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

trollnystan

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Dec 27, 2010
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I'll almost always pick female. It's still a rare treat for me to see a woman as the protagonist in a game so when I can I like to play my own gender, at least in the first playthrough - unless the classes are also gender specific, then I might pick whatever class I think sounds most fun. If I feel like a second playthrough I will occasionally make a male one - I had a male Khajiit rogue in Skyrim that got lost in the Great Accidental HDD Formatting of 2013, sigh - although when I tried with Mass Effect I just couldn't do it. That voice wasn't "my" Shepard not to mention I was trying to play him Renegade and I'm terrible at playing bad or mean characters.

I also had a male Blood Elf years back when I played World of Warcraft. Loved that guy and his fabulous blond hair. But then I stopped playing, and when I recently went in to check on him and he and another of my favourites had been deleted by hackers =(
 

AngloDoom

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Aug 2, 2008
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Depends on aesthetics and my mood, though I have noticed I sway towards certain trends - like always making tank-class characters petite women with gigantic weapons.

Honestly, I just go for what looks cool - unless I'm in the super original mood to play as a sexed-up version of myself and live out a power-fantasy.
 

Chester Rabbit

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Dec 7, 2011
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Usually a woman( at first) for three reasons.

1)I like women so if I get to spend a whole game looking at one then awesome

2)It?s rare that games have female leads in your shooters or well anything really so if presented with the choice I am usually more intrigued to go with the opposite gender because it?s just more interesting to me.

3)If I feel it?s better suited to the role or again would make it more interesting
(Shepard works much better as a woman in my opinion)

As I said up top that's now how it always goes of course. In games like Fallout New Vegas I chose a guy and only that because...well I wanted to role play as Carry Grant in a western. Or in Halo Reach, I choose for Noble 6 to be a guy because I really just can't see 6 being a woman... It all just depends on what I want the character to be and how I want to play the game.
 

Loop Stricken

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Jun 17, 2009
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Unless this is the same thread I replied in a few weeks back (hah, me, check post dates?) I'll say; it depends on how customisable the characters are, and what opportunities the game provides to play dress-up.

I like to look pretty. I like to look badass. If the female armour is chainmail bikinis and the malefolken get to wear a tank, then there's no way I'm playing female.
Otherwise yeah, bring on the fighting femmes.
 

SonOfVoorhees

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Aug 3, 2011
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Im a guy, and it depends on the game. For instance in SR4 i played as a male and in Skyrim i played as a female.
 

Skeleon

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Nov 2, 2007
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I'm male and I prefer to play as a male if possible. When there's the kind of customization that we have in some RPGs, I also give him brown hair and eyes, like mine. Well, except for Skyrim: My mage has those blind white eyes. Anyway, it's just easier to identify with the character if they are male, too. I also tend to follow my moral views when playing, though, so it's not just that I make the appearance like myself.
 

Collegeboy21

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Jan 26, 2010
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Male almost always playing as a female. I just find it is easier to care about a female character. Too many male characters in games are characterized by the intensity of the stubble on their face and the volume of their bravado. Female characters have the benefit of actually being interesting, since in a lot of circumstances it would be going against type.
 

DrOswald

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Apr 22, 2011
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I am male and what I play depends on the situation. But if the following are all true I will play as female every time:

1. Technically detailed and aesthetically pleasing graphics
2. Extensive character customization
3. Many clothing options that actually change what your avatar is wearing

The reason is simple. Women's fashion is much more interesting than men's fashion. With men at best you get a few interesting variations on suits. With women there are all sorts of interesting clothes, from the many different types of dresses and different tops and shoes and some newer games even have started to include earrings with actual physics. In Final Fantasy XIV I have a straw hat with a flower on it that matches the color of my avatars eyes. You have no idea how much I love that hat.

By the way, the female armor rule is the bane of interesting female clothing in video games. There is so much potential for unique and interesting designs for feminine armor. Take Iron Solari Leona. That armor is so awesome! But what do developers do 95% of the time? "Hur dur, lets put her in a bikini." So boring. And if you really have to make it sexy and revealing "armor" (which I despise on the grounds that women in plate armor are insanely attractive) then you could at least make it interesting. I mean, if metal lingerie is what you are after you can do so much better than a thong. For shame character designers, for shame.
 

Ashadowpie

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Feb 3, 2012
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im a girl and i like choosing to be a girl in games. i like making them friendly assassins, cold killers but will help anyone in need at the same time * evil smile *

the main reason is that woman in games are nicer to look at and i mean in a -most video game men have tiny heads and enormous bodies, arms, hands, ugly beards, always rough looking and wearing ugly heavy bulky armor- way.

i like lithe characters, the scrawny ones that use a bow or use daggers and magic. the Thief basically. female game characters are always lithe and scrawny and if their was an option for a male character to be scrawny too i'd choose him finally too.
 

Chemical123

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May 2, 2013
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I am a guy and I try to play as something as far removed from me in reality so I usually play as lawful good female characters. Plus female characters have the prettiest dresses.
 

Angelowl

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Feb 8, 2013
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Girl here, I like variation and try to equal things out. Which means that whenever I got the choice I always go for the girls. Still playing more guys than girls despite being a big RPG-player. It really is that bad. o_O

This was a big dilemma when trying out Aion. First game I saw with actually good-looking male characters, they looked awesome. Still I went with a female one, due to them having the potential to be very very beautiful. Got really attached to the character, a bit sad I stopped playing really. :(

Chemical123 said:
I am a guy and I try to play as something as far removed from me in reality so I usually play as lawful good female characters. Plus female characters have the prettiest dresses.
Agreed, they really need to add more pretty dresses to the male characters. I'm sick and tired of braindead hyper-buff guys that have steroids in place of blood cells.
 

BarbaricGoose

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May 25, 2010
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Ashadowpie said:
ugly beards


Unbelievable. Come on--beards are not ugly! They're great. I mean, within reason... when it gets to be more than, I'm gonna say 2 inches long, that's where I draw the line. A good rule of thumb: if you could hide a baseball in your beard, cut it.

And what is with all the men in this thread speaking of frilly dresses? You don't see women professing their love of, what was it, UGLY BEARDS?! I am a pilgrim in an unholy land!

(I'm mostly joking.)

Captcha: thunder storm. More like Thunderstruck.
 

Lightspeaker

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Dec 31, 2011
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I'm male. I choose what "feels" right to me. I find it hard to explain what I mean, I just get a feeling of what feels right. Like I flat out cannot play Mass Effect as a male Shepard. It feels so, so wrong. (Also Jennifer Hale is awesome.)

Although I find myself becoming more biased towards choosing female characters lately, most likely to balance off the sheer number of male leads.


Specter Von Baren said:
When it's a case of gender choice, your character is usually supposed to be a representation of yourself or at least, someone you're putting your own shoes in, usually.
You really, really should not use the phrase "supposed to" with regard to how people create their characters you know...its quite a personal thing.


I'm male; I play as both male and female characters. I also RP and write stories. A lot of my characters in all of these things contain aspects of me in them and I empathise with them. Their morality and certain parts of their personalities (on a character by character basis) are based on my own. Each has different aspects of me in them and I have a deep connection and investment in them, despite them not being a direct representation of me. They are PART of me but are NOT me, if you take my meaning.

Captcha: dueling banjos
Quite an apt metaphor for this discussion I feel.
 

Valdus

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Apr 7, 2011
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I like playing male. Unless gender becomes something other than aesthetic I doubt I'll play a female.

If the game changed depending on your gender (for example, a sexist medievil setting were playing as a female character requires more stealth since society frowns upon you fighting) then I doubt I will find my playstyle changing.
 

Lieju

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Jan 4, 2009
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I'm female and I play female characters.

I'm equally fine playing either, but since in the games where I'm not given a choice I usually have to play as a guy and even when the protagonist is female they aren't usually the kind of character I'm make (not traditionally attractive, scarred, older...), when I can choose I play as female.

In some games, though, I can choose male avatar and then pretend they're female anyway.
Like in Pokemon Black 2, where the girl looked silly and the boy could have easily been a tomboyish girl.


In subsequent playthroughs I usually play as a different character.
 

Someone Depressing

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Jan 16, 2011
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If there's a major gameplay difference, then I'll go with whoever is better at not getting shot in the head.

I usually as a male, though. Because I'm male. But if the males have muscles like they'd taken 50lbs of 'roids, then no. And if the girls look like they're smuggling bowling balls, then I'll avoid them. And if they both fall victim to sexualisation, I guess I'll pick one at random.

I'll probably play as the other character on second playthroughs to scout for differences. Like Persona 3 Portable, where pretty much the whole life-simulator aspect was overhauled if you were a girl.
 

Mistilteinn

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Jul 14, 2012
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I've probably answered this a few times already, but I go for an even split. I'll make a male character first (being male, myself) then a female, then male, then female, repeat until I get bored making characters, haha. I have no problems playing either, and it's mostly out of an interest to see if the story changes, and if the armor models are different between the two genders.
 

Johnny Novgorod

Bebop Man
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Feb 9, 2012
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I was about to say male/male, but as I recall I played RE1 as Jill, and RE2 as Claire, and DKC2 and DKC3 as Dixie Kong. I could tell you I chose Jill because she has bigget pockets than Chris, and Claire because her scenario was supposed to be the "easier one", and Dixie because she can glide and that trumps everything. But yeah, nominally I choose male, even though I have no qualms choosing female because gameplay.
 

Kokairi

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Sep 30, 2013
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Female playing as female.

There are so few chances for me to play my own gender in games, than when I'm given that choice, I make my character resemble me as closely as I possibly can. I have no problem with immersion as I've been playing male characters for the last 25 years, but playing a female is always so much more fulfilling to me.