I'm surprised this is such a popular thread. It really isn't an issue what so ever. And don't come at me saying "who cares" isn't an answer or is a lazy unstructured response because honestly Who Cares!

As a long time mmo player I've wondered this also. My friends and I thought that the player who makes a girl just stares at her virtual ass.

A female character dancing in the tower gets invites to a fire team A male character gets ignored

I like bad ass female characters. I prefer them over bad ass male characters, so I made a female. Simple

Backstory. I play two males and one female. Maybe I go too far into it, possibly because of my background in writing and storytelling, but I enjoy creating a life and past for each character I make. It makes them so much more enjoyable to play, and adds to destinys story. A female character gets a whole other spectrum of emotion and storyline I could create that a male couldn't have. It has nothing to do with sexuality or the way they look to me. I'm all about plotline.

Female exo has the best dance that's what it really boils down to, when I dance on your dead body in crucible it needs to look good

My friend always makes female characters and when i asked he told me its because people are usually nicer and help out female characters.

I do this with all online multiplayer games I play, and it boils down to this: the female models in games are obviously less bulky than their male counterparts. Because of this, I think the females are a harder target to shoot. I know that this is all probably in my mind, but I just can't bring myself to play any other way, haha.

I play as both male and female characters. For me it's about the class you're playing, for example (in a fantasy based MMO): It just doesn't look right for a huge tank of a male character to be dessed in cloth armor slinging magic, for me it is much more believable that they would be using heavy armor and taking swords to the face on behalf of his team mates. Another example would be a rouge class or hunter class, I feel like women are much more agile than the huge males so I would play a rogue or hunter as a female. In some games it just doesn't make sense for a female to be a warrior/tank type class because their armor is ridiculously skimpy and couldn't protect against a papercut let alone someone's sword. So, I play male and female characters depending on how I feel they fit into their particular class and how the game designed its armor. It just happens to be that I love playing rogues and hunters so my main character in this game is a female and I play that most often, but I do have a male exo titan. EDIT: In no way do I pretend to be female or advertise myself as such.

This happens in a lot of games, and has been asked many times. Some girls play as male characters, but the guys get the attention on this one. It comes down to many possible reasons that differ from person to person. Most of the time, you'll get the usual "I'd rather look at a girl's ass all day than a guy's", or just simply "bewbs", though that only applies to Destiny a fraction of the time, since it's mostly first person. It doesn't always have to be in some perverted manner, female characters may just look more appealing compared male characters for that person, which is understandable. Also, I'm sure there are girls out there who also like looking at buff dudes all day, I know one who enjoys Football for this reason. Sometimes, you do get the guys who may pretend to be a girl, and who play without mics. If they don't exactly state that they're a girl, they may just kind of let you believe it. Either way, it's usually for more attention. On the girls side of this phenomenon, some have been known to play as male characters to avoid attention from males, or so they aren't treated as a girl, and more like "one of the guys". Yes, most guys are aware there are girl gamers out there, but they still usually treat them differently than other guys. This happens in reality a decent amount of the time too. After those two, it comes down to more complex stuff that depend on the person. For this I'll just explain my own stance. In any game where I can choose the gender of my character and have the option of making multiple characters, I usually like to strike a balance between them (with a slight bias towards female characters), depending on what kind of character I'm creating. In Destiny, I have my male Exo Titan, my main character who I modeled after my main in the Beta. Who punches many things and thinks of little else. I really like feeling that this character is the one I embody the most. I admit though, female Titans look awesome, but I don't see too many. Since I have my Exo Male Titan, I thought I'd make my new Hunter a female to balance things out. In addition to this variety I strive for in my characters, I also like strong female characters in video games and media. So, I enjoy my character being a girl who kicks ass and doesn't take shit. This is where my female character bias comes in, and why usually 2/3rds of my characters in games are female. The biggest exception to this, for me, is any game where relationships are a big point, in which case I find it difficult to play as a female since I REALLY like to get into my character in those games. Examples would be Mass Effect or other Bioware RPGs, Persona 3 (though Female Protagonist is actually awesome so far, talking to people feels weird), or Bethesda RPGs. Bethesda RPGs are less about relationships, but something about it makes me flip the bias and 2/3rds of my characters are male rather than female. I just really like to be myself in those games, rather than role-playing. So, TL;DR People are weird. Some are perverts (girls not necessarily excluded), some do it to seek/avoid attention. Some people just like females characters better in terms of aesthetics (looks/fashion), some guys like to play as a variety of characters in their games or like strong women.

hairstyles. and -blam!- you, that's why.

My warlocks are female because doesn't feel right when a guy wears a dres,s and my titan is a male

Because bewbs