Why do MEN create FEMALE CHARACTERS?

[keela]

Okay, I swear to god this is an honest and curious question.
this is something I've always been wondering, but never asked much, and thought I might get some interesting answers here

Why do men like to play with female characters in games that you can choose your gender?

(For disclaimer I'm talking only about games where you can choose your gender, I don't feel nothing by playing 2B or Geralt of rivia for instance)

I'm a girl, and I really like playing female characters, I don't see any appeal in playing men, I can't exactly explain why, but as dumb as it sounds, I like to create and play a pretty female character and I probably feel that way bc there's more connection with my character representing my own gender I guess?

I've been playing online for as long as I can remember, and in all those years, I've ONLY MET ONE girl who played a male character, and she told me she did it so she wouldn't be bothered.
As for men, almost every female character I could find was being played by a guy. I thought for a long time that it was because of the sexy appeal of the female characters, or maybe bc some people could get free items as female?

Anyway, this happens in singleplayer games as well, and is happening in Baldur's Gate too, naturally, but there's little sex appeal here and nothing to gain, so what makes you choose a different gender for your character in this game and possible others? Is it about the roleplay? Is it about appearance?

Just to be sure, there is NOTHING wrong with that, and I know for a fact that there are girls who play male characters, as well as MANY men who play male characters. All I'm saying is based on my experience where the amount of men who chose this is much higher than the women.
And obviously I'm referring to man as people who identify as male as a gender

EDIT: Something I want to point out, I'm not necessarily saying about creating yourself, only your gender.
As much I love creating a female character, I don't ever create myself, I create a CHARACTER that I find suitable.... aaaand after reading some answers, I guess I don't find that nice BECAUSE I'm also a girl, but because they're pretty to look/nice to create?
Someone said that you either wanna ♥♥♥♥ or BE the character, I guess that's right lmao
for a lot of cases anyway

[Setta]

Those who say that it is to see a female body are lying, we all know that deep down all men want to be a cutie pie for once.

[Charred Muffin]

Why do adults in old age play video games for children and teenagers? It's a scandal! just stop!

[RexTheDishes]

I am a girl and play male characters 2/3 times

[Menagerie]

Originally posted by keela:

I've been playing online for as long as I can remember, and in all those years, I've ONLY MET ONE girl who played a male character, and she told me she did it so she wouldn't be bothered.

A lot of women play as guys in online games and just don't tell anyone because if you tell someone they tend to get creepy about it. It's not as big a problem as it used to be, but it was a very very common thing.

[Jaggid Edje]

I make female characters about 50% of the time in games. My reason, because I like heroines. Tough women that kick bad guy ass.

I like Lara Croft more than Indiana Jones, not because she's hot, but because she's a badass. Men kicking butt and taking names has been done to death, by hollywood, by television, by novels and by video games. So I just don't find it as entertaining.

I should also add, the other 50% of the time, where I do make a male character, I never make one that resemble me in any way. I don't "identify" as the character I play. For me a game is more like an interactive movie. And the main character is the lead; has nothing to do with me other than I'm the one directing that movie.

[Xerorei]

One of my favorite genres of fiction/non-fiction is ass kicking woman/female, whether that's Female Shepherd in Mass Effect, any one of L.J. Smith's heroines, Frost from the Flash TV series, etc. I've endured many years of 'Macho dudes beating/stabbing/slicing/shooting/exploding each other' across various genres, I genuinely enjoy seeing women be good at a battle.

[Charred Muffin]

I've been playing online for as long as I can remember, and in all those years, I've ONLY MET ONE girl who played a male character, and she told me she did it so she wouldn't be bothered.
..................................
In Guild Wars 2 we have 40% girls in our guild and many from them are playing male chars because they look cooler and have better armors.

[Edelgris]

Originally posted by Sir Nilbog:

I almost always play a man in games like this where Im actually getting into a characters head and roleplaying a character. If its just an action game or whatever I dont really care

I find that it's not interesting to roleplay as myself anymore. I'm always going for something more conceptual. Like, "let's make Vasquez from Aliens, but as a medieval knight".

Probably because I have made so many characters in so many games over the years. It would be very boring to only make myself. I also enjoy making characters a lot. Except coming up with new names. That part sucks.

[6h0$t942]

because dragonborn b00bies? Obviously.

[zero]

roleplaying in an rpg? absurd, unacceptable, you can only make yourself, if i see a single half orc you're outta here.

[Sigvuld]

'Cause I play games to not be literally just me in every single game, I like roleplaying and creating characters that I can see feasibly existing within the universe I'm presented with

It encourages me to be creative and write more, and is just fun

The "if I have to stare at an ass for 500 hours-" reasoning has always struck me as weird af because you have this whole world to be looking at and you choose to apparently CONSTANTLY make direct eye contact with your character's chocolate starfish. Sounds like a you thing tbh lmfao the game certainly didn't make you

"It's crazy that this game is forcing me to stare at this shapely man cake. I just can't stop looking - not that I CHOSE to stare at it for the majority of my playthrough, of course, the game forced me at all times, but it's wild how I just couldn't tear my eyes away from those juicy glutes for even a moment while playing. I really wish it was a woman instead, because I'm so straight. MAN those cheeks, though, so distracting!"

[Quillithe]

Two reasons:

Sometimes I just feel like it for the character as I picture them. Or with CRPGs with premade portraits sometimes I like a female one's style more.

Also in two person co-op games I'll frequently pick the opposite gender of the other player just to make us more distinct.

[Overeagerdragon]

Maybe this is a hot take; I dunno.... but I really dgaf what gender my MC is usually but I WILL admit I'm a bit of a chauvinist; most of the mages I create are usually female and most of the fighters usually men.... but that doesn't mean it's exclusive... My main on WoW was a Worgen Hunter (male) simply because I loved the rugged nature of the model and I RP'ed him as a therianthrope (basically reverse lycanthropy). Loved my Male druid too (something about that wildshape being just a tad more wyld-looking
I played a bruiser fem-V in CP2077 though... a male bionics Sheppard with serious xenophoby (jack didn't got (%*^on that guy)... and let's just say that Thavnarian dress on my Elezen Paladin (FFXIV) does little for protection; she tanks by virtue of simp distraction ;)

[Martin]

Originally posted by keela:

Okay, I swear to god this is an honest and curious question.

There's many reasons most of them are complimentary to women.

Prefer to listen to a girls voice..
Prefer to look at a girl from behind..
Maybe you're roleplaying for girlfriend or wife..
Sometimes it can be because you prefer listening to the feminine grunts and shrieks.. in combat.. like you get men watching womens tennis for the same reason. You don't think they actually like watching a ball fly from one end of the court to the other.. do you?

There's also the fact that most women are better looking than we are.. let's you play at dressing up dolls without anyone seeing you do it.. no peer pressure etc.

All kinds of reasons.

For example in Pvp Men don't like to hit women.. and women tend to have smaller hit boxes so are harder to fight against.

[קֶשֶׁת]

How do you know these players are male? All of the players have loli or anime pictures as their profile pics and as far as I can see there is no in game voice chat.