So yesterday, that's been known since MMOs threw a nice set of polygons up high and gave us something to "visualize".

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My main is a female, and I'm not one irl, but I have a much less in depth reason for playing one. I am a rogue, and wanted to be an orc. One look at the orc male model screamed that they really shouldn't be able to hide behind anything, it just looks funny to me. So I went with the female model, which looked like it would be a more believable rogue. Simple as that.

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Hmmm. My first char was a horribly ugly gnome.

After staring at his butt for 30 levels, I started my twink family ... I'm a het male, so of course I prefer to look at a nice female bottom, so obviously I have to play female characters, right?

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I chose the undead female rogue for basically the same reason as comment 2.

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I'm a male and a I currently play a female Blood Elf.

I don't think I could pinpoint the exact reason I choose female characters (and almost always do).

I think it has a little to do with wanting to play something that I find attractive, a little to do with wanting to be unique, and a little to do with the benefits that come from people thinking you're female.

Most of all, I really think it's just to be more unique. With 40% of males playing females, it's not working out for me as well as I had hoped. :P

As for gender. I expect people to call me her or she in written communications. They have no reason to expect otherwise, and it just makes the most sense.

If people have talked to me in vent and still call me she, then I find it a little bit strange though.

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Every since pen&paper D&D, most of my "main" characters have been female - a trend I carried into City of Heroes and WoW. When I role play, I like to embody a different persona than my own - and all of my male characters came down to adolescent male wish fulfillment. By making the character female - I immediately distanced her from myself - which made it easier to design a persona that didn't necessarily react the same way I would.

An outsider might say I'm suffering from a gender identity crises but a) I'm married and, to the best of my knowledge, straight, and b) Who's more secure in their manhood: the guy pretending to be a girl in an imaginary game, or the skinny dork pretending to be a strapping He-Man in leather underwear?

The fact is - if people only played according to their gender - there'd be practically no females in the game (I know that plenty of women, including my wife, play the game - but I guarantee it's not 4.5 million)

The way I view it, by having to type "Dude, I'm a guy." to the occcasional /flirt. I'm making it that much safer for the real females to run around in Azeroth.

Will voice-chat be a little weird for people when they hear my voice coming out of an undead female? Maybe, but probably not any weirder than hearing a pre-pubescent whine come out of a 7-foot tauren.

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My melee class characters are generally male and my few female toons have been caster classes, just because male characters look too funny in their caster dresses.

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I'm female. I have 8 characters: 6 are female, and two male. My hunter is a NE male, because I don't like the female NE bow animations (I see enough of that awful animation on my female NE warrior). My paladin is a human male, because somehow, it just seemed right to me.

I will never understand.. why does it even matter? It's not like playing the opposite gender in a game is wrong. Look at all the FPS games out there, almost all have a male protagonist. Does that make it wrong, or even weird, for women to play them?

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i play both genders, but i don't see my character as "me," i see him/her as someone i control, like a puppet. and in the fantasy archetypes some classes are cooler as one gender (a female rogue, a male paladin etc). i don't see the problem with someone playing the opposite gender character, as anyone can order around/control another person of any gender. people attach way to much (psudo-) psychology analysis on this issue.

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I like playing smaller characters, and I also like looking at female booty running around the world as opposed to male booty.

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My wife plays all females. I have been playing all males. My wife looked at my lvl 37 mage and what he was wearing and said, " Maybe you should make a female Mage instead". I took a look at my mages tights and shoes and vest and tiara and said "hmmm... I think you have a point". The human male in WoW has an awkward look and stance in many classes and, frankly, the females look more impressive attacking. Females equal Trinity fighting look. Males equal Neo (get his butt kicked by Morpheus) look. This is just in the human arena. And the Male human voice.... Game show host material. I can understand why many players would choose a female as opposed to a male. Trinity vs Dork.

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Hahaha, you needed a poll to figure this one out? Of course more men play women than women play men. It's the case in just about any rpg, table top or virtual. Personally the first char I rolled was a male dwarf, but that's only because I couldn't bring myself to play a female one.

I fully endorse the "call it how you see it" rule. Chances are you're less likely to offend a male playing a fem char than a fem playing a fem char.

In my long experiance I've found that around 90% of guys I've just met will refer to me as "he" even though I play a fem toon. Not that I'm offended, but they are promptly corrected. On the other hand, 100% of girls will refer to me as "her" and never need to be corrected ;)

Boys are silly.

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The thing you have to understand about LiveJournal is that it's significantly more populated by women than it is by men, so the results of any LJ poll will be inherently skewed.

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Sorry folks, the whole thing boils down to something we in the west aren't necessarily concerned with: Homosexuality.

A guy playing a feminine role is percieved to be homosexual in many cultures; and in those cultures, being gay is bad, wrong, immoral or against the state.

A recent example is in Iran where 2 18 year olds were hanged for the mere suggestion of being homosexual.

In China, you are looking at a highly regulated and restrictive government system, where homosexuals or homosexuality is considered a crime against the state. (See 2005, June, Advocate. See April 2006 HRC Report: Dangerous Countries.)

Been watching this topic and finding it very amusing that no one wanted to say this simple fact: boys playing girls is looked down on and, at worst, considered subversive behavior.

Esu Miwa

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It used to be random same as id chose something like hair colour but these days its become habit to play female characters.

One of the main reasons for this was first character on wow was a human male priest, a very bad choice, after a couple of the level 60 dungeon items i looked like a steroid injected cross dresser and concluded if im gona be wearing a dress i may as well look good in it.

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Being a male, I usually play male characters, but I just started a female shaman. The reason: freak people out that know I'm a guy. Its hilarious to /wink and /dance with the guys that know I'm a guy and get all creeped out.

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I'm a female who plays all female characters-- not exactly sure why, it just seems to be the natural thing to do. It allows me to "step into that character's shoes" more easily (since I am a geek and I do that whole roleplay thing).

My boyfriend is more willing to play both-- probably about half of his characters are male and half are female. But he's a far more "hardcore" roleplayer than I am so he's more willing to try different things than I am.

A lot of people assume I'm a guy because I play a night elf female as my main =P But to be honest I don't really blame them for thinking so... =P

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My current character is a lvl 68 Tauren Druid so I have a few options -

Stare at a:
Cat behind
Bear behind

Occasionally I get to look at a Tauren behind.

After 68 levels of this I understand why guys play female characters - just so they can stare at an attractive behind.

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I'm a heterosexual male, and about half of my characters are female. I don't really have a "main," but I have two level 65s, one of whom is a male gnome and the other is a female human.

I doubt anybody finds these poll results surprising - a more interesting source of information is probably http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/ which provides much more in-depth information.

My personal take on this is that the female form is more pleasing to look at, even if it's just a pixellated approximation. I believe even women prefer the appearance of women (not necessarily in any sexual way) from a sheerly aesthetic perspective - the male form's generally blocky nature doesn't have the depth and subtlety of the curves one finds when looking at females.

When I create female characters, it's always with the intention of solo play. However, this doesn't always work out, as is the case with my Paladin (who works better in groups). I always feel awkward playing a female character when grouped with other people - it feels as if I'm misleading them in some way by my character's appearance, even after I reveal my true gender. This is magnified if using voice chat, as there's a clear and massive disjoint between my female character's appearance and my own voice. I always feel more comfortable in groups if playing a male character.

One might think I'd learn my lesson and just create all male characters, but no - I keep being drawn back to the lure of the curves.

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I roll female chars because male models look awfully stupid, regardless of race or faction.

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