History Main / GameFavoredGender

* The erotic strategy game ''Daiakuji'' features a RelationshipValues system that causes units to leave the player's forces if their loyalty falls below a certain level. While male units must be payed money to increase their loyalty, female units can have their loyalty increased by sleeping with them, which can be done for free. The player's gross income is calculated every few turns, and the game will automatically end if they do not have the funds needed to pay off their army's expenses, making money an invaluable resource that can't be thrown around carelessly. As a trade-off, male units on average have better combat stats than females do, making defeating enemies easier. Overall, female units are generally BoringButPractical and more economically efficient to have around while male units are DifficultButAwesome and require more effort to maintain. [[MechanicallyUnusualClass There are select exceptions to these broad differences for both genders]], however, including [[OnlyInItForTheMoney female units that can't be slept with and must be payed money to raise their loyalty]], [[UndyingLoyalty male units that do not lose loyalty at all]], [[ActionGirl female units with excellent combat abilities]], and [[NonActionGuy male units that are poorly-suited for fighting]].

* This was one of the main criticisms of ''Literature/LeftBehind: Eternal Forces'', although it's very much in keeping with the values of [[WriterOnBoard the books]] and [[TheFundamentalist their writers]]. In the game, you can "convert" members of either sex to your cause and give them an occupation. While male characters can become Builders, Soldiers, Medics, Disciples, and Musicians, women characters can only become Medics (though not as effectively as males) and Musicians (more effectively than males, but not a [[SpoonyBard particularly useful class in the first place]]). This means the best strategy is to convert as many men as soon as possible, and only convert women when there is no other option. Later patches would grant female characters more abilities, but still not at all comparable to males.

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'', in the West, men have an advantage in that the storm mothers usually don't hate them, while to avoid their ship-sinking attentions women have to have red hair, join the Tya, or - should they be Exalted - kick the crap out of any storm mother who screws with them until they get the hint.

Contrast with PurelyAestheticGender. Compare GenderIncompetence. May lead to WomenAreWiser or MenAreBetterThanWomen. Sometimes one is better early and the other better late, in LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards fashion.

** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'' has some gender-exclusive classes. Only male units can become Brawlers, Grapplers, Dark Mages, Dark Bishops, Heroes, and War Masters; this list is strength-focused, and includes every student-available, Gauntlet-focused class except for War Monk/Cleric from the Cindered Shadows DLC. Only units, on the other hand, can become Pegasus Knights, Falcon Knights, and Gremories, plus the Cindered Shadows DLC's Dark Flyers and Valkyries; this list is magic-focused, and also contains both the only flying class available before Level 20, and the only flying mage class.

** Women also have two powerful accessories exclusive to them: the "Ribbon", which negates all StandardStatusAilments, and Chantage, which [[NighInvulnerability gives the wearer persistent Reraise and Regen.]] The only exceptions are the main character and Cloud, the latter presumably being a ShoutOut to his crossdressing subquest in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII''. To top it all off, women cost slightly less to recruit (due to their initial equipment).

** The remake, ''New Mystery of the Emblem'', zigzags this. The Lady Sword and Nosferatu return, albeit with the former's effective damage removed, but the game's class change mechanics are both very unusual and gender-dependent, making things more unusual. More or less, the game divides classes into three categories: Male Set A (accessed by about half the male cast), Male Set B (the other half), and Female Set (the female cast). Female Set contains all the same classes as Male Set A, plus Pegasus Knight (the only unpromoted flying class) and General after promotion (normally a Set B class), making it superior. However, on a NewGamePlus, male characters can now reclass into Set A ''and'' Set B, giving them strictly more options, including the HorseArcher class and everything that uses axes before promotion. The Female Set still has enough variety to cover most needs (the fastest class, the best bow class, the mounted and flying classes, the magic classes) and many female characters are more than strong enough to not need the extra classes, but it's enough that many recommend making the Avatar male, especially since Fighter and Knight are in Set B and tend to be best at handling [[EarlyGameHell the prologue]].

* In some ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' games, {{cap}}s are universal for all [[FantasyCharacterClasses classes]], but in others (including [[NoExportForYou all the ones released outside Japan]]) each class has unique caps. The latter also give men and women of the same class slighty different caps (About 1-2 point difference). Generally, men have higher Strength and Defense (Useful stats where every point counts and helps) while women have higher Skill and Resistence (Secondary stats where a few points won't make a difference). Men also have higher Constitution, which on some games helps to avoid losing Speed from heavier weapons (In others doesn't and having more has both pros and cons) - but women have a higher [[OneStatToRuleThemAll Speed]]. However, this is barely noticeable until endgame and even then, unless you're doing CharacterTiers, they aren't too big of a factor. Furthermore, while caps are gender-dependent, stat growth is character-dependent and that makes about as much of an impact as caps do. So at the end men are favored but not by a big deal.
** It should, however, be noted that magic-using classes have the advantages reversed -- just replace strength with magic.
** Though ''Mystery of the Emblem'' and its remake go the opposite route with the Lady Sword. It's female-only, and it's a ''major'' DiskOneNuke. (Especially in the original, where it did massive damage to Thieves and Bandits, which made up about 90% of the early-game enemies.)
** Female units also tend to have a higher cap for [[OneStatToRuleThemAll the speed stat]], so it's pretty well balanced.
*** Mage units who are male units tend to have a higher cap for Speed than female units in a magic class, presumably because magic-using classes have the advantages reversed as noted above.

* ''{{Webcomic/Homestuck}}'': At least half of the male-dominated Classes have intentionally ridiculous designs for their [[PhysicalGod God Tier outfits]], while female-dominated Classes lack any intentional flaws in their designs. According to WordOfGod, one can potentially modify their God Tier outfit, meaning [[{{Irony}} the fashion-ignorant boys have to suddenly design new outfits.]][[note]]No, that's not a sexist assumption; females in Homestuck are generally more fashion-conscious than males.[[/note]]

** Early forms of the game had different attribute caps for strength depending on gender, only allowing males to reach the human cap of 18/00 while limiting females to 18/50, with females never really getting anything to compensate. Then again, [[HonestRollsCharacter when a character is generated according to the rules]], even a male only has a 1-in-450 chance of getting above 18/50 strength, so this isn't much of a functional disadvantage.
** The former trope name of "-4 Str" stems from a memetic misremembering of an optional rule from the 1st edition of ''Advanced Dngeons & Dragons'', where {{demihuman}} females were penalized Strength points depending on their race; -1 for dwarf women, -2 for elf women, and -3 for gnome & halfling women.
** A minor advantage for female characters in early editions was that some creatures have magic powers (mostly charm or beguiling) that works only on a specific gender, and those targeting males are more prevalent than the reverse. Thus, a woman would be immune to the influence of several feminine monsters (notably Kelpies, Nymphs, Nereids, Harpies...) while rarely the subject of such (like the hypnotic music of a Satyr...). How much this would come into play depends entirely of the GM, of course. Starting with 3rd Edition, those powers tend to affect both sexes.

** In ''TabletopGame/{{Planescape}}'', the bariaur race is actually split into subraces based on gender. The horned males are bigger and stronger; they get a +1 to Strength and Constitution, have a minimum ability score of 10 Strength and 11 Constitution, possess the ability to make deadly headbutt and charge attacks with their horns, and can take Ranger and Paladin class levels. Females, however, [[WomenAreWiser are smarter]] (+1 Intelligence & Wisdom, minimum 9 Intelligence and 11 Wisdom), are more resistant to spells, are less likely to be surprised, and are the only gender who can take levels in wizard... in an edition that defined the LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards trope. So, males will survive low-level games better, but females will ultimately overpower them.

** Most times, the gender of a Pokémon doesn't really matter unless you're breeding them. But some Pokémon evolve differently, depending on what gender they are. While every Snorunt is able to evolve into Glalie, only females can evolve into Frosslass. And then there's Combee and Salandit; only the females can evolve into Vespiquen and Salazzle respectively, while the males never evolve, which makes them extremely useless. There are other Pokemon that are required to be male to evolve. Gallade isn't necessarily better than Gardevoir but only male Kirlia have the option of becoming one. Kirlia can also evolve into Gallade as soon as it becomes a Kirlia, but you must wait until it's level 30 to get a Gardevoir.
** When breeding Pokémon, the baby is always the same species as its mother,[[note]]save for when one of the parents is a Ditto, whereupon the baby will be the species of whichever parent is not a Ditto[[/note]] but may inherit moves from its father. Thus, it is preferred to use the limited-quantity Technical Machines on males, so that other Pokémon can inherit the move. TM moves in Generation V still kept their inheritance qualities even though Technical Machines gained infinite use, making this largely irrelevant.
** The second generation of Pokémon, to maintain backward compatibility when trading to and from the first generation, derived certain aspects of a Pokémon from its individual statistics -- gender was based on whether the individual's physical attack power was higher or lower than average for its species, with males being the stronger sex. This was addressed in the third generation by separating a Pokémon's gender from its statistics, and using a hidden "personality value" to determine other individual factors (such as coloration). Ironically, this also meant that if a Pokémon hurt itself in confusion, females endured slightly less damage than males.
** Though not an inherent weakness in gender, the general predominance of male Pokémon in battles gives females with "Attract" or "Cute Charm" a distinct seductive advantage. Of course, this can be inverted if a ''male'' Pokémon with those abilities is put up against a majority of ''female'' opponents. More of a [[{{Metagame}} metagaming]] point, but due to the fact that most of the [[CharacterTiers upper-tier]] {{Mons}} with gender overwhelmingly favor being male, competitive battlers that use seduction abilities get more use out of females when using them. It's generally not given much attention due to how infrequent such builds are (plus the fact that, regardless of the gender in question, any one of the multiple [[NoBiologicalSex genderless]] critters will stop the strategy cold).
** In the first two ''VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeon'' games, your hero's species is determined by a PlayerPersonalityQuiz and gender. Certain mons are only playable as one gender, which is especially evident in ''[[VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeon Explorers of Sky]]''. There, only males can be a Phanpy, Shinx or Riolu, while only females can be Vulpix, Skitty or Eevee.

** Invoked through a reference to real-life bees by [[BeeAfraid Combee and Vespiquen]]. Combee is a pretty useless Pokémon, but only females can evolve into Vespiquen. And there's a gender ratio of 7:1, males to females.
*** ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon'' follows up on this with Salandit; only females can evolve into Salazzle, and once again they have a 7:1 male[=/=]female gender ratio.

* In ''VideoGame/HarvestMoon3'' on the Game Boy Color, playing as a female cut short the length of the game. Once you got married, the game ended right then and there, and you couldn't keep running your farm. (The same thing happened in ''VideoGame/HarvestMoonBackToNature for Girls'' on the PS 1.) Male characters could keep playing, and even have children -- no such luck for girls. However, in the male version of ''VideoGame/HarvestMoonDS'', marriage to a town girl ended the game, while in the female version marriage to a town guy allowed you to keep playing, effectively giving female characters access to an additional five candidates to which males did not have access. Later games in the series are more egalitarian; for other handheld games, the female versions even included fixes of some [[GameBreakingBug Game Breaking Bugs]].
** The girl version of ''Harvest Moon DS'' even allowed you to [[GayOption choose a female as a life partner]] and even be blessed by the Harvest Goddess with a child... [[{{Bowdlerize}} in Japan]].

** Female characters get a one-point strength penalty and a one-point constitution bonus. While this is a very minor matter, choosing to play as a female of a race that doesn't get a strength boost ''does'' prevent attaining 20 strength and the giant damage bonus that comes with it, making the female option somewhat less desirable if you want to play a melee fighter. This is remedied by the "Tomboy" background, which gives female characters the male stats.
** Getting 20 constitution only gives you immunity to poison, which is a far less useful perk. On the other hand, constitution governs your mana pool, which means females can be used for efficient mage builds. Female characters can thus [[GuysSmashGirlsShoot select to be mages]] and use their slightly higher constitution scores to [[LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards completely disintegrate melee fighters at twenty paces.]]

* Despite being "canonically" male, the female option in the first ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' has more dialogue options available, a GayOption romance, and a {{Take a Third Option}} ending (which you can access by modifying a single line of code). The second game, despite the "canonical" gender being female, was the opposite. Male players recruited the Handmaiden, who was a truckload of {{Fanservice}}, had much more extensive CharacterDevelopment, and accessed some very interesting abilities. Females recruited the Disciple... who could have his entire DialogueTree exhausted in a single conversation, and most of the special abilities he granted were DummiedOut. The cut content-induced bias in the second game led to the canonical situation being established as one that [[ThirdOptionAdaptation cannot exist in an unmodified game]]: the Exile was female, but she travelled with both the Handmaiden and the Disciple.

* ''VideoGame/OracleOfTao'' has an interesting variation of this. The male version of this is played straight (for the most part) with the two warriors of the game, while females have more versatility. In the later game, with better levels and gear, men can come out ahead, especially with some of the combo attacks from weapons. Usually, though, physical attack is lacking due to weapon availability in the early game, while in terms of magical damage, it's just a matter of ElementalRockPaperScissors. Also, most of the females (and [[DudeLooksLikeALady one very androgynous male]]) have the ability to wear dresses, most of which provide elemental protection not found on heavy armor. Worse, many of the females can ''also'' wear heavy armor and use swords. So this would be technically a female-biased game, despite the advantages. The solution for male characters? [[WigDressAccent Disguising yourself as a girl in a changing room, and then putting on the female armor.]] Doing this suddenly makes the game male-biased (if you can still call it that), since now they have the decent attacks, plus the decent armor.
* In ''VideoGame/ThreeDDotGameHeroes'', males get extra sword power, and females get reduced casting cost for magic. Given how often you'll likely be casting the Freeze spell late in the game, this arguably gives males an initial advantage, and females a late-game advantage. And if you don't like it, you can change your gender any time you load a saved game.

* ''VideoGame/DemonsSouls'' is an interesting case. Judging purely from the number of gender-specific special armors, males have it better, with Saint set, Venerable Sage set, the badass looking Shaman set, Dark Silver set and the Old King set, which makes defeating that OptionalBoss all the more rewarding. However, female-exclusive armors are easier and can be obtained earlier, such as the Old Ragged Robes set (minus the Witch's Hat), and if the conditions are right, a female character can access the powerful and lightweight Binded Cross set. The majority of armors, and especially the starting armors are unisex, and since starting classes only affects starting stats, any gender can become almost any build they wish. One can certainly see a female character dual-wielding Berserk-style {{BFS}}es with no penalties just fine. However, only female characters can wear the Silver Bracelets, which increase the amount of souls you gain from killing enemies, meaning that female characters will get soul levels faster than male characters.

** In the first game, there are two incredibly powerful unlockable character classes that eclipse everything else. One is male only, one is female only. The male class is unquestionably superior in just about every conceivable way. Note that in ''Disgaea'', you can [[GenderBender change the sex]] of PlayerMooks very easily. Also, the female class has the (admitedly very small) advantage of being able to learn magic on her own, though the male class can learn it too through other methods. That is more because the Majin class is PurposelyOverpowered and coincidentally male. Until they become available, the genders are mostly balanced, save that women get Ronins, which are exceedingly good front-line fighters until near the end of the game. Also the unlock requirements are a lot less stringent for Ronins (2 starting classes whose total level is greater than 20) than it is for Majins. (you need to get half a dozen classes over level 200, many of which need to be unlocked themselves) So it's relatively easy have Ronins in your party fairly early in the game, while Majin will require quite a bit of grinding to get and will likely only be available in the post-game.
*** Actually, most of the first game's classes are slightly bent in favor of girls. Male and female have different stat affinities, with the girls having higher affinities in their defensive stats while guys have a higher affinity in their secondary offensive stat. Meaning that unless you really want that warrior to cast spells, his female equivalent will be more effective.
** In ''VideoGame/{{Disgaea 2|CursedMemories}}'', generic male monsters have an advantage over the female ones as they aren't subject to gender specific Dark Sun effects, as well as some other ones that are supposed to affect both genders, due to the fact that they're erroneously considered to be genderless for gameplay purposes; a luxury that unique male monsters like Tink and Taro don't have. Oddly, they still get boosted by effects that increase the strength of males.

** All of the main sequence of games up through ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]]'' have different stats for male and females. This is most obvious with the main attributes, which generally swap 10 points in one attribute for another, although exactly what is swapped varies between games. The only consistent part is that when Strength was involved, men are always favored (at least for playable races); all other stats could go either way. ''Skyrim'' no longer has stat differences between the genders.

*** Females have it slightly easier to finish the main quest - there is one point where [[DoesNotLikeMen a certain character]] has to be convinced to support you. Females can simply walk up and ask, and get four expensive scrolls as an added bonus, while males have to make an active effort to make her accept you and only gets one of those scrolls.

** Females also tend to have a higher cap for [[OneStatToRuleThemAll the speed stat]], so it's pretty well balanced.
*** Mage units who are males tend to have a higher cap for Speed than females in a magic class, presumably because magic-using classes have the advantages reversed as noted above.

** In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'', females get access to Galeforce, a skill which allows a unit to move again after a kill on the player phase, while males get Dread Fighter, a class which offers one good skill and one GameBreaker godly one that boosts their attack on player phase. Coupled with a myriad different ways to break the game besides those skills, and the fact that each unit has different class sets and modifiers, gender has less of an effect on whether a unit is good in this game.

*** Yet again, the general consensus among the metagame seems to be that the female Avatar is best because they always recommend pairing the avatar with a second-gen anyway, as they consider having two overpowered children to be an inferior option to having one vastly overpowered child AND allowing every single child character to be paired up romantically. And since the female Avatar has Galeforce and therefore Morgan can inherit it no matter who his father is, they consider female to be the way to go.

*** While this would seem to make the female Avatar thus the GameFavoredGender, they're actually ''both'' favored in different ways: The female Avatar has the freedom to marry whoever she wants without consequence (whereas the male renders one child {{Permanently Missable|Content}} if he marries a first-generation non-Avatarsexual), but the male has twice as many gender-exclusive DLC classes as the female, and the best female-only skill, [[GameBreaker Warp]], is available to males through a Warp Scroll (whereas most of the male-exclusive skills are not available to females).
*** In addition, many of the previously-gender-exclusive classes like Pegasus Warriors and Axe Fighters are now gender-neutral, so males can finally pick up Galeforce without having to inherit it ([[HilariousInHindsight amusingly]], this also includes [[PreviousPlayerCharacterCameo Robin]], the ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' version of ''Awakening's'' Avatar, who previously couldn't get it).

*** Said ability is also available to any unit that uses an Exalt's Brand to gain Lucina's class; this class is exclusive to females, and is one of the few truly gender-locked skills since, like Warp for males, many of the skills exclusive to the male-only classes can be acquired through scrolls as well.

** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'' has some gender-exclusive classes. Only males can become Brawlers, Grapplers, Dark Mages, Dark Bishops, Heroes, and War Masters; this list is strength-focused, and includes every student-available, Gauntlet-focused class except for War Monk/Cleric from the Cindered Shadows DLC. Only females, on the other hand, can become Pegasus Knights, Falcon Knights, and Gremories, plus the Cindered Shadows DLC's Dark Flyers and Valkyries; this list is magic-focused, and also contains both the only flying class available before Level 20, and the only flying mage class.

** There are minor stats differences between males and females during character creations. Men get +1 to Strength and Charisma, woman get +1 to Agility and Intelligence. And even your stat and skill bonus vary a bit if your are male or female (namely you get different bonus if your father was a noble or a nomad, and females can't choose the "Squire" occupations and males can't pick "Lady in Waiting".

** Males and females also have different mechanics for marriage. Males can easily find a ''potential'' spouse; most of the time, they just need a good relationship with her father, but there is a long process of courtship to actually get married, which involves things like tournaments, honorable duels, and poetry. Also, unless the Lady has the personality type where they'll agree with their father's choice, you may have to please both her ''and'' her father. That's not even going into other, usually more established Lords interested in the same Lady. Meanwhile, females have a much harder time finding a potential spouse on account of their unorthodox career path (which is to say, any career). Once an open-minded enough Lord is found, though, you can just ask them to marry you (although they still have to like you to for them to say yes). This means you only need to raise your relationship level with one person, and since the Ladies don't really have varying levels of status, there's not really much of a threat of competition. At least, none of the kind that will challenge you to a duel.
*** On top of that, females marrying a noble get automatic vassalage in the faction that the noble is affiliated with, and it also opens up some rather fun options including convincing him to make certain political decisions or even start a full-on revolt against his faction. Males pretty much just get a status boost since you usually have to get to some level of title to be accepted for marriage.
* ''VideoGame/OgreBattle'', [[GuysSmashGirlsShoot males focus mostly on melee classes, while females focus mostly on ranged classes]], with some exception (The male wizard/sorcerer/lich and the female Dragoner / Dragonmaster). Note however that the widely regarded most powerful class is the female-only Princess, which can use white-elemental magic (as most enemies are more vulnerable to it), and which gives one extra attack to the entire party if made party leader.

* ''Franchise/StreetFighter'' has been rather infamous for how it treats both genders, where males tend to do more damage per hit and have more HP while females tending to get more movement abilities to get around the opponent's tricks but having less health than males on average. This has worked both ways in the franchise's existence such as in ''VideoGame/StreetFighterXTekken'' every single female character having below average HP to low health in the final version and no Tekken male having less than average. This leads to more male characters being considered top tier and the acceptance using a female means more quick losses. In 'VideoGame/StreetFighterV'' however due to the better abilities of females smaller more fragile girls such as Ibuki and Karin have been higher tier than Ryu and Ken for example and despite having around 125 less health Mika has been used more than Zangief.
* A more balanced example from the previously stated ''VideoGame/{{Maplestory}}'' comes with it's Nova classes. Only males could become Kaisers while Angelic Busters are for girls only. In terms of story Kaiser is the main hero of the Novas and is their pride and joy while Angelic Buster does help, she is generally considered an inferior savior compared to said Kaiser. In terms of gameplay Kaiser has fluctuated in power generally being {{nerf}}ed while Angelic Buster is constantly one of the highest damage potential classes in the game.

Sometimes a game designer wants to have the player's choice of gender be more than [[PurelyAestheticGender purely aesthetic.]] So, the designer adds things that makes males play different from females, such as adding [[ChainmailBikini gender-specific armor]], [[AnAdventurerIsYou gender-specific character classes]], and so on.

Used to be named "Minus Four Strength"[[note]]A WikiWord version of "-4 STR")[[/note]], a tabletop RPG [[MemeticMutation meme]] where female characters would sometimes be given a stiff penalty to the strength stat. While men still tend to get better stats for straight-up melee [[LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards that has a tendency of becoming less effective compared to alternative methods]] as demonstrated by pretty much everything in Females Favoured section. Thus it's not exactly surprising that most video game [=RPGs=] tend to favor women.

!!Males Favored

* At least one ProfessionalWrestling RPG did this too, if your female fought a male. Oddly, the Wrestling/{{WWE}} licenced game only did this with weight. And as weight can be assigned (and substitutes for "race" in other [=RPGs=]), there really isn't anything (aside from snarky [=GMs=]) stopping you from building a heavyweight title contender who somehow has Testicular Fortitude without any testicles.
* In ''TabletopGame/TheGreenlandSaga'' by Avalanche Press, females get -3 Strength, +1 Dexterity and +1 Constitution, with a sidebar saying (not a paraphrase) that "Life is not fair. Deal with it."

* In ''TabletopGame/LaceAndSteel'', male characters have more options by the rules as written, as female characters are automatically forced to slight their Strength (and favor another stat; males can choose their favored/slighted attributes freely) and generally pigeonholed into social gameplay roles. The book's suggested fix for this discrepancy is playing a [[{{Matriarchy}} Harpy]].

* ''VideoGame/WarhammerOnline''
** There are three specifically male-only classes and only one female-only class. Then there's the entire greenskin race, which is technically genderless, being fungoid in origin, but the orcs and goblins are always referred to with male pronouns.
** The Chosen from the heavily male-dominated tribes of Norsca are the [[PunnyName chosen]] warriors of their god Tzeentch, the run-of-the-mill warriors of which make up the also male-only Marauder class. So why would a genderless ever-changing cloud of color (not color gas or something, just color) care about gender? The official reason why this was the case was that they couldn't get female Chosen looking scary enough.
** The "favoured gender" does change along racial lines, though - if you choose to play as a Dark Elf then a female will have more classes to choose from, while a Chaos character will have more male-only classes.

* This was one of the main criticisms of ''Literature/LeftBehind: Eternal Forces'', although it's very much in keeping with the values of [[WriterOnBoard the books]] and [[TheFundamentalist their writers]]. In the game, you can "convert" members of either sex to your cause and give them an occupation. While male characters can become Builders, Soldiers, Medics, Disciples, and Musicians, women characters can only become Medics (though not as effectively as males) and Musicians (more effectively than males, but not a [[SpoonyBard particularly useful class in the first place]]). This means the best strategy is to convert as many males as soon as possible, and only convert females when there is no other option. Later patches would grant female characters more abilities, but still not at all comparable to males.

* In some versions of the third game of ''VideoGame/TheBardsTaleTrilogy'', one NighInvulnerable character class is only available to males. This is only because this class is only available by [[OldSaveBonus importing from the previous game]]... before it was possible to generate a female character (some ports did not have the import functionality, meaning ''no one'' could get the class). Fixing this by making it possible to have females from game 1 was one of the reasons for the 2018 remaster.

* The original ''VideoGame/BaldursGate2'' had ''three'' love interests available for a male PC, and only one for a female - and he's TheScrappy, to boot. User mods have since adjusted the balance.

* In ''VideoGame/ArkSurvivalEvolved'', player characters will grow out their hair over time, and this hair can be harvested as a crafting material. Males produce more hair than females because their beards can be harvested additionally.

* The ''WWE Day Of Reckoning'' series has a mix of how you can and cannot customize personal appearance with males coming out with much more options in the end. Game play wise, stats and weight have the same effect no matter the gender but only males can get the points necessary to surpass the base stat cap in a mode exclusive to them. [[LoopholeAbuse You can train up a male created wrestler's stats as high as you want them to be then reset the body type to female to get women around the cap though]], so long as you take them out of story mode. This means men are not quite as favored in exhibitions as they are in aesthetics and playable modes.

** ''VideoGame/CrusaderKingsII'' is a simulation of geopolitics in the TheMiddleAges, and so handing your country[=/=]dynasty over to a female monarch carries some harsh penalties: even a male ruler will take an opinion hit from vassals for having a female heir, and female rulers suffer opinion penalties from vassals ''and'' can freely have claimants attack them for their title(s). Depending on the starting state of your realm it can also be difficult to even get a woman to inherit in the first place unless you meddle with your inheritance laws: only a few combinations of culture, religion, and government are permitted to enact absolute cognatic inheritance[[note]]i.e. females and males are equally able to inherit[[/note]], and none permit women to inherit first. Female characters also cannot take advantage of polygamy mechanics, and merchant republics and Islamic nations do not (and cannot) allow female characters to inherit. Averted in some of the expansions, however:

*** ''Holy Fury'' adds the ability to reform pagan faiths to hold to the doctrine of Enatic Clans, which removes the penalty for having a female ruler and locks them to enatic succession (eg. females only inherits. The succession system ''existed'' prior to ''Holy Fury'' -- along with Enatic-Cognatic, eg. females inherits before males -- but there was no way to actually get them without mods).

** In ''VideoGame/EuropaUniversalis'', set in the Age of Exploration, female heirs (in the nations that allow them) usually have weaker claim strengths than males. Also, you cannot have an empress of the UsefulNotes/HolyRomanEmpire without passing the 'pragmatic sanction' decision, which weakens imperial authority.

** However, given the novelty (at the time) and popularity of the romantic subplots for both primary female characters, this may well have been introduced in order to give players ''some'' reason to put the male characters in their party.

* ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline'' sometimes takes flak on its forums for having no female versions of several Klingon Defense Force species, namely Nausicaans, Letheans, and Gorn. The typical argument that these never had females shown in canon is immediately countered with the fact that Cryptic ''did'' make female versions of several Federation species, as well as completely making up the [[CatFolk Ferasans]] KDF-side. Though at least with the Gorn, some licensed fiction indicates that, being lizards, their females are simply bigger than males, so some people just make three-meter LizardFolk and RP them as female.
* ''VideoGame/ApeEscape 3'' has two playable protagonists, a male and a female. The male protagonist can run faster and jump higher than the female, allowing him to chase after monkeys more easily. As a trade off for her lower stats, the female is an IdolSinger, which causes some monkeys (fans of hers) to be overwhelmed by her presence, rendering them helpless. While this allows you to capture some monkeys without a problem, and at one point allows you to skip an entire mini boss, only a very small handful of the game's hundreds of monkeys are affected by this ability, making the male character have an easier time overall capturing monkeys than his counterpart.

** The gender of a Pokémon is based on a randomized hidden value that modifies the Attack stat; higher values often result in male Pokémon (unless the species is purely female), and thus they're physically stronger. This also had the odd side effect of making it impossible for females of some majority-male species to be shiny. This was in place to maintain compatibility with the [[VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue previous games]], in which all Pokémon save for the Nidoran families were genderless. This was dropped the next generation, and hasn't returned since.

* In ''VideoGame/PersonaQShadowOfTheLabyrinth'', a late-game quest requires you to defeat the Festival Dudes FOE(a monster that patrols the labyrinth and is generally too powerful for an average-leveled party to defeat). The Festival Dudes will occasionally heal to full unless you follow specific guidelines- since they are a group of four men, you must face them with a group of four for a fair fight. Unfortunately, this condition requires four ''men'', which means that you can't include any females in your party.

* ''VideoGame/{{Siren}}'' allows the males to climb higher ledges, use more complicated weaponry, navigate quicker, and just be more fun to play. The ladies on the other hand move slower, can only use knives/semi automatic pistols to defend themselves, die faster, and can't climb nearly as high ledges (with the height limit being around her hips). In stages with both males and females, the player will always play as a male and have to protect the lady, and also help her up ledges she can't climb herself. When it is a solo female mission, the player has to find long alternate routes where a male could have just passed the road normally.

!!Females Favored

[[folder:Card Games]]
* Several ''TabletopGame/{{Munchkin}}'' games give more benefits to women than men in terms of female-exclusive items. Your sex is whatever sex you actually are (unless you explicitly say otherwise), but there are cards that [[GenderBender Gender Bend]] players. Official T-shirts, when worn by a player, can cause the player to be considered a specific sex while worn, overriding the primary effect of such cards. T-shirts are removable during play. Notably, this means the advantage here of being female can be assigned a rough real-world monetary value (probably about $18 U.S.).
[[/folder]]

* Many games that have hit location systems make men more vulnerable to a GroinAttack. In ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}}'', called shots to the groin have no special effect on females, but males get double the usual pain penalties.

** In the RPG there are a small handful of schools that are only able to be attended by females, such as the Utaku Battle Maidens. There are no male-only schools.
** In the ''D&D'' version of the setting, you got two choices of bonus starting equipment based on the family you picked. Playing a male of the Utaku family lets you choose between a horse, which the fluff text restricts to female members of the family, or a naginata, a traditionally female weapon. While the rules don't prevent a male from choosing and using either, it can easily make you a target for a certain sort of DM.

* ''VideoGame/CombatArms'' has the very appropriate "[[GroinAttack nutshot]]". In previous versions it would instantly kill male characters, but [[OnlyAFleshWound only count as a regular torso hit against females]]. It's more of an EasterEgg than anything else really, since the nuts have an [[ImprobableAimingSkills incredibly small hitbox]].

* The ''VideoGame/{{Wizardry}}'' games did this, particularly starting around the sixth game. Not only did females have access to the Valkyrie class, which was generally better than the gender-neutral [[ChurchMilitant Lord]], but they also had access to a slew of armors and powerful accessories that males did not. In contrast, there is only one male-only item in the games.

** This extended into ''VideoGame/{{Wizardry}} VIII'' as well. In particular, there's some very nice magical amulets available early in the game that regenerate stamina constantly, but are only available to females. A decent male-equivalent item is not available until much, much later.
* Taking quite a bit from the ''Wizardry'' series mentioned above, ''Wizards and Warriors'' (the PC game, not NES) also had a female-only elite class. The stat differences between males and females were otherwise very small, making them not matter at all in the grand scheme of things.

** ''VideoGame/ChronoCross'' has dresses which only females can wear, all of which give sizable bonuses to magic defense.

* With the exception of the [[MonogenderMonsters male-only races]], a female character in ''VideoGame/DungeonLords'' has access to a guild with a slew of very powerful classes that could make her an exceptional [[SquishyWizard spellcaster]] or [[MagicKnight hybrid]]. Males had almost nothing to compensate for this (although it should be noted that several races were male-only).
* The free RPG ''VideoGame/HerosRealm'' also favors females, providing many sets of armor for them while providing nothing for the guys. This gets very obvious very early on, with armor like the "Leather Dress" offering more defense than the gender-neutral "Leather Armor", and spellcasting females getting access to the "Silk Robe" while the males get nothing in comparison.

** Males have a higher physical attack stat, females have a higher magic attack stat. Because it's much harder to level up magic attack (which is also [[LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards more useful]]) than physical attack, females have an advantage.
** The "Thief" class is available to either gender, but noticeably more useful to a female, due to the "Steal Heart" ability -- a high-accuracy "Charm" move that only works on the opposite gender. Very useful, and of course, the vast majority of your enemies are male. (It also works on all monster types, but let's not think too much about that...)
** Females also have two powerful accessories exclusive to them: the "Ribbon", which negates all StandardStatusAilments, and Chantage, which [[NighInvulnerability gives the wearer persistent Reraise and Regen.]] The only exceptions are the main character and Cloud, the latter presumably being a ShoutOut to his crossdressing subquest in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII''. To top it all off, females cost slightly less to recruit (due to their initial equipment).
** Carried over to the sequels; the very useful ribbon line of accessories can only be used by females, or males with a specific support ability (and you can only have one support ability at a time). Though this ends up being more of a racial divide as, excepting two characters in ''A2'', [[OneGenderRace all playable members of races only have one gender.]] As the all female Viera really only face serious competition from humans in overall ability and the all-female Gria from the 2nd game are usable in pure offense (unlike Bangaa, who are too slow), it's mostly just icing on the cake.

** Ever since ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIII'', female characters tend to enjoy more perks than males, due to the addition of gender-exclusive equipment skewed heavily towards women. Though only ''[[VideoGame/DragonQuestIII III]]'', ''[[VideoGame/DragonQuestIV IV]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/DragonQuestIX IX]]'' allow you to choose your hero's gender, later games in the series have steadily added more and more female-exclusive equipment, in the form of dresses, tiaras, bustiers, and accessories. Male-exclusive equipment tends to be of the sillier kind, like boxer shorts.
** Remakes of ''III'' included a Personality System, along with a handful of exclusive personalities (Tomboy, Amazon and Sexy for women; Lewd for men). However, only males could access an amusing EasterEgg in Assaram/Ashalam, though this had no impact on gameplay. It's worth noting that Sexy and Lewd come from answering the starting personality test the same way, but being of different gender. Lewd is mostly balanced with great stamina but weak agility & luck, but Sexy has bonuses to all stats with great agility and luck. One of the pieces of equipment added to the remake is the [[BattleBikini Sacred Bikini]], which ''rivals the hero's own special armor in defense'' and even restores HP outside of battle.
** Amusingly, ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIX'' seems to have [[LampshadeHanging hung a lampshade]] on this practice... by allowing males to equip some typically female-exclusive equipment, like the [[PlayboyBunny Bunny Suit]].
* In ''VideoGame/VampireTheMasqueradeBloodlines'', there is a Seduction stat that allows you to achieve certain goals if you are female. The stat is available to males but it is pretty much useless for a male character. Then there's the bit where you can sleep with a female NPC, but not a male NPC.
** You can sleep with both a male and female NPC, but only if you're female.
* ''VideoGame/KingdomOfLoathing'' slightly favours female characters. The handsomeness potion is twice as powerful for females, the vinyl boots confer a moxie bonus to females while males get penalized for wearing them, males similarly get penalized for eating quiche and the only gender-specific item that does not have an equivalent item for the other gender is female-only. It's not noticeable in normal play, though.\\\

* In ''VideoGame/{{Gladius}}'' there are two (plus an optional third) leagues that are required to qualify for the regional tournaments[[note]]beating these is your goal in each area[[/note]] that only allow female units to participate (to contrast, there is only one optional league that requires you field a male/female duo) and Amazons have [[GroinAttack a few]] [[ShowSomeLeg attacks]] that work only on males. Thus it is a good idea to recruit only females for your non-story units.

* ''VideoGame/MapleStory'' has a sort of meta example due to having different equipment types for males and females. Both have equal chance of dropping but the preponderance of males in the player base means that male equipment is far more expensive on the player market than female equipment.

* You can get an early boost if you pick a female main character in ''VideoGame/TheFinalFantasyLegend''. Their starting weapon is a sabre, which you can sell for 1030 GP; quite a chunk of change early on. The long sword that males start with sells for a measly 66 GP. The battle system also favors agility over strength and uses the classic women = speedsters; men = strongmen approach.

* ''VideoGame/{{Pangya}}'', oh boy. While each character has his or her own stats and balances the game, the makers clearly favor the girls. New outfits are almost always exclusively female and new events almost always favor the girls. It's especially bad in Gacha where it will sometimes be months before they make anything wearable for the males. The boys do get some nifty things from time to time, but it's no surprise that about 3/4 of the population plays as the girls.
* For the most part, in ''VideoGame/RomancingSaga2'', things are fairly balanced. Gender doesn't factor too heavily into anything that can't be worked out, but females are inherently immune to Rocboquet's [[CharmPerson Charm]] spell. Only one male class, the male-exclusive Mole Men, has a natural immunity to Charm, and all other male characters need some sort of protective measure.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Persona 3}}'', females get two gender-specific pieces of armour (High-Cut Armor and Maid Outfit), while males only get one (Shirt of Chivalry).
** That said, the female play-through is considered more enjoyable and fulfilling than the male, given the [=FeMC=] has Social Links with all of the S.E.E.S., meaning that characters like Junpei, Akihiko and Shinjiro get actual character and backstory, while MC gets a bunch of random school friends. It balances out, though, as [=FeMC=] (and MC in Portable) loses the ability to wield almost any weapon, rendering some of the fusion weapons like Mjolnir useless until NewGamePlus.
** Female romance options are also significantly more limited. Only 4, one of which is a little kid, and 2 of which are removed from the story for plot reasons so they aren't around for special events. Meaning her only option for a normal love interest is Akihiko. Junpei isn't avaiable because he has a canon love interest in story. The male meanwhile can romance every female party member and every female S link his age.
*** However, the male character ''requires'' you to be in a romance with everyone once the Social Link passes 5, meaning that you need to carefully plan which girl you're hanging out with if you have multiple at or above 5, but below ten, where they stop getting jealous. The female character, on the other hand, only enters a romance if you choose the proper dialogue.

* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'' has separate perks for men and women, titled "Lady Killer" and "Black Widow" respectively. In addition to giving some unique dialog options when speaking to [=NPCs=] of the opposite gender, they also give a damage boost when fighting human enemies of the opposite gender. The dialog options don't really benefit one gender over the other, but since [[MenAreTheExpendableGender the vast majority of human enemies in the game are male]], Black Widow is easily the better perk. The sequel, ''New Vegas'', averted this by adding GayOption variants for each perk, making it closer to something like a Game-Favored Sexuality (basically giving you the advantage if you, or at least your character, prefer men).

* In ''[[VideoGame/{{Tribes}} Starsiege Tribes]]'' male and female characters are identical in every way except for one: the female character model is smaller, meaning that she is harder to hit than the male character model. As a result, ''everybody'' plays as a female in multiplayer. ''Tribes 2'' gives the two genders identical hitboxes, though the female model still [[HitboxDissonance appears]] slightly thinner in the Scout armor.

** ''Rance X'' features a similar soft example of female favoritism. While the game has a wide range of male and female party members, nearly every female character is guaranteed to have at least one alternate version of themselves that can be acquired after they're recruited. These alternate versions ''double'' the character's overall stat contribution to their faction's strength, making them extremely valuable. In comparison, only a very small handful of male characters have alternate versions, and many of them are so incredibly rare that you're unlikely to get more than one of them per playthrough. While this is slightly mitigated by the fact that several male characters are among the most useful in the game, females essentially make up twice as much of their faction's fighting strength as males do. Furthermore, [[spoiler: ''two'' out of the four potential [[GoldenEnding A-rank ending]] routes (the two easiest ones to access, in fact) lock you out of using every male character other than Rance, [[BumblingSidekick Rocky]], [[HeroOfAnotherStory Kentarou]], [[{{Golem}} Caesar]], [[IntrepidMerchant Pluepet]], [[NonActionGuy Chochoman]], [[MauveShirt Asbestos]], and any NewGamePlus exclusive bonus characters until the final few battles. If you haven't taken the time to build up your army's female characters, you will ''feel'' it during these sections.]]

* The erotic TowerDefense browser game ''Millennium War Aigis'' features both male and female units. Barring a handful of exceptions, male units universally function as {{Crutch Character}}s for the player, starting with higher stats than females of the same rarity but receiving only half as many bonuses from having their RelationshipValues raised, meaning that in the long run they'll almost always be overshadowed by a fully maxed out female. Additionally, almost every unit of the highest two rarities is female, meaning that it's close to impossible to have a team capable of tackling late game content that features any males on it other than [[HeroUnit the Prince]]. To make matters even worse for them, male units give ''three times'' as much experience as females of the same rarity when used for fusion, meaning that the game outright encourages you to use them as sacrifices to speed up the growth of the female characters. Even the few high rarity male units tend to lean more toward being BoringButPractical [[MasterOfNone Masters of None]], which are generally worse choices for tackling high level content compared to the more specialized females.
* ''VideoGame/RumbleRoses'' obviously due to being an all female fighting game where the main sell is... the girls. Girls can compete for titles, swap intros, take place in queens matches and be in photoshoots (though this isn't always something the girls enjoy being put through). The only male in the game is more fragile than the most fragile female in the game, has very little damage, and is slower than the slowest moving girl in the game. He also can't participate in specialized matches or activities, but this isn't always a bad thing as he doesn't have to put himself through as many degrading activities as the girls.

* The erotic strategy game ''Daiakuji'' features a RelationshipValues system that causes units to leave the player's forces if their loyalty falls below a certain level. While male units must be payed money to increase their loyalty, female units can have their loyalty increased by sleeping with them, which can be done for free. The player's gross income is calculated every few phases, and the game will automatically end if they do not have the funds needed to pay off their army's expenses, making money an invaluable resource that can't be thrown around carelessly. As a trade-off, male units on average have better combat stats than females do, making defeating enemies easier. Overall, female units are generally BoringButPractical and more economically efficient to have around while male units are DifficultButAwesome and require more effort to maintain. [[MechanicallyUnusualClass There are select exceptions to these broad differences for both genders]], however, including [[OnlyInItForTheMoney female units that can't be slept with and must be payed money to raise their loyalty]], [[UndyingLoyalty male units that do not lose loyalty at all]], [[ActionGirl female units with excellent combat abilities]], and [[NonActionGuy male units that are poorly-suited for fighting]].

** Even more so with the Chosen, who of course are the chosen warriors of their god, in this case Tzeentch. So why the hell would a genderless ever-changing cloud of color (not color gas or something, just color) care about gender?
*** The official reason why this was the case was that they couldn't get female Chosen looking scary enough.
*** The Chosen are chosen from the warrior tribes of Norsca, the run-of-the-mill warriors of which make up the also male-only Marauder class. These tribes are heavily male-dominated societies.

** The female romance options in ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' include only one human, Jacob Taylor, meaning that unless you have a thing for InterspeciesRomance, you're railroaded into either ignoring the romance aspect entirely or sleeping with the least interesting character in the game (not that he's necessarily ''boring'', just ''less'' interesting than the others). This is particularly strange because Jack describes a previous sexual relationship that involved a man ''and'' a woman, but is not a female romance option, possibly because the game has so much content already, there simply wasn't time; or possibly to avoid the ''opposite'' problem, in that female characters would then have an additional romance option over the males.

* ''VideoGame/Persona5'' usually avoids this, but ''Royal'' has a similar case to ''Q'' above. In the middle of December, Ann asks the group to [[HeelFaceBrainwashing change the heart]] of a manipulative young man who's been forcing women to fight each other. Inside [[MentalWorld Mementos]], his Shadow gains his normal self's manipulative powers, and can brainwash the three female members of your party- Ann, Makoto and Haru ([[MissionControl Futaba]] is not affected)- as well as resist their primary elements (Fire, Nuke and Psy).

* In the early ''VideoGame/MortalKombat'' games, Johnny Cage's GroinAttack would not work on female opponents. He simply does the splits, then pops right back up. This doesn't represent a huge advantage in the game as a whole or even against Johnny, but does take one of his better moves out of the fight. This is changed in ''VideoGame/MortalKombat9'', where the move is [[TruthInTelevision just as effective against women as it is against men]].

*** In terms of a preferred Avatar gender, a female Byleth has minor advantages. There are more {{Gay Option}}s; five women can have a romantic relationship with a female Byleth, while two of the five S-Rank bonds with men (originally two of the ''three'', before patches and DLC) are strictly platonic. There is also the ability to instantly recruit [[CasanovaWannabe Sylvain]] on routes other than Blue Lions.[[note]]To elaborate, recruiting units outside your houses requires certain values in a specific statistic or skill, and is made easier with a high support level with the unit. Achieving those levels requires a fair amount of planning and grinding, or utilizing NewGamePlus to carry some values over. But in Sylvain's case, a female Byleth can recruit him at the first possible opportunity regardless of stats or skills.[[/note]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Siren}}'' allows the males to climb higher ledges, use more complicated weaponry, navigate quicker, and just be more fun to play. The ladies on the other hand move slower, can only use knives/semi automatic pistols to defend themselves, die faster, and can't climb nearly as high ledges with the limit being around her hips on how high she can climb. In stages with males and females the player will always play as a male and have to protect the lady and also help her up in ledges she can't climb herself. When it is a solo female mission the player has to find long alternate routes where a male could have just passed the road normally.
* In terms of main series the ''Franchise/LegendOfZelda'' games could be considered this. At one time when fans were asking about a game where Zelda is playable or at least the bearer of the triforce of wisdom (who is usually the one in trouble out of the three) could be male Nintendo gave a justification where changing the status quo alongside the roles of Link and Zelda within the games could destroy the game's balance. Needless to say every Zelda game before and after has seen Zelda as the one in trouble.

** Males have a higher physical attack stat, females have a higher magic attack stat. Because it's much harder to level up the magic attack (which is also [[LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards more useful]]) stat than the physical attack stat females have an advantage.

** Similarily, when speedrunning [[VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire Pokemon Sapphire or Emerald]], the female character is preferred because it makes one of the rival battles far safer.

* At least in terms of outfits, the girls of ''Franchise/DeadOrAlive'' are heavily favored over the men. Also when it comes to who is used in the game's promotion.

** It should however be noted, that magic-using classes have the advantages reversed -- just replace strength with magic.

*** In terms of a preferred Avatar gender, a female Byleth has minor advantages. There are more {{Gay Option}}s; five women can have a romantic relationship with a female Byleth, and all of them are in the base game, while two of the five S-Rank bonds with men (originally two of the ''three'', before patches and DLC) are strictly platonic. There is also the ability to instantly recruit [[CasanovaWannabe Sylvain]] on routes other than Blue Lions. To elaborate, recruiting units outside your houses requires certain values in a specific statistic or skill, and is made easier with a high support level with the unit. Achieving those levels requires a fair amount of planning and grinding, or utilizing NewGamePlus to carry some values over. But in Sylvain's case, a female Byleth can recruit him at the first possible opportunity regardless of stats or skills.

* A more balanced example from the previously stated ''VideoGame/Maplestory'' comes with it's Nova classes. Only males could become Kaisers while Angelic Busters are for girls only. In terms of story Kaiser is the main hero of the Novas and is their pride and joy while Angelic Buster does help, she is generally considered an inferior savior compared to said Kaiser. In terms of gameplay Kaiser has fluctuated in power generally being [[Nerf nerfed]] while Angelic Buster is constantly one of the highest damage potential classes in the game.

* You can get an early boost if you pick a female main character in ''VideoGame/MakaiToshiSaGa''[[note]]''Final Fantasy Legend'' in the USA[[/note]]. Their starting weapon is a sabre, which you can sell for 1030 GP; quite a chunk of change early on. The long sword that males start with sells for a measly 66 GP. The battle system also favors agility over strength and uses the classic women = speedsters; men = strongmen approach.

** ''VideoGame/CrusaderKings'' is a simulation of geopolitics in the TheMiddleAges, and so handing your country[=/=]dynasty over to a female monarch carries some harsh penalties: even a male ruler will take an opinion hit from vassals for having a female heir, and female rulers suffer opinion penalties from vassals ''and'' can freely have claimants attack them for their title(s). Depending on the starting state of your realm it can also be difficult to even get a woman to inherit in the first place unless you meddle with your inheritance laws: only a few combinations of culture, religion, and government are permitted to enact absolute cognatic inheritance[[note]]i.e. females and males are equally able to inherit[[/note]], and none permit women to inherit first. Female characters also cannot take advantage of polygamy mechanics, and merchant republics and Islamic nations do not (and cannot) allow female characters to inherit. Averted in some of the expansions, however:

*** A patch later added the option for players to choose just how uch gender equality would exist in-game, ranging from historical to mid-level to full equality.

** ''Rance X'' features a similar soft example of female favoritism. While the game has a wide range of male and female party members, nearly every female character is guaranteed to have at least one alternate version of themselves that can be acquired after they're recruited. These alternate versions ''double'' the character's overall stat contribution to their faction's strength, making them extremely valuable. In comparison, only a very small handful of male characters have alternate versions, and many of them are so incredibly rare that you're unlikely to get more than one of them per playthrough. While this is slightly mitigated by the fact that several male characters are among the most useful in the game, females essentially make up twice as much of their faction's fighting strength as males do. Furthermore, [[spoiler: ''two'' out of the four potential [[GoldenEnding A-rank ending]] routes (the two easiest ones to access, in fact) lock you out of using every male character other than [[TheProtagonist Rance]], [[BumblingSidekick Rocky]], [[HeroOfAnotherStory Kentarou]], [[{{Golem}} Caesar]], [[IntrepidMerchant Pluepet]], [[NonActionGuy Chochoman]], [[MauveShirt Asbestos]], and any NewGamePlus exclusive bonus characters until the final few battles. If you haven't taken the time to build up your army's female characters, you will ''feel'' it during these sections.]]

* ''VideoGame/Siren'' allows the males to climb higher ledges, use more complicated weaponry, navigate quicker, and just be more fun to play. The ladies on the other hand move slower, can only use knives/semi automatic pistols to defend themselves, die faster, and can't climb nearly as high ledges with the limit being around her hips on how high she can climb. In stages with males and females the player will always play as a male and have to protect the lady and also help her up in ledges she can't climb herself. When it is a solo female mission the player has to find long alternate routes where a male could have just passed the road normally.

* As ''Franchise/Pokemon'' tends to rotate female characters for new and fresh eye candy and emphasized feminine personalities/traits, this can also leak into the games. One of the biggest examples was in the Gen 4 remakes where the female rival has more personality and animations for what she does compared to the male one. One of the biggest examples done to emphasize her cuteness is in the tutorial where teaching the player how to catch pokemon the female will first due a cute cloud dust esque battle in the grass asking the player if they learned anything before actually going into a pokemon battle to show said action while the male rival just goes straight into the battle.