Poll: Do you ever play as your opposite gender in RPG's?

[Use_Imagination_here]

In skyrim there's actually a slight advantage to playing as a woman, with one of the perks giving you a discount for merchants of the opposite gender and most merchants being male.

At least that's my excuse.

 

[SquidSponge]

In vidya, yes - for reasons varying from the ol' "which would you prefer to look at for 50 hours of gameplay?" to better voice acting (or so said PC Gamer UK for FemShep, dunno if the male equivalent was bad but godsdamn if Jennifer Hale didn't nail it), to adding variety 'cuz I'm tired of playing the same old meat-head Spess Mehren for the sixty-third time. Bizarrely, I chose a female character for my main in Planetside 2 because I can hear her alto voice better over the sounds of combat, giving slightly improved feedback when injured. Honestly, I think my vidya characters' genders are about equally-balanced in number, but I tend to play the females more because they're usually the second character I roll, after I've discovered how to play the game and, more importantly, how to distribute attributes & skills to best advantage. That said, I tend to avoid playing strength-based female characters, 'cuz it generally looks kinda ridiculous for the skinny, anorexic little slip of a girl (as they usually are, whether you like it or not) to be using a sword twice as big as she is to carve up mobs twice as big as the aforementioned sword. I hear this isn't so bad in Fable 3 where a strength-based character will look muscular regardless of gender - some people got hella butthurt about this but I was quite impressed.

In tabletop games (eg D&D) I don't, and I'd suggest avoiding it if possible. I'm fortunate enough to have a very gender-balanced group, but in one campaign we had a female player who rolled a male character, and everyone kept mixing up pronouns when referring to them - particularly awkward when speaking in character. Also, I think that playing an utterly obsessed, nymphomaniacal man-whore was a bit of a mistake for a player of opposite gender. It sometimes got a lil' bit awkward, and occasionally bordered on offensive, but no-one really wanted to say anything because it was her character and it was a defining feature of his personality (I usually prefer not to critisise another players character choices, but I have (relative) internet anonymity here therefore I'll say it so others can learn from it). The irony is that, from what I understand, the exact opposite is the stereotype - a male player with little comprehension of female gender roles playing a slutty elf or whatever.

 

[FallenMessiah88]

Yes. I guess it's because I like stronge female character's, especially warrior and fighter types.

 

[Remus]

It depends. If it's more thematic to the game to play as the opposite gender or if I have a particular profile setup I want, I'll gender swap. Take Diablo 3 - the male DH is an elfish girly man. The female DH however is featured in the cinematics and is for all intents Selene from Underworld with armor rather than a black catsuit. So my DH was female.

 

[Pyramid Head]

All the time. I may play as females more often than men when RPGs with create a character set-up. The only time i play as men when the option is available is when homosexual options aren't available in in-game relationships.

 

[Evonisia]

I almost always go as the female of any race in RPGs. I just think that females have 'better' bodies than males and I generally appreciate female characters more than males so playing as one helps 'immersion'.

Unfortunately sometimes, like in Oblivion, this is to my detriment (such as having worse inventory space).

 

[Iron Gix]

usually on my 2nd play though i will play as a female, but for the most part i usually always play as a male.

 

[mgirl]

I always play a female character if I have the choice. I think it's just because since I am female I would like to play as a female. It's just 'default' for me, I often don't even think about playing as a male.

 

[the December King]

Usually, I play a monster first. if there is no choice that let's me explore an alien set of abilities or mindset/culture, then I'll play whatever default exists, but that's mainly because I'm not as concerned at this point.

I don't play female human ( or elf or the equivalent) characters if I have a proper choice/ sandbox game, because I'm not interested, really. But I'll happily play a female character in a narrative structured for the character.

 

[Gearhead mk2]

Sometimes, yeah. I play Fallout 3 and Skyrim as a girl because of the perk you can get with talking to men, and I played ME as Male-Shep and Fem-Shep, and massively preferred Fem-Shep due to the better voice acting and romance options. And sometimes I just play a girl because gaming needs more leading ladies. Also, I swear that girl characters get better visual design when the artist actually puts some effort in instead of just making them in a pin-up girl.

 

[Abomination]

I will only bother playing a female if the game actually offers some practical difference due to the PC being a female. Perhaps different dialogue and dialogue options, or even mechanics.

Games that are willing to really get into the nitty-gritty of the gender divide (such as Crusader Kings II, Mount and Blade or Arcanum as prime examples) are the ones I love to play females in. If it's just a model and voiceover change I see no point to being EITHER gender.

Unfortunately it usually requires a lot of extra work for story building and mechanically to accommodate such things.

I would really like to play a Sorceress in The Witcher...

 

[josemlopes]

Sometimes but usually no.

Its also mostly for the sake of variety, like in Saints Row, if I want to create a certain female character then I'll make one, if not then I dont. It usually depends on what type of character I want to make.

 

[SonofaJohannes]

Quite often actually. I don'r know why I do it, but I guess I just feel the need to take advantage of the option or something.

 

[kickyourass]

Most of the time actually, purely because in games that give you the option I usually find it easier to make a decent looking female character then a decent looking male character. Shallow? Maybe, but if I'm gonna be looking at something I made for several hours I want it to be something worth looking at.

 

[The Madman]

Sure, all the time. It's funny the way it works but I've got a definitive gender for each rpg I've played that in my mind at least is the 'proper' way to play it. Commander Shepard for example is definitely female, but the Bhallspawn from Baldur's Gate is a guy. Revan is another guy, but the Exile from Kotor 2 is female. Etc. Etc.

 

[Beffudled Sheep_v1legacy]

Yes I do, although some games make it harder than others. The female armor in a lot of RPGs is usually pretty stupid looking and it bothers me a lot because I like making my characters looks some flavor of "cool".
The ES games are pretty big offenders of this with their excessive booby armors. So in ES games my females tend on being Mages because I can;t stand their looks in armor.

But even so Its usually a 50/50 split. I make male character, then female, then male, then female and keep going until I get bored.

 

[Kenkurogue]

Since I DM for tabletop games I've gotten used to role playing both genders out of necessity. In video games if the character is supposed to be you (like in Elder Scrolls) then my first characterwill be male, and I make all my decisions based on what I would do in that situation. On later playthroughs I try to develop interesting characters to role play and use whichever gender seems to fit best for that character.
If it is a game with a ready made character but you have choice of gender, I will usually play as male first and make a female for my second playthrough if I do one to see if there is any difference.

 

[GundamSentinel]

Oh yeah, often enough, for various reasons:

- I want to check out the female story line, which is sometimes more interesting.
- A female character sometimes has better voice acting.
- Female characters often look better.
- It's a role playing game and playing a female character sometimes makes me feel more immersed.
- It's fun watching a tiny woman beat the snot out of guys twice her size.
- It often fits better with the way I want to play the game.

And last, but certainly not least:
- I don't like staring at a male ass all day.

 

[Grimbold]

It's easy, when the game is 3rd person I like to look at a female the whole time.
In 1st person I tend to do a self insert.

 

[The Lugz]

Title says it all. In many RPG games, you are given the option of choosing the gender of your player character. As such, it's entirely possible that a player could choose to play not as their own sex, but rather their opposite.

Do any of you do this? An if so (or not so) please give a reason why.

Ofcourse, gender is an option to roleplay in games as with any other option.
I can only imagine people who are particularly closed minded NOT doing this!