First did it in Kotor because the female PC had much more fun conversation choices with Bastilla(namely she’d be a catty bitch towards you and it was hilarious.)

Then in Elder Scrolls Oblivion because if you wanted to look good, all of the best looking clothing and armor was for CBBE body.

Mass Effect 1-3 because the female PC had better lines and better inflection on the sarcastic lines.

World of Warcraft as a blood elf because when I tried it for shits n giggles I made 25 gold in the first hour of play from people just throwing gold and items at me for no reason.

No one has said this one yet:

I play a mix and generally want to create a distance between me and the character. I’m not thinking “what would I do?” I’m thinking “what would this person do?”

Having said that, if I pick a girl I won’t pick a heterosexual romance option. Romance in games is strange.

Sometimes.

Most of the time, I just make myself and I’m a guy. But in games where I am constantly making characters, like Elden Ring or something, I just slap the random button a bunch and whatever it gives me I accept.

Well… Fallout 2 I am always a woman because it makes dealing with the slaver leader a helluva lot easier.

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).

My favorite reason is seeing women in roles not explicitly written for women. Either it helps me reframe what women can be (reframing being a great reason to read stories anyway) or it points out how hilariously coded those roles are.

My second favorite reason is about playing something I am not, and examining how that changes my outlook and decisions. It’s the same reason I want to play as a robot, or an alien, or a golem, or a dwarf, or whatever else.

Lastly, but maybe most poignantly, is women tend to have more varied depictions than men. There are far too many depictions of men that are brutish, boisterous, and warlike, which I am extremely not, and usually don’t have any want to play as. Games that give you a character creator are way better in this respect, and I’m much closer to 50/50 male/female characters in those.

I don’t mind what sex my character is, my character is not me and I don’t see why I would mind what sex my character is. Like, especially in a video game, the scenario is usually quite fantastic and nothing that my character does (e.g. acrobatics, shooting, running for more than 18 seconds without collapsing out of breath, etc.) gives me a sense that they are a version of me. My character should be random or whatever the writers thought would be most appropriate for the themes or story or whatever.

(I did not watch the linked video)

In games that have gender based perks, like Agent of Dibella in Skyrim or LadyKiller/Black Widow in the Fallout games tend to be stronger for female characters because more of the NPC’s are male. This is more adding another reason than claiming that it’s the main reason. I don’t exclusively play either male or female but typically when I play a female character it’s because I’m building a character that is less physically aggressive. I know this is playing into stereotypes but sword and board tends to be male while stealth archer tends to be female.

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

They’re trans and just don’t know it yet. There may seem like there other reasons, but that’s just the denial speaking.

I play male characters…

I like boob physics.

Depends on the game. Generally, I go with a male character that is somewhat like myself in appearance. The main reasons that I play a female character given the option are:

• There is some difference in the game or story based on gender (ex. Games like CP2077, though, generally not in my first playthrough. Or, the voice talents of Jennifer Hale in Mass Effect.)
• The male character was bodged in, unnecessarily (ex. AC: Odyssey, which wasn’t even supposed to have a male lead until a sexist Ubisoft exec forced it - the dialog i, just awful)
• Sometimes, it is just being a bit thirsty.

I don’t always, but when I do it’s mostly to do with character customisation. If I’m playing a game where my character is constantly visible I’d rather it was something I wanted to look at, and male clothing is boring. OK, some games don’t restrict clothes but many do. So I tend to create a character which is a female version of me, except in the cases where I prefer a male character (which isn’t often if I have the choice!)

I don’t know if that makes sense, but to me it depends on how “canon” they look.

Usually the games that give you the m/f character choice will put more effort in one version of the character over the other, with the “non canon” one looking like they were forced to put them in there.

“Canon” version are also often featured in official arts and commercials.

Examples of who I picked in games following this line of reasoning:

Male Robin - FE Awakening, Female Corrin - FE Fates, Male Byleth - FE 3 houses, Female Shez - FE 3 hopes, Aether - Genshin, Stelle - Honkai star rail, Kassandra - AC Odissey

But again, this is very much a “how I feel on the spot” thing, no hard preferences in general.

Because Jennifer Hale delivered a better performance than Mark Meer as Commander Shepard