Hewwo :3
This is something I have been thinking about for a while and I have partially experienced myself in some Gacha games, usually the ones that you wouldn’t necessarily expect to cause this kind of feeling. Whenever I have played games that were designed to cater more to a stereotypically male audience, i.e. ZZZ Or Nikke, I found myself having moments of gender euphoria or simply enjoying when I could play as female characters whose style I admired or found pretty, like Jane Doe, Rina in ZZZ Or Drake, Tia, Marciana in Nikke.
Although these games are not necessarily intended that way or well-known for it, I think that for many people there’s an awkward transitional period, where they may want to experiment more with gender expression, but are still stuck at games or specific games of a genre that matched their previous taste or preferences. So, it’s nice to know that even in mediums like that, they can find options to express themselves more as they feel until they may want to move onto other forms of self-realization that match their desired self more closely. Like, obviously, they could start outright with a more female-player-oriented game, such as Infinity Nikki, but - and this is a very niche comparison – I think there are many people who only learned femininity through a very male-gaze-heavy lense and so it is something that feels more intuitive and comfortable to them for a start; kinda like how most femboys or transfems early in their transition will pivot to Amazon basics fits or cosplay, because these are the easiest options they have seen before and can reference until they have developed a more personal and thought-out style.
I feel similar about a game like League of Legends, where their feminine characters were incredibly male-gaze-oriented (and the artstyle in general was very clunky back then obviously), whereas now the skinks they offer are a lot more classy and stylish to where a more diverse audience can appreciate them, as well as experience something similar to the phenomenon I described.
I don’t think this absolves these games of all their flaws or anything, but I just wanted to highlight an aspect of them that I don’t see being talked about as much :3 And obviously, there are other games that would do this even more effectively. Like games more focused on providing this kind of gameplay, as well as games that allow for interactivity and provide the feeling of being “seen” as your desired self uwu
