Do you play as same or opposite gender?

[Blue Lemma]

I started playing some games like Mass Effect 2 and Fallout 3, and I ran into a big dilemma! Do I play as a male character, or do I play as a female character?

I'm male (despite the adorable avatar ) and into girls, so I like to see attractive female characters in the game, which leads me to choose female (behind avatar view! Never first-person!)
But, if I choose female, that limits my romantic options and skews them to being more male (bleh!)
I ended up choosing male for ME2 and female for F3.

What do you play as, and why?

[LVUER]

When I play games where I could choose gender, I usually play females. The reason? Simple, female protagonist is cuter than the male one ^_^

But there are certain conditions when choosing :
1. If there is no romance, then I choose female.
2. If there's only one "get-able" character, then I choose female.
3. If there's multiple "get-able" character, then I choose male, since I want to get those cute females ^_^
4. If there's multiple "get-able" character, but my female character could get another female character (yuri), then I choose female (hint: Summon Night, hehehe).

Please note that if there's different plot (even the slightest), then I'll play both female and male character (obviously, female first). Examples where male and female character have different plot are Rockman ZX, Threads of Fate, Summon Night: Swordcraft Story series.

[jack_norton]

Depends on the character, if the female is more interesting, I play as her. Especially if I read that there's some lesbian theme

[Aleema]

I play as my gender whenever I'm given the option because I am so often not. I've only ever played a male character when given 2 options because I exhausted the other avatars and wanted to try something novel. I never finished the game, though. I've never played as a man so that I could simulate BxB, not considering if I could even if I wanted to.

[Alex]

When playing RPG, I choose female character, 'cause usually it has the greater basic values of "dexterity" and "magic" stats...))

[Deji]

When I'm able to choose, I pick female and if I can name her, I name her Deji most of the time xD;
I understand the guys picking up female characters because they're pretty, all my male friends and my boyfriend do that. It's extremely annoying on MMOs, though DX Looking at a pretty female character and knowing there is a bearded hairy guy behind it... ugh, not nice. I don't let my boyfriend have female characters to play with me; I threaten him with creating a male character if he does that and he drops the idea immediately C:

I'd never pick a male if I had to choose, unless I really disliked the available female(s) for some reason.

[chensterrain]

I pretty much always pick the female character, unless the game forces me to be a healer or something while the male character is a melee fighter (though luckily, I've only come across one or two games like this). Getting to play as a female character in JRPGs and the like is pretty rare, so I take my chances where I can get 'em! I generally don't particularly mind either way, though.

[DaFool]

I always play as a little girl.

There's no way you can force me to stare at a man's ass all day long.

[Jo'ogn]

In "Alone in the Dark 4" I choose to play Eileen, simply because playing 'Gumby' (spelling?) is just outright boring. In "Deus Ex IW" I played both the female and the male Alex D. I could find only one difference, that one guy in a bar turned gay on the male Alex D. X-D In interactive text roleplays I like to play females, because it's more believable that they act cutely and overly emotional o_o Basically I prefer to play female protagonists, because the males rarely represent the way I'd do things o_0 The other reason is:. I am male all day long, so playing chicks is kinda fun ^_^

[Pyonkotchi]

I really don't care what gender I play as, Unless its a romance game, because usually the gender doesn't really affect the play through in most games.

I always play as my own gender whenever given the option though. which is female. Because I like to name the character after myself anyways.

if there are multiple save slots, (and romance!), I'll usually pick male for my second slot, since I'll want to play with the cute girls too. of coarse, if there's a gay option I'll just play as the girl.

[Sapphi]

Usually I'll play as a girl since I am a girl (and it's usually more fun to look at a girl character running around than your average-joe male character) but if I like the male design better I'll pick that.

For instance, in Pokemon Crystal and all the games after, I've picked the girl character because it's cuter/more fun to look at. However, after seeing the designs for Black and White, I had trouble deciding what I'd play as because I really liked the boy character's design. (Of course, I'll probably end up playing as a girl simply because all my other pokemon-playing friends are male and I like to be different... lol)

[LVUER]

I always play as a little girl.

There's no way you can force me to stare at a man's ass all day long.

Couldn't be more agree with you. That's one of the reason I played as female character too ^_^

When I'm able to choose, I pick female and if I can name her, I name her Deji most of the time xD;
I understand the guys picking up female characters because they're pretty, all my male friends and my boyfriend do that. It's extremely annoying on MMOs, though DX Looking at a pretty female character and knowing there is a bearded hairy guy behind it... ugh, not nice. I don't let my boyfriend have female characters to play with me; I threaten him with creating a male character if he does that and he drops the idea immediately C:

I'd never pick a male if I had to choose, unless I really disliked the available female(s) for some reason.

When playing a MMORPG, a general rule is the user real gender is the opposite of the avatar gender. I don't know why your BF don't want you to use male character... is it that bad?

[Robert Kirkland]

I only choose a male if what I want to play is gender locked.

But the magician is almost never male so yay.

[Blue Lemma]

I don't let my boyfriend have female characters to play with me; I threaten him with creating a male character if he does that and he drops the idea immediately C:

That's pretty funny

If there's multiple "get-able" character, but my female character could get another female character (yuri), then I choose female (hint: Summon Night, hehehe).

Pratty x Sugar = yay!

Maybe some games should let you do gender-reassignment in the options? Especially if they're really long?

[LVUER]

But if gender choice have some impact in storyline, it could mess the game quite a bit if you change the gender midway.