Why do ppl use hot women as their profile picture when It's not them.

You dont know me

You dont know me

MMO = Many Men Online
MMORPG = Many Men Online Roleplaying Girls
MMOFPS = Many Men Online Fapping Per Second

But seriously, 99.9% of the time, its gonna be a dude, and if he has a if the profile is sketchy then usually its a scamming dude.

For as long as humans have existed, men have always tried to "buy" the affection of women.

It's no different on the internet, these people use pics of attractive women in an attempt to get free stuff (games, money etc) from stupid guys.

Also, though I hate to admit it, women are still treated very different than men, they're usually catered to and pampered more than men are. On the internet especially, this happens very frequently.

Are you saying I'm not a cat?

4 was the one that crossed my mind first. There is also 5, which is "Look, this is my girlfriend! I have a girlfriend!"

Well, when approached with a question to which you don't know the answer, sometimes it's a good idea to use the "process of elimination" approach.

1) A woman who's either afraid to show herself or not good looking that wants compliments from other guys/girls.
Women do not attract attention to themselves by doing a side-by-side comparison with someone who is much better looking. Wrong answer.

2) A gay guy who wants straight men to talk to him thinking It's a girl.
A gay guy isn't going to "fish" for straight guys. That's counter-productive. Wrong answer.

3) A guy who just wants to fool people (being a troll or just to joke) into thinking he's a hot girl.
Possible, but unlikely. You'd have to be really dumb to not know the guy's a joker. Very weak answer.

4) Someone who just likes a picture of a woman so much that they chose to have it as their profile picture.
Possible and likely. This is probably the same guy who puts posters of women on his ceiling above his bed. Better answer.

5) Someone who dreams of such a girl but it will never happen.
Possible and highly likely. Males of all ages may be seen with their noses pressed against store windows, wanting when they cannot have. Strongest answer.

Given all of the above, I'd go with answer #5.

to be honest I'd rather look at some cute girl picture than some of these selfies I have seen on cs go lol

Another reason for at least some people is, if i look hot i will get free things, not a tonne of people think like that but some do.

The real reason : It's just an image to help differentiate people from one another, so people sometimes use what they like to look at, or what they like to be associated with. In my case, something pretty straightforward and odd to look at (that required no effort to attach). Some people use anime girls, because they think they're attractive, adorable, or they're a fan of the anime/story/mannerisms attached to them. Some use game characters. Some use memes. It's all pretty much the same.

Sometimes it's not automatically something complex, malicious, or a sign of something bad in the user.
(Occams razor is great, when applied correctly)

Going to lengths to find faults and pointless judgements to fling at random people in a quasi-anonymous environment is pretty weaksauce though. Come on, man.

Cause in WoW if you're a female character you get lots of free stuff!

hah

Because this ain't f♥ckin' Facebook!

Why do do you use a potato with a tommygun? Pretty much same reason.

for free items lol, sadly most of them are from china, phil, russia.

My avatar is a female but only because it's my favorite faction in a game.

I am a blue Satanic metalhead horse.

I think 3. gets used a lot, but 4. is probably the most common reason. People shouldn't be looking for attention on Steam though, it's not the right place. I just want to play games!

Back in the days when i played WoW , i actually played my sisters warlock with a really weird girl name. I got so many weird messages, they helped me and gave me free stuff and shiiet. It was fun until i needed to talk on Ventrilo with microphone ;-)

Gay guys + girl you will never have :D

Finally, someone addressed the elephant in the room.

I don't know why on earth the gay guy scenario makes sense to anyone.

Scenario 4 is the most likely. I don't get why anyone who sees an avatar of a woman thinks it's a woman. When you look at an owl, do you think it's a guy or a gal?

Rather old: http://www.bash.org/?102335

I've never seen the appeal either, but I'm not going to knock whatever floats someone's boat (and it seems to float quite a few boats, if you know what I mean)

Im blue in real life, check my avatar