Why are you playing as your race / gender combination?

Because that's the one you like most.

But have you ever asked yourself why?
I've been asking that myself lately and will try to put it into words.

Why am I playing as a female?
- Because I don't like staring at manbutts all the time. Especially not in a Final Fantasy game. Also, I don't need a character resembling myself performing heroic deeds. I'm awesome enough already. ;^)

Why a Highlander?
- Because even though this is a (Final) fantasy game, I do need some realism.
Highlanders have the perfect build, they can lift big swords, axes and spears without it looking questionable, but are still agile enough to not look weird as Ninjas and Bards.
You don't see muscular casters very often, but if you think about it, being muscular does not prevent them from annihilating their foes with magic. It only makes them look better. :3
They are versatile, attractive and their emotes are the most fabulous.

Why are you playing as your race / gender combination?
If your answer is "because of FFXI", then please take your time to elaborate.

Male Highlander Hyur.

I like beards.

Butts. I tried the others out... didn't really like em.

I started off as a male Elezen - I've got a thing for guys with long hair and I figured that Elezen as an elf-like race were most likely to get some long hair options. I also picked a male first because I wanted prevent people hitting on me - this is my first MMO and when I started with 2.0 I was still pretty insecure and shy and a friend who played a female character told me he had people hit on him, so going female was out of the question. (Oh and I also didnt wanted to create a character that looked like me - another reason not to go female first)

Sadly male Elezen never got the long hair-options I desired and after two years of waiting for that to change, I decided to change - I picked a FemRoe because they get that beautiful long hair and (when done right) they're simply the most gorgeous women we get in the game. While I overcame my insecurity in regards of people hitting on me/my character, I still like the fact that my Roe looks as if she could just take them out with a simple, single punch. (And no, I dont still dont look like my character now :P)

male highlander hyur because highlander = bestlander = hotlander

because i love my abs

Lalafell, since they make the cutest moogles

Female: Males are too bulky for my tastes.

Miqo'te: Fluffy_Tail. For similar reasons, I play Au Ra as well, though less than Miqo'te.

Female Highlander. I'm a roleplayer and her race and gender fits her personality.

Male Sunseeker.

Why? Honestly I wanted to go Male Midlander, however, the face I selected had this strange way of looking like it was on the verge of tears outside of character creation. Just way too sad. Nothing I did could make it right, and other faces didn't work for me either. When designing my character, I chose to design around the jobs I like to play; in this case, spellcasters. I'm a bit old fashioned, so when I think spellcasters I usually end up with the old tropes in mind of something thin and not terribly muscular, since they'd spend more time reading and studying than pumping iron. While the idea of playing some ancient, decrepit wizard with a beard that goes down to his toes has its appeal, I'm afraid FFXIV does not provide the necessary customization for that, nor do I expect they ever will. I don't really care to play a female character, as I've done that in past games and it just doesn't work for me. I'm a RP'er, I prefer to play my own gender, I know that a lot better than the opposite. As for why I went with Miqo'te over another race, the design of Elezen does not appeal to me, Au Ra Males fall into the same facial category issues as Highlander males, and I paid my dues as far as the short races go by spending my FFXI career as a Tarutaru.

tl;dr - I play mages and I like my characters to reflect that by being small (to human standards), not-muscular, and since there aren't any options to make an old wizard type, I also go with the youthful look, preferably somewhere between 20 and 28. In this case, Male Miqo'te is my only option.

The "I don't want to look at a man/woman butt" excuse... well children its as old as mmos. And in its time has always been a lame excuse. People should have the strength of character to just say... I want to try another gender. Beimg honest is important especially to yourself. Faining some imaginary sexual attraction to a poorly rendered toon is no better then beating it to a Disney cartoon.

Its bs... it really is to say "i wanna see the hotz girl butt" and really calls your character into question a lot more then just saying... "i wanted to try the opposite out, see what its like." There is no shame in that. Claiming you wanna pant to a miqo'te ass is far more embarrassing then the truth.


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On topic I play a male highlander because i am a male of nordic and german decent and am comfortable in that setting. Also I was ripped like a highlander ages ago so I enjoy my fantasy space where I am strong again and not addled by illness.