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

[Not Lord Atkin]

not very often. The kneejerk reaction to a male playing a female character used to be "what a creep that is, is he getting off on his character?" back when I was a kid. It's a stupid line of thought but it's one that would make me feel ashamed of playing a female character back then. Remember that I was starting to get into games between 2004 and 2006, years that were practically defined by World of Warcraft and its large populations of half-naked female elves who were secretly men, which, in spite of the fact that I have never played WoW, would help form how I subconsciously felt about certain game-associated phenomena. Yes, the bit about never even giving the option to try WoW a passing thought falls under there somewhere.

I know it's kinda irrational to feel ashamed for simply playing a female character but it's a nagging feeling that stuck with me. I do not mind it at all in games where I don't create my own character. It's just a thing about purposefully creating a female character in a game that to me seems somewhat weird, almost bordering of fetishistic. I am fully aware that it's not, that's just the subconscious reaction I've developed in my formative gaming years.

Also, weirdly enough, my character in every Tony Hawk's game I've played is a girl going by the name of Millie. I seriously have no idea why I feel differently about her than I do about other characters I've created. Maybe it's a tradition thing.

 

[Tenkage]

Tenkage: Female Elf Drone Master

My basic character in my Shadowrun Let's Play, being clever and mostly a good girl, plays smart and stays out of the line of fire. And if the drones don't work, a nice un armed punch will do the trick

 

[Lord_Gremlin]

Yes. When I play an RPG I don't want to ever associate main character with myself, I want to create a fictional person that I'd like as a star of this show. Naturally it's easier to like someone of opposite gender. However that also depends on the show aka game in question. For example, I felt like in Dark Souls and Demon's Souls I want to see a male hero, while in Dragon's Dogma and Dragon Age female heroes felt more appropriate to me.
In all honestly, my gender has little to do with my choice of character. I don't play MMOs. If I ever would, I think I'd create a character based on what looks most impressive/unique after checking all character creation options for both genders.

 

[dreadedcandiru99]

Yes I do, just about any time I can. Why? Because it's not fair that men always have to be the ones risking life and limb to save the world, damn it. If women want to be equal, they need to quit goldbricking around and start world-saving as well.

Actually, you know the RPG trope where the big tough damage-dealers with the huge swords are always male, and the healers and white mages are always female? Since I got into tabletop RPGs, I've noticed that I tend to do the exact opposite; almost all of my biggest hitters are women. Video games could use more of those.

 

[K12]

When I get a new RPG I usually immediately make about 5 or 6 characters who are very different to each other (in terms of appearance and gameplay style). I then tend to just randomly pick the most fun looking one to play through as. This is usually a pretty even split.

The only type of character I never play on a first play through is the strength based warrior class because I find them a bit boring.

 

[ParanoidEngineer]

I always play women on at least my first play-through, since they always come out looking more human in terms of character creation and usually allow for better immersion (for some unknown reasons)

 

[elvor0]

Normally nope. The only time I've played the opposite gender is in Mass Effect, with FemShep, not only does she have far superior voice acting (seriously ME with BroShep is soul suckingly boring, the voice acting is fucking naff and he's just so. generic. space. marine. argh! I swear, his voice acting method is to just be given all of his lines out of context, away from anyone else and just reads them all into a dictaphone then gives the company the tape), her characterisation just feels more...realistic.

She also becomes a great example of a female hero done perfectly. She can be soft and feminine when it fits, but otherwise she doesn't take crap from anyone, least of all characters that look down on her for being female,(oh how much I enjoyed giving Vega a beatdown, damn dude bro, calling MY Femshep Lola) and represents the heroic ideal as much as, if not more so than a lot of male protagonists. Not once does she exhibit any sort of fan service as a character, she's there to save the universe, not to get your rocks off. God damn those people that moaned about her not being sexy enough.

Plus that scene in ME 1 on Virmire where she lifts Kaiden up onto her shoulder one handed, while still blasting Geth, and the Femshep take earth back trailer where she's blasting and slashing reaper forces? Damn, damn hot.

 

[Kargathia]

Funnily enough, as a male I find most female characters more relatable. Walking, talking deposits of concentrated testosteron and anabolic steroids are just that alien.

 

[loc978]

Actually, you know the RPG trope where the big tough damage-dealers with the huge swords are always male, and the healers and white mages are always female? Since I got into tabletop RPGs, I've noticed that I tend to do the exact opposite; almost all of my biggest hitters are women. Video games could use more of those.

That's my tendency too... my usual archetypes for both tabletop and video games tend to be females as heavy weapons specialists, tanks and destroyer-type mages... while males tend toward stealthy rogues, archers/snipers, healers and control-type mages.

So yeah, my use of genders in gaming tends to be about 50-50. Happens when you DM for too long.

 

[ghostrider409895]

I prefer to play as male just because when playing an RPG I like to play the way I would act. I even try take time to try and get my character to look like myself - even though it ends up not looking really that much like myself. I might try a run as a different gender if I am doing multiple play-throughs just to see if there are any major story differences. On multiple play throughs are also when I might act more out of strength, or act evil, or just fight for a different side in order to see the rest of the game that I missed out on by playing a different way.

 

[EvilMaggot]

mostly play through as male.. depends on the game i think.. and class.. but i will try female anyway just to see if the story can go other ways and get other talk options ^^

 

[JediMB]

I wouldn't say "opposite", since I don't subscribe to the idea of binary gender, but I do have a preference for playing female characters.

And I'm male. Technically.

 

[AnarchistFish]

Yeah, a lot. Partly cos I like the idea of being a sassy woman, and partly cos I like the idea of people on multiplayer thinking they're getting their ass whooped by a girl.

 

[BarbaricGoose]

Not usually. I've tried a couple of times, as an experiment to see if my actions would differ if I was chosing a female avatar, but I never usually get far, because I just can't put myself in the right mindset. I like to role play quite intensely in games, put myself in the role, and whilst I can play as an already fully developed female character (like the tomb raider reboot) I have trouble filling in a blank character when they're already so visually different from me.

Pretty much this. I'm a guy--I relate to guys. When I play MMOs too, I make male characters. Also because I don't enjoy being confused for a woman. Who enjoys that? Who would want that?

Yeah, a lot. Partly cos I like the idea of being a sassy woman, and partly cos I like the idea of people on multiplayer thinking they're getting their ass whooped by a girl.

But no one's gonna think that. 84% of men are women. Or 84% of women are men--look at the poll! Hard to say. Either way, it's not what you think. Although, I just realized that also invalidates one thing I said. Go figure.

 

[trollnystan]

If I get a choice I will 8 or 9 times out of 10 pick my own gender, female, mostly because I don't get to play female all that often. On my list of Steam games - counted with a cursory glance - where you can't choose gender, I have six games - SIX - that have a female protagonist. Compare that to the THIRTY-SIX with exclusively a male protagonist, and that's not counting all the Half-Life episodes and expansions - but is counting all the Assassin's Creed games.[footnote]Note, I haven't played ALL the 143 games in my Steam library, and many are sale-frenzy purchases so there might be more protagonists of either gender in there.[/footnote] With my GOG.com library we bring the numbers up to a dizzying 14 games with only female protagonists, and 69 with only male protagonists.

So yeah, when I get the chance I like to play female. However, if an idea for a male character pops into my head I will make one. I like to think that gender doesn't matter really, but with so many games out there with (white) male protagonists, I jump at the chance to play someone different. I often make my characters black females for example, even though I'm whiter than the belly of an albino fish, just to have a visually different protagonist to play.

 

[GalanDun]

Either way really. I like to play as the male protagonist usually, but if I'm replaying a game I'll switch to the female one just to see what difference it makes, and to change it up a bit from the original playthrough

 

[MetalMagpie]

I'm a woman and I default to playing male if there's a choice, simply because RPGs are generally made with a male protagonist in mind, so the story is sometimes better if you go with that.

Every NPC in Mount and Blade seems to believe you're a man, even when you aren't. So if you pick female you can have some hilarious moments - my favourite being a merc who'll happily tell that he'd never work for a woman, right after you hire him. And I know not everyone feels this way, but Mass Effect's "FemShep" headbutting Wrex just looks too hilarious for me to take her seriously.

So yeah, I play male if I want to enjoy the story and female if I want to be silly.

 

[NeutralDrow]

Frequently (male playing as female).

Haven't quite come up with a reason. I've ruled out aesthetics as a primary reason in every game but WoW (where I hate most of the male models). It may be that the disconnection helps my immersion, that playing a character dissimilar to me lets me connect with them, to play a character on their own more than assigning them my personality traits. It may be that a surfeit of male protagonists makes the choice of playing as a female protagonist that much more enticing. I'm still wondering.

 

[Da Orky Man]

It depends on the game. Most of the time, I choose male because it fits the story/setting better, and because its easier to become immersed. However, in some games, namely KotOR: Sith Lords, a female character just feels right, and so I play female first. I didn't even know that The Exile is canon-female before playing, it just felt right for some reason.