I am a male and around 3/5 of my can-choose-six RPG characters are female.

There is no real reason for it. I do not fantasize about being a woman nor I dress my female characters with skimpy clothing (they use the same armor my males use).

It's 95% eye candy and 5% "because I can". Gender is irrelevant in Skyrim anyway, though I do note that my first Fallout 2 character was female because in Fallout 1 I noticed that females get nice shortcuts once a while.

I do note that, however, when I make RP-heavy characters they tend to be males. That much I subconsciously prefer males.

Yeah that I still don't understand. The whole point of rping is, at least to me, to take on the role of someone that you're not. Do you and the other people that can't RP as a female also limit yourself strictly to humans? It should be easier to RP a human female than it would be to RP an Argonian, Trandoshan, or other completely alien species of either gender that doesn't have ~3.5 billion examples walking around on Earth.

So what character one chooses to play reflects their intelligence? This is a game. It's what people do with their free time. It's not a sensitivity training seminar.

I play mostly female characters, and it's not boring at all. Each one has something different to her. I find rp'ing a male less fun because it's less relatable to me, it takes a little more work to see that character as my avatar. I'll still usually play a male character in an RPG that has any replay value- I played a male in Oblivion and one in Dragon Age Origins- for the different story perspective. It's enjoyable in its own way, just not as much as playing a female lead.

I don't play beast races, no. Find them creepy. Elves are different, they are basically humans with a few different features and some different cultural traits.

I've noticed this too....

Even though I can generally put myself into the mind of my female characters... my own personal sixual orientation always finds it's way in there... resulting in either single or lisbian female chars. Part of this has to do with the fact that every character is of some part, me. Different aspects of my persona, often exaggerated more than my real of course to separate the different avatars personas. Part that I just don't wanna hookup with some dude. Part that lisbianism is just bloody well hawt and any (straight) man who says otherwise is lying through his teeth.

My male characters always hookup with a woman ofc....

I've been playing female characters (not exclusively) since Oblivion and things are no different in Skyrim. She's a Staunch supporter of the Legion and Thalmor, which means that worshipping Talos is not an option...in fact she's not sure that any Gods (Daedra too) are worth her worsipping. Oh yeah, did I mention that's she's a budding Necromancer? Never has she ever toughed a blade or a Bow and Arrow, she's a pure Breton mage.

BTW: my female Charcter for the last 6 or 7 levels has been running around in Necromancers robes exclusively...not exactly bikini armor, but it's close...oh wait, not it's not.

Its funny tat half of the Breton female defaults are pudgy goth chicks. Anyway, my two female builds are two of my favorite RPs.

I don't see anything bad or feel anything strange about playing as a female, myself. But I tend to get more accomplished with male characters, because I get too caught up with how my female characters look for whatever role they're playing. The whole "If I'm gonna stare at a pixellated ass for hours..." thing is fine, until it gets to the point that you're staring at the ass instead of enjoying the game.

Awesome, I'll be all set as a lisbian in my next play through.

If only the game would stop throwing quests at me, no, I'm a battlemage, I don't want to "become a full member of the [bloody] thieves guild". (I ragequit earlier)

For the first time ever in an Elder Scrolls-game, I play as a female. A pretty high elf. I like it actually, for a change. It gives some different dialogue at certain occasions. It's just a game It's not a female character does or play different. Have to admit, that for my way of playing (basically magic + one handed weapons) it doesn't really matter. I'd never pick a female Orc if I would like to concentrate on two handed weapons. My high elf with a heavy axe, it just doesn't feel right.

I consider elves to be part of the alien species I talked about. I can say the exact same thing about the beast races, especially something like an Ohmes-raht. No matter how close in features or cultural traits an alien species is, a member of the same species but different six then you will be closer still.

Everything on Nirn is Alien. Even the "Humans".

Not really. I often find myself playing as the opposite gender, when given the option to create a character.

I don't consider them that alien, so yes I do find an elven female more relatable than a human male. It's the physical features on the beast races that creep me out. Can't play something with a tail.

I'm a woman and I play whatever gender suits me at the time. Still playing with my first Skyrim character, a female High Elf, only sorta role-playing while waiting for the Creation Kit. (I'll make and download a few mods to make Skyrim perfect and then start a serious role play.) She's not really bad, but not a goody-goody either. She's not married, although she's eyed a few orcs and wanted to cuddle some khajiits. Ah, but without some of the mods I want to make that I have in my head, I can't really get into a character. The wait is killing me, so I'm killing time by mostly doing quests and exploring. When I start over with mods the new character will probably be a guy...

_{If given a choice, i will choose female. But no i don't have a problem playing a guy.}

I tend to play about 60% female to 40% male.... but that is just the way the dice fall. I don't really care what gender my RPG characters are... and it does generally make me pick a gender, unfortunately.

Problems role playing opposite gender? Not at all. I'm female and most all my characters/avatars are male both in video games and my D&D playing. Don't lock yourself to 'girly' or 'manly' things to roleplay the opposite six. Each character male or female is pretty much what you make of them no matter the gender.

Table top stuff: Makes me cringe when a guy tries to play what he THINKS a girl is like.... tries an annoying high pitched voice and acts like a really stupid ditz. thus his 'girl' (guess he doesn't think highly of the opposite six). The only other female that played with us has since stopped, but her version of a male character was pretty much the same as the mans view of the woman. Over the top WTF stereotype in actions (also, says something about how she views the opposite six). Within these two, there was no 'character', ever. They were making fun of the other six so bad, there was no quality roleplaying.

Video Games: Both sixes seem to be more equal opportunity in what they do, especially in games like Skyrim. It really doesn't matter. It's you, looking at an avatar, picking off a list of stuff to say or do. I have always made male characters there since I don't like many of the female avatars designed obviously as pure objectified six symbols and I can't take them seriously nor do I personally care to look at them, again, I'm female. The guys in physique aren't always ideal (can't stand the big buff designs in the least), but they tend to be allowed to be more versitle in shape/design over all. I would consider a female character in Skyrim if I ever get the game on PC or want a 3rd character to play. They did a pretty good job with design balance, and it's not 'offensive' to me.