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

Quadocky

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Aug 30, 2012
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In character creation/RPG terms I will always play as a man. This is mostly because it helps with provoking familiarity with the character and the ability to step into their skin. Also at the same time its much rarer for men to play as men in online games so I feel special doing so. Something that always bothered me is how the animation is almost always gendered in some fashion. What makes it even more frustrating is that the animation on the 'female' models tend to be much more fluid and natural whereas the 'male' ones are much more robotic and stilted.

Another thing that draws a sort of '...really? eeeuuuughhhh...' kind of feeling is when I see sooo many men playing as big busty women/fetish/kink dolls roleplaying as lesbians or other gender minorities. If I didn't know any better, one could say that the existence of woman inherently implies some kind of instant sexual gratification. Obviously men playing as gay men does not exist, you'd be hard pressed to even find someone playing as a stereotypical flaming homosexual for laughs.

Lastly, I think the only other reason I don't play as women is because while their animations are much cooler, their sheer size or mass is lacking so playing around as some kind anorexic makes me feel sad. That is probably the only thing that the 'male' models typically have going for them is that they are always bigger or allowed to be bigger.
 

white_wolf

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Aug 23, 2013
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Dragonbums said:
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.
Thanks, I'll go look for it!
 

Hugga_Bear

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May 13, 2010
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I put Male preferring to play as female but the truth is I don't particularly care, generally speaking I play as a female character second in a game but that's not so much preference as habit, I have archetypes which I take through every story, they're characters I like to play with and understand and allow me to investigate the entirety of every new game due to differences between them.

As it is though I'm not fussed, playing as a woman not really that different to playing as a man from my POV.
 

Kyrdra

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May 19, 2013
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Where is the option for I throw a coin?
Because I have no preference in it and I dont care about if I play a female or a male character
 

aozgolo

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Mar 15, 2011
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To be honest, depends on whether the game has romance options or not. Generally speaking if given the option I'll always play a female character UNLESS the game has romance options for NPCs in which it is usually more interesting for me to play a male so I can "woo the ladies" though even then I'll often switch this up in other playthroughs where I will try as a female.

The only game where I've been given the option to play as both and NEVER played female was Harvest Moon games, simply because the romance options are the ONLY difference.
 

go-10

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Feb 3, 2010
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depends on how much freedom I get. If I get to design the character (Skyrim, Saints Row, Mass Effect, etc.) 90% of the time I'll go female BUT if the characters are pre-made (Pokemon, Tales of Xillia, etc.) I'll pick whoever I think has the better character design. Oddly enough most of the time the girls look way cooler than the guys
 

Yoshi4102

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Mar 10, 2012
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Due to being a male, I like to be a male in game. When it comes to companion characters however, I like to have some variety and tend to choose a female in my party, such as a mage or a cleric or something. Makes it feel in character to me.

In Dragon's Dogma I actually had a big buff woman named Helga be my fighter. It was really entertaining and despite the pawns being rather lifeless and dull, I actually grew a bit of a connection to her! By far, that's what made the game for me.
 

Free Thinker

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Apr 23, 2010
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Male playing as female most of the time. All started with Mass Effect with Jennifer Hale being a much better voice actor, and it carried on from there. It's a nice change of scenery (not a staring at a female model's butt joke)and just a whole different perspective based on a game's universe.
 

nomzy

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Jan 29, 2010
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When it's a single player game 90% of the time I'll choose male, but if I'm playing an mmo or something I lean towards female.
Staring at my characters ass all day, rather it be female yeah you've heard it all before.
Generally speaking, if there's no RP purposes then I won't pick male.

But I always end up with at least one of each /shrug
 

LetalisK

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May 5, 2010
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Male preferring to play male. The exception being Mass Effect. FemShep > ManShep all day, every day.
 

Uriain

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Apr 8, 2010
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90% of the time, I play a male character. Though, my choice is dependent on the character/class and how I view the character.
 

Shoggoth2588

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I'm a guy in real life and 7 out of 10 times I'll chose to be a guy if given the option. I loved how in Saint's Row 2 you could chose to be gender-neutral...or...gender-ambiguous...it wasn't a binary decision and I really liked that as an option.

If it's a fantasy game (because I haven't encountered this in a sci-fi game...that I remember anyway) I never chose to play as a human or a creature that could be human. I have to live my life as a human after all...
 

LAGG

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Jun 23, 2011
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Depends if it's first or third person.

For first person I'll take the male ones and if possible whatever character talks the least, preferably never at all.
For third person I'll take the female ones because I rather be looking at a girl than a a guy, they have better animations and take less screen space.
 

Elfgore

Your friendly local nihilist
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Dec 6, 2010
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Well for more everything besides JRPGs if I can choose a man, I am being a man. But for games like pokemon, White Knight Chronicles, etc. I will usually think about it and start several games over to pick one.

I am even considering being a girl for GTA Online.
 

zelda2fanboy

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Oct 6, 2009
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I'm a heterosexual male preferring to play as a female. If I'm going to spend 20 hours staring at someone's backside, I'd just assume it be an attractive woman's, possible one whose body I designed myself. It made Mass Effect a lot more entertaining as a woman because it felt slightly less cliche than the typical stoic or wiseass male protagonist.
 

Lucifiel

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Sep 8, 2009
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Female here and usually, when having to choose, I'd opt for male. Not always, but most of the times. I guess my choice is heavily influenced by a combination of game aesthetics and story. I am also one of those persons that spends a minimum of 30mins to create her character and that's if there re very few choices involved. I messed around with the Eve character creator once... I have no idea where those two hours went...



Surprisingly enough, I got the poll choice right, despite the mistake. Yay me!
 

Omega_Gozer

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Mar 22, 2010
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I'm female, and I mostly chose to play male characters. I had a few female alts back when I played World of Warcraft, but about 80% of customisable characters I make have been male.
 

Texas Joker 52

All hail the Pun Meister!
Jun 25, 2011
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As a man, I prefer to play as females whenever possible. I simply find a strong female warrior, regardless of whether they're actually some variant of mage or rouge, is more compelling to me. Part of this is because I'm attracted to strong females, as well as the fact that most games that don't have the option usually have a male character, and I like to balance it out. Another minor factor is the fact that I'd rather stare at a woman's ass than a man's, so if the game happens to be in third person, I'll usually be playing as a female.

... That isn't taking into account that I have only once made a decent looking man in a character creator.