I am a male, but always make a female player-character.

[havass]

It..depends on what game I'm playing. If it's a MMORPG I normally create girls because I find people treat them better. I once got a few thousand worth of gold just because the guy felt like it. In single-player games though, I normally go with what feels right.

 

[ghstman]

I don't think so much about whether it's a male or female character as who I want them to behave as. If possible, I try to make a character act and look like an actor I think would work well in the story. Example: Mass Effect starring Bruce Willis as John McClain. The voice actually works pretty well for it too. It's Die Hard in space!

 

[Sniper Team 4]

I always make a female character too. I do it because I don't care for the fact that, when you play as a male, it seems like females are tripping over themselves to jump in bed with you. My example: In Mass Effect, as soon as you go talk to Ashley on the ship, if you're a male she says that her dad's watching out for her, so don't try anything funny. She says it with that flirty grin and tone that says, "I'm totally lying." Jeez woman, I just wanted to talk to you. Females also seem to become emotional wrecks at points around a male character, where if you play female, they stay strong. Maybe it's just in my head, but that's what I see more often than not.

 

[Dylan Hentchel]

Im a guy but I don't feel at all immersed in male avatars. Also Im not gay. I think its partly that female voice actors (a shout out here to Jennifer Hale!) are so much more believable than the male actors. I just dont buy the emotional flailing if its done by a guy, because guys, by and large, are not good at expressing emotions, and they sound silly.

I would love to hear a female opinion on the same matter, I'm guessing that it would be quite the opposite, but can't be sure (someone please chip in) I tend to think that the sexual appeal of a female voice is what makes it seem "believable" don't get me wrong, I'm not calling you a sexist or a pervert, but it is natural for people to be more willing to believe the sexually attractive.

 

[shrekfan246]

Im a guy but I don't feel at all immersed in male avatars. Also Im not gay. I think its partly that female voice actors (a shout out here to Jennifer Hale!) are so much more believable than the male actors. I just dont buy the emotional flailing if its done by a guy, because guys, by and large, are not good at expressing emotions, and they sound silly.

I don't see why you felt the need to add that. As has already been pointed out by the person in this thread who is openly gay, he thinks it would be absurd for him to ever role-play as a female avatar. I wouldn't be surprised if more often than not heterosexual males elected to play as a female character than a male character when given the choice. For me it's typically a 50/50 chance.

For instance, in WOW, I would never create a male Draenei and I highly regret creating and leveling a male Blood Elf, because I simply don't like the models that Blizzard designed for the two and the way that armor "fits" on them (And the Worgen to an extent, though not to the same degree). But the characters that I created when I first started playing were all male (And stylized in a similar way to Sephiroth originally, hm..)

EDIT: Oh, I see what you were getting at with that comment, but it's even less necessary in that sense. I don't think anyone really expects you to be sexually thrilled by an avatar in a game. I don't know, do gay people get off to Batman's rippling abs in Arkham Asylum?

 

[Denamic]

I like giving my characters flaws.
Never mind the sex; I make female characters about as often as I make male ones.
Whatever kind of character I make, I always include at least one serious flaw in my envisioned character.
Illiterate bard, mentally unstable sorcerer, severely sociopathic warlock, claustrophobic fighter, batshit insane rogue, etc.
I just enjoy that kind of thing, don't ask me why, because I don't know.

 

[Kroxile]

For me its more a matter of aesthetics. If I can make a male character that doesn't look completely retarded I will sometimes make a male (such as in EQ, EQ2 where my roster is evenly split between male/female toons). If the male characters do look stupid I will roll exclusively female toons (such as in WoW).

 

[BigDeadMushy]

I'm a male,and my main focus is on RPGs.
my first character in any given game is usually a male,so I can connect a little easier.-note- my first char in WoW was male for a completely different reason.the name I chose just didn't suit a female.I didn't get that guy beyond lv30 anyways.
on subsequent playthroughs I roll dice for everything,appearance clickers included.if it doesn't really change how the game works,what's the difference?

 

[NoNameMcgee]

Its role-playing. Usually in games I play the boring bulky muscular 2D alpha-male which bores the hell out of me and playing a female in an RPG allows for a change of pace. So if I have an option of playing a female character I usually take it. I've even romanced guys before in games while playing a female character, because it's a game, its role playing, it doesn't mean anything.

Also in RPGs girls are more fun to dress-up which harkens back to my love of The Sims which is basically a way for adults to play with dolls. So it might also be to do with my femininity. lol

 

[Amondren]

Just remembered one of my friends quotes "I'd rather stare at a girl avatar's ass running then a mans" He was commenting on a female character he made in WoW.

 

[6_Qubed]

So what does it mean? It means you have unresolved sexual issues that probably involve your mother and/or not being hugged enough by your dad.

Alternately, you could just enjoy staring at female characters while you play your game. I know I do.

Hell, here's weird for ya; I have one character I make over and over again. Her name's Elmo Orly, she always has pale skin and blue/black hair (depending on how lenient character creation is,) and her backstory is that she is a lesbian. However, since most games that allow both female characters and customizable characters tend to suck balls (irony!) in the "properly writing for homosexual characters" department, she has never met another lesbian in her many travels, and by "met" I mean "had more than one blatantly shoe-horned line with", and as a result she is frustrated and violent and takes this frustration out on anything with an HP total, preferably in the general "sneaky bastard" style of game play, i.e. stealth, poison, traps, and long-distance sniping in any game that has guns.

When she is not looking for her next victim, she is looking for pants. You see, most games she's in tend to make the wearable items somewhat hetero-normative. *coughbethesdacough* So every time Elmo finds something nice to wear, it becomes a dress. Damn that. Pants are more suited to sneaking.

She enjoys long walks on the beach, candle-lit dinners, puppies, and home-made IEDs.

 

[Ashcrexl]

nah, it's pretty simple. you're a guy all the time, so you don't want to be a boring old male in a video game too. so you're female.

you're an...
ESCAPIST!

anyway, i relate better to other guys and also myself, so i'll always pick a male character.

 

[Lazarus Long]

In any game that gives me both gender and morality options, the first playthrough is a good female, then I go back as an evil male. Hell if I know what that says about me. Maybe I, deep down, resent my gender. Maybe it's just hard to take non-goateed evil as seriously.

The only exception is Mass Effect. I've tried twice now to play my Mephistophelean Renegade Dude!Shep, and right around the halfway point of ME's Taris phase on the Citadel, I just quit because I miss Jennifer Hale too much. I should have gone renegade first, I guess.

 

[DarkPanda XIII]

I'm a lesbian in a male body, so yeah, I like creating females in most of my series... :3

 

[Nexus4]

Actually my fallout 3 characters were female because of the black widow perk, in that you get an extra 10% damage to male characters who show up with much more frequency than female characters as hostile NPCs. Outside of pragmatics, I just find male character models to be ugly as well; always looking like some Conan the Barbarian rip off. So personally I found that female character models tend to have a greater degree of variation in their design choices rather than hulking brute #1, #5 or #9. Though it depends on what type character I'm playing too.

 

[vault69]

She enjoys long walks on the beach, candle-lit dinners, puppies, and home-made IEDs.

this just made me lol

OT:
I have started the trend of making all female characters say 3 years ago. It just felt different yet right(male btw). But some people have said it before; Its role-playing. You're supposed to ROLE-PLAY. The only times I haven't made a female character is in KoToR(11 bajillionth playthrough) Demons Souls, and Mass Effect(I pick default for non-MMO characters, she looked horrid to me, voice is awesome though).

Take DA2 for a second here, I was nice to my party members(Anders specifically) and a total ***** to everyone else, because thats how I felt my character(Marian) would act as a rogue, trust few hate all.

In my TOR RP guild I'm a female Twi'lek(hopefully) Imperial Agent. Again it feels right and goes along with the MMO role I like to play(healer/buffer).

Off topic:
For those that played DA2 as a female, how could you not romance Anders?

 

[Bocaj2000]

Never created a female character. It always felt weird. Immersion never happens. It brings me back to the fact that I'm playing a game and not engaging in a story. I'm sorry, but I cannot role-play as a woman, let alone get immersed in a story as one. The closest I have gotten is Silent Hill 3.

 

[Gaiseric]

Op don't worry about it. Means nothing.

Personally, I always play as a guy. I either make it look like Guts, myself(mostly myself), or just a random badass.

I can't play as a girl. It may seem stupid, but the times I've tried to play as a girl I don't feel the connection to the character and story which kills the experience and breaks immersion. The more the character looks like me the easier it is for me to bond with the character.

 

[AgentNein]

Never created a female character. It always felt weird. Immersion never happens. It brings me back to the fact that I'm playing a game and not engaging in a story. I'm sorry, but I cannot role-play as a woman, let alone get immersed in a story as one. The closest I have gotten is Silent Hill 3.

It's easy. You're a human being, playing a human being no matter the gender. Keep that in mind and I don't see why trouble relating would ever be an issue again.