[Mr Hat and Clogs]

The mechanics point in the previous post rings true too me. Also, for aesthetic purposes. I'm a fairly short and slim individual and dislike giant walking slabs of meat that is the general portrayal of manliness these days so generally I go the complete opposite and chose the girls I also like the lithe, agile and exotic look. Also, in RPG's (well the western ones like Baldurs Gate) they usually have the roles I liked played by either old men (Wizards) or gun-ho swarthy types and I liked to mix it up at times by playing a character that doesn't fit conventional norms (like a female DK tank in WoW, or half elf sorceress, or dark elf cleric-not-of-lloth-or-similar). I used to exclusively use male characters when younger, but it's almost a total reversal these days (male dwarfs are to awesome not to play - I think it's the beard).

However male characters in full on bulky power armor like from say WH 40k, or SC or whatever do look awesome and I don't have a problem with those. How awesome something looks is important to help identify with it. Generally if you don't have a choice about what you play the characters will look totally kick ass (more focus by the art department), but in an RPG it really depends on you which can go either way in dramatic fashion.

edit: Amg posts, thing with an MMO, when I started out I always referred to people by their characters gender even if I knew they were something different IRL - a hang over from RP to be sure. I also applied the 'no girls on the internet rule' until proven otherwise so never hit on anyone. Never made a big deal about my IRL gender - never really cared to - it still took two years for some people to come to grips that I was actually a guy, even though my gender pronoun when people talked to or about me changed in every other conversation. I never asked for anything either - still got some stuff given to me though. Usually from one guy, but it was more because he couldn't use it (he also new my real gender) I did return the favour when I got stuff I couldn't use either. We had one guy that went 4 years without telling anyone his real gender - he knew the brother of an IRL friend of mine in the same guild because they were involved with the band but wasn't in the band. After conversation my friend theorised it was one of the female groupies and left it at that. But they were actually male. They didn't ask for anything either, they came across as a fairly cold hearted person and I think guildies were scared that they'd lose their heads, so they were our raid leader naturally as any hard-ass should be.