Why do most guys like playing as girls?

This may or may not apply to you but from what I read in most articles, most guy seen enjoy playing as girls because they seem have more freedom wtih their personalities. I myself admit that I find that I could create more personalities with girl characters than with guys as the stereotype surrounding guys is that they need to be stoic or emotionless badasses. I am not sure if this is the number one reason but what do you think of this phenomenon?

I will be the first to say Oh god not this discussion again

Following up: Third-Person Seductress is the main reason why I do this.

^Again?

Have something pretty to look at while you're kicking ass?

I don't think I've seen it on this site exactly, but for every game that allows this possibility and every gaming site...this probably has been discussed prior.

edited 18th Aug '11 9:18:38 PM by VutherA

I have seen discussions like these before... They don't usually end well.

I don't think that most people roleplay nearly that much in video games. Frankly, most of my female characters end up stoic badasses because most games don't give much dialog to created characters. And the ones that do give dialog tend to have the exact same choices as the male version, with maybe a few differences regarding who you can attempt to seduce.

Personally I do it because female stoic badasses are more aesthetically pleasing to me than male stoic badasses. No more and no less.

edited 18th Aug '11 9:20:23 PM by Clarste

The two best answers I've heard

1) A drive to protect the main character. If he's a guy, the player sees no need to take care of them, and has them run around getting killed and doing stupid stuff. A girl, though, invokes an urge to protect, so they play the game better. Sexist, admittedly.

And the classic answer, which I half-expect will be ninja'd by the time I post it...

2) If I'm going to be staring at an ass for hours of gameplay, it might as well be a shapely female ass.

Most guys I've seen prefer to play as males. But, eyecandy

For me. Its a roleplaying thing. You have any idea how little outside my art or theatre classes or art and theatre friends I'm allowed to show I have any sort of emotions while living in the midwest?

Roleplaying females lets me have an outlet for the side of me that LIKES "girly" things.

edited 18th Aug '11 9:22:44 PM by Midgetsnowman

I only like playing a girl if I feel that the character I've created works better as a woman.

I heard this one in one MMO I used to play:

• The male char of that class looks way too feminine, so might as well make a female one.

edited 18th Aug '11 9:25:50 PM by Narmer

For the same reason why I like playing guys, they are each their own character with unique back stories and motivations. Yes, I'm a bit of role player. That being said, I usually have a 50% split gender-wise for the characters I make.

edited 18th Aug '11 9:25:46 PM by Ramus

I actually do tend to play male characters (I'm a guy), although I have played female ones too. I've heard a number of reasons, from preferring to have a character you can oogle (as several people have stated in the time it took me to type this post), to the reason you stated.

However, the one explanation I think is the most logical is that as guys, they have to repress their emotions because they are supposed to act like guys. So when they go online and create female characters, they have the freedom to act without those restraints. Which is dumb, but I didn't make social norms what they are. (As Midgetsnowman just said.)

On a side note, this theory makes the webcomic Cheer! (a Gender Bender comic) bizarrely prescient about the whole thing. You might want to Archive Binge it, OP, to get a feel for what I'm talking about.

Most guys don't like playing as girls. Only about 18% of people played as FemShep and male characters outnumber female characters by a lot◊ in MMO games. There's a reason why "Generic white male space marine/knight/army soldier" is the go-to character model that gets plastered onto so many game covers.

I play female characters myself when i get the chance for a lot of reasons. Partly because i'm forced into a male role whenever i don't get the chance as stated above, partly because i like to make them sexy, partly because it just feels right.

The vast majority of male players playing female characters online don't pretend to be girls. This seems to be a common misconception. They know their avatar is a girl, but if you ask them they likely won't lie.

I play both, anyway. I like to make use of the assets the developers created!

edited 18th Aug '11 9:30:36 PM by VutherA

I do because I can. I have no reason not to. I just do one or the other on a whim.

Well, if I have to choose between mister testosterone or a level headed female/feminine character, I'd choose the female character over the boring, already used before manry stereotype. That's why I choose Zoey over Francis in Left 4 Dead until Coach came along, and why Bridget and Platinum are cooler to me than Ky and Ragna. It's also a reason that most of my male characters tend to be mistaken for girls.

I never said they pretended to be female, only that by playing with female characters did they feel unrestrained. (Don't ask, I don't claim to understand how it works either.)

I play both if there's enough of difference between the two to avoid Purely Aesthetic Gender.

Persona 3 Portable is a great example.

Do they? That seems unlikely to me. Most people I know who use female characters also have male characters. It seems to be something decided on a whim.

Whenever something looks like a whim, that's when I get skeptical. Usually because it means that the person in question isn't even aware of their own thought processes (which makes it admittedly harder to tell why they do anything).

T&A

Flashy Battle Ball Gown coupled with flashy moves and flashy panty shots...