I'm curious. This poll applies to Arena, Daggerfall, Morrowind, and Oblivion. Battlespire and Redguard should not be included due to limited options and no options at all, respectively.

For the races you haven't played as, why haven't you picked them yet? A personal preference against that race or just haven't gotten around to it?

If you've played as one race more than others, is it because that's your favorite race, or do you like playing as that race better than others, or is it just a coincidence?


For me, I have played as an: Altmer, Breton, Dunmer, Imperial, Orc, and Redguard.
I have not played as, and never plan on playing, an Argonian or Khajiit because I don't want to be a beast. Nothing against those races, they're cool and all, but I can't get into the roleplaying aspect of the game if my character is an animal-person, especially with views so vastly different than humans. I would never know what my character is thinking. Plus I don't want to look at a cat-person/lizard-person for hours on end.
I have not yet played as a Bosmer, mostly because I like Dunmer and Altmer better when wanting to play as an elf, so I just haven't picked a Bosmer yet. I'm sure it'll happen eventually.
I also have not played a Nord, but that's going to change once Skyrim comes out. My main character, the Dragonborn, will be my first Nord.

I don't have a most played race. I've played Imperials, Bretons, and Redguards the same amount. Kind of odd that I've never picked a Nord but have played as the man races so frequently.

I have only played imperial and bosmer and I'll choose them for Skyrim. I'll never be a dunmer I just don't like them

Well I've played as every race at least once. In Morrowind I tried to make one character of every race using a different build for each one. Unfortunately it was just too much jumping back and forth between them, and the saves got confusing real quick. I make tons of characters, and use them for certain periods of time until I get tired of them and delete them. The only one I keep for good is my main.

To break it down a little better :

Imperial - played by far the most. My main character is Imperial, as were a lot of my side characters.

Dunmer - a close second, I've made several of them.

After that, I've made a few Nords (mostly used for Bloodmoon), a couple Argonians, a Breton or two and only one of everything else. Of those my favorites were my Wood Elf thief and my Khajiit thief.

I've played every race except Khajiit. Don't ask why not them, I'm not sure myself. Guess it had to be something...

My most-played race has been Breton. Part of that comes from playing Daggerfall so much and me simply preferring to choose the race from the province each game is set in; part of that comes from me liking to play mages, and Bretons being fairly well suited to that. Bosmer (yes, seriously) probably come in second, though Dunmer might fit there instead.

Of the vanilla races, I've only played Redguard and Breton. My very first Morrowind character was Redguard. After that I played several Breton Warriors in Morrowind and Oblivion.

But it's been a long time since I played a vanilla race, to be honest. I've played modded races exclusively for the last four years or more.

Daggerfall - High Elves and Argonians
Morrowind - High Elves, Dark Elves and Argonians.
Oblivion - High Elves

In MW and OB, my most-played race was an Imperial. Argonians were second in both games, followed by Dunmer and Bretons in MW. I played at least one of every race except Nord in MW, and only tried about 3 races in OB before getting fed up with the game mechanics and shelving it permanently.

Imperials and Dunmer are extremely versatile, and especially good for "semi-fighter" characters. Argonians are just oddly different enough to present a challenge to RP, although the more "human" beast-races in OB made it a lot less interesting. I would have enjoyed playing a Breton more in MW if they didn't make all of those silly noises when hit, and the same issue made it just downright annoying to play a "squeeking" Bosmer, otherwise I'd have been fine with them.

After trying an Orc character, I was somewhat disappointed and saw no reason to play a Nord, which are about the same, only more boastful of their own stupidity.

All my playtrough that's have lasted more than two hours have been with Khajiit. I think i've shortly tried all races except imperial, nord, orc and redguard.

I ususally don t play the main race of the game:
I haven t played a dunmer in morrowind
I haven t played imperial OB
and so on.
In Daggerfall i played orc and Dunmer
In Arena i played a Nord and Dunmer.

Nord almost always sometimes i use my imperial but not often

I always play as a Breton Mage even on multiple play throughs

I've played all of them, but I'm not fond of orcs, and I've only played them once, for a VERY short time. Didn't like being limited in the magical department, though. I favor the female Bosmer, for many reasons; I'm also fond of Dunmer and Khajiit....

I played as Bosmer, Dunmer, Nord, and Imperial in Morrowind. And I've played Imperial in Oblivion. All the other races are races I haven't played.

I've never played an Orc. I just have no interest in it. The axe-wielding barbarian type has never interested me in RPGs. I've played a Redguard once, but they don't interest me either. The race I've played the most is probably Dunmer, but I've tried all the others. And most of them more than once.

I've played every race at least once, but in general I never play as a Dunmer, Emperial, and Redguard.

I mostly play as Breton, altmer, or beast races.

I've played all the human races. (They're actually my favorite.) I have also played Argonians here and there. Mostly in Daggerfall and Morrowind. Infact I think my first Daggerfall character was an argonian named Swamp Gas. And of course I've played Dumner through Daggerfall.

Races I haven't played are most of the Elvin races and Khajiit. Though I do plan on playing an Orc in Skyrim. I've just never felt inspired for the Mer races.

Edit: Wait, I am playing one wood elf character in Arena. Archers kick ass in that game.

How did you play an Orc in Daggerfall?

What races have you played? Breton, Dunmer, Khajiit, Redguard

What races haven't you played? All the other ones...

What is the race you play the most? Dunmer


I don't get why everyone hates Redguards. They are the best warrior race, IMO.

I know! Warrior is my favorite combat type, and it's no surprise that Redguards are my favorite race. Not only because of their Warrior potential either, but just because the Redguard people are a bunch of badasses.

I don't hate Redguards, I just find them uninteresting to play.

Less interesting than the other two pure warrior races, the bumbling, idiotic Nords and Orcs?

I'm surprised that Imperials are so popular. To me, they always seem the most boring, generic Race.
I prefer the more fantastic Races when I play a fantasy game.

Oddly, I find Redguards to be the only "warrior" race I can take an interest in. They're more attuned to finess in combat than brute force, which is probably why I don't mind playing them, while I don't enjoy playing Orcs or Nords.

I tell this to my friend in D&D all the time, who is always baffled because I play human most of the time.

To me, its more about who I am than what I am. The imperials actually have a strong culture (Which Oblivion didn't really do justice I feel) and actually aren't as bland as they were portrayed as. They're sort of the classic Roman empire of Tamriel, but with a more medieval twist. Their adventurers have a different point of view of the world from most of the other races. They are well educated and well spoken, great tradesmen, great diplomats, and even conquerers.

I don't find them boring or uninteresting at all... But thats just my opinion, and I could see how playing Oblivion could give people the wrong idea of how Cyrodiil should be. They aimed for a more traditional fantasy rather than an accurate portrayal of the Imperial's home province. Thus they came off as more bland.

I tend to play as wood elfs, orcs, khajiit, and bretons. Orcs seem to be the best mage race as I play to high levels and the extra enderance from the start adds more life to live with. Not to mention the magic resistance makes up for getting hit while having the atch sign.