Call me boring, but I almost never customize my character's face. My Commander Shepard is the dude on the box art. In games where there isn't a default avatar, I live vicariously through them and give them a huge beard.

I think part of it is in titles like Mass Effect, Skyrim, and Sandreas, you're not playing as yourself. The story isn't about Danny, it's about the Dragonborn, Shepard, or CJ. These characters have their own agenda, and aren't just avatars for players. They're protagonists, so you probably make them in that image.

Now my Xbox Live Avatar looks like me, because it isn't part of any story. It's just a little virtual me, and sorta looks the part. Does your Mii or Xbox Live Avatar resemble you?

My Avatar on Xbox Live started out looking like me but I slowly became bored with his appearence, so now he is rocking Smokes ninja mask from Mortal Kombat with a nice suit. Honestly I wouldnt mind wearing that in real....call me crazy haha.

I do have to argue with you on what you said about Mass Effect and Skyrim, in those games your given alot of choices and freedom to play as you see fit. So wouldn't your characters actions represent you?

It's why I find myself always playing the good guys in these games because in real life, I am nice and respectful of others. Sure there is a set path in these games but you get to choose how you take this path. Doesn't our play style in these games not define us in some way? I know it isnt about us personally, but honestly no game is that I know of.  We all like to pretend that we are the heroes or villians of these interactive stories we experience.

I often feel out of place with the choose-your-own-character option. On one hand, I feel like I'm out of touch with the norm in typical adventure games. On the other hand, I feel like I'm too far away from my actual look.

I'm a guy, but I keep choosing women who look similar to my favorite anime characters. My Gamertag name is MakaAlbarn007. She's my favorite anime hero from Soul Eater. And then there are all the moments where I gave Commander Shepherd the first name "Utena." She's the tough, pink-haired swordfighter from Revolutionary Girl Utena. And don't get me started about my Eureka Seven avatar for Fallout 3.

I always wonder whether I'm losing my masculinity by choosing these characters. Lol. They always happened to look cooler than everyone else. I always felt like cosplaying as these anime characters, but I don't want to bother with shaving my legs and doing all the other crrazy stuff to look like them. So I just dress up as them in my gamer avatar.

Someday I'll muster up the courage to cosplay as a girl. Just not today.

Bioware games in particular I have always very much custimized based on whatever back story I made up.  For example, in the Old Republic, my main is a female Sith Sith Juggernaught.  Why?  Because the Sith look badass to start with, and I was intrigiued by the idea of my Sith being "pure".  She is female because I was amused by the idea of this lith female being this heavy hitting "tank" that can take a beating.  I also made a Jedi Consoluer based on my daughter, and a Fat, black bounty hunter with a heart of gold.  Makes the game more interesting that way.  I'm boring.

I rarely customize my characters, but there are a lot of reasons why. First of all, I hate sliders, and in a game like Skyrim where I will see my character's face a grand total of three times, I just don't care. In Mass Effect, I went with DefShep (Default Shepard) because I find it weird to hear his lines come out of a different face. In Dragon Age: Origins, my brother made a black human, but in the game, his parents and brother were still white, so my brother's character was either adopted, a bastard, or a douche who liked to walk around in black face, so it was default white guy for me (I didn't even bother changing his name).

However, I don't always play as the default. If there is something I change though, it's usually something minor, like hair style or color, but sometimes I do compeletly change my character. In Dragon Age II, I just wanted default Hawke without the giant beard, but BioWare doesn't allow you to customize the defaults, so I had to make a close approximation without facial hair. When I replayed DAII as FemHawke, I wanted her to have long red hair, so I had to completely customize her (default has short black hair). And then there was Saint's Row: The Third where I played as a Cockney British gangster who had multiple sex changes (there's an achievement for that).

There are a lot of studies about this subject.

First, this doesn't make you or anyone else prejudice, necessarily. People like or gravitate more towards what looks like that. That's just natural. It's been proven that people will tend to hire people who look more like them; or admire people who look more like them; the list goes on.

This is exactly why minority programs are an absolute necessity. It's not that people are prejudice. Yes, sometimes people are purposely prejudice; but most of the time, it's just natural instinct. 

Since I will start my Ph.D. program this fall, I would compare this to professors in college. How many professors did you have that were white? How many black? Not as many, right? Hispanic? Or even better -- Did you even have one professor that was Native American? Or Tongan? This is why programs like the Ph.D Project exist; to help change this tide. Because if you are a minority in college...you might have the ability to become a professor and earn a Ph.D...but the thought might never even cross your mind. Why? Because you never saw anyone like you as a professor. It was a subconscious decision that you never even realized you made.