Why do some games have mostly male characters?

[Zoe]

Is it a random decision, or are they marketing toward a specific type of person?

[Shelby]

d&d is one and i think animal jam is it is a kid game but there are A lot of guys

[pluginmaybe]

marketing.
there are folks paid a lot of money to decide who to market a game to, and the biggest group at present is supposed to be blokes 20-40.
It is thought that women are becoming a bigger portion of the gaming pie (especially with regards things like phones, facebook, handhelds, etc), but games publishers usually tend to go with something they 'know' will sell rather than risk taking a chance on something a little different from the norm.