Do you play as a man or woman given the choice?

[Sheffield Wednesday]

Any time I can make my own character, I play as a young woman.

Igavania got called out for saying that male players can relate to female characters (i.e. in Bloodstained) more emotionally because they want to look after them as well as fundamentally shag them. Despite the criticism, I see what he's saying, and it's basically a very minor subversion of a man character 'saving' a woman or 'winning' a woman as a prize for killing baddies, etc. The minor difference is that the player becomes that male character, in a way.

That's not the case for me, though. I just want to know what it feels like to kill demons as a young woman on an extremely superficial level. It's way more interesting for me to play as a woman. I want to know how NPCs react to my character as a woman, albeit dialogue and AI scripts in games are mostly total shit and very superficial. I don't have a problem with that. I've sat through enough of that as a male character.

A good recent example of a much better female character is Kassandra in AC Odyssey. Not only was the voice/mo-cap actor well better than the bloke, but playing as a woman brought a different vibe to it that I enjoyed. It's not just with fully voiced and scripted stuff, though. I recently restarted Demon's Souls via Japanese PS Now and I didn't hesitate to create a female character.

I'm not going to set up a separate poll but I'd also be interested to know which race or skin tone you normally choose.

[Bazooka]

I always give my characters white hair if allowed.

[Pink Gregory]

I usually go for a lady, mainly because the visual options always seem more interesting with hairstyles, clothing, animations, voice etc

In the case of choosing a male or female written protagonist I've yet to find something where the male character doesn't have a heavy stink of 'default' about them (mainly Mass Effect talking here)

[madhair60]

I usually pick a woman because of the small chance that the character's arse gives me a lob on, thanks for reading

[Thursday]

I also play as a female character, because I think it's more interesting because I'm progressive/I like designing sexy women for myself to control and stare at.

[Barry Admin]

Woman 99% of the time. Less of a default experience in the old days, plus idiots rage when a "woman" kills them. I had decades of playing big hulking dudes and I'm 6 foot 6 anyway so that doesn't make for much escapism.

[Sin Agog]

I don't play MMORPGs that much, but when I have played them as a woman in the past, I wasn't all that big a fan of how often guys would click on your character, circle around her a few a times, then declare that they'd just sexed you.

[Cerys]

Whatever appeals at the time.  I've created tiny waiflike, palefaced females, huge muscled bald black men, sharp-faced oiks, buxom trollops, ragged female barbarians, dodgy male sorcerors and wiry brown guys who wear only a loincloth.  And that's just the humans.

[Bazooka]

My main in the Fallout games is always a giant women with max pale luminous skin and a fucked up face that is built for melee only, it just looks better blowing people up with a snooker cue that way.

[Replies From View]

EURGH!  GIRLS SMELL!

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

I played through Fallouts 3 and New Vegas twice each, always as a bloke. My character in Bloodborne was also a man. I'm not sure what that says about my acceptance of the patriarchy, but I didn't put a great deal of thought into any of their appearances.

On the other hand, I'm more egalitarian with preset character choices. I've always played Dishonored 2 as Emily (it makes more narrative sense, for one thing). I choose fighting game characters based on which special moves I prefer (which is why I never choose Zangief).

I certainly don't get all whiny about games that "force" me to play as a woman. I started watching a review of Dishonored: Death of the Outsider once. Within about ten seconds, the reviewer was getting all manbaby about the main character being a black bisexual woman. I turned off the video and deleted it from my YouTube history, because he was clearly a wanker.

[Sin Agog]

I played through Fallouts 3 and New Vegas twice each, always as a bloke. My character in Bloodborne was also a man. I'm not sure what that says about my acceptance of the patriarchy, but I didn't put a great deal of thought into any of their appearances.

To be fair to Bloodborne, you don't simply play as a man, you play as Jonathan Pryce.  No matter what options you set in the character maker, you will end up looking like Jonathan Pryce.

[ImmaculateClump]

Man, I feel like a woman du du dur dur du du. Let's go girls!

I think I started picking the lasses in tekken just to rub people up the wrong way. We were all at that age where the lads were going out of their way to prove their masculinity at any given opportunity, so it fair fucked them off when somebody actively chose to be a girly girl and smash their freshly descended testicles into paste with a sharp stiletto heel, match after match after god damn match.

It must have just stuck because I do it all the time now and dress up like a princess in secret and dance around to spice girls records.

It must have gotten around school because I remember this big beefy lad coming up to me one day and going "here, do you play as the lasses in the tekken?"
and I went "yeah"
there was a short silence and he walked off, taking his little rat henchmen with him. It was a weird moment. I think he was expecting me to say no and it threw him off script. He didn't even grunt or do a condescending laugh or anything, just turned around and pissed off.

[Mister Six]

I usually pick a woman because of the small chance that the character's arse gives me a lob on, thanks for reading

Also opportunities to lez up with sexy NPCs.

[Pearly-Dewdrops Drops]

When I would play as a fit woman back in the original World of Warcraft other nerds would constantly go out of their way to be nice to me, give me free stuff, etc.

Sort of sad actually now that I think about it...

[Spiteface]

I think I started picking the lasses in tekken just to rub people up the wrong way.

I bet you main Lucky Chloe in Tekken 7. It's the only explanation anyone would.

[ImmaculateClump]

Haha, just looked her up.
Tekken 2 was as far as I got, haven't really played fighting games since.
Nina Williams all the way!

[ImmaculateClump]

Bit of a dilemma playing Gunfire Reborn at the minute since you can play as a cat or a dog.
I'd much rather play as a slinky cat but the fat sweaty dog is better, especially if you're playing alone since he can dual wield and you can get some nice damage type synergies going from the different weapons.

Will the results of this poll be that helpful? We're mostly wet little nerdy soyboy cuck lefty whining libtard Walter-softy, Jon Ronson types on here, aren't we? We're more are less walking fannies to begin with.
Is anyone a member of a dudebrah xbox forum? If we conflate the two results then that might make the poll more realistic.

[rack and peanut]

I'm waiting for the Aliens MMO, so I can play as an Arcturian

[popcorn]

I always pick a woman because women are cooler.

[Marner and Me]

When I would play as a fit woman back in the original World of Warcraft other nerds would constantly go out of their way to be nice to me, give me free stuff, etc.

Sort of sad actually now that I think about it...

Proper incel behaviour that is.

[Rizla]

In GTA I'm an unpleasant looking badly dressed man, much like in real life.

Back in the day though, playing the first ever game to offer the option, I liked being the girl.

[Sheffield Wednesday]

Will the results of this poll be that helpful? We're mostly wet little nerdy soyboy cuck lefty whining libtard Walter-softy, Jon Ronson types on here, aren't we? We're more are less walking fannies to begin with.
Is anyone a member of a dudebrah xbox forum? If we conflate the two results then that might make the poll more realistic.

My uncle was a chef in the army which pretty much makes me the forum hard man.

My GOTY 2020 is Groove Coaster Wai Wai Party!!!

[Jerzy Bondov]

Usually I pick the girl and I like to dress her up nice. My wife catches me and lays into me for playing 'Barbies' but I don't care. If there aren't many options for dressing up nice then I'm not fussed.

In Dark Souls I play as a girl but in Bloodborne I preferred a tweedy looking man. Just made more sense to me. Depends on the game I suppose.

[Zetetic]

I started watching a review of Dishonored: Death of the Outsider once. Within about ten seconds, the reviewer was getting all manbaby about the main character being a black bisexual woman.

Disabled as well, depending on various things - the only actual example of this combination in media that I can readily bring to mind. She doesn't go on much about these things, even (to the point where we don't really have much of a sense of what 'black' or 'bisexual' means in Dishonored, if anything much). A far more interesting protagonist than in any of the other games as well.

[Ferris]

Usually a mix, picking more or less at random based on who looks more interesting. If it's a boring look bloke I go for a lass and vice versa, on the basis that it typically doesn't have much impact on gameplay either way so it's just a decision I make at the character creation screen then basically forget about.

My lady Khajiit character is my current fave skyrim playthrough though. Hard as fucking nails mate.

[bgmnts]

I usually just play myself if given the chance to customise a character. I like the idea of the hero in a epic, fantastical quest being really plain and short and fat.

I'll sometimes play as a woman if I feel like it or if its canonical.

But yeah, team Khajiit all the way.

[Cloud]

Interesting question, I've always chosen "myself", i.e. a white male.  Just never really thought about it. It's also a very interesting point about how even if you think you're subverting the old "male hero rescuing the female" trope you might just be "becoming" the male hero character yourself.  Hadn't really thought of any of it like that.
Tempted to mix it up next time the chance arises!
I consider my Animal Crossing character to be non-binary, but they seem to kind of encourage that anyway with all the neutral pronouns and ability to dress and look however you feel like at the time.

[Wonderful Butternut]

Mixed. What I go for depends on the customisation options. On Star Trek Online I wanted a cat-person when I started so I made one and just defaulted to male. Later I wanted an Orion who was female, followed by using the customisable alien option to make Piccolo from DBZ (male). I'm up to a 4:2 ratio of male to female on characters I actually use.

APB:Reloaded[nb]Do not play this game ever. It's terrible. I have a thing for bad games.[/nb] what is now my main character is female (although she's actually the third I crated). I started her as a clone of Motoko Kusanagi, but deviated from that later.

[Cloud]

I know a lot of MMO players who've said over the years that they pick their gender based on how people tend to fawn over female characters.  Female if they want a lot of freebies and such, male if they want to avoid the constant harassment side of things