Do you play the same gender as you? And why?

ZOS_ConnorG · February 2021

Greetings all,

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zvavi · February 2021

What if I have a balance of female and male characters :thinks:

Zorgon_The_Revenged · February 2021

Both, with more male than female. My three nightblades are female, one of my three templars are female and one of my two DK's are female (I have 16 characters. I have a second account with 8 characters, with enough females with classes to make about a 50/50 split).

One of my main reasons to choose between genders in games is if I like their voice acting/accents. Then it usually comes down to if they have British or American and how natural they are, with a dislike for strong, fake and over acted American.

aurorable · February 2021

Same gender

When given the option to choose I prefer to make chars the same gender as myself, but I did make a few male chars as jokes.

StarOfElyon · February 2021

Different gender

Athan1 wrote: »

Do you typically play characters of the same gender as you? And why?

I don't know why exactly.

RDMyers65b14_ESO · February 2021

Same gender

I always play my own gender because I am still a RPer at heart (although I spend most of my time in Cyrodiil pvping.). Why? Because the male mind is completely mysterious and foreign to me. It is nothing wrong with it, just is alien.

tomofhyrule · February 2021

I only have one real character right now and he's a guy, but I do have others in planning and they're not all the same.

I guess in RPGs, I tend to play as myself... or rather an idealized version of myself... and then I let the character develop from there. I really like getting into character as much as possible so a lot of times it's just easier to start from a base that I know and then seeing where it goes. Sometimes the story can really build in stuff I'd never have expected to start with, and that's fun when I can relate to a character who's different because I got to see them develop. That's why my ESO characters start with a personality similar to mine, but the others I have in planning are more and more different than me.

...though I guess it does raise questions about 'my idealized self' since my main is an Orc...

Shantu · February 2021

Same gender

Characters are like little fantasy versions of myself. Since I'm male, all my characters are male. It just never occurred to me, nor have I a desire, to play as a female.

Lady_Sleepless · February 2021

Different gender

I play both, but the majority of my characters are male.

JKorr · February 2021

Athan1 wrote: »

Do you typically play characters of the same gender as you? And why?

Both.

For a long time gamers really didn't have a choice. That paddle in PONG wasn't exactly open to interpretation as a character. Atari had a lot of 8 pixel sprites, a lot of them not humanoid, so you get the red tank, or the blue tank. Frogger was not exactly gendered. When you did get a human type, the default was usually male. So if there is a choice, yes, I'll make female characters; usually related in some way to my pen and paper D&D characters from the past.

FantasticFreddie · February 2021

Same gender

2 male characters and 15 female.
It's just more comfortable to me.

SilverBride · February 2021

Same gender

I only play females. I have created male characters before but I never really get into it and end up deleting them. It is interesting though how different I'm treated when I'm on a male character.

In every game I've played I always end up with one male friend who only plays female characters. I can understand having some of each, but why never play your own gender?

[Edit to remove inappropriate content]

Syldras · February 2021

Zodiarkslayer wrote: »

I play only girls. I have ever since I started Oblivion in 2006. All males in that game looked like potatoes, whatever I did.

From what I remember, they all looked like potatoes?

Athan1 wrote: »

AvalonRanger wrote: »

"Hey!! lesson. If you find sexy looking young female
player at the MMO field, then player must be male. And...
If you find fine looking beautiful young male player, then player must be woman.
It's a common sense."

When I see a female character with fancy makeup, dresses, and poses, I assume female player.
When I see a half naked female character with sloppy outfits, I assume male player.

And what if she looks completely average, neither pretty not ugly, with normal, non-revealing clothes or armor?

Narvuntien · February 2021

Different gender

Both because I consider them their own distinct characters with backstories and they make different decisions than I would.

Starlock · February 2021

SilverBride wrote: »

I only play females. I have created male characters before but I never really get into it and end up deleting them. It is interesting though how different I'm treated when I'm on a male character.

In every game I've played I always end up with one male friend who only plays female characters. I can understand having some of each, but why never play your own gender?

For some, it's not a choice - there are no options given for inter-sexed/nonbinary.

NotaDaedraWorshipper · February 2021

Syldras wrote: »

I play both male and female characters. I just get ideas for their back stories and then create them accordingly. Some happen to be male, others female. There are no special reasons. My main is the same character I play since TES3, by the way.

Same here, except the main part of couse.

My characters are not myself, they are characters I make with their own background, personalities, and morals. Some are male, some are female. It is usually the last and least important bit of my character concept.

SilverBride · February 2021

Same gender

Starlock wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

In every game I've played I always end up with one male friend who only plays female characters. I can understand having some of each, but why never play your own gender?

For some, it's not a choice - there are no options given for inter-sexed/nonbinary.

That was not the reason for any of them.

brimstone74 · February 2021

Same gender

I play only as my own gender. I don't rp now, but I used to. I just don't have the lived experience to pull that off. I won't play games that lock gender that is not my own. Additionally I rarely play humans, but when I do I tend not to veer far from my own ancestry for similar reasons.

That being said I prefer to play fantastical races. If that race is genderless, I am content to play such a character.

Syldras · February 2021

NotaDaedraWorshipper wrote: »

Some are male, some are female. It is usually the last and least important bit of my character concept.

It's the same for me - it's one aspect, but not that important.

It probably depends on what idea people have of gender/men/women. If someone believes in stereotypes a lot, or thinks that men and women are so far apart in their way in acting and thinking, then of course a character's gender will mean a lot. For me, it doesn't. I see people as individuals, there are strong and bold women, calm and introvert men, and of course the opposite. Maybe there are tendencies shaped by social norms or whatever (I don't want to start a debate about that now), but that still doesn't mean that an individual might not be different and "untypical".

That said, if people like to play the "girly girl" or "macho man" - it's okay. It's not my business how other people play their game.

Vevvev · February 2021

Different gender

While I have characters of both genders my main is opposite from me. I just find them more pleasant to look at for hours on end, especially since this is a third person game due to how combat works.

Vlad9425 · February 2021

Mostly females because when playing for hours it’s just better to have something nice to look at! I do have a couple of male characters as well though.

Eedat · February 2021

Half and half.

ImmortalElf13 · February 2021

Both. I have pretty girls and pretty boys, manly men and buffed babes. Why limit yourself when there are so many choices?

(Also, ZOS, I could use more character slots.)

Wing · February 2021

Different gender

honestly in games it comes down to animations, some games have terrible male or female animations and others are great.

and no im not exclusively talking about watching a butt wiggle around on screen, but often times the male animations or terrible lumbering oafs who lack coordination and grace, i think FF14 had the best male animations imho, but eastern culture tends to like males being pretty as well.

SilverBride · February 2021

Same gender

Vlad9425 wrote: »

Mostly females because when playing for hours it’s just better to have something nice to look at! I do have a couple of male characters as well though.

I find men nice to look at, but I'm not going to make a male character to stare at while I'm playing. My character is my identity in game, not a prototype of what I like.

newtinmpls · February 2021

Massacre_Wurm wrote: »

Both. Because i never identify myself with my character.

I would say "both" as well, but this is because I do identify myself with the character and my "self" (or soul if you will) doesn't have a gender.

Oh in the physical world I'm wearing one and like it and all that; but part of immersion in the character for me is that it "feels different" to play as different genders and I like that experience.

Iccotak wrote: »

(to be clear I am talking about Biological Sex NOT Gender Identity, which is a discussion I’m not getting into)

Thanks...I did want to avoid that discussion as well since we are on a game board.

Edited: to clarify

Slyclone · February 2021

Different gender

I would not answer this question in 2001. But 2021... sure. I've been playing female characters for 20 years.

I like to be the third person, directing these beautiful heroes to do as I wish. And have them look good doing it.

I am probably a female stuck in a man's body.

I prefer it that way.

amm7sb14_ESO · February 2021

Same gender

Yes, because I am not a woman, and my characters are an extension / representation of myself in the game world.

SeaGtGruff · February 2021

Same gender

I've always played characters who are the same gender as I am, both in ESO and in TES games in general. But my current Arena character is the opposite gender from me, not by conscious choice but by using an online "random picker" tool to randomly choose everything about that character-- class, race, gender, name, even appearance. The result has been a lot of fun, and now I'm thinking of using the same technique to create all of my future characters in TES games, including ESO.

Kiralyn2000 · February 2021

Different gender

My character is not me, or a representation of me. I am an outside observer, moving a very fancy game piece around on a very fancy board. I'm a straight guy, I like girls. So, when given the opportunity by a game, I will make a female character, generally attractive.
(I also like kick-butt "Action Girl" type heroes - I enjoyed watching Xena, Buffy, Alias, etc. And reading fantasy & sci-fi novels with successful/competent female protagonists. Books by Anne McCaffery, Mercedes Lackey, and similar authors.)

edit: thinking back, in games with detailed character creators, I've never tried to make "me". I also never identified with heroes in movies/books/TV - like, after seeing the Indiana Jones movies as a kid, I thought "it'd be cool to be an Archaeolgist", not "it'd be cool to be Indiana Jones" I never pictured myself in stories. I wonder if this has any correlation to the fact that I don't care about this "immersion" thing.

Athan1 wrote: »

[
When I see a female character with fancy makeup, dresses, and poses, I assume female player.
When I see a half naked female character with sloppy outfits, I assume male player.

What about my half-naked female character with fancy makeup & well-designed outfits?