Do you play as both genders?

• Firstly yes we just had this discussion on the old forum, but I was literally thinking the day before this forum was announced that it would be nice to have a poll to summarise the answers.

• Secondly the poll is anonymous so no one will know which option you picked - but of course you're welcome to put as much or as little info into your posts as you wish.

• Thirdly I tried to be as comprehensive and inclusive as possible when only allowed 10 poll options. I'm sorry if I've missed anyone or anyone resents being grouped under 'other/prefer not to say'. Again feel free to leave a more detailed reply.

• Fourthly and most importantly I don't think there's any right or wrong answers to this question and I'm not looking to persuade anyone, I'm just fascinated by all the different ways people approach making and playing a character in a game.

As for me I'm female and make both male and female characters. My first/main character is usually female, but that's because she's usually the same character I make in all western RPGs (which is a weird idea I know - yes I have to change the race, class, skills and to some extent appearance between games and yes I still consider her to be the same character in spite of that).

But after that it's pretty much 50/50. When I make a character I usually have a starting point - e.g. I want a charr or I want an engineer or I want to pick these biography choices - and then I 'match' everything else to that by imagining what sort of person that would be. Some characters I see as female, some as male, some could go either way and I pick whichever is more interesting or I have the least of at that point.

There's definitely elements of myself in all my characters, but I don't see them as representations of me. They're more like characters in a book or a story - there's a person shaped hole in the plot and I make a person to fill it and then play through what I think that kind of person would do in that situation.

Although I have mostly asura females out of my 16 character slots, I do have a few male characters that I bring out to play.

Great poll!

I generally only play female characters. I've made the odd male character, usually charr, for demo characters I'll play for an hour max, but long term characters in any mmo or rpg are female as I see them as an extension of me/my personality, rather than a character I've created for story/rp purposes.

I have a majority of Charr dudes, but I have at least one of every race/sex combination.

Always used both.

I try to go for a 50/50 split just to keep things balanced.

I'm a male and I just prefer to look at female rear. All my characters are female charr and........oh........wait a second.....WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME !

You missed to add options for "I am female/male and mostly play males/females". :)

I selected "I'm female and only play males", because I have only three female characters out of twelve and rarely play them. Mostly for aesthetic reasons, I prefer male characters (more natural body postures, better movement animations, nicer armor sets, etc.).

I play chars of both gender. The gender itself is no descission point for me. The total package must fit. Charsounds, later on the amorchoices in terms of look and fitting into my characterconcept.

I am male and play primarily male characters. It is an immersion thing for me. I do have a few female toons and have fun playing them when I do.

I think the bottom line is having fun. It doesn't matter what gender of toon you play or what gender you are as long as you are having a good time in game!

@Celldrax.2849 said:Always used both.

I try to go for a 50/50 split just to keep things balanced.

That's what I try to do as well, except then it gets over-ruled by other considerations. For example in GW2 at the moment I have 5 females and 4 males because I made a 2nd female sylvari as a random temporary character then liked her so much I brought her back permanently, and I don't have a human male because I find them a bit dull compared to all the other options.

Although I'm contemplating a 10th character and they're going to be either a human male or a charr female because those are the ones I'm 'missing'.

@Ashantara.8731 said:You missed to add options for "I am female/male and mostly play males/females". :)

I selected "I'm female and only play males", because I have only three female characters out of twelve and rarely play them. Mostly for aesthetic reasons, I prefer male characters (more natural body postures, better movement animations, nicer armor sets, etc.).

Yeah, that's the trouble with only having 10 options. I could easily have made a whole survey from this topic (and then made charts of the survey results)...but that might be over-kill for most people.

On the plus side it invites discussion by giving people an incentive to clarify their answer instead of just voting and then leaving.

More specifically, I play both sexes.

Male and play both. My main is a female asura thief, though I try to keep the balance between the sexes equal. :)

So this discussion again, huh, as I got it, the popular responses were

-I don't see why your character defines you. E.g. I don't immerse-I don't see how anyone wants to play other genders. E.g. I over-immerse-I really don't care about my characters genders. Just do whatever you like.-I base the gender of the character on what looks good in the race/class combination. Human Female Warrior Meta YEEAA

All in all, there are no right or wrong answers to this dilemma, and really, my opinion is just, do as you please.

I'm female and chose the "both" option but I mostly play female. However I have 3 males that I made, two of which I play (one was turned into a mule because I got bored with his profession) because I thought of a name or a look that was best suited for a male char. So I guess it's aesthetics that's the main reason I mostly play females. To me, male Humans/Sylvari run in an immersion breaking, straight backed and rigid manner and medium armor on males is teribad.

.

Be careful what you ask for. ANet might give it to you.

I play male and female characters of each of the races - I like hearing the different emotes, seeing different armors, etc.

@Ayakaru.6583 said:So this discussion again, huh, as I got it, the popular responses were

-I don't see why your character defines you-I don't see how anyone wants to play other genders-I really don't care about my characters genders-I base the gender of the character on what looks good in the race/class combination.

All in all, there are no right or wrong answers to this dilemma, and really, my opinion is just, do as you please.

That's probably a good summary of the main reasons. (Although you missed 'I play males because I think people would treat me differently/badly if I played a female character.)

But I find the details interesting too. For example the people who don't try to make themselves but also tend to stick to one gender because it fits the type of character they want to make. I've also met people who have their own rules - for example always make female casters but male rogues - and sometimes they don't even fully understand why, just that it's what makes sense to them.

(Also sometimes these discussions give me new ideas on how to go about making characters and I've recently resorted to just hitting 'Create - Skip to End' and then playing whatever I'm given so I'm open to ideas.)

I don't identify with my characters, so I'm not bothered about gender. I just go with what looks nice.

I rarely make 'myself' into a game. I make up characters. In that regard, I make both male and female characters.

I am female and mostly play female. Aesthetic reasons. The only immersion I do is giving each a personality and story. In most games, I'm less fond of the male faces and clothing options than I am female, so if I were to make more guys, it'd be for story purposes. Unless I just simply can't make the sliders work in my favor.

I'm male and play females, but have plenty of characters that are both genders. I've got 19 females and 13 males, total count at 32 characters. Still growing.

I wanted every class and try out many different armor combinations, so I went for as many variations as possible

I usually make a main that is male, and have both male and female Alts, however in some games this is not the case, such as BDO where I have only a female character, or GTA Online where I only have a male character. It really depends on what I think is most appropriate for me at the time. If I pick a male it's mostly for immersion's sake, as I am male, so I mostly pick males in videogames that are set in this universe. If I pick a female it's because that's what I feel fitted best for that character, and I more commonly make that decision in more fantasy video games.

I don't fancy alts unless they offer some sort of a benefit for my main character like in some other MMOs that alts are a nessesity for money making and such.Only got 5 character slots and I don't use 2 of them at all. I usually make one character and dedicate all my time to it and it kinda has to be an extention of myself, something that would mirror my personality as much as possible. My main is a male human mesmer though admitidly I am a huge fan of the Asura, if I could turn him into an Asura now I would do it.Only female character I have is a hot chick that I use as a packmule for mats - a slave.

So, only males for me.