What gender are you and what gender do you usually play as in CRPGs if you get to choose?

Buttercheese

As a spin-off poll from here.
Due to the numeral restriction of possible answers, I had to cut down some possible answers (I left out "I am X and usually play as non-binary" since I don't know any CRPGs that let you play as non-binaries.)

I would love to hear your more specified thoughts on your choice of character gender and stuff

mlnevese

There just voted

BTW My wife is not in the forums but she will usually play female characters.

meagloth

If I'm honest most of my characters have probably been male, but I'd like to think I'm pretty even:)

I should do a female romance one day, that would be interesting. I tried to do anomen but it was buggy and then crevs and me combined forces and totally broke it- I gave up at spellhold.

Elrandir

My vote is completely accurate. Except, as I said in the poll this one is a spin-off of, when it comes to BG. My male to female ratio is relatively even in BG.

Edit: Oh. This poll seems to be a hidden results poll. Well then I'm a dude and I play mostly dudes.

CrevsDaak

I mostly play female, and i am male, so I am choosing that option this time

Also, you confused me about the binaries, but I am pretty sure you don't mean the same as the binary term used in informatics, right?

Buttercheese

@CrevsDaak‌:
Non-Binaries are hermaphroditic, genderfluid and agendered people. And probably a bunch of others, I really can't get behind this clusterfuck of terminology. Basically everyone who (claims) to be both male and female or neither, I guess.
All I know is that even the transgender community appears to be at odds with itself on what means what and what is and what isn't.

However, the modern etiquette of the internet demands absolute inclusion and even if I don't understand even half of it, I have to try :I

Elrandir

@Buttercheese‌ Everytime you say genderfluid, I think of @Kamigoroshi‌. I have no idea what the term means, but I think of him and his sliminess. (In the "I'm an ooze" kind of way. Not the "I'm a creep" kind of way.)

Buttercheese

@Elrandir‌:
As far as I know, genderfluid means you switch between genders as you please, basically.

But I would really like to drop the topic, because like I said, it makes little to no sense to me and I am ill equipped to explain this stuff.

Elrandir

Of course, I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable. I just found the connection my mind made with that term and Kamigoroshi to be amusing. That's all. Sorry. =\

Buttercheese

Na, it's cool, not like you could know that stuff :P

Silverstar

I find it really hard to play female characters. Probably because I'm a "bad" roleplayer (according to "proper" roleplayers) since my characters are in-game versions of myself. It becomes even harder when dealing with stuff like romances and viewpoints/dialogue that are supposedly very "female". I do like making and having female characters in my party though; I even have a couple names I recycle along with spesific appearances and classes/roles if available.

It's much less of an issue in non-RPGs but I mainly play (MMO)RPGs where your character is everything, and RTSes where character is usually non-existent.

Squire

I'm going to say "no preference", because I often do both. Some character concepts I find work better as female (and also because I'm a real sucker for the old "hot woman kicking ass" trope! ;-p ).

In online games, however, I usually stick to male, because I don't want people to mistake me for being female (guys still have a tendency to instinctively take a female avatar as being a female player despite the fact that 9 times out of 10 that isn't the case).

LordRumfish

I tend to play female characters, if I'm being honest. It started out more on the male side, began getting more even, and now if I'm being honest with myself I prefer female characters. Some characters I still roll up as male (I have a stock barbarian character who is male named Thirik the Slayer, for instance, and a male half-elven utility sorcerer named Silvantril), but the preponderance is sliding towards female so that's what I put in the poll. Some of it is probably @Squire 's observation about the "hotties kicking ass" trope, but some of it probably stems from my own mental exploration of masculinity and femininity.

I realize that's a touchy subject with some people, but I like to think we have a rather mature following on this forum so I think we can handle the topic. I mean, otherwise, what is this thread discussing? ^_~

DivineEternal1

Male that tends to play females. My first BG char was a male paladin though. His name was Arturius. In a previous life he was also a paladin from a land called Xeen.

Now I have him and two other male chars verses like ten female.

O_Bruce

Male, but often plays as females for two reason. First of all, women looks more appealing. And the second is that I like and appreciate leading female characters. Women are more than DiDs.

Awong124

Male who plays as male most of the time. The first playthrough(s) of a game will almost always be male. If the game is interesting and if there are some interesting differences for playing a female I might do a playthrough or two as female. I've played through the Mass Effect trilogy as a female for example. Also sometimes if the game requires me to create an entire party of several characters I'll usually make about half of them female just to make it more interesting, and not have a total sausage-fest.

The only game where I've only played through as female (if there is a choice) is Skyrim, because I wasn't able to find a way to make a good looking male character. Every male character I made ended up butt-ugly. I was able to make a very pretty female character that I was quite proud of (no mods).

Then, of course, there are games where you have no choice, like FFX-2 and FFXIII.

Kamigoroshi

I am male and usually have no preferences. Barring genderless tentacle masses of course.

Silverstar

Awong124 said:

because I wasn't able to find a way to make a good looking male character. Every male character I made ended up butt-ugly. I was able to make a very pretty female character that I was quite proud of

I have that problem with the Mass Effects personally. Just can't get my male character to look decent. Very happy with the female infiltrator though. Still managed to get through the series, bad looks matters less when you can plonk a cool helmet on.

Awong124

Silverstar said:

Awong124 said:

because I wasn't able to find a way to make a good looking male character. Every male character I made ended up butt-ugly. I was able to make a very pretty female character that I was quite proud of

I have that problem with the Mass Effects personally. Just can't get my male character to look decent. Very happy with the female infiltrator though. Still managed to get through the series, bad looks matters less when you can plonk a cool helmet on.

Yeah, my male Shepard looks decent. Decent enough that I'm happy with it anyway. But my female Shepard is quite attractive.

kaguana

I'm a female and playing female characters, unless I need to make a whole party I'll make some male characters, but my main will always be a female because I'm not a male and can't see myself as one :P

Dark_Ansem

Male and male, and I agree with @kaguana: if I can choose, I always male because otherwise I cannot identify\relate with a custom-created female char.

Ravenslight

I am female and if given a choice, I usually play female characters. As others have stated, it is harder for me to play in the skin of the opposite gender. Just not as much fun.

Kamigoroshi

Hum, guess I have a very rich imagination then. I never felt any difficulty when switching between male and female mindsets for roleplaying purposes.

kiwidoc

I am female and I have no problem playing male. I have never really understood people who have difficulty playing the opposite gender because " they don't understand the male (or female) point of view, and way of thinking". The problems with this idea are that ...

1/. There is no male/female point of view or way of thinking. Although there are some differences between the average traits in large populations, when it comes down to an individual any prediction on how they think and behave based solely on gender rather than on cultural upbringing, subculture and family influences is pretty much meaningless.

2/. Once you add cultural conditioning into the mix you can throw all of what you know about people out the window, and you have to pretty much make it up and play someone you have never met before. After all almost every game is set in a culture vastly different to any culture here on earth, at this time. In most cases the differences between earth cultures from differing geography/ethnicity/country or differing eras is much greater than the differences between genders in the same culture. So how much greater would the leap be to a culture in a game world.

3/. Surely it is much easier to understand how another human would react than it is to understand how a member of another species would react. I am around human males so much, they've got to be easier to play than a female from a species I've never actually encountered.

I'm not trying to say I can only play humans. I am trying to say if you can have a go at playing a dwarf or an elf, then you are perfectly capable of playing anyone of the opposite gender.

Buttercheese

It's not about not understanding the different gender.
It's about *believing* that you don't understand it.

Some stuff gets burned into your brain and the myth that gender mentalities are fundamentally different is one of them.
And it's really hard to get rid of this way of thinking if it's burned into your subconscious.

Elrandir

I don't think it's a myth, but I do think that it can be overcome to some extent. And everyone's different, of course. I'm a heterosexual male, but I'm much more feminine than lots of guys, and I think I understand women a (bit) better than most guys because of my femininity. Just one of those odd little things, I guess.

TheElf

Male the first time, female the next usually if the game was good enough to want to replay.

kaguana

Every human being have femininity and maleness it all about balance between the two and how much it show it one person, there are some females that are more like tomboy or shale I say with more manly behavior the others that are more womanly and there are in the middle, same for man there are man who act in a manly matter and there are such who act more femininity, it a lot depend on the person and how he/she grow up and genetic and a lot of factors.

As for why I don't play males characters that not because I don't understand it just because I don't feel comfortable to play one, it not natural to me to play my main as a male, but like I said in party when I have more the one char I also create male characters, but not as my main my main is always female.

Nonnahswriter

I like both, but if I'm honest, I probably play more female main characters than males these days.

Squire

kiwidoc said:

There is no male/female point of view or way of thinking...

Yes there is! Women almost always like listening to Heart FM, and I don't understand why because it's the most boring radio station ever created. ;-)

Buttercheese

I am fairly certain there are male and female characteristcs, however they are not where society puts them and there are tons of exeptions. It's basically women are more prone to X while men are more prone to Y.

A lot of it comes down to plain instinct, such the mother instinct for example. Others are based on emotions. Like, I am fairly certain that women tend to be way more emotional than men for example.

When I speak of gender-myths I mean like "girls don't play videogames" and "boys don't like cute things".
That kind of stuff.