Forgive that abysmally short opening paragraph. To summarize the campaign statements of politicians: I'll try to do better next time.
Stereotypes.
I'm gonna get this out of the way as soon as possible. The generic and mostly untrue reason for people playing as the opposite gender is because "they don't want to stare at virtual (opposite gender here)-ass for 30+ hours." I don't think this at all, but I can at least assume that most men don't exactly want to look at man-ass at all, ever, regardless of whether it's a video game or a rather unfortunate outing at a department store. Another stereotypical reason is from article I once read that claimed that men play as women in games so they can have the feeling of dominance over a woman. This also is a stupid observation that doesn't exactly accomplish anything other than annoy and/or aggravate people who don't have such low levels of respect. Well that's it for gamer stereotypes. I'm moving on now to stereotypes within game characters.
This should prove to be a lot of fun.
Stereotypical Game Dudes.
Prime specimens: Duke Nukem, Marcus Fenix, the Master Chief, Kratos, Dovahkiin, etc, etc, etc...
Well, the most blatantly stereotypical male character in any video game ever would probably have to be Duke Nukem, who was recently killed by a flying turd called Duke Nukem Forever (funfact: that was a pun since you can actually throw turds in that game). I'll have a article about how bad Gearbox is at making games later though, so let's stick to the topic. Men in many video games are often muscular, beefy-armed guys who love nothing more than to tote around a big weapon. They don't always have very good stories either. Marcus Fenix has little to no dynamic to his character; he is a hulking mass of pure badass with bad history who totes around a chainsaw gun. That just screams MANLY MAN'S MAN, but it's not manly enough; he must also have a muscular buildup that renders his physique disproportionate with human anatomy. Master Chief has a more developed character, and some dynamic within the limits of his role, but he too is a hulking mass of badassery who totes around a gun and is ridiculously strong. Duke Nukem is a muscular (but proportionate) man who really focuses on nothing more than himself and chicks. Dovahkiin from The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim does nothing more than run around with an axe and stare stoically whenever he's not moving. He also boasts muscly muscles. The male version of Commander Shepard is a stereotypical grunt with a buzzcut and a bad smile who in my opinion could have had a better voice actor.
Stereotypical Game Girls.
Prime examples: Lollipop Chainsaw girl, Oerba di Vanille, pre-2013 Lara Croft, Ada Wong
Well I couldn't pull a large number of stereotypical female characters off the top of my head but here they are, listed above. There are two stereotypical game girls: the ones who are more or less eye candy, or the ones who are too naive to understand the gravity of whatever plotline they're in. Lollipop Chainsaw girl and Lara Croft (before the reboot, mind you) were pretty good examples of eye candy because that's all they really were, regardless of storyline. Oerba di Vanille from Final Fantasy XIII (again, a rant for another time) is extremely naive and also eye candy, because Final Fantasy doesn't and will never know how to not make women eye candy. And when I say naive I mean to the point of insanity. She's borderline oblivious, although she seems to have at least a general idea of what's going on, to her credit. I just don't like her as a character. Ada Wong is a badass zombie slayer in an Asian show-style dress. I don't know much about her character so feel free to correct me if I'm mistaken. But yeah. Also the female version of Noble Six from Halo: Reach since all of the female Spartans in that game suffer from a ridiculously emphasized posterior (to be fair she has a good voice actor).
Seriously how did this even leave the drawing board?
So why actually play the opposite gender?
I will give a couple reasons from a guy's perspective since I cannot speak for women. One reason is because female characters aside from the ones mentioned above often have more interesting and well-crafted stories that don't involve moving your misshapen muscular hulk of a body around corridors blasting the shit out of everything. Take Claire Farron (aka Lightning) from Final Fantasy XIII. She's a sergeant in the military who is forced to rebel in order to save her younger sister from being hunted down as a threat as a result of an accident. She also has a pretty nice backstory given in the Thirteen Days subplot of the game in which you discover that she's vulnerable underneath the callous and battle-hardened exterior.
Also Commander Shepard from Mass Effect. I have no clue why but the story for me just seems to fit better if Shepard is female. Also coupled with the fact that femShep can smile without looking like a pedophile, and also is voiced by Jennifer Hale, a kind of celebrity among video game voice actors. Also sometimes the story calls for it anyway (such as the official canon for Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II listing the main character as a female named Meetra Surik). Other reasons could simply be because male stereotypes in certain games don't fit the character. If you wanted a stealthy ranger or thief, wouldn't a walking tank with an epic beard seem a little out of place? (looking at you Skyrim).
---CONCLUSION---
Shepard looking cool.... above.
Shepard not looking cool.... below.
...sweet Jesus.
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