Male v Female character, how do you decide?

With the release of Fallout 4 just around the corner I am curious how people decide whether to play as a male or female character.

For me if it's a third person game and there are romances I'd prefer a male character ie. Mass Effect 2 (the romance interests in Mass Effect 1 were instant turn offs for most straight guys, feel free to disagree). If witcher 3 let you choose I'd still play as a male character.

If the game has no romance interactions and no good looking female characters I like to create my own hot female character because seeing you are going to spend a good 50 or more hours looking at her from behind it sounds logical.

How does everyone else decide?

Obviously , male.

If you're a girl then you should go with female ...i guess.

" If the game has no romance interactions and no good looking female characters I like to create my own hot female character because seeing you are going to spend a good 50 or more hours looking at her from behind it sounds logical."

LOL

I create two characters, one male and one female on seperate saves and alternate between them.

I always pick the female when given the choice, I think gamespot did a video of that and said 30% of male players pick female in video games.

I just prefer a female heroin over a dude.

Male since I'm a male, honestly the whole males playing as females is just awkward.

I choose male because I'm male.

The only time I consider female is if the main character on the box art is female, and I think the main character should be a female (e.g if Splatoon wasn't online, I would've chose female).

Depends on the class in RPGs.

If I'm warrior I play male. If I'm rogue I play male. If I'm mage I play male.

If I'm support I play female

Peeps are more into sausages eh?

I often pick female when I've a choice, just since games without choice are like 99% male, so a change is pretty welcome.

I only do it if makes sense to me though, I know some will yell "sexism" but I just don't see women doing well in the Wasteland of Fallout, at all, so it would hurt my immersion to be one.

In a high tech or fantasy setting (such as Mass Effect or Elder Scrolls) it makes more sense to me, so I'll usually go female there.

I find romance options in games cringy at best so don't really consider them as a reason, though I naturally do try and lez out with any willing crewmates :P

I'm a guy that makes female characters.

Always female characters when there's a choice, already played as too many male characters anyway.....& even if the game has romance, don't go for the whole romance thing in game. :P

Male cause I'm a guy. Don't want to play a game from a females perspective and fake video game characters don't turn me on so I have no reason to play as female most of the time.

The same can be said about males playing male characters. If I am going to play a character for tens of hours, I at least want an appealing view with all the feminine gasps and groans and what not that come with the package.

Yep, also games like Mass Effect feel like they are made to be played as a male. If you go a female in Mass Effect you still get called Sir by your team lol.

EDIT: A poll would have been nice for this thread

@Hexagon_777: if you need to jerk off there are websites for that. You don't have to do it while playing games.

Females are better, simple as that. I always choose them.

Looking at a pixel ass for 20 hours just doesn't do it for me and half the time they aren't even nice.

I play as a male whenever I have the choice... You're supposed to be playing as if you're the character, creating a character just because you want to look at a digital ass seems weird.

In general, I play male characters, playing as a female just doesn't feel right, the last game I played a female toon was Dragon Age: Inquisition.

In online games I will never play as a female.

@Ballroompirate: word. If you want to role play as a female, cool, I get that. If you want to stare at the fake ass of awkward looking/moving chick, that's just weird

@mems_1224: Thank you for your vulgar hyperbole. It has been noted.

Ditch the PlayStation 2 and get a gaming PC. That pixel ass will look much better.

Male if I play first-person, female if third-person. Staring at female ass is more fun.

@Hexagon_777: why else would you need to stare at an ass and hear constant grunting and moaning?

Female characters are just more appealing to play as for me. It doesn't immediately mean that I am jerking off. By your logic, if you enjoy playing as ultra muscular, all male space marines with all the grunts and hoorahs that entails, there are websites for that as well if you need to jerk off. Enjoy.

@Hexagon_777: except I'm not playing as a male to be aroused by staring at his ass. In fact, I'm hardly even looking at my character when playing games. Your dumb logic doesn't fit there bud.

Shit I must have put my gtx 970, 16gb of ram and 3tb hdd in the microwave instead of my pc

What's even more awkward is if the game has romance options, it might just be me but I have no idea how to pick up dudes as a chick, I mean do I just lift up my shirt and BAM!?, do I just wear tight yoga pants that says "PINK" across my upper butt cause it might not be so obvious for guys checking out my females nice bottom even though they were probably looking at it already but hey there's some letters that say something...oh look a nice ass

To be aroused? What? Do you get aroused that quickly? You must be one of those teens walking around with a boner all the time. Simply saying that one is more appealing than the other does not equate to arousal, kid. Cut the dumb logic.

A GTX 980 running games at 2560x1440 with 16GB of RAM might improve the experience? I don't know, that's just what I use. No complaints. Don't some games have same sex relationship options? Mass Effect, for instance?

Mix it up. If the game has charachters with a set personality then I gravitate to the more likeable. For a game like fallout I will pick one sex the first playthrough, and another the next.

Female when there is a choice. For some reason, I find the voice acting is usually better.

I always play as male when given a choice. Otherwise, I have no problem with female protagonists. However I hate when ultra mega turbo sexual ultimate editions are added into the game just to make some cry babies happy.

Guys, I didn't mean for this to become an argument, can we please first agree that just because we see some woman who is very hot in a video game, one does not necessarily have a wank over her, can we agree we can appreciate the beauty of a female without the need to jack to her?!?

I personally find it a bit weird playing a female character but given that if it's a game like dark souls, you will have your character back facing you the entire 80 hours or however many you play the game for, wouldn't you prefer to look at a woman if you're a man and man if you're a woman? Since fallout is an rpg game with decisions I would probably play as a male character.

Whoever suggested this to be a poll, I don't think I can change it now but I'm more interested in the rationale of why people play as female or male.

You can think whatever you want and do whatever you want. Don't take internet too seriously.

Definitely male, if the game lets me. Easily relate-able and I like to immerse myself and "be" that char in the game's settings, thats just how I roll in games.

But I don't mind play games that have fixed gender like NOLF and such, one of my favourite best ever games are Beyond Good And Evil, The Longest Journey, Dreamfall etc. Even in games that have switchable genders like State of Decay.

Except if they overly sexualised the char just to pander to raging teen hormones. It just reeks of "LOOK HOW WE ACCURATELY MODELLED AND SCULPTURED THE FEMALE BUTT, JUST FOR YOUR EYES! DONT YOU WANT TO HAVE SEX WITH HER?!?" Its just feels like you are forced to go through the deepest sex fantasies of a starved geeky man...it feels eeeww and distracts detracts from the gameplay.

I'm a male so I will be playing as a male

LoL.

Would've said I typically choose female, but thinking about the few games I've actually made a choice...

Arcanum: Female.
Dark Souls 1+2: Female.
Fallout 1+2+3+NV: Male.
Fire Emblem Awakening: Female.
Fire Emblem Fates: Male.
Mass Effect 1+2: Male.
Mass Effect 3: Female.

...I've actually gone male a little more often than female.

It's, for a lack of a better word, discomforting having elements of a game not match with my choice. For example, having Pip in all the perk/skill icons even if you're a girl or defaulting to the clearly main male character that's on the damn cover. Feels like the game doesn't want me to be a girl. :\ Only reason I went with FemShep in ME3 is because I couldn't take ManShep seriously anymore.

Without those elements, it's purely my whim. Incidentally female much more often than male.

Male.

Male and if it's a mmo of sorts, will reroll with female char later, unless i have no choice at the start.

In case of mmorpg with HF settings :

Warriors/rogues/support : male

Mage/sorceress/healer : female.

I always choose male, primarily because I have difficulty relating to a protagonist of different gender. While relatability does not by itself determine enjoyment, I tend to enjoy things more if I can relate to the protagonist. Applies to a lot of other stuff like movies, anime, novels, etc.

I just go randomly, based on the last game I played. If I play as a male first and then decide to replay the game then I'll change gender and vice versa. Whether I play as a male or female I never see myself as the character. I play video games to go to another world, another reality, not to add myself to that reality.

Honestly saying that you play as a woman to not look at a dude ass is probably the weirdest thing ever. Have fun with your digital boner I guess.

LMFAO. People ITT are actually insecure enough with their sexuality to not pick a male char simply because you can see his pixel ass.

I was going to make a male human melee class that looked like vin diesel.

But then I realized that the game has catgirls

I like catgirls.

Depends on the voice acting...

Always female when given the choice.

In a games like fallout it is male just because I put myself in the game world. Then I play female afterward.

male , because i wanna play as myself for the first time and seriously experiencing the story, but the second time i'll try to play as female because its more fun exploring and doing funny things.

Almost always male unless I dislike how the male character looks. I play as an Inkling Girl on Splatoon and as a Dancer on Ragnarok Online when I want to play an Archer.