I thing most of the people are play with a female caracter because they thing that will get more help from other players just because they are ''girl's''
I don't "thing" that's the case. Then why the heck would I play a female in a multiplayer rpg like dungeon siege or nwn where all the other players are my real life friends?
I tryed playing a female toon a couple of times over the years, but it did not feel right ,but i do know somebody that plays a female toon because he can get loads of stuff from gullible players that think he is a female in rl , each to their own i suppose
I thing most of the people are play with a female caracter because they thing that will get more help from other players just because they are ''girl's''
Exactly. I had a couple of funny times with my female alt. character. But my main character. is a male. And we have a lot of female players and they all have female characters. Never seen a girl playing a male character before.
"I would never let a woman kick my ass. If she tried something, I'd be like, HEY! You get your bitch ass back in the kitchen and make me some pie! "
My friend usually makes male characters in pvp based games. My Lineage2 alliance leader was a female using a male char. My ex made a barbarian in diablo2 *just* because he looked better than the amazon.
I don't see what the big deal is. I'm usually pretty introverted in mmo's because I prefer playing with my friends. All these claims of me doing it just to get treated better is more than a little irritating.
I have nearly always played female chars (being a male) and find it has some good
Advantages
1. You get lots of presents from other chars (generally males trying it on)
2. They smaller onscreen than male counterparts (thus you got more - better view on screen).
3. It has to be better watch the back of the opposite sex for hours on end. (watching a male warriors butt for hours would not appeal to me)
4. Being smaller chars when playing rogue style chars they are harder to spot.
5. You get more help on quests etc (people seem eager to help you)
6. In PvP alot of foes leave female chars believing that females cant play so they no threat
(Which is totally untrue - I know hell of alot of female chars that are as good as if not better than alot of guys)
Disadvantages
1. People think that cause your playing opposite char your gay.
2. RPing a female char can be a bit akward (when your male).
3. Alot of guys generally think that playing a female that you are female and females can't play games
(again this is totally untrue - I know hell of alot of female chars that are as good as if not better than alot of guys)
4. You always seem to get the guys tagging along thinking they can get you as girlfriend. (even after explaining that your a guy, they still think your char being a female means your a female irl)
5. And you do get to see how much hassle girls get ingames (i.e. all these people saying sexual comments etc and asking for dates etc)
I had a unique roleplay experience with the first character I played in Dark Age of Camelot, I was in Albion, a (at the time) rare Rejuvination Cleric, female. I roleplayed a member of the clergy to the fullest. I rarely accepted gifts from anyone (I am funny about working for everything I get), I would say "the church provides my equipment, I am forbidden from accepting gifts as it may compromise my loyalty to the church, thank you but I must refuse". There were some situations where I had to accept things to protect me since I was often the only healer, but that had nothing to do with gender.
If hit on I would just reply "I have take an oath of celibacy and must not think of such things", if that didnt work I would just /ignore. It was rarely a problem. /ignore is a very nice feature.
There is always a way to roleplay around problems.
I had to play a female monk on Guildwars, I think the male monks look funny. For guys that pretty much wave around staffs, those guys are bulky. Though if asked if im a female in life, I do answer no. Though most of the time make male characters. I also find it easier to name female characters.
I don't see any problem with playing the oppisite gender. I don't believe the character ones plays is them, after all, when was the last time you went out to slay a few dragons for loot ? Isn't a game about doing what you can not do in real life ?
Personally, I can't play the opposite sex. I tried. I got hit on all the damn time. It was sick what people would do. They would give me money, help me out, and then get pissed when they found out I was a dude. So I stopped making female toons. After my first month of MMO experience I've never played a female toon again, and that was in 2000. Some guy MMOers are just sad, sick, lonely individuals.
I also find that I relate to my toon better if its a male.
Oh, to answer the question, though, I don't care - its a free country. I just can't put up with the ignorant /tells of horney losers.
Funny, now that I think about it, one of the determining factors of wether or not I'll play a female toon is based on the customization ability of the game's avatars.
Example: In WoW I always play a female because the male toons all look alike. Plus their not very cool looking. But in SWG I always played a male toon because I could make that character more representative of what I wanted my toon to look like. In COH my main was male but I had a few female alts.
I guess it depends on how you go about playing. I'd consider it kind of sick if you were a guy playing a woman's character to take advantage of all the lonely fanboys out there. I personally will never do it, but that's up to the other people.
My most recent characters in EQ1 have been male, and I get a little bit of a kick out of having a secret... It's not like I am going to get treated better or have people give me stuff for being a guy, but it is a little strange to be in on how guys talk to each other when they don't know there are females around, and it is a little weird to have female characters hugging and pouncing on me all the time like they think I have some secret desire to be their love puppet.
... This is where I draw the line: __________________.
i know at first when I started playing WoW I really didn't like a lot of the models for the male characters. They were all toooo big and bulky, or the hairstyles and other options were just silly.
Also every single Horde male has terrible posture, they are all super hunched over. Well, blood elves don't, but this was years ago I started WoW lol
so I rolled a female toon because they simply looked better, i never walked around in underwear or hit on people, if another male player would flirt with me i'd simply say "i'm a dude" lol but it's been a while since then, my main and primary alt are both male toons, guess i learned to love the character the undead posess.... head banging and air guitar /dance? ok i'm sold
and BE's just rock
Always played male toons in other MMO's, but like I said initially the character models of the male toons in WoW just didn't agree with me
It's very, very hard to pull off convincingly. Gender is more than just eye candy. Eye candy generally has an effect on most males, because our attraction triggers are overwhelmingly visual. The eye candy also comes without any effort to speak of, courtesy of game artists. Once you actually get into conversation, however, the speech style cues will almost certainly give away the ruse. Changing one's gender-based speech patterns without descending into shallow stereotype is a very difficult piece of acting. My initial urge when detecting a likely gender-switch is to roleplay some heavy action. I almost always resist because I just might be interacting with, for example, an 11 year old. The end result is that I don't have very much fun with the actual interaction, even if I fall in love with the visuals. Notice that I am not asserting disapproval, I am simply commenting on my subjective enjoyment of other peoples' actions.
I have the opposite problem-- I am female in real life, and even when I am playing a female character, people think I am male. My husband almost always plays female characters, and when people find out we're a married couple, they almost ALWAYS guess wrong as far as which one is which. It's funny (yet irritating) when people call me "bro" and hit on him. I am not roleplaying in the least-- with me, what you get is me, talking through an avatar, but I apparently give the impression that I'm a man, not someone's mom.
Someone in a group once complained that the mob being pulled was going to rape him. I told him that if he knew it was coming, he might as well lay back and enjoy it. My husband looked at me and said, "No wonder everyone thinks you're a guy" . (YEah, I know, rape isn't funny. It's tragic. Anyway, he started it... Lighten up already!)
... This is where I draw the line: __________________.
I honestly just created a Female char. for the hell of it. I play with her usually but its mostly more for an alternate gaming experience (Ex:rogue trying to play a warlock).
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ =The best bash.org quote ever= Curt teh Juggler: our graduation ceremony was today, and right when some gamer nerd got his diploma, someone in the audience played the zelda "get item" music and he did the zelda spin-hold-out-item stance Curt teh Juggler: it was quite possibly the most amazing thing ever.
LOL Neschria - I get called "bro" and "mate" all the time too, usually I respond that's "MISS Bro to you!" which is usually followed by some skeptic remark - suuuuure you're female, uh-huh.....
Ah well, nothing like the satisfaction of pk'ing those guys and KNOWING they just got their lil tushes kicked by a girl.
I really do not care. It is a game and fantasy is part of the game. I have known and played games with women playing women, women playing men and men playing men and men playing women.
I have know straight people playing the oppeset gender and gay people playing oppeset gender. Gays do a better job role playing the role LOL
I have played a female character at times but that was because of the name I wanted .
Only had one incident where I found it uncomfortable and had to nip a mis-conception in the butt. Had some kid run up and give me a flower once - said it was because I was pretty - I made it a quick point to tell him I was a guy but thanks for the flower! LOL
Anyway, its a game. To many people forget that and turn em into more.
I don't care what gender you play, I care how you play. If you are mean, greedy, obnoxious then I won't be seeing you much in game anyway.
I don't care if there are male playing female chars as long as they don't pretend to be female IRL. I wouldn't care too much either though, since I actually never asked a player if he's male or female IRL - just not playing a game for flirting.
I mostly choose female IG though since I just prefer looking on a female char while playing. Exceptions are orc-like races. Male characters mostly just look way too gay to me. I also know some female players which prefer playing a male char instead because of the mentioned reason. Understandable that a female player doesn't want to look on a Barbie all day long.
With the exception of RPing, players in general don't identify themselves with their char, which is often misinterpreted by the media.
The idea itself, however, to make it impossible to choose a gender IG that isn't your RL one is quite interesting. Definitely fun to watch the IG behaviour when a female player turns up ^^
I played a female character before, dressed up as an e-ho in Anarchy Online and do the grinding motion in the city. Its amazing how many people come up to you and join in.
Always annoys me when someone asks, "r u fem irl?"
I'm a guy who likes playing female characters, and I don't really care what people think either way, but it does bother me when they think it matters enough to ask. Hmm, makes me wonder why they care, you know?
Always trying to think of a catchy answer to that.
When I want a single-player story, I'll play a single-player game. When I play an MMO, I want a massively multiplayer world.
I play my own sex and use the avatar as an extension of myself in the game. The people i met who play opposite sex that i asked why they did often respond either.....I like to look at something pretty when i play ...or...increases the chance of some fool giving me free stuff. Both seem perfectly fine answers to me.
I generally play my own sex for a main character so as to think of myself in the game, I'll often play as a female avatar with secondary characters so that I have something better to look at while playing through the game again.
Personally I do not care what gender is the other people I play with. It’s the same thing for their race and religion, I don’t need to know and I do not want to know. I play with other intelligent being and it is only their action that will determine if they are worthy of my attention.
Hmm, I don't think there's any problem in playing the opposite sex in an MMORPG. After all, you do play these games to amuse yourself or get away from reality, so why not add an aesthetic/erotic touch to it? ;D.
Also, I must say, I heartily agree with the OP. There are games like WoW, where the art is way to out of it (a bit more realistic and I would have rolled Ally, lol) but in the realistic games I try and play female characters (FFXI being the most recent example I can think of).
It's usually quite easy to distinguish (in my experience, anyways) if people are actually their sex in an MMORPG. Example: Guys usually don't use ^^ or "okies", chicks do. Women usually type sentences one can actually read without deciphering, too. I can generally pick up within 10 mins if there's a moderate amount of talking.
The only thing I never do, and hate when people do, is try and act the opposite sex. It just angers me, because first of all, you can sometimes see through this, second, it's kind of gay/wrong, and third, you might mislead someone into liking you, and screw a lot of things up.
Another thing is it's harder to RP as a female, for me, anyways.
Comments
Exactly."I would never let a woman kick my ass. If she tried something, I'd be like, HEY! You get your bitch ass back in the kitchen and make me some pie! "
I don't see what the big deal is. I'm usually pretty introverted in mmo's because I prefer playing with my friends. All these claims of me doing it just to get treated better is more than a little irritating.
Advantages
1. You get lots of presents from other chars (generally males trying it on)
2. They smaller onscreen than male counterparts (thus you got more - better view on screen).
3. It has to be better watch the back of the opposite sex for hours on end. (watching a male warriors butt for hours would not appeal to me)
4. Being smaller chars when playing rogue style chars they are harder to spot.
5. You get more help on quests etc (people seem eager to help you)
6. In PvP alot of foes leave female chars believing that females cant play so they no threat
(Which is totally untrue - I know hell of alot of female chars that are as good as if not better than alot of guys)
Disadvantages
1. People think that cause your playing opposite char your gay.
2. RPing a female char can be a bit akward (when your male).
3. Alot of guys generally think that playing a female that you are female and females can't play games
(again this is totally untrue - I know hell of alot of female chars that are as good as if not better than alot of guys)
4. You always seem to get the guys tagging along thinking they can get you as girlfriend. (even after explaining that your a guy, they still think your char being a female means your a female irl)
5. And you do get to see how much hassle girls get ingames (i.e. all these people saying sexual comments etc and asking for dates etc)
__________________________________________
Death Is More Fun If Your Laughing At The Time
If hit on I would just reply "I have take an oath of celibacy and must not think of such things", if that didnt work I would just /ignore. It was rarely a problem. /ignore is a very nice feature.
There is always a way to roleplay around problems.
PS - I must give a big LOL to RNLee, great point.
I don't see any problem with playing the oppisite gender. I don't believe the character ones plays is them, after all, when was the last time you went out to slay a few dragons for loot ? Isn't a game about doing what you can not do in real life ?
// The G&H Townhall - http://gnhth.vault.ign.com - a Gods and Heroes fansite
I end up playing 60% female chars, 40% male.... and I have RPed female (sexual issues rarly came up)
some races like WoWs, elven, troll, human, and orc have males that are just way to ugly for me.
however the dwarven, undead females are quite ugly as well, and i would only play their male counterparts
Guildwars has situation with the male Devrish, so I pick female.
Moo
Funny, now that I think about it, one of the determining factors of wether or not I'll play a female toon is based on the customization ability of the game's avatars.
Example: In WoW I always play a female because the male toons all look alike. Plus their not very cool looking. But in SWG I always played a male toon because I could make that character more representative of what I wanted my toon to look like. In COH my main was male but I had a few female alts.
Which Final Fantasy Character Are You?
Final Fantasy 7
My most recent characters in EQ1 have been male, and I get a little bit of a kick out of having a secret... It's not like I am going to get treated better or have people give me stuff for being a guy, but it is a little strange to be in on how guys talk to each other when they don't know there are females around, and it is a little weird to have female characters hugging and pouncing on me all the time like they think I have some secret desire to be their love puppet.
...
This is where I draw the line: __________________.
i know at first when I started playing WoW I really didn't like a lot of the models for the male characters. They were all toooo big and bulky, or the hairstyles and other options were just silly.
Also every single Horde male has terrible posture, they are all super hunched over. Well, blood elves don't, but this was years ago I started WoW lol
so I rolled a female toon because they simply looked better, i never walked around in underwear or hit on people, if another male player would flirt with me i'd simply say "i'm a dude" lol but it's been a while since then, my main and primary alt are both male toons, guess i learned to love the character the undead posess.... head banging and air guitar /dance? ok i'm sold
and BE's just rock
Always played male toons in other MMO's, but like I said initially the character models of the male toons in WoW just didn't agree with me
I have the opposite problem-- I am female in real life, and even when I am playing a female character, people think I am male. My husband almost always plays female characters, and when people find out we're a married couple, they almost ALWAYS guess wrong as far as which one is which. It's funny (yet irritating) when people call me "bro" and hit on him. I am not roleplaying in the least-- with me, what you get is me, talking through an avatar, but I apparently give the impression that I'm a man, not someone's mom.
Someone in a group once complained that the mob being pulled was going to rape him. I told him that if he knew it was coming, he might as well lay back and enjoy it. My husband looked at me and said, "No wonder everyone thinks you're a guy" . (YEah, I know, rape isn't funny. It's tragic. Anyway, he started it... Lighten up already!)
...
This is where I draw the line: __________________.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
=The best bash.org quote ever=
Curt teh Juggler: our graduation ceremony was today, and right when some gamer nerd got his diploma, someone in the audience played the zelda "get item" music and he did the zelda spin-hold-out-item stance
Curt teh Juggler: it was quite possibly the most amazing thing ever.
Ah well, nothing like the satisfaction of pk'ing those guys and KNOWING they just got their lil tushes kicked by a girl.
I really do not care. It is a game and fantasy is part of the game. I have known and played games with women playing women, women playing men and men playing men and men playing women.
I have know straight people playing the oppeset gender and gay people playing oppeset gender. Gays do a better job role playing the role LOL
I have played a female character at times but that was because of the name I wanted .
Only had one incident where I found it uncomfortable and had to nip a mis-conception in the butt. Had some kid run up and give me a flower once - said it was because I was pretty - I made it a quick point to tell him I was a guy but thanks for the flower! LOL
Anyway, its a game. To many people forget that and turn em into more.
I don't care what gender you play, I care how you play. If you are mean, greedy, obnoxious then I won't be seeing you much in game anyway.
I don't care if there are male playing female chars as long as they don't pretend to be female IRL. I wouldn't care too much either though, since I actually never asked a player if he's male or female IRL - just not playing a game for flirting.
I mostly choose female IG though since I just prefer looking on a female char while playing. Exceptions are orc-like races. Male characters mostly just look way too gay to me. I also know some female players which prefer playing a male char instead because of the mentioned reason. Understandable that a female player doesn't want to look on a Barbie all day long.
With the exception of RPing, players in general don't identify themselves with their char, which is often misinterpreted by the media.
The idea itself, however, to make it impossible to choose a gender IG that isn't your RL one is quite interesting. Definitely fun to watch the IG behaviour when a female player turns up ^^
I'm a guy who likes playing female characters, and I don't really care what people think either way, but it does bother me when they think it matters enough to ask. Hmm, makes me wonder why they care, you know?
Always trying to think of a catchy answer to that.
When I want a single-player story, I'll play a single-player game. When I play an MMO, I want a massively multiplayer world.
Also, I must say, I heartily agree with the OP. There are games like WoW, where the art is way to out of it (a bit more realistic and I would have rolled Ally, lol) but in the realistic games I try and play female characters (FFXI being the most recent example I can think of).
It's usually quite easy to distinguish (in my experience, anyways) if people are actually their sex in an MMORPG. Example: Guys usually don't use ^^ or "okies", chicks do. Women usually type sentences one can actually read without deciphering, too. I can generally pick up within 10 mins if there's a moderate amount of talking.
The only thing I never do, and hate when people do, is try and act the opposite sex. It just angers me, because first of all, you can sometimes see through this, second, it's kind of gay/wrong, and third, you might mislead someone into liking you, and screw a lot of things up.
Another thing is it's harder to RP as a female, for me, anyways.
Which Final Fantasy Character Are You?
Final Fantasy 7