Why do some men play as female characters in a roleplaying game?

I've always wondered why there are men who play as women while playing an mmo. I tried to do that a few times, but i end up looking at my character all the time, rather than questing and focusing on progression. And above all else, i simply do not associate myself with women, and for that reason it ruins the immersion for me. Creating a female character is alot of fun however. But attempting to be one is a different story.

Im certain at least someone can explain this 'phenomenon' to me.

Geez, the last one of these threads got really toxic.

This will be a long one.

i agree. just be yourself is my motto, and make believe its you but in that world of tamriel.

Well if I playing loads of hours in a mmo I would rather look at the female from behind than the male but what ever suits u lol some guys like look at males me I like woman lol

There's many reasons, ranging from purely aesthetic to simple roleplaying, all the way to gender/sixual identity.

Personally, I always play my own six, and my wife plays a female. That said, neither of us generally rolls a human character.

I keep hearing that argument, and as i said in my first post - it is distracting. You should pay attention to your surroundings, and not to the ass of your character. So if you are watching the butt of your female toon, how in the world are you able to complete quests, PVP and make solid progression?

I play almost exclusively female toons. I have four daughters and in their honor I enjoy creating carnage with a female toon. Maybe I'm only empowering them in my mind, but so what. Also, it's fun to kill big bad male warrior types with a tiny female. And considering the hours I spend gaming, If I'm going to be staring at a third-person ass, I might as well enjoy it.

Simple... I'm not childish enough to pretend the character on my screen is me. It's no different than watching a movie with a female as the main character.

I play male characters as a female.

There is no set logic to it. It's just preference. It's like someone's favorite food.

Exactly. Thats the fun of these mmo's - you place "yourself" in THAT world and see how that adds up.

'but i end up looking at my character all the time' and their butts, more specifically. My beta char was a 7 ft tall Altmer babe with a mohawk. i prefer to play in 3rd person for the situational awareness it grants and i'd rather stare at the posterior of a female than a male. females are just more pleasing to look at, now if you'll excuse me i must go alphabetize my collection of [censored].

For that particular concern (the aesthetic reason) the answer is simple, you aren't always staring right at it while not focussing on anything else. You can appreciate the form in your peripheral view as well.

^^

I have a few characters, some female and some male. Some young. Some old. Some short, tall, black, white, yellow and green. Just whatever I feel like rolling that day. You're putting too much thought into it. I'm not playing me or pretending I'm the character onscreen. I can play Halo or Tomb Raider without having gender identity crisis.

Waiting for the generic MMO comment about how "it's better than starting at a guy's butt for 100+ hours."

EDIT: Oh wait.. it was the fourth comment in.

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I don't play as female characters. Maybe i'm just naive when I make characters, I try to make them a representation of myself because.. I don't know.. i'm immersing myself in the world of Tamriel.

I, personally, play a female character because, well, I am not a female! I like playing what I am not. Like a big fit warrior, or an armorer. I an fake a smart person pretty well, even though I don't consider it. And I prefer playing females because I think I play one more convincing than I play a male in some cases (Despite being male). Plus, I end up liking my female characters more than my male characters for some reason. My mains in all my other MMOs (WoW, GW2, CoH, SWTOR, CO, DCUO) were females because they fell into my favored play-style and character.

It probably helps I don't fawn over looks for characters, even though I like the aesthetics of all my characters I don't get 'distracted' by a female (nor male) form.

People i had a discussion with on females playing male toons, told me its usually because they do not want to be disturbed or harassed while playing as a female. And when i think about it, it makes sense, because during the time i tried to play as a female, my character was surrounded by these males doing their vulgar emotes and what not. Playing as a makle you do not have this issue.

Of course, some women like that sort of attention - and on rare occasions people get romantically involved for real because of mmo's.

This

I agree with this. And well... the generic comment has been made several times already above. smh

I get to be myself each day, every day, in real life. Being myself in fantasy reality would just bore me to tears, even my male characters are not modeled after me in any way.

Its fun to put yourself into the shoes of someone completely different in an alternate world.

I'd rather spend months of my life looking at a woman rather than a man. Simple.

That is a pleasant side effect, and why I started in the first place. Over time it gradually became my preference.

I don't want to sound you know, but being hit on in a game is really last on my list of things I want to do in my downtime.

Others are right though--it's just like a story with a different character.

Also: I never understood this. Why the heck place yourself in these kinds of situations? It seems like it would worry me if I put myself in stuff like this. Sure I imagine myself whipping someone's butt in some fantasies, but if I wanted to go about actually doing some kind of fantasy thing, well, there's renaissance festivals and LARPs I can get involved in. I prefer my characters being, well, characters. I see their highs, see their lows, they have their own motivations.

If I put myself in some of these situations I would just get pissed off. Why am I worrying about this war? Why should I risk my life for the selfishness of others? I'll just go be a hermit, get any friends and family away from that and live in peace until a new empire is settled in or I die of a bandit raid.

So you're implying that i am childish for wanting to have a character represent the "Tamriel version" of me. Well that's just being a troll isnt it? A very subtle troll.