In other words:
do you sympathize with or "become" the characters you play,
or are they just entities that you're guiding to success or failure?

In my case, I get so absorbed/immersed into every game I play, that I pretty much become that character.

How about you?

I don't really know how to answer. I guess I'll just say that I'm controlling the character but not as far as what you're saying that you do.

It depends on how good the game is.

Depends on the game. If the main cast of characters is already determined and you can't customize any aspect of them, then I can't really form any attachment to them at all. However, if you can create the character (Stats, Name, Job/Class etc) like in Knights of the Old Republic I & II, Oblivion, Mass Effect I & II and others, I can form more of an attachment with them and through doing so, also with the other characters you get in your party.

Well I can understand if you're the one that created your character (usually when I make a character, I try to make him look like me :x) or if not, then something that resembles me (whether it be facial features or clothing). So I guess in that aspect, I guess you would call it my "avatar" (:D!) But I usually see it as just a character if there's no customization.

Only totally in RPGs that support a custom avatar and play style like Bioware RPGs and to a lesser extent Bethesda.

in other games it's more detached like a film. maybe identify with certain aspects of the scripted character.

in other games it's more detached like a film. maybe identify with certain aspects of the scripted character.

That's it. I know I was like this with Squall when playing FFVIII for the first time because back then, we were very similiar.

I really don't make characters to look like me because I don't see myself doing these types of things. You gotta whisk me away to some mystical place and see how I interact.

Only has been a few characters I can sympathize with, but currently I can't think of any right now due to it almost beddy time.

Huh, this one's got me thinking.. I suppose in the end, the characters I consider 'tools' are those who have no personality–the silent protagonists. Now, by 'tools', I don't simply think of them as meaningless sprites to usher from one end of the game to the other, but rather that they are sort of a means for which I can sort of immerse myself into the world better. When you've got heroes like Crono from Chrono Trigger, the silent Warriors of Light from FFI, Gordon Freeman from Half-Life, Link from Zelda, and Mario (to a lesser extent) from . . . uh, Mario, you're sort of left to fill in the blanks on your own. Instead of their own personal thoughts and feelings on the situations being filtered through, you yourself become them. You're left to formulate their personality on your own. So, all in all, my feeling is that the silent protagonists can oftentimes be the best player characters, because they really are your 'tool' for entering their world, and truly being a personal part of it. Simple as FFI's story is, I feel all the more responsible for its world's outcome due to being the heroes, as opposed to them having pre-generated personalities and text. I think Death's Head pretty much summed it up perfectly, to be honest.

I know exactly what you mean, CC. Some characters are easier to pour yourself into, because there is space to do so.

Still, I sometimes feel extremely similar to characters that are fully realized.

Yea, like Locke and Zidane from the FF series, maybe Vaan too; I can get into the games, a lot of which having to do with being able to empathize with them (because they're a lot like me) :D

I like both aspects almost equally, In Chrono Trigger for Example I feel like I'm playing a Tabletop RPG, then In FFT I feel like someone is telling me a story & constantly I blend in & blend off the characters, of course the intensity of both feelings variates depending of how they handle the storytelling in the game.

avatar: only in Mass Effect.

this has only applied in fallout 3, where i played the game as i would do, and answer stuff as i would answer.
i ended up always being in neutral karma, haha

Shattered Memories is like that. Me and Allen did honesty runs our first time through.

It varies for me. If I love the character and the story can make me feel something or if it's like KOTOR then yes I feel for them. Other wise it's more of a interactive movie with a guy I don't hate but he's just kinda a guy that I'm using to do stuff with.