So, how many dudes here roll a female character? Also vice versa?

[Bilious Green_v1legacy]

I pretty much always pick male, mostly because I think females don't fit with the classes I usually go for (melee, especially tanks). To me they fit more as mages, archers or support characters.

I quite often do the opposite just for the sake of perversity. When I made a Death Knight tank in WoW, I thought, "what is the least macho tanky looking race/gender combination possible?" Since I was playing Horde at the time, I went with a female Blood Elf; the idea of a skinny, waiflike elf going toe to toe with giant hulking monsters was (to me at least) delightfully absurd.

 

[DragonsAteMyMarbles]

I'll usually do at least one playthrough of each variation (not necessarily just male/female, there could be good/evil too), to see if anything changes beyond pronouns - after that, I'll tend to favour whichever I had more fun with or the one with the better voice performance; for example, I prefer playing a female Shepard, male Hawke and male Englishman for Saints Row. For KOTOR2 I'm almost invariably male and light-side since I find Handmaiden and Mira more interesting/likeable than Disciple and Hanharr.

Sometimes I'll roll a character just for incongruity. Like a tiny, stick-thin wood elf in Skyrim specialising in huge two-handed weapons and crazy heavy armour, or having my Dragon Age Inquisition protagonist be a qunari the size of a house poking at enemies with teeny little knives.

 

[Jei-chan]

In the Bioware games I always start out with a female character designed to be my main, usually with my name or one of the screen names I've used over the years, and then go back and create other characters of other genders/races/classes designed to romance all the people I didn't pick as the one I was most interested in so I can see all the stories. In a weird way this usually ends up with me putting a lot more effort into all the "less interesting" ones I play because they have their own backstories whereas my first is sort of just me. My default first choice is always female and usually elf if it's available though (see Dragon Age/LotRO).

 

[crimsonspear4D]

Usually games with a story driven narrative like Dragons Age, Saint's Row, Mass Effect, etc. I do tend to roll a female character, something about playing as a woman going through an adventure, having the same trials and hardships as a man but visualizing it seen through her perspective is kinda awesome, plus I usually play as a lesbian black woman if possible for, y'know, diversity.

Games like Skyrim, Diablo, and WoW are kind of a mixed bag of what "feels" right, this is usually when being a male is a possibility, although I do kind of find it pretty boring because even though I am a man I don't like playing other male characters if I can help it.

 

[ecoho]

if its done right I do at least one female play through but otherwise tend to do mostly male.

 

[BiscuitWheels]

Depends on the game, really. In WoW my most successful character was a female Pandaren. I played the game since the opening of the gates of Ahn'Qiraj as a rogue and a hunter and a bunch of other characters of various races and genders, but I steamrolled my way to 90 in no time as a panda. I dunno why but being a cute chubby drunk bear whupping the shit out of a dozen people at once was a hoot and a half. Brewmaster monks where a tank class that could level like nobodies business.

 

[Wrex Brogan]

Usually female, because honestly... not the biggest fan of most dude designs. Like 90% of my WoW characters are female, since the 'built like a brick shithouse elbowing another brick shithouse' look that all the other dudes have going on is really unappealing just on a proportion scale. Armour and weapons always look so... bloated on men, like they just racked up the scaling but didn't take into account how that'd affect the model.

Granted, downside is that half the armour is bikini armour, but still, at least my swords are regularly-sized and not Small Car-sized.

 

[BiscuitWheels]

I pretty much always pick male, mostly because I think females don't fit with the classes I usually go for (melee, especially tanks). To me they fit more as mages, archers or support characters.

I quite often do the opposite just for the sake of perversity. When I made a Death Knight tank in WoW, I thought, "what is the least macho tanks looking race/gender combination possible?" Since I was playing Horde at the time, I went with a female Blood Elf; the idea of a skinny, waiflike elf going toe to toe with giant hulking monsters was (to me at least) delightfully absurd.

My brother would always play a female gnome for the exact same reason. Pink pigtails generate more aggro than anything else in that game.

 

[chadachada123]

When there's a character creator, I usually roll female unless it's a game like Mass Effect that has a much more involved player character.

There's just something about a badass (especially short) female wielding a comically-oversized weapon that appeals to me. In D&D, similarly, I pretty much always make a female fighter of a larger race, being the tank of the group.

 

[MythicMatt]

There's just something, somewhere in the back of my manly mind, which makes my performance in games way better when my character is a chick. I've done extensive research on that.

Even in games with pre-set characters [Exceptions known: BlazBlue], I'll find that my best performance comes from the girls.

In fact, I felt more investment in keeping a femShep alive through the Mass Effects than my initial manShep. She also ended up in bed with more girls than him, but that's another story.

 

[Captain Marvelous_v1legacy]

I have for plenty of games in the past and I shall for future games as well. I like creating female characters. I've spent enough time the handsomely ugly mugs of male characters and I'm tired of staring at male asses.

 

[Zykon TheLich_v1legacy]

Ok, I

 

[Fijiman]

I very rarely play as a female character if I have a choice between genders, and most of the times I've done so are for some extremely specific purpose such as an achievement or something. I'd just like to play a dude and pretend it's actually me running around instead of pretending I'm a girl.

 

[Nazulu]

I just go with the model I think looks best. Sex does not matter to me.

 

[Kyrian007]

Well, given the choice I play a male character. However, if a game warrants a 2nd character (for a different ending, or playing with a different build, or whatever) my second character will always be female. Just to see where it's different. Basically if given the choice I'll pick both to see all the content.

 

[Phasmal]

I pretty much always pick male, mostly because I think females don't fit with the classes I usually go for (melee, especially tanks). To me they fit more as mages, archers or support characters.

I quite often do the opposite just for the sake of perversity. When I made a Death Knight tank in WoW, I thought, "what is the least macho tanks looking race/gender combination possible?" Since I was playing Horde at the time, I went with a female Blood Elf; the idea of a skinny, waiflike elf going toe to toe with giant hulking monsters was (to me at least) delightfully absurd.

That's kind of why my warrior-tank was a female undead. I liked the idea of this tiny little barely held-together bag of bones holding off waves of monsters.

OT: Sorry to bring up the 'we need more' thing, but because there are so many games where I don't get a choice, whenever I do have a choice- I'm playing a woman. I think perhaps if every game had a choice or there was a more even spread of game protagonists I'd maybe roll a dude more often (I occasionally do on multiple playthroughs). Until then it's all-ladies all the time.

 

[spacemutant IV]

My cousin who I spend a lot of time gaming with exclusively plays female. I used to think it was ridiculous, and created characters that were as manly and gruff as possible. A few hours into Skyrim though, I was bored with it and created a new female barbarian type character.

I enjoy kicking ass as female, maybe because it would be less expected, maybe because there are things about my fellow men that annoy me, and I fantasize about someone getting up in their face about it more efficiently than I as a man could to it.

There is nothing selfless about it though, it's essentially a power fantasy that allows me to do things that I not only can't do in real life, but that are not mine to do, because it's none of my business. I also create characters that look aesthetically pleasing to me.

 

[CyanCat47_v1legacy]

My shepherd, dovahkin and grey warden were all women and i chose to go with Alette in banner saga 2.