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200 comments
  • I like boob physics.

    • Fun fact: bg3 added dick physics.

      • I know! I was so impressed seeing my deep gnomes penis jangling about during dialogue scenes. Thank god you can remove your party’s’ clothes.

  • I don't relate with masculine characters at all. No idea why as I don't identify as a woman. I have very little association or ownership of my gender.

    Also character creators traditionally don't have a ton of options beyond the binary. Hair, pronoun options tend to be most of the extent.

    Also feminine bodies tend to be more interesting. More curves and interesting shapes while a lot of masculine bodies are rendered as blocky.

  • Pretty shallow and lame reason: I vastly prefer staring at a woman's ass all day over a man's. I'm already a man 24/7 of the day, might as well mix it up.

    That, or if I have to follow the internet I don't realize I'm trans?

  • Preface: the things I'll mention have, for the most part, improved a lot in more recent games.

    I default to women nowadays in almost every game I play. A lot of it is because back when I was a kid male characters were basically hulking hairy ogres with your choices of hairstyles being short, spiked punk and bald. For example: one of my favorite games from my youth is KOTOR, and the male faces are incredibly forgetful. It's all white guy, white guy with a scar, white blond guy and so on. And that doesn't appeal to me in anyway. On the other hand women got many different options for hairstyles and faces that were cute, which is something I like to be able to be in games. Granted there are a ton of games where the women were just eye candy, and yet that was still more interesting than generic white guy #555.

    There's something very appealing to me in being able to be a cute girl that still kicks ass in the same way as any buff guy in that world.

  • I don't go deep into role play stuff. My character is a character, not me. In games where it's "pick a man or a woman" only I'll tend to pick women because the voice actors are often better and you can better "play barbie" with character customization, plus of course the cliche reason.

    With games that allow full customization I'll often make androgynous/non-binary characters with various dials at either extreme trying to break the character builder.

  • I basically coin flip. In games like Mass Effect, I'll play a male character and then years later play a female character -- just to encounter new conversation trees.

    In D&D or something like that, it is somewhat harder, due to pronoun hell at the table (I sympathize with anyone having to deal with this on a larger scale -- it's insane on a small scale, and I can barely imagine being trans and having to deal with that...)

    • I play in 2 games and run 1. As a player I play both characters who share my gender and one that doesn't. At the table I run there's a guy who plays a woman, and used to be another.

      It's never caused issues or confusion. So for anyone interested in playing like this, feel free to do so! For pronouns I've also found success in referring to characters instead of players with names unless explicitly talking to the player, but that's easier as a GM.

  • Why not?

    As far as I can remember, that's been the reason. All the characters I'd played as (Lara Croft and Aloy excluded) were male. Why not a girl?

    So really, it's just been for the novelty.

  • Mostly I choose gender based on how good they look. If males look brutish and carrot-y (no offense to Carrot Ironfounderdsson) or soldier-like, I choose female. If women look like drawn by Rob Liefeld, I choose men.

    Though I do have a preference to a ginger short-haired woman (elf if fantasy) if I can't decide on what I want to make.

  • I'm not attracted to masculine characters. You want me to care what a dude looks like? You're barking up the wrong tree. And if I wanted to look at myself, I'd look in a mirror

    My avatar is not me... If I'm going to watch a character for a couple dozen hours, it's going to be someone I find attractive. Hell, if I'm going to spend more than 5 minutes on a character creation screen, it's going to be a woman, because it's hard to get invested in a male character for me

  • I was once handed a princess to use as a playable character in my first text-based chat roleplaying game with 3-5 other people of girls and boys.
    It quickly grew on me and I started using girls more often as my playing character from then on.

    I won't deny that looking at them could be generally nicer, but I believe it's not the main reason. At least when it comes to text roleplaying, I like to (try) think and behave like a lady in games, to roleplay in their world of view. It's neat in its own way and I love the immersion when it hits me!

  • I've rarely considered it beyond functionality. I'll play a female in a fighting game if I like how the character plays. If the choice is purely aesthetic, I generally just choose whatever the default is. In Dark Souls III, I played a female because I thought I could make a beautiful character (and I think I did)

  • I like girls. I like how they look, I like the way they sound, I LOVE their fashion options. It isn't really any deeper than that. That said, I'll usually always play a male character in a Souls title, because [insert valid reason for inconsistency here.]

    EDIT: I guess if I had to further expand on this, I'd say that female characters give me a way to explore options I don't have as a tall, bearded, broad, 'built' man. I've always loved cuteness, hyperfeminine fashion, "girly stuff", and so in addition to just really, really liking girls, video games allow me to explore the cute, feminine avenues I can't in the real world.

    Also, as another commenter stated, I'd also just rather look at a girl's ass than a guy's for the entirety of a playthrough lmao

    • explore the cute, feminine avenues I can't in the real world.

      You can explore whatever you want in the real world, people believe in you. 💃

    • That said, I'll usually always play a male character in a Souls title, because [insert valid reason for inconsistency here.]

      I often do this when I want the character to mesh with the build. If I'm playing a character with a great shield and giant hammer, I'll want a big beefy character that is often easier to create in game as a male body. And when I play a quick assassin, I often pick female. It's like the opposite of how anime weapons work.

      FYI: as someone I think would like incongruent in girl mode, I went as Dr Frankenfurter (creation scene, was cold) for Halloween this year and went all out: full makeup, fishnets, shaved legs, 4" platform heels, etc. It was very fun and could be a good entry into what you might want to do. Also: you can always dress up at home just for yourself.

  • Because men in games are usually rough tough emotionless bricks. Designed to be "badass". Playing Cyberpunk as a woman felt kinda freeing and different. Since then I've been doing it more and honestly it just feels fresh. It's also easier to feel like I'm playing someone else. Women also usually have more interesting customization options imo.

  • (gonna answer this question in the past before i came out)

    because i was in the closet and it was euphoric to try out new personalities online without letting anyone else know (looking in your direction WoW)

  • I don't always play female characters, but I can think of a few reasons:

    • With rare exceptions I just prefer how the female characters look, be it prettier or cuter, they usually have way better character customization than the male counterparts.
    • Female clothing and equipment in games also just look more stylish and flamboyant, especially in Japanese ones.
    • And honestly I just like playing as someone different from me, if I can't choose to be an alien or whatever, then the next best thing is a woman.
  • It's been a progression:

    First I didn't care, just made male characters because I'm male, put about zero thought in it.

    Then someone told me "If I'm going to spend hundreds of hours staring at an avatar's butt, I'd rather it be something I like". I still made male characters, because I wasn't staring at their butt.

    I got into healing roles over time, and most healers tended to be female, so I picked female characters.

    Then I saw how male players would fawn around female characters... and I found it funny to make the most fragile looking female character, with some awesome DPS power, so people would try to PvP duel me and get pummeled into the ground.

    Finally, I stopped caring at all. My Overwatch "main" was Mercy, with Torb and Moira as close seconds... but the most fun I've ever had, was being a hamster (Hammond).

  • Easier to character create someone who you have more specific preferences over. Can't really get as invested in how aesthetically pleasing my generic human bloke is, but I play more male non-human races.

  • I played Mass Effect as female Shepard because i heard the voice acting was better. Generally for RPGs I play as “myself” though.

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