I'm an adventurer. I don't have time for a partner, let alone marriage.
Meaningless six...yes. And my character doesn't care if it's from a male or female.

I never understood the point of marriage in games like this...but whatever.

I like the idea of playing a female character more than actually playing a female character. Much for the same reasons as Dragonbone. I just kind of start to feel uncomfortable when doing a heavy role-play with a female.

Sure. Out of the three female characters I've played so far one married Erik the Slayer, one married Argis the Bulwark and one, a bisixual, married Muiri. Chances are good my next character will not marry at all (she will be starting her game very anti-social), but if she does it will most likely be to a male NPC. Who my characters marry, or if they choose to marry at all, is up to them.

I play mostly female characters in these types of games because mods can make them very pleasant to look at, but Morrowind started me on this habit because a female had more Endurance starting the game than a male.
If you judge me by my avatar, you are correct - I am a lisbian trapped in a mans body

I play male, as I'm a male. My girlfriend plays female, as she's female. The game doesn't seem to change anything at all by playing a different gender, besides the conversation... IE him-her, he-she. So there's really no change in story-line or anything to be gleaned about male or female perceptions from it. Seems to be all about aesthetics to me.

Haha, I know what you're talking about. It would just feel wrong. Same thing in real life, I have no problems whatsoever seeing my girlfriend make out with a girl, but a guy?! That's the kind of stuff that makes you plant axes in people's skulls.

As marriage is in Skyrim right now, I don't really see the point in marrying at all, since there bascially isn't any point to it other than just doing it. And since I'm no fan of doing something just for the sake of doing it, I will pass on marrying as long as it doesn't really have any impact on the game wether I'm married or not.
Having a steady follower (female, of course) feels enough like marriage to me. And those I can swap whenever I want, which is convenient.

That's so strange. It's alright for a woman to hit on your sister?

I usually play one alternate gender character, just to hear the differences in dialogue, etc. For instance Ulfberth's greeting to you is different if you play a male vs a female. But usually just the one; I tend to keep forgetting that I made an alt gender character and then when the forced third person shots happen it's like 'wait, what? I'm a guy?'

Sure. Although, I don't have a sister. If I did it wouldn't bother me as much. I have a brother and...nevermind...

I tend to play male characters, mostly because in real life, especially in the past, warriors were mostly male, so I find male warriors to be more plausible. Also, I don't really get into over-sixualized female characters, in video games and in movies. I play video games for the gameplay and watch movies for the plot and characters, and filling said characters with obilgitory yet pointless eye-candy does not do it any favors. If I wanted to see hot women, I'd go visit, uh, websites for that...

Yeeeeee, that pretty much sums it up for me too. Just prefer looking at a chick.

I don't make female characters for specific reasons, it is just the gender I happen to pick sometimes.

To each his own, but any time I see a screenshot of someone who's playing a female dressed in skimpy clothes it sort of creeps me out. The XXX mods creep me out even more.

I've never seriously played as a female character. I usually like to make my RPG characters have some aspects of my RL self (but not exactly the same - more or less good, evil, crazy, warrior/magically inclined, etc.) and I try to immerse myself in my character and I've just never felt inclined to make a female char.

I've always wondered what the dynamic for males playing female characters was, but figured it was some variety of demographics of either transgender exploration/curiosity or guys wanted to oggle female backsides while playing (or at least have something pretty to look at). Most of the male gamers who were straight played male characters with a few exceptions and all the women gamers I've know have played female characters when the option was available. I've only known a couple of guys who ever played female characters (more promiscuously than a woman would normally play them) and I figured they were either gay (don't mean in a negative way) or they were straight and just got off on making the female chars do crazy stuff. The latter one is probably more likely.

Then I noticed about the time I started played some MMORPGs like Everquest (a looooong time ago) or watching people play WoW, it seemed like alot of guys started playing female characters for some reason. I made fun of it at first, and then started to accept it, but never really understood why they did it, especially since some guys who play girl chars in MMOs take offense to being treated or referred to as female. It kinda turned me off of role playing in MMOs because someone would flirt with a female character as an 'in character' thing and someone would sometimes say something like "dude, you do realize I'm a guy?" And so, another great RPG romance is shattered. I know the demographics are probably alot different for a single-player RPG.

Anyway, It's been interesting reading all the perspectives on this and surprising that most people have been able to discuss it civilly without alot of immature arguments. It has given me a little better of an understanding.

I'd guess that a big part of it is that many people who play RPGs, don't actually "role play" all that much. Or maybe I'm just projecting from the people I know.

/sign

I like to look at females, so I play female characters most of the time. I also kind of got used to making a female character as my first one (named Lac/Lacus) and a male one as my second.

Also if I want to roleplay I call a few friends and start a DnD 3.5 round.

Judging from all the character pictures in the show your character threads, people put a lot more effort into perfecting the apperance of their female characters than the male ones...and use a lot more mods...and they are generally much more stereotypically attractive (young, slender, strongly defined eyes and lips, lush skin tone etc.) , you don't see many butch females...

I think that's true for a great number of players that play MMO's like WoW but I'm talking about people playing a game like Age of Conan or LotRO in an RP Guild or RP guild-sponsored event where the expectation is that people will be role playing. And I'm not talking about "advlt-oriented" RP, either, just regular, conventional role play (meaning not-cybering, etc.). It's just I always find it suprising in games like that when a guy resents being treated as a female when he is playing one so they usually try to be all butch and bad-arsed. I think it comes down to an insecurity thing. You also see the ones that go all super-sloot, if you get my meaning. I have to question some people's motives sometimes, but I guess it adds variety to the RP.

At least in TES games, people can play it however they want without having to worry about what other players are going to do. But sometimes you wish the AI was better or you miss the 'human element.'

Depending on the game between 2/4 and 4/6 of my characters are female, with the exception of Mass Effect where all my characters have been female because of the voice actor.

But in Skyrim and Fallout, where gender is irrelevant to gameplay I play females because:

- I can
- Mod outfits
- I feel less morally restricted when rolling a female character. My males can't live without heavy RPing.
- I can
- They're pretty (hopefully).

I like playing with female characters, and as for the rp part, it suits more with the agent of Dibella thing.

And as said before, better looking (and thats without skimpy armour)

For RPing purposes. I find playing as a phsyical represenatation of myself in fantasy games uncreative (it's ok in sci-fi games though, I don't know why) so I prefer creating or modifying characters I've seen elsewhere and giving them histories, etc. and sometimes the character will end up being female just because it seems fit to do so.

Also they are hot with current generation graphic cards.

honestly i prefer looking at a hotvixen in leather straps for a few hours then at some hairy dude , even if they are just pixels

nothing abnormal here knowing that the majority of us are male
that is why i have several female characters , they just look so much nicer than their male counterparts in skyrim

I use Skyrim as more of a poor man's artistic outlet than I do a video game. The characters I make are almost always specifically for the sake of screenshots, and since I like women, they tend to be just that. If I were a painter or photographer, I'd obviously choose to work with a female model over some dude any day.

On Xbox, the version of skyrim I actually *play* though, my main characters are a male Nord warrior, male orc mage (because I can), and a female Nord thief.

Important thing to note though, is that when I play a game, I dont see the character as "me", or an extension of myself, and I don't try to identify with the character. I actually find that idea weirder than someone playing the game as the opposite gender.

It's a really good question and something I've thought about recently. Like The Dragon Slayer, I like the idea of playing as a female character but when it comes down to it I always pick male in the end.

I've often wondered what it's like for female gamers to have to play as males all the time. I asked an ex this question once and she just said that she was used to it, which I guess is understandable. Girls have rarely ever had the choice.

I think when offered a choice I would feel weird picking a female character, especially in role play games. In games when I haven't really had much choice - Tom Raider, RE5, L4D, Bayonetta, Mirror's Edge, and certain classes in Diablo - it's not bothered me in the slightest to play as a female, so I assume that's how most girl gamers feel about having to play as male characters in the majority of other games.

I guess the difference is that in a game like Skyrim you are kind of creating a character that is in some ways a reflection or an abstract version yourself; perhaps of how you look or what skills you have, or what you fantasise about being like or being able to do. So in that sense, picking a character of the opposite six would sort of feel odd and would suggest that that is how you either see yourself or would want to be! Whereas in games where you don't have a choice you are playing as someone else, as another personality and character, which in some ways is much more of a 'role play' experience than what you'd get in a customisable RPG.

I am a hetero male who is currently playing a hetero female.

Sonja Axebane, who is the great great grand-daughter of my character from the oblivion crisis.

She is the second character that I created after 11-11-11, and by far the most successful.

She is a Nord who has no interest in fighting in the civil war, as she rightly thinks both sides are being extremely silly, but she still loves typical girly things like long swords and big helmets.
She has never married, but is very fond of the companion twins.
She knows she can't have one without upsetting the other, so she pefers to remain platonic with them both.
She actually has a huge crush on Skor, especially with the way he comes back and calls her his welp even after the end of questline. It is a little confusing though...