes but that will probably not happen anytime soon.

Just a food for thought.