If there is option , I always play female!
When there is a party, I like the leader to be female and the rest can be mix of genders.
When I was younger, I used to play male characters, but with the age it changed and now I play exclusively female characters. It comes simply because as a man I love opposite sex - i love to look at beautiful women and when she is sexy and badass, even better! And I care for my character times more if she is female.
I never imagine myself as a character when I play games, nor I have some father or lover feelings for female chars, like this stupid waifu thing, I just like to see that character evolve the way i would liked and if there is possibility to see it from the opposite sex view, even better, as being male myself im familiar with male thinking.
Though I guess it is hardly possible, as games rarely try to write different portrait for female heroes - i mean there is one story and "he" is just replaced with "she" in dialogues, but hardly they change anything to female perspective.
But then again I have no problem to play as male whatsoever, it is just he is another male (like Geralt), with his stuff and I found myself more attracted to females than to care about another male
I guess my need for strong manly hero types, like Conan or Lancelot, has deminished with the age.
PS
When reading similar discussions on other forums (especially MMO ones, where most males play female characters) I found it interesting that female players dont like to play as males! Hmm I wonder why?