As a female gamer, I went through a phase of being irritated that there were no female characters to play. With the Final Fantasy games, and their male heros, I invariably renamed the characters to a female name to better identify with them. But somewhere along the line, I grew not to care. Gameplay and story became more important.

When I was introduced to the MMORPG world, I ran into several cases of female toons with male players. Curiousity got the better of me and I asked them why they played a female character. I got responses from "Seemed like a good idea," "I just always do," "You seen her? She's hot!" and the ever popular "If I'm going to watch the backside of a character for hours on end, I'd rather look at something good."

Granted, there were also those guys that prefer to make a version of themselves, just as there are those girls that have the same reaction as the guys who want to look at eyecandy. But the female playing a male seems to be a much much smaller segment than the reverse.

Most females (and this is a general statement based solely on personal experience) want to be their character to some degress and have an emotional attachment to them. The guys that also play male characters seem to also have more of an emotional attachment to their character than those that play females.

Of course, those statements go out the window when talking about games like Final Fantasy XI, where to have some of the best stats for some of the classes, you are limited to either an asexual being not unlike a gorilla in looks or a cute little catgirl. I know several guys who took the catgirl over any other choices based purely on the stats they have as a race. And each of them, when asked, said they would start over as a male Mithra if that race choice was ever allowed.

I'd be interested myself to see if emotional attachment to a character had any influence on character sex choice, as well as the whole "women play women while men play everything" perception. Here's hoping someone is willing to do the study. :)

Posted by: Nightravyn on March 16, 2005 10:36 AM

As a male gamer, I have no problem playing as a female character. In fact, when I was younger, I got adjusted to only playing as female characters in fighting games simply because I liked the speed over strength ideal that was often attributed to those of the fairer sex.

I like to think back to the Roberta Williams (a great female game designer, and a great game designer period) King's Quest games in which the lead roles sometimes alternated between male and female characters, with no loss of emotional attachment by me, the male gamer.

Speaking of which, whatever happened to Roberta Williams?

Posted by: Mike on March 16, 2005 10:57 AM

I enjoy being a girl and have played girl characters online, in irc and other forums. It allows me to say things that would not sound right comming from a man. And, giggle, in some formus you get much much more attention playing a girl.

Posted by: Seth Russell on March 16, 2005 01:30 PM

Is it really true that women vastly prefer to play women, while men are more fluid in their gender-identity?

I think if the latter half of this is true in video games, it'd be very ironic... considering society's stronghold on the male identity, you know, having to be manly at all times, showing womanly characteristics is a bad deal.

Posted by: June on March 16, 2005 07:07 PM

As a guy I always play male characters in MMOs. I've always heard the "I'd rather stare at a woman's ass for the hours I'm playing the game." But I never really 'got it.' In games like Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, The Sims 2, and actaully any game with character modification, I always make the avatar as close to my real self as possible. I've noticed that actually puts me in a bit of a minority in itself as people always say "Hey, that guy even has the same shirt as- Wait, you made you? Why?!"

"I dunno. I'm just me." I don't know what that means, if anything, but most people find it oddly interesting.

Maybe being something you're not ties into "doing things you can't do in real life," which is why many people play video games.

Posted by: Jeffool on March 17, 2005 03:46 AM

I am a girl gamer, an actor, and a player of tabletop RPGs. And something I've found over the years is that which gender I choose (when the option is there) is entirely dependent on my whim at the time. I have a fairly powerful masculine side, and even though it has shrunk over the past couple of years I still find that I enjoy exploring both the feminine and masculine sides of my personality.

Posted by: Crowbeak on March 17, 2005 06:32 AM

As a man, I try to play as a woman and as someone who is not white as often as possible simply because they are rather rare and I also like to see if the character was added as an afterthought or if the makers took into account that playing as a woman or someone that wasn't white might change things in the game. In Star Trek Elite Force, for example, if you chose the female character a female character you rescue ends up flirting with you. I would be surprized if they intended to imply a homosexual relationship in the game. Or other games which just take white player models and paint them brown without changing the facial features.

Posted by: jccalhoun on March 17, 2005 07:40 AM

Don't forget that some male players/characters go out of their way to aid female characters, be it with treasure, cash, or jumping into a battle that's gone bad. Some male players will play female characters to benefit from such attentions.

Posted by: Jason on March 17, 2005 11:27 AM

As a girl gamer, if i have the chance to play a character that looks like me, i take it. My KOTR I and II gals are as similar to me as i can make them, i make Sims like me, all that kinda thing. I also like games where the primary character is female, a la the terrible (read: wonderful!) PN 03, and i would be more inclined to play them - but playing as a male character doesnt stop me. I play as Link. I play as the Prince of Persia. I love FF of any letter. When i played Tales of Symphonia, the lead character is male, but i would always switch so my sprite running around the screen was the Ninja chick. I forget her name. whatever. You get the point :)
However, for KOTR, i wouldnt play as a male if i had the option, where some guys play as females.

Posted by: Girl_from_Mars on March 17, 2005 01:22 PM

In MMORPGs I like to experiment with a bunch of different character types so I end up playing male and female characters. I generally get treated nicer as a girl character, but as a male I usually end up investing more time as male characters in an online environment. Which is not to say the male characters look like me because I always find myself having more fun as a monsterous race then a more human-looking one. I have a couple other friends that play WoW with me, both male, that only play female characters. One purely for the hotness factor, but the other just likes being a girl I guess.
He also usually plays a female character in D&D, whereas with a heavy roleplaying game I'm only interested in playing as a male.

In single player action-adventure games I choose guy if given the option, but have no problem if the character is a girl, like in Beyond Good and Evil.

Posted by: nullpixels on March 18, 2005 02:58 PM

given the opportunity, i will always choose the female character to play. there is a simple reason for this: in most games, the camera perspective is behind the character. if i'm really going to spend 20-40 hours of my life watching a character's ass as he's moving around, that character's ass will belong to a she. plain and simple.

Posted by: plumage on March 21, 2005 12:08 PM

It's not just a tale that many guys who play fem characters do it because they like looking at the girl animations. They'll say that it doesn't make a diff, or that they do so because they have open minds, but there's quite a few out there who are thinking with a different part than their brain.

I'm female, and try to play females (or mixed parties) if there's a choice. Sometimes I'll do a game twice, once female and once mail, just to see if there are plot twists that depend on character gender. But I don't avoid fem-free games. Perhaps I should...

Posted by: rotangus on March 22, 2005 01:34 PM

Granted I don't have much diversity in the games that I've played over time, but there is definitly a theme: Through the Mortal Combats, the Tekkens, and all the other fighting games I chose a female player. When I was younger it was a fault, I wouldn't play them because they were better, but because as a Girl I wasnted to beat the boys while playing a Girl. I was effective. With the onset of MMoRPgs and Diablo type games, I made the female chars as much like me as possible, once again probably to identify with them and show that "The female chars are cool too." Now that I play World of Warcraft, I've noticed male characters hitting on my char, and when I ask them "How do you know I'm not a guy?" they respond with "Doesn't matter, I'm playing in character!" I've watched males in female toons hit on Male toons! Presumeably not all these males-in-femmes are gay, but simply enjoy the freedom they get from playing the female chars? Maybe its not that deep, maybe they do just want a nice toon to look at lol.

Posted by: WeyrCat on March 23, 2005 07:05 PM

I (male) always play female charaters, it started out as a habit in online deathmatch games like unreal tournament. Simply because the female characters had smaller frames, less to shoot at and it suited my play style.

These days I just feel more comfortable playing a female character, male characters just don't feel right.

I don't buy the characters ass excuse, I have spent hours of my life following lara around and got quite sick of the sight of her angular backside, might as well have been looking at spongebob.

Posted by: NinjaFoo on March 28, 2005 05:02 AM

I am somewhat in line with NinjaFoo and a few of the other guys that posted here, I (male) have played as girls for as long as I've been gaming, having started out because small and quick characters suit my fighting style, and then continuing because now it is completley part of my gaming experience. I now play as a girl for Morrowind and many other RPG's that offer the choice. I find this a much more rewarding gaming experience because when playing as a girl I try to think in different patterns than I usually would. But I think some people game to play themeselves in another world whereas I view gaming as a completely fictional experience, and just as I enjoy reading fiction where I do not identify with the main character, I also enjoy gaming that allows me to think outside my usual perspective. As for the 'looking at a girls ass' comments, well again I agree with NinjaFoo, I can't think of a game that as good enough graphics for it to really make a big difference yet. As a side note, my favourite game character of all time, Samus, is certainly my perfect game character, a great individual girl that isn't there for eye candy. And no one plays Metroid for her 'hot ass.'

Posted by: Asriel on March 28, 2005 07:48 PM

I'm a male and also play as female characters alot of times, except in MMORPGs games. (I just find it kind of deceiving to play as a character that isn't of my own gender. I'm weird like that.)

Final Fantasy VI, for instance, is a favorite game of mine because two female characters (Terra and Celes) share the spot-light as main characters. Alot of guys claim that Locke or Edgar is the main character, but those are guys that feel that a male HAS to be the main character; a view that pisses me off.
On the other hand, I hate playing games like Tomb Raider where the main character looks like she works a strip-joint in her spare time.

The main reason I cite for this; originality. Slutty female characters and male heroes are a dime a dozen. It's a bit more interesting to play as a nice looking female character that doesn't look like she was in a porno.

The "backside" excuse and "She's hot" excuse seem awefully sexist to me... but then again, some guys really do think with only 'that' head. I can kinda understand the Mithra advantages for people playing as them. Gender specific classes/races kinda piss me off in MMORPG games, but I liked them in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (the Viera race and all their classes), mainly because you aren't stuck with just one character in that game at a time. (I didn't like the fact that Viera was the only race with female characters, though. They must be the most popular race in all of Ivalice.)

Posted by: the7k on June 2, 2006 09:10 PM