Why would you have to be a slender woman with a bow? You can pick all the same skills as a female character that you could as a male character.

My male character is the Dark Brotherhood ranged assassin, and my female character thus far is a pure mage, and I have yet to make a Battlemage or Paladin style character yet in Skyrim, but see no difference between them being male or female. (Actually, I tend to prefer playing my paladins female, but that's just personal preference.)

There's no reason you have to have an intimidating character, either. That stealth ranged assassin looks like a skinny wimp for a reason - he likes to be underestimated.

It's hard to admit, but I make female characters on Skyrim because you can actually make Vanilla characters cute now, and I play on the Xbox 360. This is the first game I've ever played a female character on.

Well, granted that gender is pretty irrelevant to the game. It is largely cosmetic, and I find excessive role-players almost as annoying as excessive rules-lawyers who want 23 Attributes, 41 Skills and a little number popping up telling you exactly how many health you have and how much damage you do with each swing.

The player does identify with the character he controls, however - a person watching somebody playing the game would refer to the on-screen character as "you" in conversation, as in "that dragon just fried your ass", rather than "that dragon just fried your character's ass" - and in the case of a male player playing a female character, it just seems odd, and the same thing for a female playing a man. Again, I always get the feeling that 95% of people playing the opposite gender (when the game gives a choice) is guys who are making sure they retain the opportunity to see two chicks kiss. God knows how much of The Sims' sales were driven by this sort of thing.

I never do
I like roleplaying
no fun to be had staying in the kitchen cooking and cleaning all day XD

for me honestly the female armor looks better imo

Its not only that, if you check the Nexus (at least the Oblivion nexus, not sure there is a lot of content available yet on the Skyrim one just yet) you will see that most custom armour meshes (or at least the most popular), races and whatnot are for female characters. Though as to why many guys prefer to play females the "Hardon Potter" clip from Newgrounds comes to mind, perhaps if you watch it you may find the answer you seek though on second thoughts it is probably best that you dont.



Totally agree, if you cant make your characters interesting regardless of gender then you simply lack imagination.

Well, I don't know about the rest of the armors, but I do know that I gave Lydia a set of Steel Plate armor, and the briastplate is aptly named.

I'll admit that I like to make an attractive character to admire from time to time. But I also just have more fun playing female characters. I've played both in the Fallout games, and have just had my best times running the girls.

My Skyrim character is the female Dunmer whose portrait is my avatar. On her first visit to Windhelm she walked into the inn and was greeted by some Nord talking trash about Dark Elves, so she challenged him to a brawl and mopped the floor with him. I can just picture the crap he must have taken from his grunting Nord drinking buddies over getting his ass kicked by a tiny little Dunmer girl.

I simply prefer playing my own gender. I can't really get into RPGs where I'm forced to be a male character, I just can't get immersed.

Other people like to roleplay, or like eyecandy :shrug: each to their own. Who cares what others do in their own game as long as they are having fun?

Bah... just admit you've snuck a peek at some pixellated booty before. It doesn't make you a 'sad' individual. Preferring your female avatar's company to an actual woman is a different story.

I choose female characters because I am a female...not sure why guys do it though. :shrug:

Well said, especially considering that this game can be played in first person.

I like women...

Who cares?

If someone wants to play a sixy argonian mage with a briarheart fetish, then why can't they without you asking why?

The Sims actually had its tremendous sales figures because it was one of those games that didn't sell to an almost exclusively male crowd - in fact, I have seen reports that it was actually more popular with women who are over 40 than the stereotypical teen male crowd. The same can be said for games like Puzzle Pirates - it's just the games that include "Now with 50% more extra-bloody decapitations!" as a selling point that tend to have the 90% young male playerbase.

Now then, yes, obviously a large number of people here are going to say that they play a girl just because they want to stare at a female in a chainmail bikini. Judging by the number of clothing mods for female characters that are made with about 2 square inches of material and the like, this is probably a notable chunk of the userbase, even.

However, I believe that a decent portion of people who say these sorts of things are just unwilling to admit due to social pressures that they actually would like to "get in touch with their feminine side" when they are playing a single-player game that is all about fantasy. If you want to mock someone for trying to play-act out being a stalwart female paladin who defends the innocent from bandits, you are not all that much different than the guy who is play acting out being the hulking brute who can rip wispy waifs in half with their bare hands. In fact, I would say there is far more sixual and emotional maturity to be found in the former than in the later.

If the notion of actually trying to see the world through the eyes of the other gender honestly scares you that much, then it's probably because you've honestly never tried it, and are terrified that you might not think it all that bad.

I mix it up often.

One of the strongest reason I have for playing female characters half of the time is that the roleplay elements are more "fresh" and "interesting" for central figure role because fiction as a whole has greater saturation of heroes than heroines. This isn't about how my genitals feel when I look at my character (there are better venues for that outlet lol), or how I wish to project myself into a virtual environment.

It's about creating a story. And I think it's really good practice to envision stories and have half of them feature the other half as the central figure as well.

One thing that bugs me though is that you can't have a believable women warrior body in this game. I mean these guys look like they can deadlift 3 times their own weight, while even at the largest setting the girls look pretty slim. Major immersion killer for creating woman warrior.

I was about to inquire what exactly is 'gross' about female characters, and then my slow brain figured it out. I feel stupid

Im male, always play male in RPGs.

You have NO IDEA what youre talking about. Gender is huge part of person's identity, its much more than just anatomical differences.

I have 5 characters and only one of them is female.

*Shrug* I don't know if "most" covers it. But I guess that since a lot of players are male, they want to roleplay something else. Not any weirder than pretending to be a big lizard, really.

That's something I haven't been able to do, though. I play female because I am. I should definitely try making a male char - break the Imperial chick trend for once.

If there is indeed a fair number of female chars, I kinda like the thought of it. I mean, I got fed up with Trailer-Dovahkiin pretty early. Yeah, yeah, you got muscles. *rolleyes* Hurray for dragon-slaying chicks.

Played Morrowind, Oblivion and F3 as a female first.

Played NV and Skyrim as a male first.

Weirdest part was when Liam Neeson called me "honey". wtf.

It would depend on the character I am trying to roleplay and create - if gender wasn't an important part of the character, I would lean more towards male characters but wouldn't rule out a female. Some characters I would only play as a female.

For example, next time I restart I may do a female priest of Dibella character, and do hand to hand with maces, restoration magic, and lots of male followers. That character concept doesn't make sense playing a male.

When I created my altmer wizard character, I could have gone either way and chose male.

Then I pity you for your inability to view yourself in any way other than your gender.

You honestly have nothing else to take pride in about yourself? You have no talents, no hobbies, no special skills that allow you to stand out, no distinguishing outlook on life, no role you fill in society or your social cliques based on anything other than your gender? The only thing of importance to you is that you are "male"? That is honestly just sad.

hmm grew up around alot of women (sisters etc) uh tired of so many male protagonist....im already a guy..........has a bit to do with watching anime reading manga(alot of the comedy series tend to have female protagonist) eh just my preference

If they were all male would you be wondering why?