I don't RP in games, but I'm very fond of writing and generally my own private worldbuilding (unrelated to games) and I can't help but imagine at least some general backstory for my character in just about everything. It's usually not super involved (I don't really do fanfic stuff so they wouldn't really get that…

My FFXIV character always looked fine (male, the uh, big hulk race, paladin), but lord oh lord did my friend's female cat-person pugilist's armor ("armor") get tinier and tinier and frankly, more bondage-y as she progressed in level. Admittedly, I didn't see end-game armor content for that class, nor do I know if it…

I hadn't really thought about someone coming at it from a different genre (anime/JRPG/presumably more non-western stuff?) with a different standard "default." That's really interesting, thank you. :) For me, it's almost the opposite—not that I hate all hulking muscleheads, but man, I have played plenty of grizzled…

It certainly does! Just not that boobs would automagically be the distinction in beast race between a hulking, practically quadrupedal male and a neat, straight-backed and considerably more "humanoid" female.

Yup, Dishonored created a well-fleshed-out world, but Corvo was clearly made in the blank slate method (which isn't necessarily bad). I do agree that Daud was much more interesting, though.

Depressingly, WoW trolls also suffer from terrible clothing models. The same outfit can look perfectly normal on another model and downright hobo on a male troll, haha. Enough that I refer to "dressed like a troll" to refer to clashing outfits on any other game models.

Someone elsewhere in the thread mentioned liking to play female characters when available because the male character feels like playing the "default," which is interesting and not something I'd considered, but I think it ties in well with what you're saying. I've certainly played enough games where was a…

They were one that'd I'd thought about mentioning as an exception, but it's definitely not a rule that all male toons look better...just most of them, I'd say. ;) (Especially beasty types, where the males are usually more hulking/slouching/big/monstery and the females tend to look more humanoid/straightbacked/much…

Definitely agree that what I play is highly dependent on what I'm playing, but I do find that the design on male character looks more visually interesting more often. Depends a lot on the particular race (especially as I generally have a lot of toons on MMOs). Basically, I just want a character who looks interesting…

The "nicer looking outfits for female toons" is really interesting. Thinking about it, I'd agree—but personally, I find that the majority of the time, the male character models just look cooler or are more customizable (most notably in scifi or fantasy settings). Ie, the beast-race male character gets wild horns or…

As a woman, I find that I most often play male characters—not to dissuade men from hitting on me (though inversely from your experience, I sometimes find people who are surprised I'm female because of my character choices) but rather because I most often find that the male character models just look better, especially…