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

Headsprouter

Monster Befriender
Legacy
Nov 19, 2010
8,662
3
43
Male as male. It's ages before I even consider playing as a female in an RPG or any game...it just breaks the immersion for me and...yeah.

I don't get all the people playing games like Oblivion and Skyrim with uber-goddess characters in skimpy clothes, especially. I want to be able to take my characters seriously, but this is not decided by gender, I'm talking in terms of dress and appearance, as well as abilities. No Mary-Sues for me.
 

Specter Von Baren

Annoying Green Gadfly
Legacy
Aug 25, 2013
5,632
2,849
118
I don't know, send help!
Country
USA
Gender
Cuttlefish
Lightspeaker said:
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.
*sigh* ........... You'll also notice I said "usually". I honestly wasn't expecting someone to reply to my comment here, thought it was. Look, I was referring specifically to situation where you're expected to put yourself in the shoes of the PC, games that don't have dialogue choices and you can't shape the character in any way. I don't like being lectured about something I already know, I've played in several RP's before and the characters that were my favorite and that were considered very good by the other people in the group were my female characters. I don't need lecturing.
 

Raziel

New member
Jul 20, 2013
243
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Male playing as which ever looks cooler. If its a wash female because usually male is the only choice in games.
 

Mycroft Holmes

New member
Sep 26, 2011
850
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Depends on a lot of stuff, but usually male first run, female second.

Sometimes I switch though or refuse to do one side of it if voice acting is bad. Like there no reason to play as a male in SR3 because Laura Bailey does the best VAing by far. Just like sarcastic Hawke in DA2 is a lot better with the female VA.

In MMOs I usually play male unless(eg. Ultima Online) female characters have hard-coded inherent advantages.
 

Rebel_Raven

New member
Jul 24, 2011
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I have a strong preferrence for a female character, and am female. Not only are they absurdly rare outside of MMOs, and utterly rare as the sole playable character/in games where the female PoV is different, I relate to them better.

Kinda tired of bland male protagonists. I'd rather have something, someone, different, be they well written guys, or a female, even if they are bland they're different.

I can, have, and will play as the occassional guy. How much I like it varies.

GTAV was pretty neutral, all around. Yeah, I liked trevor being the flawed embodiment of chaos.
I found some mild relation to Franklin having worked on a car lot before.
Mike, I played him as family appreciative, and I can relate to his wants to live a good life.
Still, that's some of the absolute most basic stuff, and barely anything to cling to.

I can't comment on my GTAO character, but I'm aiming for a female, lesbian, asian getaway driver/gun-bunny. GTAO is why I got GTAV, and played it, really.

Red Dead Redemption, BatmanArkham Asylum/city were awesome, but honestly the games feel too far and few in between where the world/protagonist get my attention when you're playing as a guy.
 

Jenvas1306

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May 1, 2012
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the only reason I could think of that would be an argument for me to play a male character is so that guys online leave me alone. I dont want to give in to male opression so I disregard that one.

Its pretty imteressting how different the ratios are. women seem to play as their gender in games way more often while for guys its almost 50/50. but the sample numbers are low for girls at this point.

but well, try to play apb and you will run into tons of sluty dressed female player models there, like it is in lots of other games. I guess men have more the tendency to project their desires onto the opposite sex in such a visual way when given the chance.(finally you can make a girl bend over with the press of a button and stare at her pixel panties that are flesh colored...)
 

miketehmage

New member
Jul 22, 2009
396
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I'm a guy and in most games I will chose to play Male, it makes it easier to relate to the character. Though for some reason in WoW alot of my characters are female.
 

CardinalPiggles

New member
Jun 24, 2010
3,226
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I tend to choose to play as female because I already know what it's like to be a male. Plus females are generally much nicer and much quieter people which is how I always choose to play games with choice, so it makes more sense in my mind.

The burly action hero type just doesn't really appeal to me.
 

McMarbles

New member
May 7, 2009
1,566
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No preference. I'm a male who will be playing Rune Factory 4 as a male, but the next Pokemon as a female.
 

Ryotknife

New member
Oct 15, 2011
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MMOs, male so to avoid....creepy subjects.

First person games? Don't really care. Comes down to voice acting/aesthetics/flavor.

Skyrim for example ill play as a female because heavy armor looks much better on them. FO New Vegas? Female just to REALLY stick it to the Legion, because seriously F the Legion. Mount and Blade: Warband? Female because they are overpowered. Borderlands 2? Maya because she is overpowered.

Third person? Mostly female for the "if I have to stare at an ass" reason.
 

New Frontiersman

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Feb 2, 2010
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I tend to like playing as a guy when I have the choice, only because it's easier to relate to since I'm a guy as well.

I don't mind playing as a girl though and when I'm playing a game that encourages multiple playthroughs (Fire Emblem, Skyrim) I'll usually have a few female characters as well as males.
 

DarkhoIlow

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Dec 31, 2009
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I always have leaned towards playing the male gender when given a choice and if the game was worth replaying then playing it again with the female counterpart so see the differences.

Very few games that I have played (aside from the ones that force you to play as a female protagonist) where they actually let you choose between a male or a female. In most cases these must be RPG's for me to actually think about which gender I will go for first.

I've slowly started to lean towards choosing female first to get a different experience from the get go...Shadowrun Returns being the most recent game that I've played only once and finished it with a female elf.
 

white_wolf

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Aug 23, 2013
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Wait was one of the options suppose to be Fem preferring to play as Fem? Because you've got two Fem preferring to play as Male.

So I guess I'll just type mine out check back and see if that choice is available later.

If given the choice and depending on the story I'm playing I like to choose female however I may also forgo it and pick male first it just depends on the story. I guess 8/10 I'll pick fem if she's available and the world setting makes sense if it doesn't I'll go male first see how the game playsout then give it a try with her.
 

spartandude

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Nov 24, 2009
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Il probably do several playthroughs but ive noticed that usually the females have some extra dialogue and more often than not better romance options.
 

TehCookie

Elite Member
Sep 16, 2008
3,923
0
41
Female and I play whatever models I think look better. In most games you can't make a JRPG-esque character so I play female more often, but if I could I'd make more bishounens.
 

Dragonbums

Indulge in it's whiffy sensation
May 9, 2013
3,307
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white_wolf said:
Wait was one of the options suppose to be Fem preferring to play as Fem? Because you've got two Fem preferring to play as Male.

So I guess I'll just type mine out check back and see if that choice is available later.

If given the choice and depending on the story I'm playing I like to choose female however I may also forgo it and pick male first it just depends on the story. I guess 8/10 I'll pick fem if she's available and the world setting makes sense if it doesn't I'll go male first see how the game playsout then give it a try with her.
Around the second page or so OP stated to have edited the option to fix it, but I guess the Escapist just decided to not make the change universal to anyone but OP.

It worked for some people temporarily though.

I believe it was the very last option.
 

mysecondlife

New member
Feb 24, 2011
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I put no time in customizing character's appearance. So my character is usually male because that tends to be the default.

I have no preference towards either gender whatsoever.