Man.... or woman?

[vonuber]

So I've been playing Mass Effect 1/2/3 and being halfway through 2 (cracking game btw) it suddenly struck me:

Commander (Jennifer) Shepard, also likes collecting fish and model ships:


And looking back a few other games where I had a choice..

Saints Row 3:


Skyrim:


I notice that whenever I have a choice I always go for a female character (Mount and Blade, Oblivion, Guild Wars..). Not sure why, maybe it's because the thought of playing generic chiselled jaw gravelly hero #546 doesn't appeal.
Anyone else do this? Or do you strictly stick to your own gender (or chose male if you are female)? Am I a deviant?

[Cotty]

In Skyrim I have a mix of genders. Male Ork as a tank, female nord archer as an example.

I couldn't see a female wearing full heavy armour and wielding a mace wading into full on hand to hand contact. Likewise I couldn't see an ork messing about with arrows and sneaking about.

Funny though my male has a male follower and my female a female follower.

Edited by Cotty on Monday 18th November 20:45

[Durzel]

Freud would have a field day...

But seriously, sometimes it can be as simple as preferring to see a female model running in front of the camera than a male one.

I've said too much.

[Mr E]

I hadn't considered it, but usually male.

I did have a female (biotic) shepherd, but she didn't make it past the first game; I found run and gun to be much more my style.

Rpg's tend to be mages and female, although skyrim was a male Mage.

I've never even considered playing a female character in fallout. I know not why.

[MattyB_]

vonuber said:

So I've been playing Mass Effect 1/2/3 and being halfway through 2 (cracking game btw) it suddenly struck me:

Commander (Jennifer) Shepard, also likes collecting fish and model ships:

You have the benefit of having Jennifer Hale as the voice artist too, much better than Mark Meer.

I generally play male characters, mainly because one of the core parts of games is immersion, and I do find myself a bit distanced from the choices when I'm trying make choices when playing a female character. I don't mind in games like Tomb Raider, but deeper games like Mass Effect, Baldurs Gate and its ilk, I have to roll a male character.

[vonuber]

MattyB_ said:

You have the benefit of having Jennifer Hale as the voice artist too, much better than Mark Meer.

Yes, so I have heard reading around. Thing is the thought of playing as another generic space hero was distinctly unappealing so I never gave it a go.
I just find it more interesting to play as a female character (even if for the game it makes no difference whatsoever and it is just a skin).

[1OS]

I used to play World of Warcraft in my teens and had a mix, mainly male characters. Skyrim is the same, for the role I suppose. I use males for all the manly smash the bd with an axe type of characters and female for stealth/magical types. Most of the time it's male though.