Poll: Do you ever play as a female character in video games?

[FuzzyRaccoon]

Almost always, and for many reasons. One of which is actually kind of stupid: In KotOR it could get so slow sometimes (like say in the underwater labs in manaan) that I'd end up staring at the characters ass half the time. And well, the guy asses were very square and boring.

Ah... also, I am one. Also, it amuses me how many more sex jokes are in it if you play female (i.e: Harkin in Mass Effect). It's amusing to crush characters that had previously objectified my character.

Ah, and you know, there's the whole: I am one thing. Yeah, that's a good one too.

 

[higgs20]

in RPGs i tend to play a male character for at the very least the first playthrough, if i do more than one then i often make the 2nd character female just to see what it changes within the game.

 

[Raistlinhawke]

I play as a female and different races from myself constantly, primarily because I'm fascinated by my reactionary responses when adopting the notion of "being" a certain gender or ethnicity outside of myself. I consider myself of progressive mind, but you'd be surprised what innate stereotypes we hold true in the back of our minds.

 

[KelsieKatt]

Same here. But I play as men too, occasionally.

I've tried before, but I don't find it particularly interesting. If the male character has a semi-defined personality beforehand and I'm more just guiding it, I'm fine with that, but when given blank-slate characters which I have to create from scratch myself I get completely detached from them.

When playing games which give me freedom over characters I like to role-play as them and get into the general mindset of the character. Playing as male characters breaks that immersion for me and I have difficulty identifying with them. If the character already has some degree of predefined personality traits, I can usually base it off of that and do an okay job role-playing them, so it's doable, but I still feel some degree of disconnect. Where as with blank-slate characters, I don't really even know where to start and lose any sense of role-playing whatsoever, so I just start picking random options and lose interest.

Fable 1 is an example of that, I basically just went around doing everything because it was there, not because I felt compelled to play the character in any particular manner, so for example he was bisexual, picked up random spouses when offered and slept with some prostitutes as well just for the sake of trying options. I also started become more aware of the reward aspect instead of morals, and picked options just because it might get me a cool item as well.

 

[Xiorell]

If its a game where you make your own character, I play as a male at first (as if it was ME) then if I play again I might make a female.
In WoW, all my magic based chars are female if I have alts, except Warlocks. Priests and Mages etc just look better in the robes and stuff

 

[TheIronRuler]

I do occaisionally choose a woman over a man in roleplaying RPGs, because every time I do so I hope I could seduce someone during the game.
That, and the perk in Fallout 3 made me pick a woman for my second character.
Additionally, I think that the female voice actor in ME is better than its male counterpart, but it's just an opinion.

 

[mireko]

Usually not. I'm currently playing female in Pokemon White and I might run a FemShep eventually.

I'd highly recommend that. This is all my personal, subjective opinion, but Jennifer Hale is a much better Shepard.

 

[Black Phoenix]

Yes, whenever I'm given the choice. The one exception to that rule was P3P, as I hadn't played the original persona 3, and the game actually warned me that they'd made quite a number of changes to the Social Links and such for the female character, so i played through as the male first.

Haven't got too far with the female playthrough yet, but mainly because I;'m regretting setting it to hard. Not because the battles are much harder (a lot don't seem to be), but because the prices of the Compendium are all jacked up, and the sheer amount of grinding I need to do just to get the money I need is doing my head in...

 

[Kolosus]

Female Player Character's are the best fapping material you can find!...

OT: For some odd reason i almost ALWAYS pick female characters if i am given the choice.
For example: Mass effect 1+2, Fallout (all of 'em), TES4: Oblivion, Pokemon, Diablo II, Fable 2, Torchlight etc. (I think you get the idea)
It's probably because i have some kind of oedipus Complex or something similar. What do i know.

Btw: I'm a manly man with feminine traits.

 

[cystemic]

I play as girls cos i am a girl, go figure. But you get used to playing as male protagonists so its a refreshing change when you can make your own character, not too fond of set female characters like Bayonetta who are just there for sex appeal but you do get girls like Lightning now and again. Shouldn't complain, if the female demographic was larger, we'd see more female protagonists.

 

[draconiansundae]

Same here. But I play as men too, occasionally.

I've tried before, but I don't find it particularly interesting. If the male character has a semi-defined personality beforehand and I'm more just guiding it, I'm fine with that, but when given blank-slate characters which I have to create from scratch myself I get completely detached from them.

When playing games which give me freedom over characters I like to role-play as them and get into the general mindset of the character. Playing as male characters breaks that immersion for me and I have difficulty identifying with them. If the character already has some degree of predefined personality traits, I can usually base it off of that and do an okay job role-playing them, so it's doable, but I still feel some degree of disconnect. Where as with blank-slate characters, I don't really even know where to start and lose any sense of role-playing whatsoever, so I just start picking random options and lose interest.

Fable 1 is an example of that, I basically just went around doing everything because it was there, not because I felt compelled to play the character in any particular manner, so for example he was bisexual, picked up random spouses when offered and slept with some prostitutes as well just for the sake of trying options. I also started become more aware of the reward aspect instead of morals, and picked options just because it might get me a cool item as well.

I agree. When I'm playing as female, I play as myself - my character basically has my personality. However, as a male, I find it easier to step outside myself and explore options I normally wouldn't because I don't associate myself with the male character's persona. It's definitely less immersive, yet interesting, especially for a second of third playthrough. I find it easier to be a tool in a game if I'm a guy as well, especially in Mass Effect and Fallout 3. Not because I associate agression with the male gender, but because I'm not an agressive/violent person myself, so I feel too guilty being mean as a girl. I hope that doesn't come off as sexist...

 

[Infernai]

I've done so before in a couple of RPG's, hell I'm even playing a Female Hawke right now in Dragon age 2, but most of the time i will play as a male. Still, once i've normally gone through a game once, i will normally play once through with a female.

 

[Roofstone]

I like to play as myself, so yes..

Also: I find it more fun and, hmm, impressive, is the right word. When the hero is female. No I am not sexist, it is just cause of the usual norm of brown haired, generally handsome male lead characters.

So I prefer playing female, generally plain if human, and varying degrees of beautiful when elven. Hehe.

 

[Omnific One]

Oblivion and other fantasy RPG's (minus Dragon Age), yes.

Fallout, Mass Effect, and pretty much any other game, I play as male.

 

[Vault Girl]

I am a girl! Rawr!

 

[The-Epicly-Named-Man]

I answered it assuming you were saying that if a game had the choice would I play as a woman. I answered no, because I'm not a woman, and that in fact (as a male) saying yes is possibly more sexist because it could lead one to believe that you made the so you could watch a woman run around for a couple hours, although thats probably not the case for everyone.

 

[Mistress_Munchies]

I am female, but I only ever play as a female if I'm forced to by the game or if my boyfriend whines that I never play the sexy womens. A lot of people have already said they they want to play the character as themselves, but I'm perfectly content playing a male version of myself. It's not like there's any difference anyway.

 

[Chemical Alia]

Not unless they're female by default or provide some advantage, like Princess Toadstool in some SMB2 levels. I haven't played many games where you build your own character.