Got that one, too!  One of my first PS3 games.  Hell, my first Xbox 360 games were Kameo and Tomb Raider Legend.  I bought Velvet Assassin and Vinetica based on their box art.  I'm telling you, I have a problem!!

I think this came up before. I said one of 2 things, 1) male chauvinist pig or (2) in reality wants to be female.

Take you pick. This said, those people who never played as female Shep missed out on a superb performance by the voice actress, male shep might as well have been a robot, infact Legion had more personality.

Same.

The only time it's ever backfired on me is the one and only "MMO" I've ever tried, Defiance. I got so  many group, party, clan and friend requests from horny guys since I was running around as a hot girl character.

One of my favorite games of last gen: Lollipop Chainsaw. I took every chance to look up her skirt while slaying zombies. Also one of the few games I finished multiple times. The others are from Tomb Raider series.
Now I'm playing Hyperdimension Neptunia....
Then for some Akiba's Trip and Senran Kagura....

#nobreastsnobuy :)

I really hope they finish Beyond Good and Evil 2.

Same here, in Everquest I played a female high elf cleric. It was fun at first, free gifts and always someone to help. But then comes that akward moment you have to tell someone, you do realize I'm not actually a girl, after they start sharing their life story with you. You would think they could figure it out, it's not that difficult to tell which female chars are played by females, unless the guy takes a concious effort to confuse you. My male enchanter got more attention anyway, crack dealers were even more popular than healers.

Playing as a female character also makes me care a bit more for the character. Call it sexist if you want, but I've grown up with a "men should just suck it up and don't complain" attitude. And, besides better to look at, females also tend to block less of the screen while playing. I don't need some double wide space marine taking up 30% of the view the entire game. Plus it always fun to see a little girl beat up thugs in saints row.

A powerful woman is just bad arse. I do that in Soul Sacrifice and my handle is Lady Gaga. xD

I always pick a female when I can. (usually RPG's) If I'm going to be staring at my character's rearend for countless hours I'd rather it be a girl's.

Edit: I now see I'm not alone.  Haha.

I have this game in my backlog and am determined to make sure the first acheivement I earn isn't the one for looking up her skirt!

It will be done though, hah.

I can tell you that I play as women because I am not willing to play as a man that looks like hes from the stone age OR 50 years old etc.etc.

I also prefer looking at a nice woman over looking at an ugly man or sexy man for that matter.