I was once handed a princess to use as a playable character in my first text-based chat roleplaying game with 3-5 other people of girls and boys.
It quickly grew on me and I started using girls more often as my playing character from then on.

I won't deny that looking at them could be generally nicer, but I believe it's not the main reason. At least when it comes to text roleplaying, I like to (try) think and behave like a lady in games, to roleplay in their world of view. It's neat in its own way and I love the immersion when it hits me!

I just want you to know there are pills which are fairly easy to get your hands on which if you take will make your skin softer and cause you to grow breasts.

If that sounds intriguing to you, I further inform you there exist many people who happily take these pills for the entirety of their lives and the kind of person who would want to take such a substance is in no way a freak.

But yeah, girl avatars can do sick acrobatics, huh?

Well, for one, I play role playing games. So, I like to experience different roles, different ways of thinking, and playing as someone like FemShep or female V in Cyberpunk offers a much different perspective on life than if I played as a male. I’m a male, I go outside as a male, why do the same thing in gaming?

And for a second reason, if I’m playing a third person shooter why would I (a straight male) want to stare at a man’s ass for 120ish hours?

I don’t go deep into role play stuff. My character is a character, not me. In games where it’s “pick a man or a woman” only I’ll tend to pick women because the voice actors are often better and you can better “play barbie” with character customization, plus of course the cliche reason.

With games that allow full customization I’ll often make androgynous/non-binary characters with various dials at either extreme trying to break the character builder.

I prefer playing characters as little like me as possible. If there’s a non-human option, I will always take it. The further from human available. Weird alien race? That’s my jam.

If I have to be a human, I’ll often play a female character because it’s the furthest from ‘me’ I can get within those constraints. I’ll also usually play a character of a race I am not, for this same reason.

I don’t mind what sex my character is, my character is not me and I don’t see why I would mind what sex my character is. Like, especially in a video game, the scenario is usually quite fantastic and nothing that my character does (e.g. acrobatics, shooting, running for more than 18 seconds without collapsing out of breath, etc.) gives me a sense that they are a version of me. My character should be whatever the writers thought would be most appropriate for the themes or story or whatever.

(I did not watch the linked video)

There’s an absurd gender dimorphism in most games where every guy is a mountain of muscles by default. I don’t enjoy that body type - for myself, as a 5’5 dude, or even romantically - and women are usually on the softer, thinner side, so I tend to pick them at first.

If its a game where I can easily change genders, I’ll flip around to my tastes, depending on which clothing looks better on whatnot. - Aliens:Fireteam Elite and Dragon Quest Builders 2 come to mind as examples that did that. Also games with intricate character creators, like Saint’s Row (RIP) are welcome, but rare.

Eastern games tend to have softer men, so those tend to be exceptions. I recall picking male options in both Genshin and Path To Nowhere, and I usually enjoy the male leads in jRPGs.

I mix it up and play a wide variety of character genders, races, ethnicities and species. Whatever catches my eye during character creation for the most part, and if I replay a game I actively pick something different on different play throughs as it is a reminder that I'm playing this character instead of a different character.

So I don't actively or exclusively play female characters for a significant reason, just aesthetics of the game.

I think of my characters in games as “stand alone”, and I don’t really care about the gender I’m playing as.

Specific reasons to play women: women:

• Cyberpunk 2077: Judy Alvarez is more appealing to me than Panam Palmer. (Although I have to dig up my first playthrough (male V) since the Kerry Eurodyne questline seems to be good).
• When I started playing Fortnite with some others, someone jokingly gave me the Heidi-skin. Except for certain quests, I keep using that skin.

I don’t always play female characters, but I can think of a few reasons:

• With rare exceptions I just prefer how the female characters look, be it prettier or cuter, they usually have way better character customization than the male counterparts.
• Female clothing and equipment in games also just look more stylish and flamboyant, especially in Japanese ones.
• And honestly I just like playing as someone different from me, if I can’t choose to be an alien or whatever, then the next best thing is a woman.

It depends on the game, character etc. I mean I suppose it adds to the escapism slightly?

I play all sorts of different games though, some where you're not given the choice (Life Is Strange for example) and I don't feel like it's that big a deal