I'm a 62 year old Grandfather who plays all Female characters. Their smaller size tends not to block your view as much as Male characters. The Female also tends to be more graceful in movement and I'm not aware whether this is planned by the developers or not. The Gifts also help as well as valient Males coming to your aid.

My friend Andy summed this up with one quote "if I am going to stare at a butt all game it might as well be a butt I'd like to look at.

Mike's quote probably sums it up best. ;)

I'm a male playing primarily female characters, and I find that people notice me more often, remember me more, and some definately go out of their way to help me just because my avatar is female. The attention is a bit nice at times I suppose, but that's not the reason I chose that character's gender to begin with.

My warrior is a female nightelf, and I had someone comment to me that they hadn't seen a female nightelf warrior before. I pointed out someone by the name of "Serenity" whom I'd seen before, and the person responded "Well, besides her." I guess that indicates that's a rare gender / race / class combination.

Since there are no statistical differences in WoW between male and female characters, I'm not sure why a Mechanics-minded person (which I consider myself to be) would be more likely to choose a female character. Perhaps there's some other reasoning behind that correlation, but I think it would be interesting to look further into that point.

I'm a female who plays mostly female characters. Whether or not you get attention from male players who want to shower you with "gifts" depends, like rl, on if you act like a tramp or not. The sexier, flirtier, more helpless you act, the more you will attract that sort of organ-driven male player to give you things. I've been gaming since the early days of table-top and at 44 have been, or am in, almost every major game in the market and its the same in each and every single one.

Playing a female who does not need to be rescued, does not flirt, does not act all coquettish gets you precisely nothing and thats fine with me. So before you assume that every female character gets more stuff because of the sex of the character, know that it has nothing to do with the sexual representation of the toon, but on the flirty, slutty way males play those females.

I will also tell you that most women can tell which females are being played by males after hanging out with them even a short time because they play women the way their little pubescent little dreams WANT their women to act. Most women, women of any quality at all, do not act in RL the way most males play their female characters.

All that said... I do occassionally make a male character because I prefer to look at something a little more eye candy for me. Game designers do a horrible job at making males look decent. Most of the time, the females have huge tits with lots of cleavage and the males all look like sexless children. One exception to that was Anarchy Online who actually gave their male characters nice backsides and appealing packages.

I'm with Jean here. I'm a WoW player and almost all my characters are female. Why? Because the males are... well... kinda ugly. If the male designs were a little more on the pretty side, I'd likely have an equal balance of male and female. I'm a little odd like that. For now... well, I wanna look good, and its easiest to look good as a girl.

My husband plays female characters in WoW because he thinks all the male models are ugly and strangely proportioned. Playing an attractive character is more important to him than matching his gender.

I don't play WoW, but in the text-based MORPG that I frequent, I spend a lot of time doing corpse retrieval, rescue, and general helping out. The gender of the character never comes into play for me. I think it's a degree of maturity that transcends the petty "damsel in distress" syndrome most adolescent males suffer from.

In response to Laura:

That's the exact same reason I play female characters on WoW. If the boys were prettier, I would certainly play a male character, but I don't want to be staring at a weird-looking boy character when I could have a pretty female one. Same reason I don't play undead characters, orc females, or dwarves in general.

When I created my wood elf rogue on Everquest 2 I chose a female character. I took time on creating and perfecting what my characters face, hair, height, and clothes were. But I did so because I have an idea in my mind what a wood elf rogue would look like, and that is female.
While playing WoW, I created one character in every race, each with a different class. I based my selection of female to male based on whether or not the race and class would have fit the gender. When it was all said and done, I ended up with more males than female.
But there was a flip side to knowing what race/class I was making.
While I agree with "if I am going to stare at a butt all game it might as well be a butt I'd like to look at", most of my decision depends on what race/class I'm making. I also noticed that I enjoy my EQ2 rogues... physical features more than any of my characters on WoW. But in EQ2 you get a MUCH more indepth creating table when making your character, and part of the reason that I went with a rogue is from how I made my character look. Going into the character creation I didn't know I wanted to make a rogue. I just wanted to play around with the character creation table, but after making my character it seemed obvious what it was. But the next time I create a character in EQ2 I'm fairly sure what I want to create, so I'll go back to my normal way of character creation.

I am female and choose to play female characters, since I just more identify with them (looks, voice, clothing). I'm not completely against playing a male, but it never seems appealing. Guess in some ways it's because I feel on some level, I am running around in the game. So perhaps it would feel a bit odd to be in a male body, not matter how cute it was. I would only play a male, if he uniquely had attributes that affected game play (i.e., class, skills, etc.). However in the MMOs I've played (SWG and WoW) that is never an issue.

I also agree with Jean's comments above, regarding how males play female characters in an over-the-top way. However I must say that even though I don't flirt, I sometimes get unwanted attention or harassment just because I have a female character... especially ones that are designed to be more sexy by game designers. [I refuse to dance my Night Elf in front of anyone except maybe my RL husband!]

It's quite interesting how many males who play games are rather homophobic (I'm gauging this by general chats and forum posts), but have no problems talking sexy with a female character driven by another guy. And of course, it's more disturbing that men will have their female characters act in a very slutty and flirty manner. I feel like it really is some warped reinforcement of negative thinking and behavior towards women in RL.

On a ligher note: I always think it's a bit funny that some men's reasoning for playing a female toons is "Well if I am going to stare at a butt all game..." What are you doing staring at your character's butt! Aren't you looking at what's going ahead of you? Stuff you have to kill or avoid :P I mean yes, you see your backside...but there's not that much time to be gazing at it!

I play a female character in FF11, but am obviously really a guy, or else why would I bring this up. I do notice how much easier it is to get around as a female character in final fantasy, but whenever men come onto 'me', I promptly remind them that things arn't allways what they appaer to be. I love the offhanded comments.. "your cute".. "your sexy". They must not be talking about *me* then, how can you judge such things in a world based around fantasy and illusion? I like the character that I chose because she fits the job class I enjoy, dark knight. Dark smouldering sexy look, with that hint of 'man hater' additude. I like her in subligar. lol. I also have a gf in real life... and I noticed thoes who don't... seem to 'fall in love' with any unfortunate girl they happen across. I do notice that there are the occasional guys that dislike the fact that I play a female character... even throw the fag comment out now and again, as if thats even supposed to hurt anymore. I'm 21... and I guess the majority of them are 15-19.. and therefore somewhat lacking in mental capacity.. but I mean come on.
Maybe their masculity is threated by people who don't feel the need to flaunt it in the cyber world, but that doesn't mean they have to be idiots about it. I don't think I really have a point, just making small talk in the direction of the conversation, so yeah I better stop.

Honestly, I don't play any MMOs.But truthfully, I'll play as a female character from time to time for two reasons:

1. A slight paraphrase of Mike's earlier comment, ie "If I'm gonna be starin' at this loser the whole time I'm playing, I might as well enjoy lookin' at 'er."

2. I like to hurl vicious insults at he screen, and playing a female character allows me to use one of my all-time, if least accessable lines, "You just got your a** whipped by a girl."

That's one of the things I didn't like about Def Jams; FFNY. No custom females. But I do enjoy beating rich rapperfolk into a squishy pulp.

People have sex. Words have gender. Political Correctness is annoyingly inaccurate.

I tried playing a female for a couple of hours. I was immediately turned off by the constant male flirting. It was really uncomfortable to pretend to flirt with other men, or to even have them constantly flirt with me. Ick.

I've read some anecdotal reports that suggest male players who exclusively play female characters are doing so to act out homosexual fantasies. I actually found one serious study that suggested the same thing, but I can't find it now. I want to say that I found it linked up on Raph Koster's website, but it looks like the link to that essay is gone, now.

I always play female characters. In every game I've played so far, the female toons are just much more aesthetically pleasing than the male toons. I've never used being "female" to get anything from "male" characters. I don't flirt. I am not homosexual. I do like to dress my characters up and make them look pretty, but I like my wife to look pretty as well. I guess I just like looking at pretty women rather than unattractive ( all men are basicly unattracive to me ) men.

I think that KC hit is right on the head above with the "I feel like it really is some warped reinforcement of negative thinking and behavior towards women in RL." Our society promotes that sick and sexist attitude. It is ingrained in our society to a ridiculous degree. While it has improved in recent decades it is still way too common. Being a guy, I hear the comments that >90% of the men out there make about women behind the backs and it makes me sick and ashamed to admit that I'm a man. And most of these men will pretend that they don’t in front of women, but they still do it when only other men are around.

I tend to play male characters ~90% of the time, but will sometimes play a female character (having been an RPer since the late 70's, thus that low 10% has still been quite a few characters). I've had female characters in Eve Online, Anarchy Online, Asheron's Call, DAoC, World of Warcraft, etc. but never play them as flirty or try to make them stand out as "hot" by most guys standards, but then again as a guy, I don't care for women who act like that in RL either. There are way too many that do, and those that don't often are not treated very well by men because of it. Thus unfortunately a lot of women also unwittingly promote that same attitude by acting meek because they think that’s what guys want to see. The simple fact of the matter is that our society is still very sexist and unfortunately the fact that roughly 40% of all the MMO players are teenage guys, it tends to make it look even worse due to their immature sexist attitudes.

I'm a firm believer in looking at the person inside (personality, skills, etc.) and not looking at appearances, as by their very nature appearances can be very deceiving. This is true both in RL and in MMO's. Thus when it comes to helping out others, I only help people that I know or that act like mature adults, but when it comes to friends or people that show maturity and treat others with respect, I’ll go to great lengths to help.

Also have to agree on the comments about how the male characters in most MMO’s look bad. This is way too true! Especially in WoW (even worse so than most other MMO’s), and like someone else said AO was better than most in that respect (but is still pretty limiting due to the fact that you have a very limited number of faces to choose from). Most of the MMO boxes show on the cover a female character showing some cleavage, unfortunately sex appeal sells and that is why they are marketed the way that they are.

I find it interesting that so many posters here agree on the male models on WoW being less attractive. I am female and I see it the opposite way around. There are very few races in WoW which have female models appealing to me (I really only like undead and night-elf women), so the majority of my characters are male.

Another reason for me to play male avatars is that I absolutely dislike to be given the 'standard' male-versus-female treatment where some things are not to be talked about 'because we have female company' and all the other usual bias against women.

What's wrong with you guys...

Gnome Males are Sexy!

I remember once on Everquest I decided to make a female wood elf bard, just to see how quickly I could get stuff. I wasnt going to go over the top with it, or even to a high level, but I wanted to see the reception I got. There are two points I would like to make between the differences of a male and female character played on an MMO.

When you play a female character, not only are you getting more attention from men, but women treat you a lot differently as well. They are not as threatened by you, and thus when you ask them a question or for help, or even for a hunting partner, they dont assume its because you want to flirt with them or hit on them, or make them your "cyber wife". Do you know how many women called me "sister" or wanted to have me join a guild with them, or even make one! Women treated me a lot nicer than my main, which was a male wood elf druid. One individual and her husband bought me spells and power leveled me from 5-9 because she felt sympathy for "one of our own" trying to make it in this world.

you could argue that some of those women werent really women, and were hoping that on the other side of my avatar lied a girl. But some of them openly talked about themselves to me as well.

Its my humble opinion that there is absolutely nothing wrong with the male helping female stereotype being sexist or even wrong. That is how we are ingrained to act in the real world. If you see a girl approaching the same door as you, you hold the door open for her. If you see her carrying something heavy and appearing to be struggling with it, you help her carry it. Girls short 20 cents in front of you at the 7-11, throw her 20 cents. tell me again whats wrong with this?

we live in a very visually and sexually oriented society. The character models in games today can be very realistic, so its no wonder we carry over the same mechanics we do in the real world.

When I was 16, and playing my main character (the druid). I hit on quite a few female characters. sometimes for the hell of it. sometimes because I just wanted to, and sometimes because the way they conveyed themselves truly was interesting. most of them were female, absolutely none of them "hated" me for it or told me not to. in fact I became friends with almost all of them. sometimes I even got the girls coming onto me a little bit too strong, (calling my house, sending me gifts) stuff like that. and the thing is, women dont get hit on in MMO's because they say "tee hee" and smile like this =) after every line. At least, whenever I did it was through talking on the chat handle and finding out about each other. At its core , all these games are just visually stimulated chat rooms. and what goes on in chat rooms? a whole lot of things that go on in EQ.

On my server in particular we had a swingers guild, where the players would meet with each other IRL, slam it, and then return to their regularly scheduled lives. There were women characters, played by women , that were known to be cyberers. I had more than one girl actually want to call me up and have phone sex. More than one naked photo sent to me.

So what am I trying to say? Through it all, MMO's are sometimes a very clear mirror of Real life. And like in real life, women get different attention than men. accept it. its not "more" because a guy is more likely to tell the truth and bullshit and respect a male character's combat ability than a female because their talking to "one of their own". and its not less because a female character is definitely taken better care of and helped out. its how we act in real life. mirrored as best as possible onto a fantasy setting.

I remember playing Everquest and having a female character which my brother had made. It was an enchanter and I was bored with my warrior (which, for reference, was a male). I soon found out as many people who have posted above me that you get treated differently. I personally hated being treated like I was an object and perceived as a "weakling" needing assistance. I am a hardcore gamer and I reached level 60 and joined an uber guild (pre-SOV). It was fun for a while but time and time again I just could not stand the stigma of being a male playing a female character. Too often I would be hit on and laughed at for being a "fag". It was truly a miserable aspect of the game. I, however, hit on a lot of female characters (hoping they were female, of course). I was young then, and now that I am in college I just want to be friends with people (be they male or female) and develop that relationship.

I hope in the future that MMO's orient the game to be more fast paced with less downtime (which breeds both good social interactions and the negative ones that these comments deal with) to create a more casual and friendly atmosphere. Right now I am enjoying my WoW guild because we raid hard and are a respectful, relaxed guild. Even in ventrilo we don't get overexcited and point fingers but calmly talk through our problems.

I'm a male, but I tend to play female characters. In the beginning it was basically due to the fact that females are smaller than males thus giving me pvp advantages. In wow however I just continued playing females due to habit. I'd like to add one more potential reason why males (and females for that matter) choose to play males. Simple the joy of having the so-called-weaker sex kicking the buff of that big strong male warrior. In the name of equality (spelling?) I find that very pleasing.

"I'd like to add one more potential reason why males (and females for that matter) choose to play males."

That came out wrong.. the correct one is:

I'd like to add one more potential reason why males (and females for that matter) choose to play female characters."

I'd like to comment on gender bending in MMORPGs. I actually play UO rather than WOW ( I played a dwarf in WOW and had a lot of fun with it, but overall I think it is a shallow game ), so I risk not being appropos, but I think my comments are applicable to any MMORPG that I play. I have recently developed a female character in UO. Actually, I have had the character for some time, but had only used it in the past for resource gathering or using the "damsel" ploy to aquire small gifts from male players. Interestingly, the gifts were never much but I felt a sense of power in being able to aquire things pretty much at will from young ( And I say young judging on the way they spoke and what not )male players. I can understand the concept of a mechanic type player using a female character in UO. There is an item that is quite powerful for how easy it is get that is for female characters only. Furthermore, I like the idea of playing a character who is beautiful in the game.

I play female characterd in WoW, and I played female characters in EQ and EQ2. I tried playing males, but just didn't like the male models, especially in WoW. Besides, being a grandma on the wrong side of 50, I think I'm more comfortable staying with my own gender. Two of my best gaming friends are a woman who played all male characters and a man who always has one female character in whatever game he plays.

I've played a female in a couple of MMO's(i'm a male) and it all pretty much come down to that the female characters i've made fittet into my perception of that race. As an example i wanted to make a NE druid in WoW that looked kinda like furion, with a large beard and a old looking body, but that simply wasnt an option. So the only other picture i had of an NE in my head was a female so i made one. But i must admit i've never recieved any gifts from male players or such things, and i can't imagine why anyone would do it. It's a virtual illusion and romance is sort of ridicules in a MMO.
On a sidenote though i think it could be interesting if males and females had different attributes as they have in real life.
Men are by natures hand stronger than women, and women are by natures hand more agile then women. Then some people speak of other differences(exept the obvius one of course :) ) but these or the indisputable ones. it could be fun if a game developer could introduce this to a game

Btw i'm sorry for my horrible english but i'm danish so english is not my native language

The main reason I play a female character in WoW is because i play mostly night elves, and the animation of a male night elf casting hearthstone or Wrath(druids)is just not appealing, especially for hours at a time every day. Female characters have much more graceful casting animations, which is why my night elf druid and human mage are female. If i were to make a warrior or paladin it would most likely be male.

I am a male that plays a female character as my main character in WoW. Additionally, with all videogames where I am given a choice, I play a female. The reason is because I like strong female characters. I am not doing it because for homosexual reasons, but saddly, quite the opposite. I also like to play (or cheer for) the underdog in any situation, which in terms of gender makes me play female because the female is less represented in the gaming world. It is also, as was stated above by Slak, extremely entertaining to "pwn" a male playing an extremely powerful looking male character because they tend to get really angry and cry.

When playing my female characters, although I do not flirt, occassionally I am hit on by male characters and sometimes given gifts. I usually just act shy, as my other friends (who also genderbend and group with me) make snide comments on the situation through private tells. I will however, get quite vocal if someone goes too far, as I feel it is behavior that should be stopped to make the game enjoyable for the female characters that are actually women.

Lastly, although many of my characters in MMOGs are women, I REFUSE to play a female nightelf because they are far too pretty, and get hit on way too much for a roleplayer like me. That's just like gender-bending suicide, in my opinion.

I became disinterested with WoW for a number of reasons, but two of them were certainly their poor representation of males and the absolutely ridiculous outfits for many of the females (particularly at high levels).

When I play a female, I prefer attractive modesty over excessive flesh. I've had people refuse to believe I'm male ingame because I "don't dress skimpy enough" or my conduct "isn't trampy enough." Heck, I had one female tell me that she was convinced I was a girl IRL because I chose a small-breasted build in COH.

I play a female as my main and secondary main because I like an attractive avatar. And yes I get hit on all the time. If I get hit on by someone in my guild or someone I am partied with I quickly let them know in tells that I'm a guy. They always thank me right off the bat for being honest and we all move on with out lives.

I'm happy, I get to look at my cute lil' mage's toosh and I don't have to roleplay flirting with other guys.
~Matt

My main in WoW is a female priest, and I'm a guy. The reason I chose the opposite sex was because this is my second toon, and the first was male. I haven't ever been hit on in the game yet, and I'm now 60 - but this may be because I'm pretty quiet and anti-social, and my priest is a troll that looks like she came out of a Mad Max flick ;). I couldn't imagine the hell female night elves must go through.

For the record, I mostly play WoW as a single player game, which is amazing for a priest - very little grouping until now (that I am 60).

IMHO it would be nice if you could see one character and project a different one to the rest of the world.
That way All those "I want to stare at a pretty backside" folks would be as satisfied as the "I don't want unwelcome comments" people.

I too am a male that plays almost exclusivly female characters. I'm now (1995) 30. I have played female since I played games that have attractive characters - before that I played male. Even games like FFVII I set my group up such that the focus was Tifa. If I'm gonna focus on a character (and all the requisite shallowness) I want one I want to look at.

Mostly the "stare at a butt" thing - that was almost verbatim of what I say. I usually have a "social" character that I make as close to me as possible (male, tall, blad, and overwieght if possible). But it is usally run to a place, powerlevelled, or whatever the specific game allows. It is used when I want to be me, or me be the character.

It has been interesting the reactions I have gotten over time. My name is normally strcpy in games that allow it. As such, I'm often seen as a geek girl (strcpy being "string copy" in the standard C language library - look it up on google if you do not understand), though recently in guild wars I didn't adopt that name. The last MMORPG I played (guild wars arguably isn't one) - DAOC - the attitude ranged from "OMG, grrl geek - everybody dogpile and harrass" to simply treating me as a person (one of the most amusing instances was watching me barely win a fight against a yellow opponent, bowing, and say "sprintf" - an alternate function to strcpy - I still think that is funny and tell that story to this day. There was no other interaction, the person left the game after that. OTOH I had a long conversation with someone who thought I was a girl and was aking advice in comp sci, was angry when he found out I wasn't. My advice was valid if I was female or not). It's given me a different outlook on geek girls and girls in general, both good and bad (being a geek when it was about as non-cool as possible the attention was good, though I didn't care about the non-caring of me. A mixed reaction. I understand both sides for the msot part).

I always treat online contacts as gender neutral. If someone feels like explicitly telling me thier gender I note it but have a tendancy to forget (what does gender matter if we are 2000 miles apart and all I see is text?), otherwise I do not care. I strive to do so in my real life, though that can be harder (females and thier shape are attractive and it's hard to keep that out of my thoughts).

I think that in order to play a female in a role playing game, particularly a multiplayer one where you interact with others, you are playing out some kind of unconscious homosexual fantasy.

You are after all, "role playing" - playing the role of someone else. I don't think the argument of wanting to stare at an attractive female characters holds much water, unless perhaps you're a 12 year old, which is then equivalent to buying the Sun (UK tabloid paper) for its topless page 3 girls.

Truthfully, the main reason that my secondary WoW character is a female Tauren is simple:

I really think the male Tauren character model is kinda ugly.

All of my Undead characters are Male, and I made a female Human paladin for another reason entirely:

"Paladin" is not normally a title associated with female characters, and I felt like changing that fact up a bit.

I have to say that I play a female undead character because her look was appealing to me. In game, I actually run into people who are upset with me for being a real life female. I tend to skirt the issue if it's ever brought up in groups because I'm treated differently if people know which gender I am. WoW is a game, don't be silly!

"IMHO it would be nice if you could see one character and project a different one to the rest of the world.
That way All those "I want to stare at a pretty backside" folks would be as satisfied as the "I don't want unwelcome comments" people."

Actually, you can, look into the reskinning and reshaping threads on WoW forums...

On to something "chris" said:

"I think that in order to play a female in a role playing game, particularly a multiplayer one where you interact with others, you are playing out some kind of unconscious homosexual fantasy."

You're talking out of your ass here, Chris. There's nothing "gay" subconcious or otherwise about playing a female character. What's more, you're making the horribly wrong mistake of confusing "feminine" with "homosexual," which is the kind of medieval thinking about sexuality which should have been left behind when we moved into the 21st century. (Hint: Transgenderism, or even rejection of standard sex roles, is not the same as attraction to the same gender.)

A gay man would NOT want to play a flirty female character. A gay man would want to play a flirty male character, and flirt with male characters. Why? Because he likes guys and wants to be liked by guys.

Duh.

--Kynn

I have always played female characters in Games, why because they are a clearer image of who I am, gender really has no basis in my thought processes, in the same way the average person does. I have played, SWG and many many games from Tunnels of Dune, to the first D&D games on computers. I am the first to play a Female in Console games, because of Duality, if that makes sense. Duality is accepting the nature of both female and male in you. I am a real life male, I personally would not hold or withstand the ridicule if I went around cross dressing nor would I really want to. Do I have homosexual tendencies, no.

Acting or taking on a role in role play is taking on another role. Is Patrick Swayze, Wesley Snipes or John Leguizamo Gay, or actual Drag Queens? Nope not one little bit, they probably understand the role they played in that movie and gained a Female's perspective on many issues from the Experience. Now, do I say I am male in my gaming time, nope not on your life I want Immersion and can't get that if I am treated like the boys. I could go on, and on about this, just enjoy what you play and have fun, and immerse yourself in your favorite game.

I play a female character because I agree with Andy.

Seriously though, when I change into the Pirate Outfit, or the sweet little number with the Sarong and the Goggles...

The reaction from other players TOTALLY changes from when I'm in full armor.

i made female characters to have a visual difference of the characters' class. this is when i played many characters at a time with more than one computer and clients on a computer.

In response to:
"I think that in order to play a female in a role playing game, particularly a multiplayer one where you interact with others, you are playing out some kind of unconscious homosexual fantasy."

I disagree with this entirely. I think if you were to run around and flirt with the male characters you met, then perhaps this might be true, but to run around and kill elves with one is an entirely different scenario.

I don't mean to pull this thread off subject but some comments regarding the aesthetic value of the male and female 3D models used in the game deserve some kind of response.

I find the negative remarks directed at the attractiveness of the male characters in the game rather interesting. I won't argue which sex or sex/racial combination in WoW is more attractive but I will argue that the males in WoW look like they actually belong in the game! The male characters in WoW look far more appropriate to the setting and style of the Warcraft universe versus some of the than the female ones which stand out like sore thumbs. I think the male characters perfectly embody the visual style of the Warcraft universe that has been established over the years. In contrast just look at the female trolls and orcs in the game, they simply do not possess the hallmark physical and facial characteristics unique to their respective races and if they do, it is so muted as to be unnoticeable from a distance. They look more like muscular human females wearing ugly latex masks than orcs or trolls! Let's not even talk about gnome females who have a face and hairstyle that makes them look more like a pre-pubescent human girl than a mature female gnome with a typically 'gnomish' nose.

The models and/or facial textures used for many of the female characters seem deliberately toned down and more realistic which in my opinion, belies some kind of subconscious attempt on the part of the 3D modelers (or the art dept. heads) to create an ideal female form they'd prefer to be around in real life versus one that's supposed to fit into the WoW universe.

Sure, if WoW was supposed to be a realistic looking rpg like EQ2 then I could understand the pro-female aesthetic comments here but this game is anything but realistic! The Warcraft universe is decidedly colorful, exaggerated, large, loud and cartoonish and the male characters in the game perfectly represent this.

I may be in the minority here, being completely new to MMORPGS. I find WoW entertaining and a nice diversion from stressful RL. I don't really use it as social interaction. I prefer socializing with people whose real physical presences I can interact with. I mostly play the game solo. I am female and play a female dwarf. I chose to play a female 'cause I like to represent myself as I am. As for choosing a dwarf, the human and night elf females looked a little too much like playboy centerfolds or Barbies which annoyed me immensely. And the gnomes look like little Rainbowbrite dolls. That left me with a dwarf. As for people treating characters differently depending on how they are dressed or what gender/race they play: that just seems silly. The visual characters are just pixels and don't mean squat. Afterall, it's just a game and it isn't real. At the risk of being a bit offensive, I think that people who use this game as a forum for romantic/sexual interaction need to go out and meet some flesh-and-blood people and maybe even (gasp!) need to get laid. There. I probably pissed a bunch of people off. Sorry, that's just the way I see it.

I have made alot of characters, some of which I have leveled to 60, and not one of them was a female. They are all muscular, melee specializing maniacs who wield massive axes and other monstrosities and beat the crap out of all my alliance opposition. I suppose female characters would look alright as mages and priests etc, but its just stupid seeing a skinny female holding some giant axe and swinging it like its a feather. Oh,and you just contradicted yourself before, you said that you chose to be a dwarf female because you were concerned about her appearance, but then you said appearance doesnt mean squat. ???

in response to this...

I think that in order to play a female in a role playing game, particularly a multiplayer one where you interact with others, you are playing out some kind of unconscious homosexual fantasy.
You are after all, "role playing" - playing the role of someone else. I don't think the argument of wanting to stare at an attractive female characters holds much water, unless perhaps you're a 12 year old, which is then equivalent to buying the Sun (UK tabloid paper) for its topless page 3 girls.

Chris man... Are you sure you're not 12 yourself? Or perhaps, confused about your own sexuality to the extend that you needed to defend yourself even when nobody questioned it?

First off, I'm male, I'm 28, I've dated several women in the past, I'm married and definitely hetero. On the other hand I also have a gay male friend who also plays warcraft. I've known him since before he was out of the closet, and I've never had any sort of romantic relationship with him. Yet, I am mature and secure enough not let his sexual orientation effect our frienship. I wouldn't even have mentioned any of this, if not for the fact that I am expecting an extremely homphobic retalliation to this observation directed at me.
Anyway, my point is... He usually plays a male character. I don't know if that's because he's attracted to the character or if he identifies with it more, but it does kind of contradict your theory.

The rest of my friends who play are a mixture of straight men and women. the women almost always play women and the straight men are about a 50/50 mix.

I myself, prefer the males on the horde side because the seem appropriately big, grotesque, and ugly for their roles. the troll and orcish females conversely don't seem big, grotesque, or ugly enough.

On the alliance side I think the male and female Gnomes, Night Elves, and Dwarves seem pretty appropriately proprtioned for their roles... Or should I say disproportioned? The male night elves could be a tad less musclebound in my opinion, but tolerable. I think the dwarves are probably the closest to what I would expect to see on the Alliance side.

The female human characters are a obviously very idealized. I don't really mind that myself, but I'm sure there are a ton of not as well endowed women out there that might feel offended by this being the only body type offering. The males on the other hand look like block-headed, tree trunk necked, mutant hulks. I mean, Arnold in the Conan days wasn't even that meaty. They look like crazy growth hormone experiments gone terribly wrong. What happens if you want a mage? How many bookwormy guys do you no that look like they could bench 400 pounds? How does a stealthy nimble thief look like an effin' linebacker. What if you want to be a warrior that maybe lives by his critical hit skills and speed, rather than his shear bludgeoning power. The human male character is just way to girthy in my opinion. I really don't know what the art directors at Blizzard were thinking when the approved that design. If I go human, I'll definitely go with a female character.
Really, I think it would have been better to let each race have maybe 2 or 3 body type variations per race/gender. A lean, chubby, and ripped version of each would be pretty cool I think. Oh well, maybe in WOW 2...
I guess for me, it's just proportional character trait representation that makes me pick my character gender, rather than sexual orientation.

Everyone who has posted here has made some excellent points and comments about why they do or do not play male/female characters. Quick background I am 33 and married for 7 years. I have been RPing since the 80's with my first experience with D&D. Soon I was running games where Rping NPC males and females became important for my players to stay interested and focuse versus running the classic monty-hall campaign. I drew on experience from dating other women or women who were friends to role play situations and reactions of female npcs. I did the same with males though it is easier when you are the same sex. About 6 months ago I got into SWG (Didn't care for WOW...sorry) and I ended up playing a Twi'lek Female (think of oola from return of the jedi in jabba's throne room..the dancer )...by mistake actually. Well as I wasn't an entertainer in the swg world just a tailor / warrior hybrid class I made male and female friends but never eluded to the fact I was a male. Roleplaying sex or roleplaying flirting was never my intension for my character unlike many people I met in the game. As many of you said you can tell a man playing a women (though I might be an exception) no one has come out point blank and asked me and I have never eluded to it..I even tried to make my character as realistic as I could...she is not top heavy and has some curves...(what the game will allow for).I never thought of developing a relationship for my character until I met another Twi'lek (female played by a female 99.9% sure of it) we hit it off and a relationship grew from there. (yes 2 women....so what! love is love and soulmates are soulmates who cares what form it comes in) We are now married and enjoy our time together online it's like having a constant companion to rely on when things get rough in game (just like my marrage in real life my wife and I complement each other both strengths and weaknesses). As a gentleman I will not talk about the sex relation these characters have but again I draw from real life experience to infuse my character with the necessary experience. My character has taken on a "life" all her own joys sorrows pains and joy this is roleplaying at its finest in my opinion. I enjoyed playing her and "acting as a woman" you know some of you guys should really try it. You start to learn what its like being a woman in a mans game and better yet a mans world! What I have noticed in myself is a new appreciation for my wife and how I react towards her.....its like learning to speak venusian (men..mars...women...venus *wink) So my opinion, if you love to roleplay and serious role play try the opposite sex....it is not easy but very satisfying.

Ok, wtf is going on here. I think all of you are either friggin noobs to gaming or crackheads RPers. If you ever played Wow for more than 30 minutes you'd know that flirting is inexistant past like lvl 10. I mean damn at end-game and even before you're gonna have to get on vent in at some point and no one gives a shit weither your character is male or female. That is not even a real issue. As an experienced Wow player I can tell you that.

I have a human female rogue named Naomya.
"ZOMG you must be a fag or homophobic!!!11one"

No.

Reasons why I created that character :
1- Human males look retarded.
2- Human males have a warrior shape, and fit rogues as much as tauren would.
3- Who would name a female character "Jerry" or "Bob"?

Thats it. It's that simple. Do not look further.

rickmo,

Does your real wife know about your virtual wife?

I think that the male characters are less attractive, is because they are supposed to appeal to the players who would rather look meen or tough, then care if they have something nice to look at.

ho hum, I'm a boi, 25 yrs old, and i play mostly girls whether its paper pencil or computer game or whatever. I mostly do this because i prefer the way the girls look over the way the boi's look. I also enjoy female clothes (scanty or not) to male clothes. CoH was my first mmo, then i played WoW for a bit, then i went back to CoH. Costume design is the main reason i keep playing CoH :P I am an altaholic, but i played mostly female night elfs on WoW (And no i didn't dance all the time) I love elves and faeries anyways and i thought the night elf design was very good. I also had a female orc ^^ I get hit on alot, maybe because i'm flirtatious. I don't go out of my way to be, i just act normal really. I get mistaken for a girl irl alot though and my friends say i'm very flirtatious, so whatever. The friends i make in game usually play female toons. I do not know if they are really girls or not, i'm pretty sure some are but who knows. Doesn't really matter much. I mostly friend with female toons because the players behind them have a greater tendency to not be powergaming farmers with no sense of humor. Also they don't constantly pm.

Thats all

I am just about to jump into WoW, but I've played many non-MMO games in the past that have allowed gender selection, such as Tribes and Tribes 2, Knights of the Old Republic I and II, etc.

In the Tribes series, MOST of the better players used Female avatars, but I knew a LOT of players, and I never once met a girl. I seriously doubt more than 1 in 500 (probably less) of the "females" were girls at all. It annoyed me quite a bit, but it not being a role-playing game, it didn't matter as much.

I'm going to be Male in WoW, but I'm joining a regular PvP server. it may or may not be unique, but I have a gaming philosophy I stick to of trying to be myself, because I LIKE my ideals and tastes and opinions and so on and wish to interact with a virtual world as if it's me. Some people would assume I'm a role-player, but I'm not in the sense you might think... why? Because I can't see getting into faking all this chatter. I want a REAL experience, and to me it's more real if we're all honest and open with eachother and admit this fantasy world is a secondary one, important too but not, in a sense, REAL. I like everything about the World, INCLUDING (in no small part) the social aspect of it... that's probably the biggest element for me. So to have people who gender-bend, especially with no clear way to see whether they're doing it or not, is EXTREMELY annoying to me, because it's a major obstacle to me trying to socialize in this new world. In real life, gender bende
rs would look very manly, but in the virtual world, it takes a while to figure it out I imagine. I'd rather not have to be skeptical with every "girl" I meet, but I'll have to be. The virtual world in a certain sense is as real as the real world, as you make relationships and such in it as well, so keeping it as... right as it can be, and as accessible, is a good thing.

Not only that, but it's even more unfair to the real girls who are playing, and I'm a HUGE proponent of girls increasing their presence in games, which gender-bending may stifle. I like to see a girl in game and know it's a girl, and I also like that a girl has certain tendencies and tastes, and a guy has certain tendencies and tastes, and that it will work in the virtual world, but this doesn't happen with gender bending.

On a side note, if someone really WERE homosexual, I wouldn't have a problem with them using a girl avatar, because I think you should be who you envision, and if they want that, ok. But I don't like people playing characters who they do not envision themselves as, because it makes them act unnatural, as they have to act in some foreign way, and not very well more than likely.

I wish there was something that could be done to help the situation, but companies don't dare even encourage sticking with your own perceived gender.

On a totally different topic (please e-mail me if you'd like to discuss it, subnubilus@yahoo.com), I don't understand why people have multiple characters. Am I the only one who looks at my character and thinks "That's Me!"? If the World is such a wonderful place to exist, no matter your level or the time you've spent there, why have more than one character? I'm not saying one shouldn't, necessarily, just asking (though it does seem that it should be one character per server...).

Anyhow, about the gender thing... I've heard every excuse in the world for using a female, and only good reason I've EVER heard is that in certain games the model is smaller and harder to hit. That is NOT the case in WoW, and actually, in Tribes, the damage model was the same between male and female, despite the look being different. It messes up role-playing in a big way, both "traditional" style role-playing and the "virtual me" style role-playing I do. For people who don't care about that social aspect whatsoever (as in, the perception of them by others and vice versa), I find it very strange that they would use a female avatar, who garners more attention than a male avatar.

Also...

All the gender benders saying they prefer the aesthetics of the girl, dressing her up and whatnot... that's normal! But seek it out in other characters, like you would in real life! You WANT a girl, you don't want to BE a girl... in game, you could be a tailor/fashion designer or just a guy that tries to pick up chicks, or whatever! I role-play as me, and I realize a lot of people don't do that, so I understand it's not a black-and-white issue, but it seems to me that the avatar is your character, but the World is what you're sticking around for, so you'd seek what you like in the World, not make it to begin with! You must admit, bender or not, it complicates things negatively to have most girls actually be guys, both for guys and more so girls.

I have almost the opposite view of just about everything you mentioned there, Subnubilus. I don't play games -- MMORPGS or otherwise -- in order to make a carbon copy of my real life self, so that I can look and say 'That's me!'. I look at the games and say 'Those are my characters!'. Because I'm already 'me' in real life, and while I am quite satisfied with who I am and how I look, why would I feel compelled to only play digital copies of exactly the same representation all the time? Especially when there is so much variety available?

That, at least for me, is the explanation behind both your questions -- why people don't play as an avatar that's exactly like their real life selves, and why the vast majority of MMORPG players do play multiple characters, or at least have 'alts' to their 'mains': because we can, and because in most of these games, no single choice allows you to experience everything that the game offers.

I am a human male in real life. Most of my characters in the MMORPGs are NOT human. Most of them ARE male, but not all of them are. I don't have to be an elf or wookiee in the real world in order to want to try playing a virtual one from time to time. It's about variety, and about enjoying what the games have to offer. By limiting yourself to only the race, gender, size, appearance, etc. that matches your real life self, you're cheating yourself out of a lot of possibilities -- not just different appearances, but different styles of play and even different content in many cases. I'm paying for everything the game offers me, I don't see any point in cheating myself out of a lot of it by limiting myself to a single character which duplicates who I am in real life.

I found some of your comments rather telling, regarding gender in games. Especially:

"So to have people who gender-bend, especially with no clear way to see whether they're doing it or not, is EXTREMELY annoying to me, because it's a major obstacle to me trying to socialize in this new world."

Just a thought, but maybe you should first be trying to socialize and relate to your fellow players as PEOPLE, not as 'is this a guy or a girl?'. You also say:

"I like to see a girl in game and know it's a girl, and I also like that a girl has certain tendencies and tastes, and a guy has certain tendencies and tastes, and that it will work in the virtual world, but this doesn't happen with gender bending."

And this, to me at least, points out part of your problem. Sounds like you're trying to carry over whatever stereotypical, preconceived notions (I stopped myself from saying 'prejudices') you have about gender roles from real life, into a game. And you're frustrated that other players -- both male and female -- aren't co-operating with your desire to pigeonhole everyone on sight like you do in real life. I have news for you: the evidence (including the polls cited here and elsewhere) shows that it's exactly attitudes like that which result in quite a few female players choosing MALE avatars in games, in order to avoid being treated differently by default.

In my experience, the people who have the greatest objections to players choosing avatars of a different gender are the people who are looking to, ahem, 'interact' with the opposite sex. They are less interested in just gaming or even roleplaying with the *characters* than they are in hooking up to one degree or another with the real *player* behind them, and they want to be able to make sure right off the bat that the girl they're hitting on really is a girl. Not saying there's anything inherently wrong with that, but a lot of players -- both male and female -- aren't in it for that.

Well, I play mmogs for PvP.
Females are much harder to target.
Also theres always the chance that enemy noobs will consider me less of a threat cause of the avatar.
Similarly, allied noobs may be more motivated to keep me alive.

I started playing female toons in D2 where I started noticing the trend. Sorcoresses were treated like royalty and everyone assumed that every sorc was a female IRL, and for some reason thought they could toy around with me, immediately preceeding their dirt nap complements of me. :>

Heres how simple it is. Noobs are everywhere. They make stupid assumptions about everything, including the gender of an avatar. If you can exploit it, then do so. If you can't identify the noob or their behavior, then you are probably one of them.

Zanzibarian, very nice reply. I really appreciate you responding in full like that instead of writing me off. I know some of my opinions might sound harsh (and I assure you, they sound much harsher than they are, and in practice I'm gentle and accepting when I can be). I'll respond in turn, to clear some points up.

The reason making a "carbon copy" of yourself might be appealing is because the World is different. It's kind of like travelling, which I enjoy more than anything else; you get to interact with new things, and are tested in ways you wouldn't be if you sat around at home. An ideal video game, to me, does many of those things put STILL lets me sit at home, because I don't have the money to travel full-time. I know it's not a totally unique view, but I can understand the appeal of seperating yourself from the character more. A little update, I'm probably not going to be jumping into WoW just yet, or possibly ever, but it does seem that WoW lends itself to "alting" and such. The thing about different races and all that is also a good point. What you said about already being satisfied with your real-life look and character and so forth, yes, me too, but that's one of the reasons I like to play as that. I'm not unimaginative, it's just that I choose to make that particular choice uniform.

As far as the stereotyping gender goes, that isn't true in the way I think you mean it. I happen to be all about gender equality, for one, and secondly, the preconceived notions about women I have... well, let me put it this way. Do you think, GENERALLY SPEAKING, that a 30-year-old girl playing a female and a 15-year-old boy playing a female will act very similarily? Now, compare two different 30-year-old girls, or many, many 30-year-old girls. Don't you think there will more than likely be some differences, as far as style of play, gameplay decisions, dialogue, and so forth, between the majority of 30-year-old women and the majority of 15-year-old players? Of course there will be. It doesn't mean we can make assumptions before we meet someone, AND I DON'T, but, in the end, how we act does affect others and vice versa. My wish that this could be emulated is not rooted in some sort of prejudice... I don't want all the female players to act like I want them to, but rather, how female players would act. And they do! But having half of the female avatars ACT like boys is what I wish could be eliminated.

And, so you know, I'm not in the game after a girl, but I am in it for the social experience mainly, so it's just a part of it. I don't think that in a game like WoW it destroys the fabric of the game or anything, and if I came across rashly about it, I apologize, but I do think in other online social situations (including future games, depending on what the online culture is like there), it could have some repercussions. I think I was taking WoW to have a slightly different atmosphere than it does, now that I've done more research.

Anyway, I guess what I'm trying to say (in defense of myself), is that I wouldn't act differently to someone just because their female, but I would like for virtual females, regardless of how I act, to act like "themselves", which can't happen the way it is now, and I guess I have to accept that.

But also, a part of it is for the girls themselves... I think (and I could be totally wrong) that women would prefer most of the guys roleplaying them wouldn't, but mostly just because many boys roleplay women in a way that might not be... I don't know... right. I've read complaints from girls saying that guys roleplaying them take advantage of their virtual gender more than real girls tend to (because you are right, they do get treated differently by MOST people). However, you mention that quite a few females choose to play males, and yes, quite a few do, but it's a small percentage. I don't think that ends up being much of a problem, and I don't see it being abused.

You say that people who have these concerns have them because they want to hook up in real life, and that's only sort of true. I'm actually NOT looking to hook up anywhere at the moment, or even have some sort of relationship like that. IN FACT, I was mostly hoping to meet some cool friends (male, more than likely). However, I DO care about the person behind the avatar, because I'm a naturally social person. When I travel, I love meeting people. So in game, yes, I am not content just saying "oh, this here is a night elf who has been travelling the World looking for riches"; I am even more interested in who that is personifying. I don't see anything wrong with that, and I actually think it's healthy. I used to play competitively in Tribes and Tribes 2, and I was co-captain of a tribe, and the comaraderie we (the tribe) shared was a big part of the appeal, and why I stuck around so long. It wasn't IN ADDITION to the game, really, it was a vital PART of the game.

Thanks for the response, you're point about the game and others were all valid, but your points about me mostly were not, though I've cleared that up. If you'd like to discuss it (or anything else) further, please e-mail me at subnubilus@yahoo.com.

Just like to make a quik observation. Love and sex makes the world (even rp-worlds) go round it appears.
It appears to me ppl are a finding the gender thing most important of all. Just look at the numeber of posts. Highest number on this site.
Forget age/faction balance/mechanic or other and so on. Life is about love (or sex if being shallow) and so is RPing.
Or is it? Well anyway it seems to get ppl worked up most on this forum. Politicians could use this as a means to get ppl more interested in RL issues. Vote for me, I'm a male! Or wait this is alrady the thing in RL...

ps. I'm a 25 y-old man playing females just to be not like 'all' males because i don't feel like identifying myself with RL white, rich, world wrecking males.

I am a male and have been playing MMOs since the opening of UO. I originally played a female toon there because my best friend ( a female) wanted to RP twin sisters. So I created my first female character Archer /Warrior. We actually roleplayed back then so it was fun. I was the bad sister she was the good one. Most of the people we met in game knew that I was male and she was female and were ok with it. I guess 8 years ago "gender-bending" wasn't an issue and all this "cyb0r" crap never really exsisted.

I play both male and female characters in all my games. Why? simple answer: because I want to. Now there is one game I play a female character of a specific race because the male avatars look like they have a stick up their arse when running ( Dark Age of Camelot - Lurikeens ) I think most people who have issue with the cross-gender playin in a "game" may have RL issues themselves

Perhaps some do have RL issues, but not all do, and I'd say a lot of people who it concerns are simply looking for different things than most people in these online games. If I was soley interested in combat and level advancement, for example, I wouldn't care. All the MMOs I've seen though center around this, though.

Wow, this is a cool discussion!

I'd just like to add my 2 cents. I think that if more women developers were involved in the making of female avatars, that males would be less likely to genderbend. After all, most women avatars in most games ive played are built to flaunt their sexuality. And as a female gamer, that really just runs all over me. A huge reason i stopped playing Guild Wars is because i didnt have any intereset in running around in armor that looked like lingerie. In wow, it annoys me how uncustomizeable and seemingly "wooden" the characters are, yet the females have these huge boobs that even bounce when you move! Wow! -_- I think that if more developers had their female games in mind when they created characters, you'd see less genderbending because females would be less sexual, there formore men wouldnt have any interesnt in playing a non sexual female. Whats the point of women anyways? ;)

I can *always* spot a female character played by a male. In swg, they are as skinny as possible, their boobs are as big as possible, and interestingly enough, their faces all look the same :D It actually makes me smile when someone tells me that my character is "ugly" or is wearing too much clothes.

Yes, it all goes back to real life issues with men seeing women as objects, and i think its partly the developers job to make sure those biases dont come out in the games they make. they wouldnt make overtly homosexual or stereotypical racial characters, why would they do this to women?

And before i sound sexist in the above comments, i know that some men dont play female characters because they are sexy or want things handed to them. The majority i have met, however, do. But im not silly enough to think that is the case with all.

First of all, I'm deeply impressed with the maturity shown by nearly every poster on this potentially "charged" topic.

My comments are limited to the issue of the artwork. First, a brief search of my WoW box turned up two seperate lists of artists, neither of which had ANY female names listed (although there were a few foreign names whose gender I can't speak to).

Second, as was mentioned before, "sex sells" and, beyond the fact that the overwhelming majority of video-game players are male, market research clearly shows that sexy women have an attractive effect on both sexes. On that note, shareholders want to see a profit, and generally, engaging in social change is not profitable. Practically speaking, Blizzard's best option, if they were so inclined, would have been to allow more choice in body styles, not go for a more average look in the only body style given.

Finally, I don't have a link to it, but I read an article about the "UGLY Model Agency" in which the owner said that they frequently placed average-looking or unattractive male models, but for their female counterparts, their clients almost always prefered to make up beautiful models to look less attractive. This says to me that in our illusory worlds (TV, film, games, etc.) the human psyche can accept male "non-beauty", but tragically, humanity has psychologically devolved to the level that we can only accept "fake non-beauty" in women, at best. I'm suggesting the artists may have fallen into that trap. But maybe I'm reading too much into it.

I play as a male because that is what I am.

I honestly believe the reason is not for men seeing woman as objects (e.t.c), but that the choice is done subconciously. Maybe some people are bi who do it and just don't realise it? Maybe not. Or possibly most people do it to manipulate to receive gifts? Maybe, yet there are too many possibilities. So the simplest way to put it is this:

It appears that whether you like yourself, or not, subconciously you will judge and try to create an illusional perfect form of yourself (dreams, fantasies of what you wish you were, anything). With the aid of games, maybe we can all see what our "fantasies" really are. Then again, we may just be bored staring at an ugly butt the entire game, and thats why we play whichever gender character we do. Sure, we all dream, we all have wishes and desires, but do we truly no what they all are and mean? Definately not. We're human..well hopefully..

Lastly, I'll remain anonymous. Why? To leave the question of "judging people's gender by how they speak" open for discussion.

In WoW, I have both male and female characters. My main is male, but a few of my alts are female. Why? I'm not really sure why to be quite honest. I guess it comes down to the class and the race combination...For example, I have an male Undead priest because the males look more evil and fit the role of the Undead better IMO. At the same time, I rolled an female orc warrior...obviously not for the "good looks", but more to be as individual as possible. You don't see too many female orcs running around. Plus, I imagine female orcs as being pretty crazy and savage warriors...there is nothing scarier than an angry green woman with a sword. Anyway, I don't think gender-bending goes beyond aesthetic reasons most of the time...although I suppose RPers who want to gender-swap may be a bit different.

I am a female, and I play a male as my main character, on a PvP server. About half of my characters in World of Warcraft are male.

Whenever I play a female character, the people that I group with, will sometimes ask me if I'm a female in real life. This question never comes up when I am playing a male.

Most guys call me "bro" and while I'm playing that character, I do not correct them. I just call them "bro" too.

I play WoW on a pvp server and don't genderbend at all. I've found that most of the people that I'm around don't either, but if they do they make it obvious to everyone. (Except those times where they make a joke out of it lol). I like playing a male character and he's the only character I have on WoW. I like the idea of just having one character because people will be able to identify you more and you build more of a reputation for yourself. I'll admit, I had a created a couple of female characters when I played EQ, but it never kept my interest. I just like being myself. I have gone around trying to flirt with the female avatars before, but I've been playing MMO's for 7 years and it's really easy to pick out the males playing the female characters. I always think it's funny when they try to manipulate the male characters. When they try and do the same to me, I always try and lie to them, saying that I'm really female playing this male character. Oh how quickly they change their way of speaking and acting! "You are? Woah! Wanna cyber?" That's a very common response. So to wrap up, I like people who act themselves in a game, whether that be on a male or female character. I just don't like when people go over the top in their gender bending.

Personally, I don't care for females. I am a male in real life, and I am very sexist (though I try my hardest to stay mature and fair and not let any distaste for women ruin my life) so I never play as female characters. Even so, when I do mingle with women (I hate men too, so when I get close to people it's a rare event anyways) I like to do so with older women. There seems to be some limit in age, the younger you get the more likely to be offended by flirting until you reach sexual curiosity. I keep to the older ladies because they seem to know that it's not for real, it's just... my way of saying hello. It's not wrong to genderbend in my opinion, I'd kill you either way, but it's wrong to get offended. If somebody gives you an item because they have a case of puppy love for you, GOOD. Let it happen. Don't get scared because somebody shows you affection, just accept it for what it is. Maybe that person on the other end is some blind moron just looking for somebody, because they have nobody. Accept the pheremones and get on with your life. Who knows, that creep might even turn out to be a nice guy. Even so, if somebody is going to persist in harassing you, use your wonderful breasts (or man-chest, whatever you have) to lure some protectors up to make sure that offender understands. True, they may be lonely looking for somebody but that's not the way to do things, because it breeds fear and it breeds anger. Instead, let's just breed the old fashion way. Sex sells, life's short, and if you like female night elves... Good for you!

To brian does my wife know? no she does not. I keep my gaming world seperate from real life. never do the 2 interfere.

To heata,

You are correct most men who play characters will make those "top heavy" toons like anime characters and you are also right that there should be more female involvement in the design creation. Playing a female toon is fun sometimes it works to my advantage sometimes it doesn't but like in RL I have to work twice as hard in group combat to gain the respect of my male counterparts.

Interesting how RL always seeps into a fantasy world where you would think people are the same as there is no benefit of being female over male or vice-versa.

I believe one of the reasons one sex can be attracted to another is 'curiosity'. At first it was amusing to actually be in control of the object of my attraction, then I slowly started to become emphatic towards females, enjoying being one (as my characters)... slowly even developed bisexual fantasies, and disgust for shovinistic attitudes. Among other things I also enjoy watching my character take life with my RP and writting skills, and the beautiful/sexually attractive avatars developers create. (i.e. World of Warcraft)

Oh, I forgot to mention. Gender Bending seems like a big issue on a society with very thick defining lines on genders, and sexual prefferences. a few hundred year old trend that started with judeo-christian influence. A more viable truth is that people are people, emotions, feelings, sexual consciousness, despite their sex, just are. In MMORPGs I really don't care much for who's behind the character as much as I care for the character itself. I've sexually flirted with female character (knowing they are probably men) just because they do it so well, and even have fullfilled some female-female fantasies this way. For one, male or female in real life, I'll probably never meet them, and I really don't care to. ( I have a GF in RL and quite happy out here to care and mix my Virtual life with my RL) and secondly, People are people, beautiful, imaginative, ugly or stupid, wether male or female. So, if a male does a good job creating a female character that is sexy, adorable, attractive... I'll gladly flirt with them with my chracters (which will usually be females).

I'll gender-bend all I want! I have more female alts than I have male alts! 1 MALE Hunter, 1 female pally, 1 female rogue and 1 female priest!

Why? Cause they are sexy, I enjoy starring at my sexy toon. If a guy starts to flirt with me, I always write: "Don't get your hopes up buddy, I'm a guy in RL."

Prefererce for whether or not you choose a certain charecter gender just depends on how much a person identifies with it, the knowledge known, and what they're trying to attain. All of this is mostly to gain a sense of superiority, control, dominance (we all like to win, right?).

That is the addiction of MMORPGS. They stimulate a law of growth, and if you build and invest into it, enduring good times and bad times,and reap the benifits of growing the charecter, you tap into yourself 'fufilling' the drive of entertainment, superiority, etc. online, it tends to grow on you. It's a lot like crack. But less expensive.

If you knew that you could manipulate people into giving you free items if you're very "item-centered-look-what-I-have-its-better-than-yours" pereception, would you take it? If you knew you could potentially bash someones alter ego online, whatever the method, amusement at their expense, would you do it?

A lot of this is really is mental, and is based on how a person satisfies their desire. People sometimes play to manipulate others, some just use it to satisfy a drive of theirs. But all this is expected, because it is a game. Some people just play it as it is, but there are always those who seek to see more.

Thoughts are things. Fear and hatred for the gender-benders are usually people who just don't understand how action reflects their understanding of human nature. A lot of it comes from insecurity, and lack of knowledge of where to set boundaries. The 'I AM', portion of this, is violated to only those who see their avatars and ways of enforcing their view of reality within the game in conflict, rather than looking at the whole, or maybe playing it for more than the game that they themselves define it to be. And when they know more, or understand to seek to see a different branch of themselves upon stumbling into this knowledge, their conflict comes from the action of seeking. A lot of people who burn themselves by going into the fire do not even pay attention to where they are walking.

Society today repeats the same drama that took place centuries upon centuries ago, and sadly, continues on. Why? Maybe up in that collective consciousness of humanity, we all just happen to like it. We offer our own preference of how reality should be. When certain views of how to satisfy our drives clash, the amount of conflict that is created is directly related to how willing we are to adapt and learn (emphasis on learn). With that said, I AM RIGHT. YOU ARE WRONG. I WIN. LALALALA!

Quote:

"I'll gender-bend all I want! I have more female alts than I have male alts! 1 MALE Hunter, 1 female pally, 1 female rogue and 1 female priest!

Why? Cause they are sexy, I enjoy starring at my sexy toon. If a guy starts to flirt with me, I always write: "Don't get your hopes up buddy, I'm a guy in RL."

- You are NOT gender bending, my dear friend. -

-That defeats the whole purpose of the perspective I posted on the message previously (above yours) regarding Gender Bending. However I understand not many roleplay - Since it's not easy to play pretend (or act). What I think is, you are just choosing an avatar and Chatting with it as you would in a regular IRC. Gender Bending (In my Opinion) Is actually to ROLEPLAY, roleplay your character, as the opposite sex, to indulge in it, to be that 'other sex'. Not just to pick a female Avatar (or male in case you are a female in the non-virtual life) and act as you would normally, in a tech support chat. In a superficial way you could say you are gender bending in appereance. but ... nah.

Leave your inhibitions behind and next time a 'guy' hits on you, if for whatever reason that disgusts you (homophobia will do that to you) then just say 'No Thank you... I am not interested' or 'I'm not into guys' That will make your character look a lot more real and interesting. And not disturb the lovely fantasy setting or enviroment. (( but then again, I am a frustrated roleplayer who wishes more people would actually play interestingly and ROLEPLAY ^^)) - Not jumping avatars yelling 'lolz dude I powned' ... *sighs* :)

I've been an avid roleplayer for 20+ years. From tabletop to online. My first introduction to online gaming was Gemstone III from Simutronics which led to my first "beta" test with DragonRealms. I met a woman through this game and on and on, etc, etc. Eventually we became close and we decided for our own peace of minds we would roleplay characters of the opposite sex. IE I would roleplay a female, she a male. This worked out well and we both enjoyed taking on the aspects of the opposite sex. Eventually, as most romances do, we went our seperate ways.

To this day, all the RPGs that I play, I go with a female character just for the roleplaying aspect and to avoid the frustration of another relationship. Well guess what, I started WoW, started with a female character, migrated to a male character and bam! Right back where I started... hopefully this time with better results! ;)

I'm female and do enjoy video games in my spare time. Gender "bending" as this site calls it has always been an issue for me. My first MMO was FFXI. I would go around as my cute little Mithra and fight mobs with groups. The problem was that so many people thought I was a guy. It made me so outraged that everyone automatically assumed that I was playing a female character that I was automatically male. So I told people. If they called me "man" I would respond by saying "lady" or "woman."

A similar occurrence happened to me when I started playing WoW. I joined a guild on my server, and though I stated to the leader at least five times that I was female, he persisted in calling me a man. One day, I was messing around with a friend and kidding with this new person in the guild telling them the definition of a general MMO term "farming." They took this really seriously and whined to the guild leader. I got a message telling me to stop messing with the n00bs and decided that since the people couldn't take a joke my friend and I decided to leave. Apparently the next day my friend got a tell from the leader explaining why we were warned and calling me a man in the process. Well, this snapped me. I'm proud of my gender. Being a gamer girl is a cool thing in my opinion.

I have another story about gaming.

Later in time I started to date a guy, and we moved to Guild Wars together. One day I was standing around Droknar's Forge half-reading the messages going in my chat window, when I see two people arguing about America and who is better. Well, one guy from some other country stated, "All the women in America are fat." I felt the need to interject, "So, just because I live in America and I happen to be female, that makes me fat?" I hate stereotypes like, "Oh, just because that's a female avatar they're a guy" or "Oh, well, every female in America is fat."

Anyway, this was an extremely long post and a bit off topic, just really quick some main points:

1) "When you play a female character, not only are you getting more attention from men, but women treat you a lot differently as well. They are not as threatened by you, and thus when you ask them a question or for help, or even for a hunting partner, they dont assume its because you want to flirt with them or hit on them, or make them your "cyber wife". Do you know how many women called me "sister" or wanted to have me join a guild with them, or even make one! Women treated me a lot nicer than my main, which was a male wood elf druid. One individual and her husband bought me spells and power leveled me from 5-9 because she felt sympathy for "one of our own" trying to make it in this world."

Personally as a gamer girl, I have never treated anyone different because of gender. In fact, I have more male friends than female friends. When I see another female, I greet them as I would greet a guy. And to be honest, I am not threatened by males.. you guys are human too! I don't particularly get more attention from guys either.. More in FFXI I did, but not because they wanted to help me. I would help in FFXI. That's just the way it ran.

2) I'm not particularly against playing a character of the opposite gender, but I wish that other players wouldn't automatically assume because of the fact that they have only encountered males that every single person behind the avatar is going to be male.

3) It's okay. Learn 2 play. =3

Oh, if you have any comments or whatever.. send me an email at CertoKitty@gmail.com kthx! ^^

I play a female character mainly on WoW, for many of the reasons stated above...

1) Female characters generally look better

2) I too went for what i felt would be most appropriate for each class... I have a Dwarf Male Warrior for example, a gnome male rogue, a human male paladin, and a human female mage. Many of these are on the RPing server, and the one i currently play with most is the female mage...

3) I'm not a dwarf in real life but that does not stop me playing as one, so in the same way, i'm not a female in real life but why should that stop me playing as one...

To be honest, i find playing a female more interesting for some reason that i'm not entirely sure why... perhaps its just easier to get talking to people and become friends with them, also for the simple reason stated earlier that they look better...

To me, anything that happens in-game is purely that... its happening to my character, not to me personally... I enjoy seeing my characters develop on RPing servers... if she ends up flirting with the odd man along the way, its just my character learning some of the ways of life... At the end of the day, we're all watching the same things (roughly) happening in the world around us... the fact that i'm not quite watching through the same window that i would in real life is only a very minor fact in it.

Its a game... nothing more... nothing less...

Hmm, I play Female/Male because of the Class im choosing, and some classes i cant see as female or male. as my druid. in WC3 they were males and have been in almost every story or game i have played and therefore i couldnt see a druid as female and thats why choose male. When i play my rogue its Ne female because rogues need to be light on the foot and be sneaky, lite females are =O). and true My female NE warrior was noticed as someone said in one of the first posts. And very nice to watch as well

I'm a 35 year old gay gamer in WoW. My main is a Human Male Warlock on a PvE server, though I do have one female and one male alt as well. For me--and I am speaking for myself, not for all gay men--I created a character I found physically attractive (complexion, hair and beard.) Like one of the posters above me, I joke that if I'm going to look at somebody's butt for hours, it might as well be one that I enjoy looking at. ;)

I have, in chat, joked about male characters' attractiveness ("Take it all off, Gnome boy! Wooo!") but have joked with female characters the same way. In general my gameplay experience is pretty gender- and sex-neutral. My personal sexuality doesn't come up in the game, generally, except with people I know IRL.

I regularly play with a straight male player who plays female characters exclusively, and his sister, who plays a mix of male and female characters. One of the most interesting things for me is how pronouns are used; we switch between real names (and pronouns) and character names (and pronouns) pretty fluidly.

I created a Female Gnome Warrior alt to purposely tweak traditional gender roles--I chose the smallest female in the game would be the massive-damage-dealing bruiser. (I found that I didn't like playing the class much; but the voice acting of the character wasn't much motivation to continue either.)

This is a rather difficult subject for some people because the issue doesn't just boil down to sexual orientation, so much as the concept of sexuality in general. 'Heterosexual', 'Homosexual', 'Bisexual'.. These terms mean very little, if not nothing to me and to other peers I've met over time.

Gender is seemingly non-existant and online, it really is obsolete. Gender is what I decide it is when I wake up each day, somewhat in life and certainly online. My real gender is irrelevant and often mistakenly guessed as the one I'm actually not, regardless of supposed 'giveaways'. How I express myself is my own, from how I type, how what visual representations I give myself to characters in general. In general chat I'm generally rather ambiguous and don't correct people unless I feel it's vital. Some people do form attachments they really shouldn't, afterall and my motives are not deception so much as they are personal.

I don't particularly feel like I'm either gender and thus, I play them on whim. Aesthetics are very important to me, as noted by some in prior posts so I try to get creative when the online game allows it. That's a bit of freedom that I'm not really given entirely in life offline. Overall, I think no one has particularly cared. I don't see myself getting treated differently based upon it too much, though oddly I must say I found myself under more attention and desire when I went from a female character to a male character among a group of peers. That's a bit of the inverse than expected by most, it seems.

Anyway, there's some of us who enjoy our freedom to do with ourselves as we please. I make it a point never to harm a single person with my activities switching between genders, but otherwise keep what I am in person my own business unless required. Most people find me fun, either way. Just thought I'd offer my own perspective.

I apologize for the editing and pacing of my initial post, as it was written before I was fully awake. However, another important point occured to me that I completely omitted and meant to include:

One bit of respect I give others is one I tend to want myself and it's the safest way to play these games without offending someone. When someone is playing a character, address those characters as their given gender at the moment. If you see a guy, it's a 'he', if it's a girl, it's a 'she', if it's alien and whatever.. hell, ask them what they prefer in that case. It's safer to assume this is what the player wants and be corrected to the contrary than to just refer to people as what you either assume or what you know. When I refer to other characters not present, I use their in-game gender over their RL gender. That's just courtesy and not just to 'guys playing as girls getting their jollies', mind you. Girls and guys both do their own thing for their own reason, be at least IC/RP respectful.

In a guild I was in WoW, some people had their genders known and regardless of what they desired, that was what they were referred to regardless of their character at the moment. It's a small bit of courtesy and it doesn't cost you much time or effort. I can understand this may be jarring when your long-time real life buddy or girl decides to play an opposite gendered character, but you can break the habit and go with what's on the screen unless they say otherwise. When in doubt, ask what's preferred when it comes up, if it comes up.

I realize this may sound strange to some, but some people take this semi-seriously enough that it's worth considering.

I play a female character on WoW and I am a weirdo-magnet as my sister puts it. It's mainly because I have a tendency be nice to ANY guy who gives me stuff (I know, my sister calls me greedy grabs =p). I'm really very greedy =( Thus I'm the prime candidate for all the weirdos as they're usually the desperate ones walking around looking for damsels in distress (which is usually me, cos I am really lousy at the game, although I enjoy playing it!).

I do notice that I get lots of help. I once played my fiance's character (male), and asked for a free enchant which the guy was advertising on the general channel, and the guy made me walk to him then made me wait ages before he did my enchant. However, when I logged on my character (female), he actually walked to me to give me the free enchant!!! I also get gifts of gold, equipment, help doing quests (like a level 50+ taking me through all my quests when I was level 15). So yes, I'm ashamed to say it, but I do take advantage of it, and love the attention! =)

So please, if anyone has any complaints about unwanted attention from hormonal crazy teenagers.. heck, just send all the crazy teenagers over here, and they can all spoil me rotten! Please sir, some more! =P

*signed* Missy-Greedy-Grabs

Wild idea alert!

Maybe girls are cooler than boys.

Interesting take Kimmy. You are absolutly right, the "guys" will do more for you when your character is female. As a male playing a female character (See earlier post) offers for free stuff come up all the time, to be honest I don't take it if I do not need it. One thing I have tried is what my wife in RL does to me, hint at needing or wanting something. Usually within a short time those guys are bringing that item to me. Amazing what we will do. Now conversly I have a male character who has services everyone wants (smuggler) as well and I treat male and female characters equally as they are all customers. So I do not think your greedy. Remember "a fool and his/her money is soon parted".

Thank you for sharing your great ideas about the topic Hauhet, perfectly put.

1) Gender has no definition online, you have a freedom of choice, which unfortunately is not so iRL. People are people, regardless of gender, and are beautiful or ugly, regardless of gender, this is more evident online, and with good creative RP minds.

2) It's so completely annoying and out of context when Female/male characters are called by the opposite gender just because one knows/thinks the Real Life gender of the person. Spoils the magic of the character and the RP.

A fair priestess named Elynna walks into the Cathedral, and a jumping paladin starts saying 'Mike yo dude whazzap!' and likewise the other way around.

In short, thanks for the excellent post Hauhet, I posted a simila