Ugh. This isn’t directed at you, OP. This topic seems to come up every 4-6 months or so. And you’re going to get many of the same responses as every other thread on the matter.
Like many threads, it has kind of worn out its welcome. But, I’m still going to answer the question.
I go for the “avatar” that looks the most aesthetically pleasing for the armor type I’ll be wearing. Sadly, in many cases, that excludes male characters.
Also, when it comes to single player RPGs, too many male characters seem to have a rather stereotypical personality. Female characters, at least these days, are slightly more likely to have an interesting personality.
I’ve got a male pandaren mage so I know what you mean. It was a proverbial act of congress to find a look that works for him. I did it, but it wasn’t easy!
Hi. I started rolling female characters when I was 10 or so playing Runescape. My first account got stolen (level 66 or so, was a lot to me at the time). A buddy of mine told me how people will give free stuff to girl characters, so that’s what I rerolled. Terrible reason? Absolutely. But I was 10, and the idea was immediately reinforced by some guy giving my a Rune Longsword as soon as I loaded into Lumbridge.
Obviously that’s no longer my reason because it’s scummy (and the internet is generally more wary about that kinda thing now anyway), but I’d say it’s become habit starting from back then, if nothing else.
Probably doesn’t help that WoW was my first MMO after Runescape [years later] and the male models in this game look like roid-raging apes, which I don’t find appealing. Always felt like Blizzard’s “Rule of Cool” was aimed at 12 year olds.
I’m more interested in knowing why so many female players play male characters.
I remember, for example, my old horde guild where all almost the characters on the screen were big, muscular male taurens, yet almost all the voices on vent were female.
Admittedly, I play on an RP server, but still the question bears asking.
It’s really quite simple. If I’m going to spend who knows how many hours at a time staring at my characters bum then I’m going to want to like looking at that bum.
To make people like you obsess over it. To confuse you. To make you ask why.
My question to you is… Why do you care? Why does it bother you? How does the gender of the character I made hurt you? I have always wondered, wht does it matter. Sad sad people trying to hit on others in a video game. Just… that is not why I am playing this… or any other game. Just an escape from reality for me.
I only have one female character that I’ve invested time into, and even then, she’s not my main. I mostly wanted to shake things up since I primarily play male characters, and at the time, all I RPed was dudes. I’m a guy, so I prefer having a male character as my stand-in for games I play that allow character customization.
To all the people saying they roll female characters because they’d rather be staring at the back of a pretty character though, clearly they’ve never seen a male orc in Devilsaur Leggings. Look it up in the model viewer on WoWhead, and be forever enlightened.
For me some of the various races look better in their female forms than male from both a visual and animation perspective. That at least how I have picked a new character over the years. Though at this point, I have a pretty good mix of both male and female characters.
I think for some its the annoyance of the drooling boys constantly making passes at them. I have had a few people make flirty comments toward me when I’m on my female toons. I find it creepy and I’m a guy!
This is a good point. I totally DIG how the fem human wields a shield - in an appropriate defensive posture. I also really like the female warrior archetype. Eowyn comes to mind here. Total BA, that one.
My wife plays a couple male toon’s simply because she likes how they look in that armor type or finds them more compelling for the class / spec. It’s been fun to run around with me on Fairlight and her on her male Velf Priest.
Honestly though, I just make my characters based on the theme I want them to fit. My nelf druid is male, but my night elf mage and demon hunter are females. My worgen deathknight and dark iron shaman are male, but my draenei priest and pandaren monk are female.
It’s just whatever feels right for the character. I dont typically make female characters for melee/warrior style classes - anything with heavier armor or bigger weapons in hand is going to typically be male. On the flip side, anything that wears robes is probably going to be female. My panda monk is female mostly because I didnt like the male panda model (initially I tried male, but the super belly on male pandas really messes with gear textures, everything gets stretched). Also helps that I think panda females are adorable.
My night elf demon hunter ended up being female specifically because I wanted to fashion the character around the night elf sentinel/huntress style. Demon hunters are the only class that can use the sentinels iconic moonglaives, so I was kinda stuck with that (would’ve preferred anything else really, the demonic bits of the class I really hate), and at least as far as lore is concerned the night elf military is predominantly female. I’ve liked the huntresses since warcraft 3 where I spammed the hell out of them for armies of cat-riding moonglaive-throwing purple amazons.
But it’s pretty much that way in any game I play: Casters tend to be female, Fighters tend to be male, Rogues or off-shoot style characters can go either way, just depends.