Gaming

I prefer playing characters as little like me as possible. If there's a non-human option, I will always take it. The further from human available. Weird alien race? That's my jam.

If I have to be a human, I'll often play a female character because it's the furthest from 'me' I can get within those constraints. I'll also usually play a character of a race I am not, for this same reason.

I rarely play women in games because i like playing a oversized jacked warrior guy. I play women if a male of that class would look gay. Stuff like assassins, elementalists I always pick a women because the clothes look better and small build is more immersive to the role. But monk or healer I always pick a guy cause tall gigachad healer is funny.

with male being the only option for years in most games, i started choosing female characters to get a different experience nowadays it depends on the game, sometimes i like the female voice better, sometimes it's about the romanceable characters and sometimes about the character design

They're hot

Depends on the game.

Monster hunter: they get the cute armor sets. Dudes get the fat armor sets, while that version of the lady armor is something like a mecha teddy bear.

Social games: I aim for the more gender neutral looks, and for whatever reason guys are almost always bulky. It's usually somewhat possible to get a female avatar to look guyish. And if it's using voice chat, there is very little question.

Online MMOs: I have set male and female character tropes/character types that have been developed for 20ish years at this point. Coskii is an axe welding merchant or as close to that as I can manage. My thief is a lady, archer is a guy, wizard is a guy, and sorcerer is lady.

Single player whatevers: it depends on the character sounds. Sometimes games can get a bit excessive with their sound design, and for whatever reason make the guy voice sound like he's constipated for every sound effect.

Because we want to fuck it

I mix it up and play a wide variety of character genders, races, ethnicities and species. Whatever catches my eye during character creation for the most part, and if I replay a game I actively pick something different on different play throughs as it is a reminder that I'm playing this character instead of a different character.

So I don't actively or exclusively play female characters for a significant reason, just aesthetics of the game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haOm9TY90uY

The dadvocate explains it perfectly.

I think of my characters in games as "stand alone", and I don't really care about the gender I'm playing as.

Specific reasons to play women: women:

• Cyberpunk 2077: Judy Alvarez is more appealing to me than Panam Palmer. (Although I have to dig up my first playthrough (male V) since the Kerry Eurodyne questline seems to be good).
• When I started playing Fortnite with some others, someone jokingly gave me the Heidi-skin. Except for certain quests, I keep using that skin.

In games that have gender based perks, like Agent of Dibella in Skyrim or LadyKiller/Black Widow in the Fallout games tend to be stronger for female characters because more of the NPC's are male. This is more adding another reason than claiming that it's the main reason. I don't exclusively play either male or female but typically when I play a female character it's because I'm building a character that is less physically aggressive. I know this is playing into stereotypes but sword and board tends to be male while stealth archer tends to be female.

Sometimes.

Most of the time, I just make myself and I'm a guy. But in games where I am constantly making characters, like Elden Ring or something, I just slap the random button a bunch and whatever it gives me I accept.

Well... Fallout 2 I am always a woman because it makes dealing with the slaver leader a helluva lot easier.

I don't always, but when I do it's mostly to do with character customisation. If I'm playing a game where my character is constantly visible I'd rather it was something I wanted to look at, and male clothing is boring. OK, some games don't restrict clothes but many do. So I tend to create a character which is a female version of me, except in the cases where I prefer a male character (which isn't often if I have the choice!)

By-and-large, they are more committed to the VO from my experience, which lead to a more believable character and is almost always more immersive as a result.

Male VO is always played as arrogant and tryhard/heroic but comes off as cringy and bland. Whereas female VO seems to typically be played as a survivor-type just trying to figure things out and live. Which is almost always the correct call for the character.

I started with the Black Widow fallout 3 perk figuring there world be more male characters than female when fighting.

https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Black_Widow_(Fallout_3)

EFFECTS
+10% damage against male opponents
Additional dialogue options with certain male characters

It stuck after that.

Because female characters typically have better creation options, like hairstyles and outfits. I like to create and play characters that I find aestheticlly pleasing, as a straight guy that means mostly female characters. I do occasionally try to make an idealized version of myself though.

Depends on the game. Generally, I go with a male character that is somewhat like myself in appearance. The main reasons that I play a female character given the option are:

• There is some difference in the game or story based on gender (ex. Games like CP2077, though, generally not in my first playthrough. Or, the voice talents of Jennifer Hale in Mass Effect.)
• The male character was bodged in, unnecessarily (ex. AC: Odyssey, which wasn't even supposed to have a male lead until a sexist Ubisoft exec forced it - the dialog i, just awful)
• Sometimes, it is just being a bit thirsty.

It depends on the game, character etc. I mean I suppose it adds to the escapism slightly?

I play all sorts of different games though, some where you're not given the choice (Life Is Strange for example) and I don't feel like it's that big a deal

It's random and i don't really care at all.

For me it's definitely an RP choice. I don't always choose one or the other, but in games that give character creation options I tend to go for a quick "non-canon" play test to get a feel for the game and setting and get an idea of how I want to play it. Then I start a new file and create a character to fit that. Sometimes I go for a lithe rogue or a buff fighter, and the gender usually depends on either how I'm feeling or possible story/world stuff that makes it fit better, or sometimes just something interesting. Like in early Cyberpunk there was a glitch where you could start with a male character, then switch some settings and you'd get the female options but it would keep the original genitalia, so I played through as a trans woman because it wasn't something I'd done before and it was interesting and fit well into the setting. It didn't change anything in the game and I kept my character clothed so you never saw her hanging dong. But then I hit the story with the trans woman NPC and my V found a friend who they could connect with a little better. It was a fun role-play opportunity and I felt like it helped my connect to the game and the world even better when my avatar wasn't just a puppet I used to interact with the game. Even in games like the Witcher where you're given a named character, my Geralt always developed his own personality. I once accidentally sold all my boots and didn't realize for a few days that he was running around without shoes. When I noticed it immediately became part of his personality that he doesn't wear shoes. He like feeling the grass when he fights and he's more connected with nature. It kinda fit with the default personality but I leaned heavy into the more nature-focused choices where possible and it changed how I played.

Though I'm probably not an average case-study. I tend to eschew gender norms while identifying as a straight cis guy. I wear what I want, paint my nails or wear makeup if I'm feeling it. And I do lean heavy into the single player RPG games and avoid MOBAs or shooters. I think I've mostly just been playing DnD in all my video games, lol.

Speaking of DnD, my BG3 playthrough started with a female Drow monk because I haven't played any of that in DnD before, but as I played I knew I wanted a rogue so I restarted and as I built it I started with a human male but ended up with a Gith male rogue because I liked the look a bit more for it and knowing what little I did about the Gith in the opening it would be fun RP. But in my head, he's not from a creche but was lost as a small Gith and raised in some small village by human parents. So he doesn't fit in with the Gith he meets but also faces the fear that most people in the world experience when they see him. It just adds so much more depth to the game when they have their own personality.

It depends on what kind of character I want to RP; sometimes that's a dude, sometimes not.

I like vidya waifus

I saw some Avatar gameplay recently. There was a portion of aerial flight where you can enjoy the view of a naked ass in hi-def. I'm guessing they chose to play a female Pandorian for the same reason most players choose a female character in video games, (naked) male asses are a niche market for gameplay purposes.

There are some exceptions -- I like playing Nightmare, who is male, in the Soul Calibur series, due to his moveset -- but absent broader gameplay considerations coming up, I'll default to a female choice. I'd rather look at the female character through the course of the game.

considers

I play very few multiplayer games. The last time I was playing a 3D multiplayer game much was a long time ago, probably a Quake 2-based Team Fortress-style game, and then I played a male character, an engineer, because of his role.

I haven't played MUDs for ages, but there I generally played a male character.

Sometimes games attach some sort of gameplay benefits on a gender-basis (e.g. male or female characters have slightly different stats or characteristics), and then I'll sometimes choose the main character's gender based on that, but that's become less-common, maybe not politically-correct. Mount and Blade: Warband does that -- it's a medieval world and male and female characters have significantly-different roles there; there I'll play a male character. The Fallout series had a long tradition of having the Black Widow/Lady Killer perk work differently based on a character's gender; it's generally advantageous to play a female character there.

I don't mind what sex my character is, my character is not me and I don't see why I would mind what sex my character is. Like, especially in a video game, the scenario is usually quite fantastic and nothing that my character does (e.g. acrobatics, shooting, running for more than 18 seconds without collapsing out of breath, etc.) gives me a sense that they are a version of me. My character should be whatever the writers thought would be most appropriate for the themes or story or whatever.

(I did not watch the linked video)

When the game allowed, I make my character to look like my then-gf (now my wife), and named it after her. Idk, I think she's cute and I would like to see her more.

Funny thing is I've never told her this and she have no idea why I always alt-tab out of my game when she walked by (she knows I'm not playing something that would upset her like a porn games or something like that because she can see what I'm playing from afar. She just can't see the character'name or details from that distance).

I usually go for incredibly inhumanly muscley male characters but occasionally play as a woman for variety.

Gamer response: because sometimes I wanna experience what it's like to have less rights.

On a serious note, for the esthetic. For instance, girls suit the rogue characters better, largely because of how many times women have stabbed me in the fucking heart.

Ok, so it was still somewhat a gamer response...

I dunno, feels right in the moment? Kind of do it randomly.