I second this. The VA for the female sounds really good, a lot better than the male VA but he's not bad at all either.

This is my official reason for playing FemShep. The unofficial reason is that I will make any excuse to hear Jennifer Hale talk.

My second playthrough will be female just to see the difference in choices and quests. To me it is no different than reading a book based on a male or female character. I am hoping that Bethesda will make some of the quests gender specific to change the subplots slightly for better replay value.

I always play as a male. I always play my own six and I feel very disconnected in games where the character is female.

Tomb Raider for example great game but I just felt very separate from the character

Sure. It'll give me something the trailers and demos haven't shown me. Hopefully it'll matter.

I always play as a male, so no. My friend always plays as a female. When I asked him why he said, "If I have to look at a butt for hundreds of hours, I want it to be sixy."

How does playing the opposite gender prevent you from playing yourself? I'm curious because as a straight male often playing a female characters I have no problem projecting my personality into the opposite gender. Im curious to see what your reasoning might be as the small differences in physique from male to female is not something I personally consider an important factor when it comes to personal identity.

If the male protag had a sixy butt, would your friend play with him? http://i.imgur.com/OdHvW9J.jpg.

Appearance is a very major factor in my creation of 'myself' and projecting myself into the game universe. Also, part of my identity in reality is that I identify as a male, and it would be difficult for me to identify as a male in the game world if I was a female in the game world.

I'll start out playing a man. But if like other TES/FO games I end up playing 20-30 different PC I imagine about half will be female.

I do end up playing females different. They are generally the less physical in combat and more intellect/long range types. Not that it can't be different, it's just how I play them as it just makes more sense to me. So playing different sixes gives me reasons to play differently.

Will only be playing as male characters. Only ever play as a female if it's forced on me like in Tomb Raider for example.

I usually end up playing both and mostly play female if given a choice, but I haven't decided which I'll play first. Probably female because I've always leaned towards men in the Fallout series, for whatever reason. And Mad Max: Fury Road has me excited to play a post-apocalyptic woman warrior.

I'm also a bit curious as to companion preferences. I'm male, and I almost always play male characters when I have a choice, but I have a strong bias towards female companions when I use them.

In Fallout 3 In New Vegas it was always Willow (mod) with either Cass or Veronica (usually Veronica). In Skyrim, most of my various companions were female and the few who weren't were beast races. In fact, most of the male companions I use are usually not conventionally human. In Fallout 3 there was Charon, in Skyrim it was Inigo (the absolute best companion mod ever created for a Bethesda game). In Mass Effect I'd use aliens like Garrus, but never humans like Kaidan.

Hmm ... maybe I don't even want digital competition.

I will definitely play both and I was going to play my own gender first but...the male protagonist looks really good in that skin tight jumpsuit so I don't know anymore

yes, yes I will be. I always play a female character in fallout I don't know why but I find it funnier then playing it as myself.

haha

I'll be playing a male character first as myself to get a feel for the world and skills. The second time i play will probably be the female character to hear the different voice actress.

I always try to role play and it works best for me if i play with a male char.

Gaming is saturated with male protagonists so most likely I'll stay with a female character.

I'll probably play as a male so I can stare at dat ass o' his in that tight Vault suit.

Heh, if you checked my other post here, my choices sum up to...

Male 'cause DAT ASS!

Female 'cause deep, interesting plot about a pre-War wife and mother learning to survive and kick ass in the Wasteland.

Yes the new skin tight vault suit on a male weirds me out, so a female might not be as bad.

I play as both genders. I'm male, but the female protagonist in FO:4 interests me more, because an ex-50's type housewife is a pretty unusual action hero.

First one then the other. I tend to play as myself first then roleplay. Usually as the opposite six.

Most of my games I play as female and like you said, it will be even more interesting in F4.

Always love playing with the opposite six

sticking to who I am ,(doesn't mean I won't tweak what the wife looks like each time ,but I'm a male who for the most part is uncomfortable playing females so...yep playing a male unless they add a super mutant option)