Was having a nice long chat with a few friends of mine today about this exact subject.  I found it rather amussing that (all guys) 3 of us made females, 2 made males. 

Two of the female and one of the male characters were made to look as good (or bad ass) as possible. 

I ended up being the only one who made a female, and made her ugly and my best friend did the same, but with a man.  Not really sure why I do this, but I always do (my Demon's Souls chick is absolutely HIDEOUS)

So how do you make your main characters and why?

I always create a girl and a boy. I always make the guy look heroic and the girl as slutty as possible :P

i always create a dude that looks pretty cool. at least i try

I ALWAYS create two character when given the choice.

Make the hottest looking female character

Make the most good looking male character.

If only allowed to create one, I go with male character.

I am not even kidding when I say that I will buy a game based solely on the POSSIBILITY that I can create a hot female.  Fable II?  I could care less about the story or the gameplay.  When I found out that I could create a female character and make her look the way I wanted, I bought it.  Same goes for various Tony Hawk, WWE, Mass Effect 1, Baulder's Gate, etc, etc.  I bought Trickstyle for the Dreamcast AND Freestyle Metal X for the Gamecube because I saw a screenshot of a female character and thought I'd be able to create one.

You'd think internet porn and slutty women would be a good enough outlet for my raging hormones (I don't mess with slutty women anymore, btw) but no.  You'd be wrong.

^^^You have no idea how close I've come to buying Fallout 3 for all of the wrong reasons.............

I tend to make females as slutty as possible. If I can't do that then I try at least looking like a sexy librarian. Failing that I try for a heroic male.

Hard to believe I am the ONLY one who makes their characters as Ugly as Possible ! (with 1 exception). 

Seeing my hideous character in Demon's Souls die (very very often) always made me feel just a little bit better.  Maybe I should have said as Deformed as Possible....

Hell, my White Knight Chronicles Character is rather grotesque.  Maybe Ill post up some screens or something.

I usually make the fattest character I possibly can. Too bad more games don't allow for body morphing.