I am a male, and I play mostly female characters, and some male ones.

Lothran is male and so am I

I think Savlian hit the truth. There's a distinction between character and player in my mind. I don't confuse myself with the character. I'm an old guy sitting in a chair, playing a computer game. I play this game because I enjoy the experience of doing and seeing things which are not a part of my "real life."

So, while I act as "director" or "unseen participant," I am not the character who is moving around in Tamriel, and I don't see myself in that character. As a result, I'm free to "participate" in the lives of a variety of different interesting characters.

males coz the females look more oogly booggly than teh males

I'm male and I always play male characters in TES. I don't know why I can't sustain interest in playing a female character, as I have played all of the tomb raider games and really liked them for the most part. Perhaps I should give female another go. :shrug:

In Roleplaying games, or whenever I have the choice, I almost always go for the male character. The first time I play the game, that's a given, since I tend to project myself on the character.

Regarding TES, I can play female characters (I think I made one long time ago), but I mostly play males. I think it relates to the RP part of the game, since I can't really identify myself in a female character, and I am one of those that always keeps a little of himself on the character, since it really helps my immersion into it I guess that is a defect for an RP'er, not to be able to completely separate myself from the character.

Fact is, that in Oblivion, I may start a character around a concept and try to keep by his personality, but most of the times it will all come down to me. For instance, I may have a coldbood murderer or a foolish young warrior, but the way I play them and their personality will always have some influence from me I guess.

That is why, I believe, I cannot play female characters for much time. I just don't identify with them

Oh, and I am a male lol not sure if I refered it up there.

I'm female and like to play as a male character. I used to play with female characters, but at one point I switched and have never switched back... Of course these days I'm too busy modding to play much anyway

I'm male but only play as female characters. I can't remember the last time I played as a male in a game where you get to choose gender.

I'm a male and I'd say 90% of the time I play I use a male character.

For the most part I really only have two characters I play. My main one is a male "fighter/thief" (if we are using class labels), who in one way, shape, or form I've had with me for 30 years or so (goining back to my D&D days). In every game I play that allows it he's usually the first character I create. In some ways he's a lot like me, I'll even admit there's a bit of him that is who I wish I could be. So I guess I actually roleplay the situation and not the character as such, even though he has some traits I dont (or want to) posess. I guess he's my way of escaping the real world when I need to and pretending in a way that I'm the one actually doing these things. :shrug:

My second character I play is a female mage. Dont know why I made a female the first time I "rolled" up a mage, guess I was going for something different. While my male character is equally as happy in the seediest parts of town as he is in areas fit for a king, my mage wouldn't be caught dead living in an area like the waterfront district (I often use house mods, or cheat just enough gold to buy a living location for her that fits her personality.). There are several other differences between the two, but this topic isnt really about that.

And since I have a near OCD trait of needing to do a fresh install everytime I come back from a break, I get to create them all over again :banghead: :banghead: :banghead:

tl;dr - I identify more with male characters so thats usually what I play.

i always play guys in games like oblivion and fallout, i think playing in first person all the time i get into the mind set of "my" Character. Most of my characters even look like me. In games where the characters are voiced, ex mass effect, i usually play one girl and one guy. Its less like i'm playing me in those kind of games, and more like watching an interactive story

I play a mix.

As someone who roleplays on every character, from Morrowind to Oblivion, I can't really conceive playing as a woman. To the extent that I roleplay it'd be paramount to crossdressing... Except maybe a little worse.

I'm the founder of the whole trend of playing female characters >>.

Though male in real life, I've played both male and female characters in Oblivion, my current character is a female orc, if I make another character with my current installation, I'll probably make a male character, for variety if nothing else. If a game gives me the oportunity to choose my character's six, I don't feel the need to constrain myself to my own six, though if I never get around to creating more than one character, it seems that the character I do play will end up being female, almost all games which constrain you to a pre-existing character of a specific six force you to play a male character, I really can't name that many examples of strong video game protagonists who are female in games where you can't choose characters of both six, the list is even smaller if you narrow it down to the ones who don't need to rely on six appeal to stand out. So why should I constrain myself to male characters when I'm given a choice as well? But really, the six I choose for my character in a game is typically whatever I feel like playing at the time, assuming I can choose my six, or whatever I didn't play with my last character.

I'm a female and I play almost exclusively male characters. I also really identify with them and feel like they are me. Does this mean that I want to be a man in real life? No it doesn't. I just don't think that there is this great divide between the way men and women think where as I could never role-play as a man. I love to play male characters and characters of races different than my own because it lets me pretend to be something I am not in real life (which to me is what role-palying is all about).

I am a woman, and whenever a game gives me the opportunity, I play a woman.

I think a lot more guys play as women than they will admit :tongue:
I dont have a problem one way or another what six someone plays (as I've said I play a female character from time to time). But I do have to chuckle everytime I'm playing an online game where we are useing Ventrilo and someones female character speaks up and has a deep burly guys voice :laugh:

I'm male and have 11 female characters in Oblivion, tho a few of them never got very far. Back when I first started playing Morrowind my first character was a male Nord and after that I decided to try a female Dunmer and have since always made female characters in TES games and other games as well. :hubbahubba:

Male person, male characters, only. I'm not sixist but females never ' work' for me, RP-wise. I can't quite explain it, tho. :shrug:

Geez.... I just realized how lucky you are with this....

Most of us have to choose either to play the gender with which we most identify OR the gender to which we're most attracted......

The poll disagrees with you. :whistling:

I mainly play male characters.. Only made 3 female character and that was 2 in Morrowind and 1 in Oblivion sadly all 3 were gone in 4 hours.. Just cant play a female character for the simple yet odd reason the clothes and armor.. Just want to see what the female versions are and when I try to play the female characters their wardrobe gets way out of hand for me lol...... Seems like every 30 mins they need to change to something different. Case in point with a mod for better bodies for oblivion that I downloaded 3 days ago for a character concept I was trying thought about using a female character was a bowmage. In the 2 1/2 days after she started roaming around the world. And after she found that shop to the northeast of Leyawiin it was than I relized she needed a mod just to store her wardrobe... Sadly she died.... Was in the process of picking up something new from a bandit she just killed and became over loaded with items when she met her fate. One very ugly bear.. That taught me 2 very important lessons... 1. that for me role playing a female character can be harmfull to a characters life. Secondly and this lesson I will remember forever thanks to her.. NEVER go for the loot after a battle or walk around after a battle without healing up first.. I imagine after the Blades and Imperial Legion found her body and losing the amulet after swearing at her they gave her a 21 flaming arrow salute....

Depends how many male characters they have for choice number 2

But yeah, after looking at the poll agin I guess my remark does disregard the poll somewhat. I was just suprised that with all the online games I've played where it's obvious that most women characters are actually men (Ventrilo), that the poll wasnt something along the lines of 85% of guys play as women.

I'm female and I have many many male characters. You can see one of my character in mah avatar B)

Im male and often play males. The only female I played as was a dunmer Crusader (though more of a heavily armored light spell machine).