Ever since I was a young girl, I watched anime like Ranma 1/2 that had gender bending. For your information, gender bending is a thematic element where they muddle or erase gender stereotypes. It is done extremely frequently in Japanese anime and manga as a storytelling device to examine gender and sexuality in interesting ways. The two that I find extremely fascinating are cross dressing and actual physical transformations.

Cross Dressing

Hana Kimi (manga): It is a story about a girl who idolizes a track star. She goes to Japan to meet him in person and joins the school. The problem is that he goes to an all boys school. It shows gender bending in the form of the Female lead, Mizuki who cross dresses as a boy.

Otome Wa Boku ni Kosh iteru (Anime): Another story that tells about a boy who crossdresses to fulfill the will of his grandfather. It is based off a hentai visual novel.

W Juliet (Manga): A story about a young man Makoto who wants to become an actor, but his father wants him to take control of a dojo. His father forces his son into a bet that he has to dress up as a girl all through high school and not have anyone find out. His other half, the girl he falls deeply in love with is a tomboy who looks and acts very tomboyish.

Physical Transformations

Ranma 1/2 (Anime/Manga): The most famous example of gender bending is Ranma 1/2, one of the most beloved comedy manga series of all time. It is about Ranma Saotome who fell into a cursed spring and he turns into a girl when doused with cold water, changes back when doused with hot water.

Cheeky Angel (Anime/Manga): This is a story about Megumi who wanted to become the men of all men. Unfortunately his wish wasn't granted the way he wanted so he got transformed into a woman of all women. Her beautiful looks hide an agressive tomboy who is confused about what role she should play in Modern Japan.

Gacha Gacha: The Next Revolution (manga): This one is a simple story about a young man who has a crush on a girl, he doesn't have the guts to confess his feelings to the girl he loves. Then one day after playing a videogame he turns into a girl whenever he sneezes. As he is a girl he learns how to deal with girls (which basically means he learns to be himself) and lots of nudity later they fall in love.

Fushigi Yugi: Genbu Kaiden (manga): Not to be too general, but it has a guy who transforms into a girl when he needs to use his magic.

Now I have stated all the examples I could possibly think of in how Gender bending is portrayed in manga/anime my question is why isn't it portrayed in videogames?

Gender bending could help create new stories and new avenues for storytelling. Gender bending is used in lots of media as a force to show social inequality for one sex (most of the time it is women). It also gives us insight into the human psyche and how someone COULD possibly react when transformed into the opposite sex. Since we are all different people, we all would act quite differently to it. An example would be like if a perverted guy changed into a girl, we know he will never leave his room. If a shy quiet guy changed, he may actually change himself as a person because of all this newfound attention that is showered on him. Thus forcing them to be more firm and strong.

What makes this even more interesting is the impossibility of it. After all, it cant be done in real life (yet I bet that many of you guys woundn't mind transforming into a beautiful woman) without surgery. Yet, we all like thinking questions of "what if?" because we all would react differently, but we sure like reading about it.

To go back to my main question, "why isn't this explored in Videogames." I have a couple of possibilities.

1. In America, it would rub people the wrong way - I make it no secret that I think a lot of guys are pigs. In an internet forum you would ask a question ponders why aren't there more female leads and you would get many responses from men saying, "I don't ever want to play as a girl." Now imagine if you take it one step further and transform a guy into a girl. For an RPG the setup could be quite easy. A dashing young prince is transformed into a girl by an evil sorcerer, they go on an epic quest to cure him and change him into a guy. As they go through the adventure he learns the many trials and tribulations women deal with and has a newfound appreciation of the opposite sex. I could see this setup work quite well, even better with Japanese storytelling and the ability to go pretty crazy with the plot twists. The problem is that I could see it rub people the wrong way just because guys have enough problems playing as a girl, imagine how they will react if the guy changes to a girl as a main story point?

2. Girls don't make games - Believe it or not, the people who use this form of storytelling the most is women because it allows them to express what it is like being a girl through a mans eyes. After all, guys couldn't relate to a girl when she has problems. Instead when they change a guy into a girl it makes it easier for guys to relate because some would likely say, "Man, I would have done the same thing." It also allows them to push gender issues like sexism into the focal viewpoint while not being preachy and expressly saying it.

There are likely more reasons, but my question stands, "why non for games?"