Poll: What sex do you play in RPG's?

[Rusman]

Right so I've re-rolled on Skyrim (Again) and out of my three characters only one shares the same sex as me; male.
So I want to know how many people gender swap in RPG's, or any game that lets you customize a character and why? I don't want to hear the endless parade of men saying "Herr if I want to stare at an ass for X-amount of time it might as well be a chicks"

I for one nearly always have my first character as female which is slightly odd as I love role playing and letting myself become the character (which would be much easier to slip into if me and it shared the basic genetic parts), coming up with back-story and motives behind my character is half the fun for me so I really don't know why I am always drawn to being a female first (other than in Mass Effect, I always play FemShep as I much prefer Jennifer Hale as a voice actress.)

Also, I know a lot of guys play women but I am intrigued to find out if just as many women play men as in my experience most girls also play women.

EDIT: For the my facetious among you, I mean what sex are you drawn to when you first start the game, I'm not talking multiple playthroughs here as I am sure pretty much all of us dabble in both sexes... if you catch my totally innocent drift.

 

[LiberalSquirrel]

My first character is usually male.

...Probably because back in my days of playing MMORPGs, I always played a male character (as opposed to dealing with all the awkward attention I got for 'OMG girl? GIRL!'), and I suppose I just got used to staring at a guy and identifying him as "my character." But as long as the RPG is immersive and interesting, I'll be playing through multiple times anyways, and then I'll have a fairly even spread of male and female characters.

 

[Seventh Actuality]

I'd say "whatever I have a character idea for" usually, but then I play female often enough that I guess I should be registered under male playing female.

As of now I have one male Skyrim character and one female, two female characters on WoW to one male, played both Dragon Ages as men and as far as I'm concerned Commander Shepard is and always will be a woman. Oh, and I made an awesome-looking Sith lady on the SWTOR beta I'll probably be recreating when that hits for real.

 

[jpoon]

Just depends on the game and my whim at the time. It's a hell of a lot better to look at a hot lady than some sweaty dude. That fact always holds sway in my decisions.

 

[Ultress]

I always play as a girl because I like to switch it up from my normal life where if use feminine wiles I get slapped and called creepy.

 

[seraphy]

I usually play as both if game holds my interest enough. Sometimes I only play female though, femshep for instance, male shep is in my opinion just crappier character.

 

[DanielBrown]

Over all my character creating history ever, the only time I played a female was in LOTRO when I made a female elf to match with my sisters character since we leveled togeather... and male elves are fucking ugly. I'm sure I've tried female characters other than that, but it hasn't lasted long. Prefer to play male characters since I think they fit better as adventurers(call me sexist) and I guess it's more immersive since I'm a guy myself.

Don't count games like Diablo, when you're forced to play a certain gender depending on the class.

Edit: I also find womens moaning, while being hit, in games pretty distracting. Better to hear a man shout "WAAAH!" than the constant spam of "Uh!".

 

[Freaky Lou]

I pretty much always play male, because I like to get immersed in these things and seeing a female character up there always reminds me that I'm playing a video game where I can do that. Sometimes I try female for the different dialogue options, but...eh.

 

[Flight]

I play both, but I generally prefer playing female characters. IF I'm playing a tabletop RPG, however, I always play a female.

 

[ZenoX969]

Male, Male. At least for my first playthrough. I sometimes play as a female character for a second or third playthrough.

 

[isometry]

I usually default to "kick-ass" female characters, my current Skyrim character is "Xena".

As games get better at writing complex and believable characters, I could see myself playing males more often. So far the best example is Mass Effect 2, I continued my ME1 FemShep on my first playthrough, but I replayed as a Male Shepard because both genders are really well written.

The other thing ME2 taught me about character gender came from FemShep's romance options. With the only choices being Jacob and the reptile men, I figured I would just skip it, but then I found Thane really interesting - and wanted to get to know him better using "my" feminine wiles. It gave me a lot of insight into the real-world phenomenon of women choosing partners that are interesting but not handsome; a deeper level of gender roleplay than I usually encounter in games, which is part of what led me to replay as a Male Shepard, which I also enjoyed.

 

[Strain42]

Depends on the game itself. Quite often though, I will play as a female though because if I'm gonna spend a lot of time staring at my characters ass, it may as well be a nice ass.

 

[OmniscientOstrich]

I'm one of those strange creatures with a Y chromosome and I generally play as a Male on my first playthrough because....it's somewhat based on me I guess? I'll play a Female the second time round just for variety's sake, or sometimes the first time around if I think it suits the experience better; such as in Mass Effect, Jennifer Hale's far superior voice acting in particular drew me to play as FemShep.

Also, obligatory Inb4 'well if I'm going to staring at someone's ass all day...' you know where it's going. -_-

 

[Sixcess]

Male, usually play female unless the character concept wouldn't work.

Better visuals, better vocals. Plus 'dat ass' of course.

What I'd call my formative gaming years were spent on the PS1, so games like Tomb Raider, Fear Effect and Resident Evil got me accustomed to playing female characters. Personally I think the entire bias against males playing female characters comes from geeks treating MMOs like dating services, and that is their problem, not mine.

 

[Rusman]

The other thing ME2 taught me about character gender came from FemShep's romance options. With the only choices being Jacob and the reptile men, I figured I would just skip it, but then I found Thane really interesting - and wanted to get to know him better using "my" feminine wiles. It gave me a lot of insight into the real-world phenomenon of women choosing partners that are interesting but not handsome; a deeper level of gender roleplay than I usually encounter in games, which is part of what led me to replay as a Male Shepard, which I also enjoyed.

I agree with that a lot however I always end up choosing Garrus. Especially with my "carry-over" Shepard, I felt horrible cheating on Liara but the conversations with Garrus were actually very well written. From the point of saving him on omega and the quip about his scars back on Normandy 2 I can't help myself, as FemShep I ALWAYS romance him.

 

[Azaradel]

I'm female and I tend to play male characters.
Of course, I usually make at least one of each sex, but the majority are still male.

Off the top of my head, the only game I can remember where I chose to play a female character on my first playthrough when presented with the option of playing as either sex, is Dungeon Siege 2, where I played a dryad nature mage.
Of course dryads are female only, so I suppose I didn't have much of a choice of what sex I wanted to play if I was going to play a dryad.