[Coda]

Kind of depends on the game and why I'm playing it.

I'm never going to decide which game to play based on the gender of the player character. Frankly I can't even wrap my head around the notion that people do.

If it's a multiplayer game that I'm playing with my wife and there's no mechanical difference between the male and female characters, I always play the male character and she always plays the female character. It's just less confusing that way. She also likes to imagine ourselves in the game world, which is harder to do when there's a mismatch.

If there IS a mechanical difference, I'll play whichever character better fits the play style I'm in the mood for. (For example, in Overwatch, I play the female tanks way more often than the male ones, but I prefer to play with the male healers.)

If there's no mechanical difference in a single-player game, it really depends on the character designs and how many times I've played through the game before. With multiple playthroughs I try to vary things up.