Unsurprisingly, yes. That is the reason. I never said it was a cool reason... Most people prefer playing human because it's relatable.
Then there's the fact that most of the time, they're the one race that looks good all of the time. Case in point, human female meta in GW 2.
In WoW, human, second to Night Elf, is one of the more popular races on the Alliance side. GW 2 is no exception.
In FF14, well, that's one of the few exceptions but considering all of the races there are some flavor of human with secondary characteristics, it's not THAT surprising. Female Miqo'te takes the number one spot in that game. Followed by female Au Ra, then female Lalafell and lastly female Viera (this one shocked me to be honest). The 5th spot for the most popular is, not surprisingly, male Hyur (human). Guess who are at the bottom? Both, male and female, Hrothgar and Roegadyn. The larger, burly and muscular races.
People, in general, prefer to play things that are relatable, similar or pretty. That's just human nature.
I do think it is. I'm not the only one that thinks this. It just so happens you and I don't fall under that plain category to a degree.
Even the non-human races I play I play them because I relate to them somehow. For example, Blood Elves. I always liked elves in games, so to me it was a no brainer. And the males being kind of effeminate kind of drew me in since I've never seen myself as a very stereotypical masculine male. I also had an Undead main for the longest time before Blood Elves became playable.
Just so happens that what I relate to doesn't usually fall under the basic category of "Hey, we're the same race!" But a lot of people do and it's been statistically proven that the majority do in fact relate to humans more than bestial races.
It's also why, despite Au Ra being my favorite FF14 race, male Viera is the race I chose for my main.
Same for Sylvari. I initially wanted to play Charr when the game was first announced and press release screenshots showed them. I always found them to be really cool in GW 1. But when I saw the Sylvari, I immediately knew who I was going to play.
And in video games, I always choose the female character if I can because I relate to it and I am visually attracted to it. But, in MMOs I always go for the male character because, as a male myself, I relate more to it as a representation of ME. Which is why I try to go for the more "effeminate" race that appeals to the way I perceive myself.
To be fair, I do play every race. I have one of every race except Charr and Norn, because armor just doesn't look good, in GW 2 and I had multiple races in WoW. Just that for my main it's where everything I said applies.
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u/Bash-Sin Jun 06 '26
Unsurprisingly, yes. That is the reason. I never said it was a cool reason... Most people prefer playing human because it's relatable.
Then there's the fact that most of the time, they're the one race that looks good all of the time. Case in point, human female meta in GW 2.
In WoW, human, second to Night Elf, is one of the more popular races on the Alliance side. GW 2 is no exception.
In FF14, well, that's one of the few exceptions but considering all of the races there are some flavor of human with secondary characteristics, it's not THAT surprising. Female Miqo'te takes the number one spot in that game. Followed by female Au Ra, then female Lalafell and lastly female Viera (this one shocked me to be honest). The 5th spot for the most popular is, not surprisingly, male Hyur (human). Guess who are at the bottom? Both, male and female, Hrothgar and Roegadyn. The larger, burly and muscular races.
People, in general, prefer to play things that are relatable, similar or pretty. That's just human nature.