Poll: What gender do you roleplay as in WRPGs?

[Richardplex]

In WRPGs where you create your own character, or create your own backstory, and choose your actions and choices to some extent, what gender do you normally go for? Games being those such as Mass Effect, Oblivion, Dragon Age, Fallout 3 etc

I'm male and I generally go for female characters. this is probably for a number of reasons. Being more different than who I am IRL makes it easier to RP and not slip into doing what I would do IRL in the situations, instead of doing what my character would do. I feel female character are better than male characters of the same archetype when done well, though rarely are unfortunately. There are other reasons but they're a variety of minor reasons individually but become significant together, but too minor and lengthy to list here.

I thought this would only hold true for characters who didn't physically speak, so I chose male sheperd for Mass Effect on my first playthrough, but I had far more fun on my second playthrough, despite how I did it right after the first one, as I could avoid my afore-mentioned problem of doing what I would normally do, , and It led to me actually being emotionally attached to my own character, and that character having character development.... somehow.

I know I'm not the only one who RPs as a different gender than themselves, as people never are the only one, but I want to see how uncommon / common it is. And if this has been posted 1000 times before, my bad.


Sorry if this was posted in the wrong area, I saw the Forum games and RP area, but assumed that since this about an important aspect of WRPG games, it would be more relevant here. my bad if it isn't.

 

[Pingieking]

I'm male, and I generally play as female.
As a wise woman once told me; if I'm going to be staring at someone for 30+ hours, it might as well be an attractive member of the opposite sex (or same sex, for those who swing that way).

 

[-KC-]

I'm male and I mostly play as male character (DA:O, Mass Effect,Fallout) but in WoW (e.g.)I play male Orc, male Undead and female Belf (only because male one looks gay and retarded and I don't want to stare in his butt all the time).

 

[Zaeseled]

First time I play, Male.
Second time I play, Female. Only for the plot, I swear!

 

[CM156_v1legacy]

Mmmm, I usually split about 50/50 on who I play as.

When I'm playing a male character, I feel as if I'm playing myself, while playing a female character makes me feel like I'm playing a character.

EDIT: Wow, that was a weird sentence

 

[Zinkoff]

Male play as male because it just helps with the immersion. When I play as a female character in say, Fallout 3, the other characters will leave saying, "Ma'am" and I get slightly taken aback until I remember that I am playing as a female character and it breaks the flow of the action.

 

[Spirultima]

I go Female because the male hero is going to be more predictable then the sun rising or "Your mother" jokes on the internet, its going to be a gruff voiced, muscle clad, near bald bastard with as much personally a bag of rotten porridge nailed to a fence. Star Wars, Infamous, Mass Effect, the list goes on. Plus as Female Shepard you can romance Garrus. Top that.

 

[Togs]

Im male and I only play as a male- I like to "get into character", something Im incapable of doing so with a female avatar.

 

[Stall]

As a male, I usually play female characters. I find it easier to think of playing a female character not so much as some kind of projection of myself, but instead of a friend or companion I am guiding through the world. I think this helps allow me to create different personalities better, and be more free to make characters radically different from myself. I suppose I don't "roleplay" in the truest definition of the world.

Though, there are pretty big aesthetic reasons I play female characters as well

 

[WanderingFool]

I'm male, and I generally play as female.
As a wise woman once told me; if I'm going to be staring at someone for 30+ hours, it might as well be an attractive member of the opposite sex (or same sex, for those who swing that way).

This is a more joking reason I play female characters in some games. Really, most WRPGs I play get played multiple times, so I play as both sexes, just because.

 

[Kiefer13]

I'm male and I'll generally have quite a few different characters in an RPG, with a roughly even number of male and female characters.

I've played through both Mass Effect games as a female multiple times though, while I've only done a male playthrough once on each. FemShep is just a superior character in my opinion, mostly due to Jennifer Hale's voice acting.

Generally my first playthrough will be a male and essentially an idealised version of me, where I'll decide things pretty much just on my own personal views rather than on what I think my character would do. Not always though. My first playthrough of Dragon Age II was as a smartass female mage Hawke.

 

[Jordi]

I almost always play as a character that is basically a better version of me. I guess it just makes it easier to identify with the character. I'm also fairly true to this concept and even if I would replay the game with a different class or something, I would probably just do this again.
I think that I would only play as a woman if I knew the experience would be significantly different (i.e. there are different missions etc.). Romance options would basically fall in this category if I wasn't so squeamish about romancing a character that is the same sex as me. (This is not to say that I don't think it is awesome when a game offers same sex romances. It's just not something I personally want to pursue.)

 

[Lightning Delight]

I am a male, and I switch it up from game to game. On my first play through of DA:O, I was a male, but on the second I was a female. I just like to mix things up a little. If I had to pick one side or the other, though, I would play as a female. I can be a male any time I want.

 

[Richardplex]

I almost always play as a character that is basically a better version of me. I guess it just makes it easier to identify with the character. I'm also fairly true to this concept and even if I would replay the game with a different class or something, I would probably just do this again.
I think that I would only play as a woman if I knew the experience would be significantly different (i.e. there are different missions etc.). Romance options would basically fall in this category if I wasn't so squeamish about romancing a character that is the same sex as me. (This is not to say that I don't think it is awesome when a game offers same sex romances. It's just not something I personally want to pursue.)

If romance is part of the game, my female character is always a lesbian, so that gets round that issue. Thankfully in ME, liara was the only romancable character that made sense for mine to fall in love with.

I'm male and I'll generally have quite a few different characters in an RPG, with a roughly even number of male or female characters.

I've played through both Mass Effect games as a female multiple times though, while I've only done a male playthrough once on each. FemShep is just a superior character in my opinion, mostly due to Jennifer Hale's voice acting.

I definitely noticed that as well on my playthrough. I also thought femshep had better facial expressions, maybe because men generally have this sort of dialogue in their head when they realise they're starting to show facial expressions:

Spoiler

 

[Zhukov]

I'm male. I make both male and female protagonists.

However, if I were to sit down and make a list, it would have more females than males. Mostly because I'm just sick of male heroes. The vast, vaaaaast majority of games have male protagonists. Seriously, wander over to your game shelf or Steam library and make a tally. I just did this and it turned out to be 59 male protagonists, 8 female and 15 gender-neutral. So hey, why not even the scales a bit when the opportunity arises?

Besides, if I'm going to be staring at a polygonal arse for 20+ hours... right?

 

[genericusername64]

I'm male and I play as female, usually because if I don't I mold the male character in my image, so instead of roleplaying I'm just playing myself

 

[Jordi]

I almost always play as a character that is basically a better version of me. I guess it just makes it easier to identify with the character. I'm also fairly true to this concept and even if I would replay the game with a different class or something, I would probably just do this again.
I think that I would only play as a woman if I knew the experience would be significantly different (i.e. there are different missions etc.). Romance options would basically fall in this category if I wasn't so squeamish about romancing a character that is the same sex as me. (This is not to say that I don't think it is awesome when a game offers same sex romances. It's just not something I personally want to pursue.)

If romance is part of the game, my female character is always a lesbian, so that gets round that issue. Thankfully in ME, liara was the only romancable character that made sense for mine to fall in love with.

Yes, that would probably work for me. Then again, it would render my one reason for playing a female obsolete.

 

[No_Remainders]

I'm male, play a male. I've never really thought about it, to be honest.

Though when I finish Knights of the Old Republic (which I'm now playing through for the first time, love it to bits!), I'm gonna do a re-run as a female.

I'm being a nice guy this time, evil ***** next time.

>

 

[Artinam]

Male in general, hard to roleplay a woman.

 

[Hlain]

Both. I have two standard characters I use to play; a male rogue/agile fighter and a sorceress, the second being an elf.