This article made me think Gender switching in WOW. I play a lot of female characters in games, mainly for visual reasons (Savior's hide I am looking at you). Do you always play as your gender? Do you play the other differently?
I play about 50/50 male/female characters. In the ES universe, it seems most of my Humans are female, most of my Khajiit are males, Elves are about a 50/50 split, and Argonians are also a 50/50 split (gender matters less, since they may change genders anyways; lore-wise, not game-wise). My first (human) character in games is usually a female with red hair - nearly always a 'warrior'. I revisit this idea often, for example, I usually create a redhead that resembles my wife at some point.
I like to alternate between genders with every character, so if I played as a male last time I'm likely to play as female next. This keeps the game fresh for me. Like Rune, I too have a Nord ranger kit that I revisit from time to time. In most cases I find that if a character uses magic I'm most likely to make it a female.
I always play male characters, they're just easier for me to connect with, as, excepting Skyrim where I was a Khajiit, I usually just make visual representations of myself to feel like I'm actually there in the game. I'm not someone who finds videogame characters (unless the graphics are exactly the same as real life) hot or not.