Poll: All else being equal, what do you play as?

[DeltaEdge]

Always same sex, same race. I'm not much of a role-player I guess, and I always prefer to project myself and the choices I feel I would make onto whatever character I am playing to the best of my ability. I'm also the kind of person that has trouble choosing anything but the nicest/best option in any dialogue choice. I don't think I could ever do a playthrough of any game involving choice being the "bad guy". If I were to finally get into DND or something of the like though, then for the sake of role-playing, I might consider stepping outside of my box, although that would mainly be because playing as something different might offer a different experience in terms of story, not because I actually really want to play as someone different though.

So yeah, if there's a sex option, I always go male, and if there's a race option, then I'll go dark-skinned, provided that it doesn't actually affect the game or the character's statistics at all. Probably the only time I'd change this would be in something like Persona 3 Portable or Tales of Xillia, where playing as the other sex gives you a lot of different perspectives, or in the later's case, fills in the gaps left on the other's story mode.

 

[OtherSideofSky]

All things being equal, my first choice, and the first choice of all virtuous people, is "dinosaur." Anyone who says different is a villain.

 

[Liquidprid3]

I'm a guy, and I usually pick a girl character. Easier on the eyes, I guess. Someone else said this before, but in most games, the protagonist is male, so I like to mix it up. Human race wise, I usually choose my race, which is white. Not always, though. Fantasy race wise, I choose which one looks the coolest, most badass, prettiest, handsomest, etc. Whatever my character is going for, I guess.

 

[Daverson]

Orcs. Always Orcs. Failing that, the orciest (most orcine?) race available. Generally tend not to have a preference for gender - if it's something I'll play more than once (ie, Fallout), I'll alternate between male and female characters, just to see what's different.

 

[Quazimofo]

Well, I generally try different races (elves, dwarves, khajit and all that) because if I'm gonna play in a fantasy world, might as well be something a bit more exotic than humans, right? If you are referring to assorted ethnic backgrounds within humans, then I often play as a caucasian with a slightly darker skin tone if I can.

Spoiler: Sorry, this spoilered bit is a bit preachy. Avoid if you're bothered by that sort of thing.

Yes, I am being pedantic about the word "race". Language emulates one's views on a base, even subconscious, level. Race, functionally interchangeable with species, implies there are significant fundamental differences between humans of varying backgrounds worthy of distinction/discrimination, and I disagree with that notion.

As for sex, male. Unless the stock is a female. It tends to feel just a bit off if I'm not playing as a male when games give you the option of character creation, likely because there's a certain basic level of connection with my character that allows me to become really immersed in a game. Having a female character kinda breaks that because, as much as I might put myself into a character, the fact that the character is female is a constant reminder that the character is absolutely not me.
Of course if the default is female, or if the game has a female protagonist (like Bayonetta), I don't mind at all. I guess it's because the deliberate choice to make a character female makes that difference ever present as something unquestionably not me, but if it is that way by default it's easier to just accept it as who I am in that game.

 

[BathorysGraveland2]

I find myself sometimes mixing it up with race. For example, I played through the Mass Effect trilogy as an African man. However, I almost always play male. I enjoy mixing it up with race, but I very, very rarely ever play as a female. The only time I have, to my knowledge, was once in Skyrim where I played as a female Altmer mage. Beyond that, every character I play is male, which then boils down to either Caucasian or African. I haven't played as Latino or Asian in games with character creations to my memory.

Not sure why the aversion to playing females, but it's most likely because most of the characters I play are warriors, and it's a little hard to suspend disbelief with women running around in prolonged melees (not to mention they get the shitty end of the stick in regards to armour and clothing). Magic and archery, on the other hand, is a little more believable in that role for me. So it makes a certain kind of sense, I suppose. Mass Effect, being a modern warfare-esque shooter, could also work with a female character, and I actually did try, but her voice actor was cringe-worthy levels of terrible to my ears, so alas.

But yeah, male with some differences in race for me.

EDIT: Actually, I have played as Asians in Mount & Blade: Warband when fighting for the Khergit Khanate. Not sure if that counts though, since character creation in Warband is primitive at best.

 

[Autumnflame]

99.99% of the time if i have the option ill roll a female character.

race will vary game to game depending on the mechanics they employ.
but generally ill go for a heavy tanned/half black/white most of the time.

as im not too fond of the super pale look

 

[conmag9]

I have a weird thing about this. No idea why I do it. My first character will almost always be a man (matching my gender). Almost everything else after that will be a woman. Race selection varies on game. Dnd games might be anything. Dragon Age? Almost always elven. Usually whichever most aligns with magic, as I'm fond of magic users.

I suppose I'm more likely to modify my selection if there's a mechanical reason to do so. A Wheel of Time RP, for instance, would adjust what sort of channeling the character could perform. But for the most part, if it's just aesthetics, the above holds true for me.

 

[Fearzone]

I always play as orcs/orks. So I picked different race same sex and not until I read the OP did I see you meant human ethnicities. Usually, if it won't let me play as orcs, I don't play. Except for Skyrim, I played as a Nord male and I think a Breton female, and both had a Caucasian apperance. Everything else is orcs.

 

[thiosk]

I don't know-- its tough.

For instance, in Left 4 Dead, I was Louis. In project zomboid, I play exclusively as a long, red-hair'd woman named tonya harding. In saints row 4, I played with the sliders until my character was a freak of nature.

FOr something like dragons age, typically a white anglo saxon protestant with a magic fetish.

 

[DementedSheep]

If a game has customisable pc's I play a female every-time I have the opportunity to do so without my character looking like an idiot child or a fantasy themed prostitute. Otherwise I'll either not play the game or play a guy. If I have multiple characters in same game and the female models and animations don't or only mildly piss me off one of them is often a guy (usually the 3rd or 4th). I mix ethnicities fairly often. Looking at different facial structures, skin tones, builds for different places and ethnicities is a minor interest for me though few character creators really let you do that well.

 

[Zakarath]

Generally, I'll play with a pretty wide variety of the available options, but I tend toward defaulting to playing a female character (I'm male) who is white (which I am), IF human is the only available species. If not, I tend to have my main run be one of the more unusual species (My main in Guild Wars 2 is a female plant person, in Skyrim my main characters are a male & a female Argonian...

 

[Atmos Duality]

Complete Clusterfuck here.
I guess I have a bias for my race and gender(sex), but at this point it's a pretty large jumble of varied characters; mostly because I like to try everything.

(a habit I picked up from GM-ing in PnP games for so long)

 

[Guitarmasterx7]

I generally try to make my character look like me if its an RPG. Though if I'm given a choice of characters and no customization I'll probably just go for whichever is most interesting or amusing to me.

 

[Snotnarok]

Uhhh...whatever I guess works? 99% of the time it's a girl if customizable but race? Depends on what class I guess, I want it to fit...as in like Skyrim playing super tall bulky character, a nord more makes sense to be pale as I am, but someone closer to the equator would likely be darker. I started another game that got lost where I was a redguard of the more nimble variety with sword and shield with a short short haircut, she will be missed.
I of course realized after how it could be taken after I typed all this..."Depends on my class" "U MEAN IF I'M A THIEF DURR BLACK HUR HUR" no, my thief was tanned, blond dual sword wielding gal and played off as if she was my character from my webcomic if she crash landed on the planet. Yes, I'm an idiot.

Played pokemon as a short haired black tomgirl, which got me a lot of "Who the hell is Dia?" comments when my character got put into their second screen.

Doesn't really matter to me, it's about making a character and playing as the girl just makes sense as the other games where I can't customize I'm playing as a guy. It's a strange evener I've been doing, something I don't think some of my friends are keen to. :|

 

[Reaper195]

Why is there no "Whatever I'm in the mood for." option? The only game I've played where playing a different gender seemed to have any real affect was Mass Effect. While Meyers (SP?/Even the right name?) did a great job as male Shepard, Jennifer Hale was fucking exquisite in the ME games, particularly 3. It also makes the game feel slightly less "And then the good guy bangs the girl and saves the galaxy because that's all guys do.". There was something cool about seeing a decent female character without going all "OMG MUST MAKE HER TEH STRONGEST FEMALE LIKE LARA CROFTERS!"

 

[StormTriarii]

I personally imagine myself as my character so I go for dark haired male with a goetee and if there is a difference i will go with a female just to see some of the other changes that can occur. For instance I usually play a Breton/imperial male in elder scrolls games but to mix it up i played as a Redguard male on my 4th character of Skyrim and a darkelf female on my 5th and she is my favorite. It could just be cause she can sneak attack kill a dragon in one hit, or the fact that i notice the small differences of being called a shield sister or an elf that makes the game seem a tad fresher than otherwise.

 

[MrPhyntch]

My "default" character is a caucasian female, with fairer (but not pale) skin, reddish-brown hair, and bright green eyes. I will often keep my name with these characters, since my name is Alex, a fairly gender-neutral name (although I may use the name of an old crush that is still a quite beautiful name regardless of where I know it from). All in all, this creates my "ideal person", not based on any one person but with many traits that I idealize in a human, and I tend to follow-through with this idea into HOW I play them as well (usually as close to good as I can). I also, if it's important, tend to focus on agility-based attributes, such as archery and stealth.

However, certain scenarios, particularly ones where I play more of an anti-hero or it's a second playthrough or whatever, I'll mix things up quite a bit. One character I build for Skyrim, for example, was a drunken Scotsman who wielded two-handers, pretty much the antithesis of my usual character.

I've actually had issues with showing my friends certain games because every time I do it's always a female character that I built. I'm fairly certain that at least at one point my best friend thought I might be trans (due to how I've always insisted on playing females) and was a little uncomfortable with that possibility.

And to those who might think that I just like being a female so I can stare at booty while I play, that is far from the truth. For example, in Halo I always build a female character, even though A. You are in 1st-person view mos of the time and B. The armor is roughly the same either way. There's just something about me that I always prefer female.

 

[The Enquirer]

I went with same race and same sex as me as that's what I normally play as on my first run through of a game as visually it's easier to imprint myself on that character and the situations they go through. After that I'll start messing around with race, sex and I know this wasn't in the thread, but species as well. I didn't pick the final option as sometimes I do not play through a game a second time.

 

[Asita]

Why is there no "Whatever I'm in the mood for." option?

Well, two main reasons, really.

1) The forum polls only allow for eight answers and I already had eight options.
2) This is a 'trend' question which asks about tendencies. And while 'whatever I feel like' implies a degree of randomness, the answer behind it is ultimately encompassed by the other options. As you noted in the rest of your post, in your experience 'whatever I'm in the mood for' almost always has the character be male. This means the answer is more directly presented as 'Equal variation of race but not sex', 'Different Race from me but the Same sex' or 'Same Race and Same Sex as me', with the only variable being how much variation your characters showed in ethnicity. Effectively, 'whatever I'm in the mood for' as a separate answer would be both redundant and far less informative.