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

Victim of Progress

New member
Jul 11, 2011
187
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Erm, op. I think you have the same choice twice

Female Prefering To Play As Male 1.1% (2) 1.1% (2)
Female Prefering To Play As Male 9.2% (17) 9.2% (17)

Other than that, I prefer to play as my own gender, that being male.
 

The Hero Killer

New member
Aug 9, 2010
776
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Male playing as female on all games that allow it. Cant wait to make my female Hispanic bank robber on GTAV Online. Only time I play with males is when I can make them look semi androgynous like Final Fantasy characters.
 

mechalynx

Führer of the Sausage People
Mar 23, 2008
410
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Female and mostly down with lady toons. The one time I broke the rule is on my main toon in Guild Wars 2. He's a studly Azura.
 

Callate

New member
Dec 5, 2008
5,118
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If both options are available, I usually play as male (my own sex) the first time through, then often go back as a female to see options I missed. I have no particular qualms about playing as a female character; I just find it easier to immerse in games where I create my own player character if other characters are responding to my avatar similarly to how they might respond to me. In games where the main character is clearly someone over whom I have little or no "authorship", so to speak, it's easier to keep some distance and enjoy the narrative as third-person rather than first-person.

I suppose I should add that my primary character in "City of Heroes" was a female, in part because I speculated that other people might be more pleasant, socially speaking, to someone they presumed was female. I think to some small extent that may have been the case; at least I wasn't hit on too often.
 

Not Matt

Senior Member
Nov 3, 2011
555
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i would be male. not because i don't like women, it's just that being male is easier and i am a lazy bastard. we get paid more, we don't give birth, we don't need make-up to be beautiful[footnote]then again, neither do women but do you listen to that? Nooooooooooo. [/footnote], no periods, no pressure to be overly sexual and i get to wear what ever i want without being harassed by either pervs or religious scumbags. being female is like playing trough 1st world problems on hard mode.
 

Feylynn

New member
Feb 16, 2010
559
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I am a male preferring to play as female. I mentally identify with both genders and find I get more depressed/angsty when I don't realize both roles in my life. I naturally satisfy my male persona obviously so I tend to exclusively project my female persona into games to find some balance. This is also part of why games like Persona 3 Portable that approximate some semblance of female social life are so important to me where Persona 4 Golden was a huge let down. The aforementioned does not however mean that I require a social context to prefer female characters. I play female LoL champions, prefer Touhou to other shmups/bullethell, refuse to play male characters in things like Borderlands 2, Darksouls, or even Terraria. It's a much more productive and less confusing/stressful system than personally claiming to be female online in my experience.
 

lunavixen

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Jan 2, 2012
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I'm a female who prefers to play as females, there are already bootloads of games where you play as males and I like to balance it out, not to mention rogues and magic users are my preferred classes in RPGs and they are usually female, I've also found a lot of the time i prefer the female VA. On subsequent playthroughs (if the game is interesting enough) I will have a playthrough as a man.
 

SoranMBane

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May 24, 2009
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I'll always do both eventually over multiple playthroughs, but for the most part I tend to gravitate towards playing male characters, even though I'm female. It's mostly for aesthetic reasons, like wanting to play as a character that I find attractive, or wanting to avoid the bikinis, dresses, or armor with boob curves that females characters tend to get forced into. But if it is at all possible to make a female character that actually looks dignified, I always appreciate it, and I'll usually go for that sort of character for my second playthrough.

On a side-note, you know what I hate in games with character customization? Having non-armor clothing options that magically turn into dresses and skirts on female characters. Why can't girls wear pants, or guys wear dresses? It's stupid, and it boggles my mind that freaking Saints Row is more inclusive and mature about this sort of thing than Fallout or Skyrim.
 

Da Orky Man

Yeah, that's me
Apr 24, 2011
2,107
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Depends on the circumstance. In Mass Effect and Dragon Age, I played a male, because it just felt right. On the other hand, in KotOR 2, I played a female because that felt right, and it was only later that I found that the canon Exile was indeed female.
 

gabrieldevue

New member
Mar 12, 2008
18
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Female, playing female. If i play a guy, i like to play androgynous people.
But I like to design my avatars somewhat in a way that i could imagine myself as that charcter in that world. As much as i like long flowing hair... if i play a rogue, a sword-weilding maniac or a sizzling fire mage it's always updos, ponytails or really short.. you don't want your sexy hair getting all in the way of stabbing people ; )

If there is no choice and the character is well written, it doesn't matter at all for me.
 

Sateru

New member
Jul 11, 2010
110
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In the context of gaming, I generally prefer to play as a male being male myself. The only instances I played as a female character were in Runescape and WoW. In the case of the former, I did it because I preferred the female toon over the male and it seems like other people are the same way. I got way more freebies being a female than a male. Although, I got stalked once and every so often some guy would spam me PMs asking if I wanted to be his GF. The latter was because I preferred the female appearance over the blocky male one. At least, there were less freebies and being stalked.

I didn't stay on either of those games because I wanted to be male. I enjoy being a guy, I want to be represented through my avatar in the online world. After all, the avatar you create in a game is the representation of what you want or find aesthetically appealing. I will admit that I enjoy staring at my male character's ass as he runs in some games (due to being interested in guys myself).
 

Yuuki

New member
Mar 19, 2013
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Male here, I prefer to play female. If I'm going to be staring at the same ass for countless hours it might as well be a female one :)

This only applies to 3rd-person games where I can zoom out and see my character, for first-person games I really don't care about gender.
 

JediMB

New member
Oct 25, 2008
3,094
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I have male genitalia, but have a strong preference for female protagonists in games, movies, books, etc.
 

Nazulu

They will not take our Fluids
Jun 5, 2008
6,242
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Depends on the design and classes. I don't mind what sex I go, I just want to look like the meanest bastard there. Sometimes I change if one is animated better than the other, but that rarely happens.
 

putowtin

I'd like to purchase an alcohol!
Jul 7, 2010
3,452
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Female playing as female (as your poll doesn't have that option)

Thankfully female clothing options is now getting better so roleplaying doesn't have to mean skimpy bikini armour!
 

Elementary - Dear Watson

RIP Eleuthera, I will miss you
Nov 9, 2010
2,980
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It depends what that character is going to be like! I don't like the idea of evil females, so evil characters are always burly men... If I have a nimble/sneaky character I will make her female... Just fits better with my internal multiverse! (I have a set array of characters in my head that I recreate in different games if I can. Xa'ati Baniin the Pirate, Puriel Nightslayer the archer/ranger/rogue, Slytooth The Wrong is the evil dude (the name is a piss take! :p)
 
Apr 5, 2008
3,736
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Both over multiple playthroughs if the choice makes any difference, otherwise just male probably. Usually combine with different class/build, different romances, alignment, in-game choices, etc.

RJ 17 said:
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.
A woman isn't the hope of the galaxy. Shepard is the hope of the galaxy, irrespective of gender. The fact that the player can choose either, and controls dialogue, choices and combat means there's nothing about Shepard being female that makes her the hero. Shepard isn't a male hero or a female hero; Shepard is both and neither. The game plays almost identically whichever gender the player chooses, thus FemShep is not a paragon for female protagonists but an Everyman with breasts.