Do you prefer to play as Male or Female Avatar characters?

[ZeManaphy]

Not just Fire Emblem, but games like Pokémon, Animal Crossing, Yo-Kai Watch, Astral Chain etc. I play as the male Protagonist almost entirely,  because well, I’m a guy, and I feel more comfortable playing as a guy. Three Houses was the first time I actually played has a female Avatar for the entire playthrough. What are your preferences?

[Ottservia]

For me it just depends on which design I like better which is usually the female one(because I like cute girls) but I will play the male avatar on occasion such is the case with awakening and maybe some pokemon games. 9 times out of 10 though I’m playing the female avatar because if I’m gonna be staring at this character the entire game it might as well be a cute girl

[Samz707]

Depends I guess, I sometimes play males but I do tend to pick females (I'm a guy) since there aren't many female protagonists so I usually pick them for variety's sake (or gender locked classes in FE.) though if I've played a bunch of female protagonist games lately I'm more likely to pick a guy.

[null]

Male. Because when I play as an avatar it's essentially a self-insert for me as the player, so I generally stick to playing as male.

In some cases, like Byleth or Corrin, I prefer the male design as well. Although I think female Robin's design is the better of the two options for Awakening.

[Sire]

My first run is almost always male, but I do enjoy playing as female Avatars as well. Female Avatars tend to get the better outfits when I feel like messing around with fashion and cosmetics (or at least I put more thought into mixing and matching stuff instead of just wearing a default set that looks cool.)
-- The main/completionist run also tends to be male, although there has been exceptions (Fates: Conquest was female Corrin since she is more affiliated with Nohr., WoW Classic has a Female Human Mage since mages are easier to level, compared to my original mains of Human Male Paladin and Female Blood Elf Death Knight).

In short, I use both, although the one I use more are the Male Avatars.

[Sir Gerwald of Vallora]

Depends. Usually, I'll run my first first play through with a male self inseet avatar, and then make a more creative one with a fenale avatar. Like say I went moral good magic and swords in a skyrim save with a male character, next playthrough, I'd go moral grey with bows and axes and a femlae chaecater for variety, mostly so I get aomething interesting.

[Magical Glace]

I usually pick based on which design I prefer.  If it's customizable, I'll usually look at the options ahead of time then pick off that.  I was very disappointed in the male customization options when I played Pokémon XY (I wanted to run around in a nice tux), so since then it's been double check first before playing.

[indigoasis]

I like to flip in between playthroughs. I'll go male in one playthrough, and then female in the next. Generally, though, I typically play male.

[Fabulously Olivier]

Always male. If I roll multiple characters, like in a MMO, I will reserve some slots for female characters, but my main is male.

[Rezzy]

I usually pick the female, because I'm female, but will play male in subsequent playthroughs, especially if romance is a thing and/or the female options are limited.

 

Like unmodded Baldur's Gate 2 has all of one romance option, if you play as a girl, but three for guys.

Edited October 16, 2020 by Rezzy

[lenticular]

Almost always female, though I might change up in subsequent plays if I replay. I don't replay many games, though, so that doesn't often come up. Also, I get really annoyed when games don't have this as an option. I don't have any problem with playing a named and well-defined male character like Mario or Link for instance, but when a game throws a completely blank slate at me and tells me to create a character in my own image, but then only lets me be a guy, that's when I start to rage a little. I think that the Luminary from Dragon Quest XI was the most recent example of this that really infuriated me.

[vanguard333]

Male, simply because I'm a guy and when I play a custom character, I play with the idea of them being me in mind.

Edited October 16, 2020 by vanguard333

[Sooks]

Male because I am a male and to me the whole point of an avatar is to connect the player themselves to the world a bit more, so that made sense.

I only ever tried playing as a female avatar once (well twice but the second time was F!Byleth and I was fine and I also didn’t even get past chapter 1 before quitting that file) and it was in Pokemon Black 2 where I was trying to have everything be new and fresh with my first nuzlocke where I was gonna pick the started I had never used and catch whatever I find first and it was gonna be great. Well for some reason running around as the girl character made me uncomfortable- Like delete my save file uncomfortable and I have no idea why. I also didn’t end up playing a nuzlocke anyway.

And I do actually like the female avatar’s design more almost always with the exception of high fantasy/sci fi world’s because with clothes more similar to our world’s girls can have these rude arrays of outfits and all sorts of things to do with their many different lengths of hair and cute accessories, meanwhile the guy character usually gets no accessories, clothes with mostly the same vibes all around and a couple hair styles that are basically short, medium, long, and then like two uniquer ones, although those are never really cute to me since I’m attracted to feminine things, most likely because I’m attracted to females themselves 😂

Writing this bottom section I guess I was thinking more about games with customizable avatars, but the point might able to stand in more realistic games with no customization as well.
 

[Fire Emblem Fan]

I usually play as a male. There's a few female avatars I do like quite a bit, though. The female Pokemon trainer in FireRed/LeafGreen and in Black/White, for example, are two designs I dig a lot. I also like Corrin's female design a little bit more than the male one. But, usually, I go with male.

[joevar]

Im a male, so i play as a male. but sometimes choose female too if the playstyle is different otherwise i avoid it especially when sometimes the design is impractical while the male one is more normal looking

Edited October 16, 2020 by joevar

[NSSKG151]

I always play as male except when I used to play Smash Bros where I played Pokemon Trainer, Robin and Corrin as female and Warriors when I set both Robin and Corrin as female.

[Lightcosmo]

Like others have said, playing female for the usual more outfit/cosmetic choices. Males get shafted on that end usually.

[ping]

I don't like the avatar approach of "this is You, The Player, inside the video game"; if I control a specific character ingame, I'd rather have them have a distinct personality and the option for me to play as that character. Think the old PS Final Fantasies, where e.g. Cloud is a very predetermined character, but the player has a fair number of dialogue choices to decide how they think Cloud (and not themselves) would act in this situation.

Which is probably more words than necessary to explain why I don't really have a universal preference to make an avatar male or female. It's not me either way and frankly, a battle-hungry dwarf in a fantasy setting, or a duke in 867, France, aren't any less removed from my own self than a female character would be.

For specific games, I tend to go with the female option in Pokémon games, simply because the male characters (with the exception of the Hoenn one) are all very same-y in their designs. I haven't played one with character customization yet, though. In FE12, I've played as male more often, simply because it gives the player more options to reclass.

[SSbardock84]

Usually male because I'm a guy. Occasionally I'll try female on like Dark Souls or Skyrim, but I never play those levels much. Idk, I just prefer playing as a guy because I am one. The FE games I've done female a few times, in some ways I prefer female Byleth over male. Depends on the game, but I don't really care too much about gender. But I can't think of any game I've played where the character you play as is only a female and only that. Last time I played a game like that was probably one of the old Metroid games. Though obviously this is about avatar characters, so you're always given the choice between male and female.

[NegativeExponents-]

Almost always male. Be it because I'm self inserting or because I want to look at some eye candy male fills both needs. Occasionally, I will play as the female avatar if like their design a lot, like with Kris in Pokemon Crystal, but even then most of my playthroughs have been with Ethan as opposed to Kris.

16 hours ago, ping said:

In FE12, I've played as male more often, simply because it gives the player more options to reclass.

What do you mean by that? All characters FF 12 have access to all the same classes. Balthier or Basch don't get any extra classes compared to Fran or Penelo.

EDIT: nevermind. disregard what I said. I obviously misread that as final fantasy for some reason.

Edited October 18, 2020 by NegativeExponents-

[Shrow]

Girls are cute and generally have better designs and more options then boys, but I make male characters too sometimes.
I don't self insert, I prefer to create a character and imagine what kind of person they are. Personality, motivations, etc.. Let my imagination go wild.
(I've never understood self inserting)

[Zanarkin]

Usually go with the male avatar. Only ever go with the female avatar if I have played through the game before and decided to go with the other avatar for a change or if i dislike the male avatar design. For example, i hate M!Byleth's hair and don't have many complains about F!Byleth so i choose F!Byleth.

As for why, its mostly because I like playing with male avatars more than female avatars. There might be deeper reasons for it, but i don't really care. I just know that I like playing with male avatars.

[Shadow Mir]

Depends on the game. In Pokemon, I'm always picking the girl. But I prefer male in most relationship-heavy games (far as I can tell, about the only exceptions to this are Rune Factory 4, because as it turns out, I happen to like some of the male marriage candidates, and some of the Summon Night games).

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

I'm non-binary, and usually prefer the female option. Although, if the male avatar has feminine customizations, I'm here for it. Anyway, on Three Houses, so far I've alternated between the two Byleths. And I've been the male character a bunch in Pokemon.

[Sir Gerwald of Vallora]

On 11/18/2020 at 10:30 PM, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

I'm non-binary, and usually prefer the female option. Although, if the male avatar has feminine customizations, I'm here for it. Anyway, on Three Houses, so far I've alternated between the two Byleths. And I've been the male character a bunch in Pokemon.

I was curious how a Non Binary person would answer, as most games just give femenine and masculine options. By your answer, if you dont mind me guessing, you're biological male with a more neutral lean? Also, I'm curious what games you've played with a feminine male customization. That seams to be relatively uncommon.