Poll: When Gender Is A Choice, Which Do You Choose?

RJ 17

The Sound of Silence
Nov 27, 2011
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Edit: BAH! Seems I messed up on the poll options, the last one is supposed to be "Female Preferring To Play As Female". I tried to edit it but chances are it won't stick since poll-option edits don't normally stick. I apologize for this error.end edit
Edit I don't suppose a mod might have a reliable way of editing poll options? If so, could you please change the last option to reflect "Female Preferring To Play As Female"? If not, just throught I'd ask. :p end edit

With all the talk about sexism in the gaming industry, I felt like making this topic. The question is simple: when you're playing a game in which your character's gender is an option left to you, which do you prefer to play as? Male or Female?

Personally, I'm a male who almost always plays as a female. To me the thought of a strong female hero is just really enticing. For example, in Mass Effect, I've got about 9 FemShep's and only 2 MaleSheps. The thought that a woman is the hope of the galaxy, the most bad-ass space marine in history is really appealing. It seems to break the clichés of male protagonists being the badasses of the universe.

So my fellow Escapsists, I ask you simply: what gender do you prefer to play as and why do you prefer to play as that gender?
 

tippy2k2

Beloved Tyrant
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Mar 15, 2008
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I'm a dude playing a dude disguised as another dude!!!

...well, that's 2/3s right. I'm a dude who prefers to play as a dude. If I am able to create a player in any game, I create myself in looks as much as possible. If it's a role-playing game, I will also try to role-play as myself and so having a guy avatar helps with that.
 

Maximum Bert

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Feb 3, 2013
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Really depends but mostly I just play as the one I think looks coolest if they have different abilities that is also taken into consideration but basically feeds back into the first choice.

I really dont care much about gender in games I just want to have a character I think looks good aesthetically sometimes they are female sometimes they are male other times I dont know what the hell they are (but they look good).
 

Exius Xavarus

Casually hardcore. :}
May 19, 2010
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I tend to choose female more often than male. No real reason as to why, I just do. Because why not?
 

piinyouri

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Mar 18, 2012
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Both eventually.
Multiple characters for the win!

I don't even chose one over the other the first time in any consistent manner. It all depends on what I'm feeling at the time, and what I think will suit the character best from either a role-play perspective, or a game perspective.
 

Fiz_The_Toaster

books, Books, BOOKS
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Jan 19, 2011
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I would vote, but I don't which one is the 'Female Preferring to Play As Female' option.

If I'm given the choice I will play as my own gender only because it's the first play through and I want to take it semi-serious. I will try to make my character look like me, but depending on the game I might not bother and go balls out, like Saint's Row The Third.

On my second play through there's a good chance I will play the opposite gender and create a character in my head and roll with it. I do that anyways with RPGs if I have the chance, but there are times where I want to play a different character with a different gender just to do something different.

Variety, yo. :D
 

RJ 17

The Sound of Silence
Nov 27, 2011
8,687
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tippy2k2 said:
I'm a dude playing a dude disguised as another dude!!!

...well, that's 2/3s right. I'm a dude who prefers to play as a dude. If I am able to create a player in any game, I create myself in looks as much as possible. If it's a role-playing game, I will also try to role-play as myself and so having a guy avatar helps with that.
I got a very good "lol" out of that reference you made to start out your post.

And that's something I can entirely understand and respect: wanting to make your character basically be "you" as much as you can. Whenever I do make a male character, I'm exactly the same way. I'll spend literally hours in the character creation screen (especially in Bethesda games) trying my very best to make my character look as much as me as I possibly can. It adds to the immersion, allowing you to literally say "I'M the hero of this game!"
 

Shadow-Phoenix

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Mar 22, 2010
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Being male I'd more than often play as a male character, though my ex room mate used to always play as a female and it bugged me the hell out because he's the slob type.
 

Aerosteam

Get out while you still can
Sep 22, 2011
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When given a choice, pretty much always female.

I already have tons of other games where I play as a man, so I want to balance it out, y'know?
 

Dragonbums

Indulge in it's whiffy sensation
May 9, 2013
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You might want to fix your poll there my friend.

Female but prefer to play as female option is the same as Female but prefers to play as male option.

On that note, I like to play as a woman, because I'm a woman, and I like playing characters that kind of relate to me in the sex department.
The only exceptions is when the females are dressed so provocatively that I just choose male. Th
 

TheYellowCellPhone

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Sep 26, 2009
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Depends. I play as a guy on online games like Planetside or Killing Floor. A girl in singleplayer games like Elder Scrolls.

Just for variety, I guess.
 

Colour Scientist

Troll the Respawn, Jeremy!
Jul 15, 2009
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Female who prefers to play as a lady here.
You done goofed with the poll options though.

Unless that was intentional and you want to skew the results.
You should be more subtle if that was your intention. :D
 

Crispee

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Nov 18, 2009
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It's usually pretty arbitrary, but I do agree that I like the idea of a female Commander Shepard, as OP said, it breaks the usual sterotypes of a male character being the ultimate hero, but because of Mass Effect's neutral writing of Commander Shepard it doesn't have the feel of drawing attention to it and just kind of lets it be, which more games should definitely do. Heck, more stories in general.
 

Miss G.

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Jun 18, 2013
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OP: Your poll has Female preferring to play as Male twice.

Anyway, I'm a female that'll play as male more often than not based on aesthetics in character creation, but, then again, I'll play as my own gender for much the same reason if the female options look better and/or have stats/skills/classes I want. In the case of something like Fire Emblem: Awakening, I started with a male, then immediately started over as a female once I realized he couldn't get with Chrom because marriage/breeding mechanics, so there's always that to consider as well.

tippy2k2 said:
I'm a dude playing a dude disguised as another dude!!!
Love that line... and Robert Downey Jr., and that movie, but seriously - love that line.
 

RJ 17

The Sound of Silence
Nov 27, 2011
8,687
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Colour Scientist said:
Female who prefers to play as a lady here.
You done goofed with the poll options though.

Unless that was intentional and you want to skew the results.
You should be more subtle if that was your intention. :D
Thank you for pointing out my mistake so early in the topic. I edited my OP to show that the last option is supposed to be "Female Playing As Female". Tried to edit the poll, but it usually doesn't work. Sorry for the confusion.
 

Voulan

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Jul 18, 2011
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Another female who prefers playing as a female here, but I can't obviously vote.

You could always just count these responses and edit it in the OP if the poll isn't getting fixed.

EDIT: Never mind, it's fixed now.
EDIT EDIT: No, it's still weird again. The bottom option is the female-female one.
 

ShinyCharizard

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Oct 24, 2012
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Pretty much an even split of either gender. I just pick whatever seems suitable for the character I want to role-play.
 

RJ 17

The Sound of Silence
Nov 27, 2011
8,687
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Voulan said:
Another female who prefers playing as a female here, but I can't obviously vote.

You could always just count these responses and edit it in the OP if the poll isn't getting fixed.

EDIT: Never mind, it's fixed now.
EDIT EDIT: No, it's still weird again. The bottom option is the female-female one.
Yeah, I do apologize for that blatant error on my part. I put the clarification edits at the very beginning of my OP so hopefully people will understand that the final option is supposed to be "Female Playing As Female". I really wish poll-option edits actually applied, but sadly that's not the case. I've asked for mod help in case they can edit poll options, but that's the best I can do. Again: sorry for the confusion.
 

Maxtro

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Feb 13, 2011
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I'm a guy though I'm probably 50/50 on weather I make male or female characters.

Most of the time my first character in a game is a male unless I know that female characters have revealing outfits, then I will make a female.

The one exception is Mass Effect where I played a FemShep because Jennifer Hale did such an amazing job and I felt it was miles better than ManShep.
 

wintercoat

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Nov 26, 2011
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Where's the "it depends on the game" option?

For example, I just recently started Saint's Row 2, and created a male character because I couldn't make a female face that wasn't complete shit, and the defaults sucked. I also preferred the male voice actors for the protag over the female. Conversely, in Mass Effect, I played as FemShep because I greatly preferred her voice over BroShep's, but both had decent default faces.

It's a matter of aesthetics for me. A good face, decent body model, and a voice that doesn't make me cringe. The sex of the protag doesn't matter much, except in how they're usually built. Like, male bodies in games are too often grotesque mountains of muscles, which is the primary reason I almost never play as a male character in a Western MMO.

Then there's the faces. I've never been able to make a face that didn't belong on a freakshow advertisement, so the defaults need to be decent, which isn't always the case. Luckily, the people who design the defaults are getting better every year.

I prefer playing as a female because I prefer to listen to a woman's voice over a man's, and female character models are usually nicer to look at.