Gender Ratios in City of Heroes

To answer the OP's question with real numbers:

I am a female player, and I have;
10 female characters
4 male characters

When I played p&d tabletop games, I almost always played male characters... usually the oddball/non-human types... no comments from the peanut gallery, thank you.

For your discussion, I have a specific reason for playing *mostly* female characters.....it's much easier to make a good looking cossie for the female characters. for me at least

Can't seem to get the hang of making male cossies, they always look stupid ot me, I think I've made, maybe 3 decent looking toons!

Doing a quick tally on my main account in my head...

Male: 35.7%
Female: 64.3%
Huge: 0%

If I include my second account (currently inactive)

Male: 32.1%
Female: 64.3%
Huge: 3.6%

However, my main hero and my main villain are male and make up (at a guess) about 75% of my overall play time on their own. (My main hero has over 4,000 hours on the clock right now, with my next closest pipping in with about 800.)

Oh, and I'm male. The reason I have a large number of female toons is... well, they look nicer, for one, but also I'm a roleplayer, and I have a bit of a "supporting cast" for my main who, for various reasons, tend to be female.

Just for myself, I've about a 50-50 ratio. Well, ok, 45-45-10 ratio, the 10 being 'other'. As in robots, gods (who take human form only because they have to in the game) that sort of thing.

I roll a character not because I wanna see digitial 3D booty, but because the character concept requires it. A Mind/Emp brings to mind a girl, mad hulking beast brings on a huge guy, and an experimental robot brings on... well, an experimental robot. And given the backstory, the robot also had to be done as a female model, but that's because the scientists in the 50s were perverts.

Point is, for me, the concept dictates the model. So I have a mix. If there was a way to model an airplane, weevil, gigantic microbe, sentient meteor shower, whatever... then I'd make that, if it made sense.

/If that helps any.
//ooh... An earth/storm sentient meteor shower. With Psionic Epic Pool. And swinging travel power. Weird. I like it. I can haz, Devs? *puppy dog eyes and pout*

My ratio of female to male characters is about 3 to 1. My 3 50's are female, but I have a male tank at 49 now - took me a while to get into him haha

Most of my characters tends to be female actually. I have no idea why really, although in a few cases I do. (Two of them require my toons to be female: One because the pun doesen't work if the character is male, the other becuase she's a "generic" Fortunata and those are all-female in-game)

For me, as a roleplayer offline and online for the past quarter-century, the choice of a character's gender is based on *who* that character is.

In getting to know that character and their backstory and motivations, it becomes evident to me what gender that character will be, just as their personal history dictates their actions and reactions. Case in point: I wanted a character to be a Peacebringer, but her backstory led me to make that character a Warshade. The character was well-received and a joy to play, and the angst she experienced made for some outstanding RP sessions. When she finally got the in-game mission to track down Nosferatu, Requiem, and Arakhn, it wasn't *just* another routine mission but an important
link in the chain of events in her life.

Of my top 4 characters, 2 are male (Lv 50 and 32) and 2 are female (both Lv50). I also have a Lv17 female and Lv7 male which I play less frequently, so I'm pretty much at 50-50.

I prefer playing the female characters, though, because I feel more comfortable with them and ... well ... I'm just not very good at playing male characters. The females offer me much greater RP opportunities and have a greater depth of character to them.

They also dress more modestly than characters in this game or other games I've played. No bikinis, no dancing on countertops, no cajoling for perks.

One thing that I *really* dislike -- and I don't think it's been mentioned here before -- are the twits who send perverted tells or attempt to "ERP" in Local (or Broadcast!). I had one jerk (in another game) fill up the chat box with expletives because he wanted to cyber , so I can certainly understand when a RL woman wants to play a guy toon just to avoid that sort of nonsense!

Despite being a male player, most of my characters are female.

I used to joke that it was the "Lara Croft principle" in action, that if you're going to stare at your character's rear end all day, etc. etc.

The truth is a bit more complicated. You see, guys are BORING.

There are thousands of years worth of literature about male protagonists, while females have only gotten similar attention for a few decades. All the themes and character concepts for males are pretty much done to death. Female characters have a lot more untapped potential; variations that haven't been examined as thoroughly, cliches and tropes to be inverted and twisted around, and new roles to be explored.

There's also the consideration that women are a lot more complicated. Most of us guys are straightforward to the point of being dull. Women operate with extra motivations and perspectives that can give them an entirely different approach to everything in life. That presents plenty of novel material when creating and playing a female character.

Another consideration is that eccentric behavior coming from a guy is frequently considered creepy or obnoxious. The same behavior coming from a female will often be seen as endearingly quirky or exotic. Individuals with two X chromosomes can get away with a lot more crazy before it makes people uncomfortable. When you're trying to make characters that are interestingly odd, this can be very helpful.

At this point, my only level fifty character and the next two highest level characters I have are all female, and the one after them is a genderless robot. What this says about me is open to debate, but I think it says a lot more about people who try to read too much into it.

Dunno if it helps but I'm female and all my characters across three servers are female. Not a male in the bunch.

I tried once but I just couldn't play a male character.

As a male player who's just passed the 51 month landmark, I can confidently say that about 90% of ALL my characters ever created were female. As it stands now, I have 12 level 50 characters. ONE of them is male, the others female. Of all the toons I have on my account that aren't placeholders for names for issue 16 (of which there are two) only two are male. I don't really know why, TBH, every concept that comes into my head for a particular set combination or name, which usually comes first for me, turns out to be female. I've been chatted up by a male person who assumed I was female. I ran with it and suddenly I was a 24 year old air hostess from Croydon, South London who works for British Airways and I also ended up pouring brake fluid over my ex boyfriends car for cheating on me. Quite where that came from I've got no idea, but it seemed like a good idea at the time!

Interesting- This thread got me to sit down and take a look at my selection of characters, and led to a surprising discovery. I'm a male, but don't tend to set out to make a character a specific sex, it just depends on what feels right for them. Generally though, I find female characters more interesting to dress/play/look at, so I assumed my collection would be overwhelmingly female and was suprised to discover that I was wrong- and not just by a little.

It turns out I have 91 Male Characters, and 64 Females. Adjusted for those I have multiple versions of on different servers, it comes out to 80 Males, 52 Females. Granted, 7 of the 'Males' are actually robots, but I dont suppose thats a meaningful distinction...

However, getting back to my general preference towards females, I took a closer look. Several of the above characters havent really gotten much play, since they were mostly just things I'd create to see how they looked, or pics for NPCs for my Pen and Paper games- the vast majority of them havent even reached lvl 5. Of the 24 whove made it past lvl 10, 16 are female, and 14 of the 26 whove made it past lvl 20. So it seems that while I've overwhelmingly made Male characters, my general perception that I tend to play females is still correct. Interestingly, the ratios are almost exactly reversed- for creation, its 61% male, but for play its 60% female...

Personal data for insight...

Male/Straight/41-y-o

24-month vet

All characters are male (except for one reptile who's clearly male to me but has been addressed as female a number of times).

In theory I subscribe to the Lara Croft principle (described above), but in practice I find I just don't "identify" with a female toon in the same way I do with males.

If I try to play a female toon I'm conscious of a disconnect between me as Player, and my avatar. When playing males I find it much easier to "become" the character, rather than just "play" the character.

More anecdotal evidence which doesn't typically support any statistics whatsoever.

I'm a male player, and my characters are about 75% female, and most of my male characters are caricatures rather than characters. I stick with the theory that female characters are more interesting. Most of my favorite television shows and movies have a strong female protagonist.

I'm an older, married, male gamer, and on Freedom I've got 13 female toons vs 2 male. Numbers on other servers are more evenly divided genderwise; my choices on Freedom are strongly influenced by the fact that my first main was a girl axe tanker, and then as a member of the Babes of War I was strongly encouraged to make other female toons to fit the group theme. My wife tends towards more female than male toons, I think, but I haven't counted them.

*shrug* One more anecdotal data point.

Most of my 60+ toons are female, and I'm an older male. If you'd asked me what the gender ratio is in any zone of the game, I'd have guessed that females outnumber males 3:2. But then I have a tendency to overlook the male toons. Just as in real life, I tend mostly to notice the women.

I've been reading thru the various posts here and wondering why it is I've made mostly female toons. I think it boils down to a few things.

1) Costume options for male toons are more limited than the options for females. Either that, or it's just that *I* find them more limiting. For example ... no loincloths, just briefs. Just the one set of wristbands. No denim jackets or vests. No open plain leather jacket, only dress, military, lab, or motorcycle. I never can seem to find the right hairstyle. Stuff like that.

2) The same costume features mean less when used by males. When you put shoulder spikes on a male toon he seems aggressive but ordinary (for a hero or villain), but when you put spikes on a female toon, she seems ultra-aggressive and subversive. When you put skulls on a male toon, to me it seems comically overdone. When you put skulls on a female toon it looks threatening. Somehow, most of the male toons just end up looking goofy to me.

3) Female toons have a more natural movement when they run. The male toon running animation seems based on the Huge model, so even thin or athletic males lumber along like they've never run farther than the distance between their cubicle and the donuts in the break room. The parody of superhero running that we have for males is just pathetic. I can't watch it.

4) Unlike many players, I guess, I've never created a toon that represented me. My toons are all other characters, other people.

5) I don't RP. I play all my toons with the same voice and inclinations, though it's true that if I'm playing a small toon - male or female - I tend to jump around like a little kid.

6) I don't have a predisposition to think of heroes as male. It seems to me that anyone could be a hero, especially if they had super powers.

Interesting discussion and here's my answer.

I live on Virtue and have 24 characters there all female.
I am female in RL.

While I do find many male players that play female characters the reverse is a rarity. I have yet to meet another female that plays dominantly male characters, but that may just be me as the casual player I am. However, I do have two friends (both female) that play CoH and they, also, do not play male characters.

Across all servers I have 88 characters, all are female.

I once had a male character, I deleted him. I've deleted many more female characters though.

I am a female in real life.