That might be one of the cultural differences the other guy talked about. We're not that much into war. And don't start with that we had a war nearly a century ago, that's ancient history and we've been different since then. In our culture, the real heroes are for example the doctors without borders, who help patch back together the victims of other people's wars. Or the ones, who deny military service altogether and instead do alternative civilian service, helping people. I don't want to go too much off topic here, but there are indeed some cultural imprints that are just different. In other respects, too. Look at successful European games, they are mostly different to American ones. Different how? Judge for yourself.
For the record I'm European not American (assuming you think I'm an American).
Hm, I'm not sure I understand you. First off, I luckily don't suffer from motion sickness, but I know people who do. But I can't move around if I can't see myself. I simply cannot get my bearings when I'm disembodied. And I don't want to. It's not that I don't want to immerse myself into my character, but that I get a lot more enjoyment out of seeing "myself", if the toon is nice. And in reality almost everyone who playes those games isn't looking that remarkable themselves, but rather average. So why not identify with an avatar who isn't average? It's fun to me. I'm a big sucker for aesthetics. I wonder if it's different for men; in Risen they give you a terribly ugly character with a gorge the size of Mariana Trench on his face and call him 'handsome'. Do men feel better about themselves if they feel they look better in real life than their avatar? Serious question, don't intend to mock or anything.
So in other words you just prefer third person viewpoint? So that you can see your character fully all of the time.
And you ask a good question. Though personally it's one I can't answer as in general I make a female avatar (I just prefer looking at a womens butt, sorry) though not nesseccarily a good looking one. I used to do alot of P&P when I was youger so in general I sit back and think about a characters background when making one, think of a name that has relevance etc. Make them look like they are what I invision them to be.
When I do play male characters if it's possible I put myself in the game using technology (like in Rainbow 6 Vegas, FIFA10, etc), or with a detailed character creation tool. I generally try and make it look as much like me as possible.
And try not to think of it as studies (I know I don't) it's just good conversation.
