Out of curiosity......

Since it's pretty much a thing I've done everytime I can choose what gender I'm playing as, I always choose to play as male characters despite being a female in real life. It's due to not liking how the female choice looks in games that give you a choice of what the character's gender is. The first game I played that had me choose which gender the character would be was Pokemon Crystal, and I hate how the female character looks. Probably did back then. Every game I played that had the choice involved the male actually not looking like a photoshop version of women and the female looking like she needs to eat McDonalds just to have a healthy weight, or the female would be dressed in skirts or dresses, which I now naturally refuse to wear in a game.

When I was younger, I was so against wearing a skirt or dress in every way due to being a tomboy, and even as I became more accepting of a few more girly things, I never once looked at a skirt or dress without hate of skirts or dresses. It's just a thing I never grew out of. It's almost second nature for me to play male characters and despise dresses and skirts. *shrugs*

Besides, it seems like males are the only gender game designers don't make look like they aren't there for men to lust over. The females in this game don't look like magazine models, but I just don't like the way they look. Bayonetta is the only game to make the six symbol design of females tolerable. Maybe it's just the nature of the game, and how Bayonetta is supposed to be goofy. Silent Hill is one of the few game series that actually make the female characters look like they aren't lust objects unless the story of a Silent Hill game needs it, and I'm excluding the sixy nurse monsters here.

I voted, so I geuss i should post,
I am a male and I almost always play a female character, I like to see an attractive face when I am equipping the weapons and armor my character just pulled off of a Boss in a dungeon.

THIS POLL SUX! Naw, just kidding.

Surprisingly, I couldn't really vote. :shrug: I'm a lady and if this poll had been posted a year or even 8 months ago, I could have voted I only start females. But over the past 8 months I have started a couple male characters. I didn't think I'd like playing a male, but truth is for some roleplaying it works better than a female.

Back in my D&D days, I was the opposite: I had more male characters than females...something like 4 to 1.

I dominately play as female characters. I occasionally play as a male character here and there, but I just find I relate to and enjoy female characters more. It might also be worth noting as well that I have more of an "attraction" toward females, which may or may not play a role in that.

I also made http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1163806-player-and-character-gender/ a while ago, just to add to the statistics and information that this poll will yield.


To be fair, guys in video games are frequently just as bad. Women are too thin and too busty, and men are too muscular and too sleek.

I'm male, and probably 80% of my characters have been female. It started out as simply a matter of what I preferred to be looking at, but as time went on, I found that the female characters who were developing were simply more interesting, and more complicated. In other words, more fun to play. In the last year or so, I think I've started a total of three males.

And yes, I do make a lot of characters.

Almost exactly the same for me, it makes for more interesting play.

Males do have just as bad of a record of being the way you described them in video games. I'm so used to it, that I don't mind. I don't mind looking at the female NPCs in this game, but... I wouldn't play as one.

I did not vote. Both my play-throughs have featured the same Nordic male avatar (seen at left). I DO NOT contemplate a female avatar as a long term investment, I fully expect to at some point begin at least one more major play-through, and possibly a number of short-term experimental installs. While it is unlikely I will go against the grain in any of those, I will not rule it out. Life is full of surprises.

I wish there had been a "dumpier" body option for my decrepit avatar. Something less robust that better fits his elderly persona.

-Decrepit-

Yes. My two characters are Buffy and Acadian. They are indeed of opposite sixes. :twirl:

I am a male and exclusively play females. Maybe every once in awhile I will start a male, but never play it for longer than 30 minutes. For me it isn't as much a matter of what I am looking at, but I've developed a person over the years in video games. It started when I was playing an MMO, and chose the priest/healer class. It was a gender specific class, so I was stuck as a female. But since then I have made every character from this one girl, always naming her Aurelie or a similar variation, depending on her particular role in the game. From MMO's to Fable, to Dragon Age.

I didn't vote.
I'm a male and play mainly male characters, but every now and then I create a girl - though these characters don't last long, then again, none of mine do.

I am male and play exclusively females. I can make a pretty decent looking female without mods, all the men I make vanilla style are ass ugly. Gameplay wise, I've had Oblivion since release and I've only had one male character, and he is the one I use as my avatar. I also find there are many more choices for females in terms of mods, than there are for males. So the options for females are endless. Plus I find female warriors, mages and thieves to be sixy.

Take Care!

I am male and I have always played female characters

I'm male and I normally paly male characters, but I have made a few female characters.

This. Plus I seem to be incapable of playing as a male breton, bosmer, or khajiit.

I'm one of the people that can not vote aswell.

I've had many characters while playing Oblivion and have had roughly an equal amount of both males and females. Although I now play only 2 females characters on Oblivion I've still had male characters in the past.

Over the years I may have had more female characters then male but it just depends on the character that I decide to RP. It has lead to some interesting times but even now with the 7 characters I roleplay over various things from Oblivion to Forum RP's and in a RL RP club I have 4 male characters.

We should have an option for playing both male and female characters equally.

I'm male. For a long time, I played male characters exclusively. And every one of them was little more than an extension of myself. I never considered the character as a unique individual - he was just an avatar of an idealized version of myself.

Wandering this forum, I started to run across posters who had great, complex characters with their own stories (bobg and Acadian were the ones who really woke me up to that aspect of the game). I tried creating a couple of new male characters and investing them with their own personalities, but it just didn't work out. I quickly fell into my old habits and they just became me-in-the-game again.

So, working on a bit of a hunch, I created a female character (Claudia, from my sig). And that entirely changed the way I looked at the game. She could never be just me-in-the-game, since I'm not female. She had to be her own person - there was simply no other alternative. So I had to figure out just who and what she was, and what she believed and valued and hoped for, and thus what she'd do in a given situation. And that's the key - that's the secret to creating a truly unique character rather than just an avatar.

Since then, I've created and played some more male characters, and I can now play them the same way - they're no longer just an extension of me, but are individuals in their own right. I probably play more female characters than male at the moment though. I'd guess it's about 60/40 female to male, but I'd have to count them up to be sure.

I am a guy and I only play guy characters. I often even design the characters looking the same in all games I play. I want the hero to look like a hero =)

I have however never played a game with anime looking characters and I bet that I won't. Can't stand the graphics approach. But if I did.. it would probably be a female since the men can't go by the definition of men in those games

Well, since I roleplay I find it easier to fit myself into the boots of a male character. (Because I svck at wearing high heels anyway.)

With females, not only does it feel strange to get hit and hear a feminine moan (I know what you're thinking you nasty creep) but I also think female adventurers are somewhat out of place. Call me a sixist if you must, but I really think females shouldn't be sleeping around in guild halls, or battling goblins in dark smelly caves. I'm okay with all the female NPC's, and I don't for a second believe that "there is no reason a woman should ever be roaming around", it's just that I think their place is at home making sandwiches, or if they have a job, something peaceful like a farmer, or a barmaid.

Having said that, I have two female characters, both of which sleep around in guild halls and battle goblins in dark smelly caves.

I'm male. Since the release of he game I've had many characters that I've stuck with for substantial gameplay time.

And those are both male and female. Maybe a slight bias towards female.

There have been polls and threads like this in the past. One thing that keeps coming up is that some people identify strongly with their character. Essentially believing their character is really them in the game world. So they seem to interpret a male playing a female character as a male that really wants to be a female (or a female that really wants to be a male)

That is not at all the way I view things. I don't view myself as my character. I view myself as directing a character, just like I might if I were directing a movie or writing a book. Or maybe view the character as another person I'm adventuring with - as I understand it Acadian is great with that concept.

But I don't view myself as my character. So having a female character in game does not mean I really want to be female. And playing a cold blooded cultest murderer, doesn't mean I really want to be that either. And when I had a Khajiit character I don't think I had a deep rooted psychological desire to be a cat.

I'm a guy and most of my characters are females. I find it helps me separate my personality from their own, and therefore allows me to roleplay better.
That said, I do have one male character, who's a Dunmer, using most of the Dunmer racial bonus skills.

Edit: Savlian speaks truth.

When I play a game for the first time I generally use the default character, and that's frequently a male. The same character usually gets default everything, so that I can get an impression of the developers' way of thinking.

The second character is the complete opposite. So female, and definitely custom build. This is the "what can I do that's totally against the grain" test character.

Depending on how these two work out, the third is the real character that fits the way I want to play the game, and could be either gender, depending on the game.

For Oblivion, I've preferred female characters, because they remain a distinct character and don't disappear into a tin can that looks like any of their enemies. That's probably why I've also played mages and archers more than tanks in armor. The latter tend to become generic combat units instead of characters, and this is an RPG.

Of course, when I played Tomb Raider, ....

I'm male and play only female characters mainly because I've always loved female heroes in sic fi and fantasy stories. Has nothing to do with six.

I am male, and the mix is about 60/40 in favor of me playing females.