Gaming

Not only a different gender, but a different race. Fuck playing some asshole that's a jacked version of me. That's boring. I can at least change things up a bit and play a jacked version of someone else who is very different to me.

You lost me at "to the point of skipping a game"

It's 1 thing to prefer, it's another to obsess over it.

I play female because their character model/hitbox is smaller most of the time.

I play exclusively female characters, and also go for the F/F romance when possible. I think it started with fighting games, because female characters were usually faster, and some shooters actually have smaller hitboxes for female models, so there are are actual advantages. But yeah, I'm mostly with you, to the point where my GF laughs at my characters always looking like me with boobs. We're playing through Elden Ring together now, and I'm playing a (F) dex spellblade and she is making a (M) tank with a bonking stick.

I play female characters because their customization options are much more diverse and they have a lot more styles to choose from. From their hair all the way down to their shoes. Male characters, I find, don't have as much options. Now, don't get me wrong on what I'm about to say, people can wear what they wanna wear and that's cool with me, but if I'm playing a muscle ripped dude with pecs registered as weapons a skirt doesn't really fit him. Plus, if it's a 3rd person game, I'd rather be looking at a female butt than a male butt.

I opt to play as a female character sometimes. A quote from the article perfectly summed it up for me: "If I have to stare at a butt all day, I would rather it be a female butt".

I'm personally pretty indifferent. If I'm given the option I'll usually choose male but if the characters are gender locked like diablo 2 I just pick what looks fun to play

I dunno, I've always made whatever struck me as cool in the moment. No real pattern to it other than wanting the character to look cool on screen while I'm making it. If it turns out later that something in game makes it not look cool, I might not make the same choice on a new character, but it's still about having something neat to run around on the screen with.

Like, playing Neverwinter back a few years ago, I had one of every class, and between three accounts, some duplicates of a class in different races. I spent a ton of time on that game while I was recovering from a chain of health issues lol.

Anyway, the rogue class was always fun to play, but male dragonborn looked goofy as fuck in higher level armor for that class, so my main rogue was a female dragonborn. My paladin was male human because cheese. But when I was setting the character up, I would just flip back and forth until I was happy with what it looked like.

But, that even applied in table top games in a way. I'd pick sex based on the cool factor rather than playing what I am.

If I'm going to play an MMO watching someone's ass run from point A to B for 40 hours a week, it's damn sure gonna be a woman's ass.

That title makes it sound so much like they only care about women's character development now because they only just realized some men like to play as women lol. I know that's probably not what they were going for but goddamn

I like playing things that are not me.

Me playing female characters is the same reason why you will never see me play a human if I can get the option to be literally anything else.

I’m a cis bi guy. I always play male characters ‘cos it’s kinda like a self insert thing I guess. If the game has romance options I’ll just go with whoever seems the most fitting for the plot haha. Except in WoW I had a few female troll alts because screw those hunchback male troll models..

Personally it's because I like the range of outfits better when I create a female character. Like a dude maybe has trousers, jacket and a shirt but a woman has those and a skirt and a blouse and a dress. I like having more options. I'm also not sure if I'm completely cis or not as I'm now starting to question some things.

I just pick the one that makes sense in the story

An aspect that I haven't seen mentioned explicitly is that female characters for the longest time were just easier to pick out in a 3rd person view.

They have a different silhouette, often more flamboyant garb (to stick out among the male dominated aesthetic), and sometimes even different animations making them easier to pick out in a group fight.

Also, I have fewer stereotypes of females in medieval or sci-fi settings, which makes it slightly easier for me to explore both the world and different roles in ways I might have missed playing a stereotypical male.

Regarding MMOs in particular:

I’ll play male characters when the female model is more sexual than I’m comfortable with, always. The first that comes to mind is WoW where the male models had a lot more ‘character’ to me. If I’m playing an Orc or Worgen I don’t want to look like a green/fury generic female body that has a straight back so you can see the ‘goods’. For EQ I had a mix of Male/Female alts, but did tend towards Male.

I also tend to like the way male armor is modeled over boob-plate.

Single player narrative games will depend on if romance is an option as I’ll tend to play female, otherwise it’ll be a toss-up with consideration to my prior points.

Over the years I’ve found it easier to hide behind a male avatar/username as I’ve gotten some rough interactions over the years and will only join voice if I feel like the people I’m text chatting with are chill. Tried joining a guild recently and got more ‘onlyfans’ jokes than I was comfortable with, and I’m sure someone will say that’s my fault for being irked by it, but that’s why I take these steps.

@needthosepylons I mean I always play khajit in skyrim, doesn't make me a furry.

Depends if the game refers to the character as "you" or "them". Used to always make female characters since they're nicer to look at, up until games started actually taking that into consideration.

Nothing quite like being called a girl to reassure you that you're not an egg :P

edit: and of course if the game doesn't offer options I don't care.

I really don't care. I'm fine playing genderless shapes (and if PacMan didn't have "man" in his name nobody would even know he was a he) if the game is fun. Even when finishing the first Metroid back when I was a kid and discovering Samus was a woman didn't really blow my mind like it did for so many others.

The only time I care is when it actually matters in the game. Such as Fallout 2 and being able to skip fighting the Slavers to rescue Vic but only as a woman, or older FPS games where the smaller frame of a female model came with a smaller hitbox, or even Demon's Souls where male and females have different armor sets so my gender changes with my build.

Lady Dwarf. If there is an option for it, always lady dwarf.

Started with world of Warcraft, I just wanted the least played character type, so Cindie the lady dwarf warrior was born. She lives on in any game where it’s an option.

I used to always prefer to play male characters and if there was character customization/creation, I would almost always try to create myself in the game.

Now that's all flipped. I load up old Dark Souls saves and see a derpy version of myself and just cringe a little. I typically only create female characters anymore, but they often just look better and have more interesting hair styles, etc.

If I have to stare at a butt all day, I would rather it be a female butt.

I mean, yeah, this is basically the reason for me, without the horny part. I don't experience immersion in third-person games, and I don't have a strong sense of identity, so I might as well have a character bobbing up and down on screen that I enjoy looking at.