Why do you play a female character?

Elusiin

I'm a dude that finds other dudes attractive, and so I play male characters to look at something attractive.. Maybe it's reverse for other guys who find women attractive, so they play female characters.

Enemoriana

I'm female, usually play male characters in all games. I don't like too masculine female characters (as my characters), and I don't think feminine female characters suits stories with so many direct fighting. Even if mage. I do quests solo, so there always will be "one against a lot of enemies" and close range fights.
My girls should win without battle, lead or at least have somebody to keep enemies at distance. Only game where I prefer female character is Dragon Age Inqisition (elf mage... and yes, Cullen!).
All my male characters, even mages, know how to take a sword. They also prefer diplomacy, but aren't against good fight from time to time.

I have here 2 female charachters, but main reason for them - I just liked how they look. One is nice imperial lady (tried to make nice face, liked, created as character. Then recreated in another class. After Elsweyr release will do in again...), second is female version of my male character (tried how token works on PTS, changed gender, she was nice. Now he has sister.)
And 4 male, main among them. Planning at least two more.

Skyvertex

I've played mainly female toons since fallout 3 (for the black widow perk) and just continued doing so in bethesda games since

KingofAnnwn

I'm male, all my characters on the platforms I play on are female. Personally I don't like the way male characters move or look from the rear.

Nyladreas

I'm male and I play both male and female characters.

For me there's absolutely no difference in the genders other than who I imagine the characters are really supposed to be.

My main is a female and I roleplay both genders quite well. People tend to assume I'm either a man or a woman irl, depending on who I roleplay at the time, because I am naturally just a good actor.

Now If I shatter someone's dreams with this, it's not my fault - you need to go out more and stop looking at "online women" as if they were some rare alien species.

If there's anything else to add, I'm a straight guy and it's much more comfortable to watch a female character for endless hours from behind.

PS: people also tend to assume I'm a furry because my main is a Khajiit. Can't we find anything simply adorable these days, without being labeled as something, just because of people with limited & weak minds?

max_only

Nyladreas wrote: »

I'm male and I play both male and female characters, and even roleplay both genders.

For me there's absolutely no difference in the genders other than who I imagine the characters are really supposed to be.

My main is a female and I roleplay both genders quite well. People tend to assume I'm either a man or a woman irl, depending on who I roleplay at the time, because I am naturally just a good actor.

Now If I shatter someone's dreams with this, it's not my fault - you need to go out more and stop looking at online "women" as if they were some rare alien species.

If there's anything else to add, I'm a straight guy and it's much more comfortable to watch a female character for endless hours from behind.

PS: people also tend to assume I'm a furry because my main is a Khajiit. Can't we find anything simply adorable these days, without being labeled as something, because of people with limited & weak minds?

Take an awesome

Korah_Eaglecry

With 15 character slots, why not?

I like to create characters with all sorts of interesting and flawed backgrounds. Male characters limits my ability to do that.

whitecrow

For the most part it really is as simple as "I like how they look," or if you want to be a bit cruder, "If I have to stare at an arse for hours..."

The newest of my three characters is male, though, because I just wanted something different.

thesongoftimeb14_ESO

I have mix and my main is a male, but since I am mostly looking from behind, I enjoy my female characters much more.

Bekkael

I'm a woman, and after so many years of being forced to play male avatars (when games were still mostly made by men, for men), I always play a female when possible. I also usually make my first character with my hair and eye color so I can more easily identify with them for immersive story purposes. Just personal preference. If I could have created a female Geralt and had her have numerous flings with attractive male characters, I might have actually been able to stick with the Witcher series, but I just dislike being forced to play as a set character, and especially a set male character. No character creator, and I quickly lose interest in a game. *shrug*

Out of the 5 ESO characters I have, 4 are female. I have one male high elf because I fell in love with Lee Pace's portrayal of King Thranduil in the Hobbit movies and was enamored with recreating a similar looking character. I named him Thran'duil.

Some people find it easier to immerse when the character is nothing like them, and others prefer a character very close to themselves. There's no wrong way to roleplay IMO, so people should play in whatever way gives them joy.

Osteos

Because I can and I want to.

FakeFox

As a heterosexual male I rather stare at female backs all day instead of male ones, thats all.

Emmagoldman

In the last mmo I played, fallen earth, creating a tiny female character shrunk the hit box. So every pvper played a female toon to remain competitive. After playing for five years, playing a female became a norm for me

max_only

Emmagoldman wrote: »

In the last mmo I played, fallen earth, creating a tiny female character shrunk the hit box. So every pvper played a female toon to remain competitive. After playing for five years, playing a female became a norm for me

I really wanted to like that game

Atallanta

Female here with 10 female chars^^

Kiralyn2000

I'm a straight male. I like women (IRL, TV characters, movie characters, book characters, etc), particularly Kick-Butt Action Girls™ (Buffy, Xena, Sydney Bristow, FemShepard...)

I do not "immerse", I do not RP, the character Is Not Me. It's an action figure that I'm moving around on a really fancy game board. I am an external observer of the character.

So when a game gives me the option to make a pretty female character to beat up monsters with? I take it. /shrug

---
And yeah, this topic pops up all the time on MMO and RPG discussion boards. I've seen it for over a decade. The usual selection of responses show up every time ("If I have to stare at a butt all day..." vs. insecure little boys accusing guys who play female characters of being trans/gay/etc).

And when there's a poll, it's almost always come out to a roughly 80/20 split on guys playing male/female characters. Several hundred responses on a Skyrim forum: 80/20. Bioware's statistics on who played what in the Mass Effect Trilogy: 80/20 (even with articles on the net being 90% gushing over how much better FemShep was than MaleShep).


Eh, whatever.

MuchShock

In a fantasy based game, it is fun to play the opposite of reality

DYSEQTA

I don't imagine I am my character. I observe my character. Therefore I choose to make character's that I enjoy observing. In this case that would be women.

Ultimately though throughout life I have gravitated toward women, preferring their friendship and also find a beautiful woman to be the epitome of what is beautiful in this world. I really dislike "men"; you know, blokey blokes, me Tarzan types. That has led me to believe that I may psychologically be a lesbian manifested in a man's body so that may have something to do with it too...or maybe it's just the beautiful women and observation thing.

Ilsabet

I'm female and I prefer to represent myself with a female character in games where the player characters are essentially avatars for the players, unless there's a particular reason for me to envision a particular character as male. I don't design my characters to be "me," but I feel like it makes things more straightforward when people see a female character representing me. Plus I like the idea of a badass chica doing all the hero stuff.

When I got a second account to use for storage, I made all of those characters male just for something different.

SpiderKnight

leeux wrote: »

For me it boils down to four reasons:

1. It's a character and not me, and I repeat: It's a character and not me some people don't seem to grasp this simple idea.
2. I like watching a strong female perform feats of heroism and get things done, since males doing that are ultra super common in all other forms of media, video games it's what's left for that
3. I connect better with a female character than a male character
4. Aesthetics: I like the female body form more than the male body form (eyecandy-wise) that's why I get annoyed at costumes that deform the body

Thank you, you said it for me. Exactly these reasons. Some of my characters are maybe based off real life people too.

Other reasons:
-A tiny, goofy female Bosmer dragonknight is also hilarious to watch fly through the air, killing people in pvp.
-Male Bosmer and Dunmer are creepy looking, unless they have beards to cover their faces.

Uryel

As a guy, I play characters of both genders. It mostly depends on the idea I have in mind for the character at creation, and sometimes on the limitations I encounter when creating them.

For instance, my main, most played and most beloved character should have been a male Bosmer. Ended up female for the silliest reason : Bosmers are way too short fot me to play them as male. I mean, maybe I'm biased because I'm quite tall in real life, but even set at the tallest, male Bosmers seem to be children. Didn't want my master thief to be a kid, so I made her female.

My tanks are both male, one being a Nord and the other being an Argonian. The Nord especially had to be male, I wanted him to look like a weird mix of brawny warrior and crazy sorcerer (I mean, he's a sorcerer that uses magic to physically empower himself, that's a bit crazy right ?), and I got that mix just perfectly. But my Nightblade vampire support /healer life-stealing vampire mage is female. Because I was trying to recreate something that ressembled my Guild Wars 1 necromancer, and she was female already because I couldn't stand the half bullsh*t / half emo look the male necromancers had in Guild Wars.

So, yeah, mostly looks. Not for the sexy part of looks or anything, just because the appearance has to match the idea I have of the character.

JumpmanLane

I do what I want to do. That’s why!

xaraan

I have one female character.

Essentially it's because I name all my characters some variation of xaraan, and used Xaraana for her.

Normally I stick with guys since I am a guy, feels more natural to me, but then again, I also play all Argonians and I'm not a lizard IRL.

Xaraana is pretty cool though.

Smitch_59

My wife and I each have a mix of male and female characters. We tend to create opposite genders; that is, if she has a male orc, then I create a female orc, and vice-versa.

I remember in ESIII Morrowind, there were actually different stats for males and females of the same race.

kip_silverwolf

FakeFox wrote: »

As a heterosexual male I rather stare at female backs all day instead of male ones, thats all.

Ha! I relate to that! Only difference is I'm a heterosexual female who prefers to stare at male backsides all day

fgoron2000

I play females primarily for two reasons. First, I'd never done so in such a game, because I always played first person before this, being that I'd never played an MMO before. However, once I got here, and found out that despite my preference for first person view, it was rather necessary, play-wise, to play in third, I was suddenly looking at my characters for the first time, and I figured, what the hell. Then later on, in my guild's chat one night, we were having a similar discussion about female characters and first/third, and after I had mentioned that this was the first time as a guy, that I had played a female character, a female guildie very quickly piped up, jokingly, and said that it was because I had something to look at now, and I realized that I could't deny it.

So anyway, my first 2 characters that I created when I started playing were male, and my other 13 are females. Hey why not?

nameless420

This dam bourse again? Leave the poor guy allone !

srfrogg23

I used to play female characters before I got married because I prefer to look at women over men.

I started playing male characters after I got married because my wife kept giving me crap about it, lol. "What? Got the hots for cartoons now?"

Well, yeah, maybe a little... but I dont tell her that

TaliColdwater

I'm female, and I play female characters 99% of the time. However, I'll play a male every now and then just because.

Emmagoldman

max_only wrote: »

Emmagoldman wrote: »

In the last mmo I played, fallen earth, creating a tiny female character shrunk the hit box. So every pvper played a female toon to remain competitive. After playing for five years, playing a female became a norm for me

I really wanted to like that game

It was an awesome game before being abandoned. They have a new company that picked them up and are transferring the game to a new engine. I will for sure try it out when it re launches