Playing Your Own Gender

[Yakuzan]

I always play male characters, guess I'm used to it now... I occasionally make a Female as an alt or farming toon but never as my main.

[Gravity]

The other thread got to 800 or so replies, even if only 10% of those where on topic, 80 people's opinions should give you enough insight on what people feel, don't bring it up please.

[Reize]

For the longest time I played male characters entirely and couldn't ever understand the point of view of other males that chose the other path, barring the usual assumption of some kind of perverted preferences that's usually joked about. That line of thinking ended somewhere after I stopped playing FFXI and began to play WoW. I played the former from NA release to around July 2006 (just picked it up again more recently, not positive about getting truly back into it yet), and the latter I've played since around October 2006 and still do, though at the moment I'm on a bit of a hiatus.

When I started the character in FFXI, I was 13 years old, so I picked the one that looked closest to how I really did, seeing it as an avatar, a personal representation of yourself, and left it at that. Likewise, when I began WoW, this time 16 years of age, I chose a male, and made it look similar to myself, at least, as far as you can go with undead, which pretty much stops around the hair. I played him for a while, then decided I wanted to venture out into different types of classes, so I made a Druid. I wanted to be one, to try it out, but I didn't want to be a Tauren, thus began my foray into the world of pixelated feminine figures.

I created a girl because, honestly, the males looked atrocious to me, and I couldn't get over the angry scowl or the overly muscular body. After playing as her, I found out how much more fitting it sometimes can be. In games, especially those with character customization, very often the males and females fall at the far end of their own stereotypical spectrum. That is, muscle-bound, viscious, brusque, very serious males, and mysterious, graceful, playful females. As people vary greatly in their own preferences, I found the latter more similar to my mindset, and thus, converted, in a sense.

Ever since then, I've only made female characters, I do this for not only simple aesthetic pleasure; though indeed, from my point of view, the female body is more appealing. From an artistic point of view, the curves entrance the eyes more pleasantly than the edges often found on males, of course that could just be the hormones talking. I feel more comfortable as a female character, and it allows freedoms I didn't enjoy in roleplaying and such before. Beautifying my character is also fun. o.o;

First post on the forum bringing masculinity into question for the win?

._.;

[Calindor]

Mainly males, depends on how the class/race looks for male and female. Usually mystics/robes will be female and males in heavy armour. Never pretend to be a girl if im playing one or anything like that.

[BahamutKaiser]

I remember seeing a survey somewhere, I think done in WoW, showing that there are more men playing women, and even more women playing men characters in MMOs. The supposed reason is that men enjoy the special treatment thrown at their female toon, and the attraction of the female toon itself, but women actually avoid what could be received as derogatory treatment, and would rather be treated like a normal player. It was like 70ish and 54%, I don't remeber which was which but I'm guessing it was 70ish for men playing female characters, so vague at this point.

If I play multiple characters, I don't mind making women, but In a mainstream MMO, I am playing a role playing identity, and I typically play only one male character. And in case it wasn't know, I am a guy.

[Icarus01]

alot of the females i have played with in MMO's played male characters because they hated the crude remarks of all the teenagers

[XRadium]

I play both, regarding of the jobs and armors you get.
To me, sex is only for looks. I'm playing a game. I'm not there to pretend to be someone I'm not or to fool everyone around.
I'm thinking about making a male assassing, maybe female ranger/chanter.

[birdman]

Originally Posted by Mark

Probably the same with Aion. Don't expect to see me playing as "Mark" very often. He'll probably just be a lvl1 nub forever.

Just like you in RL. OOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Originally Posted by Kaey

OMG!!!1 I did find the old post - thats why I brought this up. IF people are mature their shouldn't be any problems... Like when somebody says "i'll kill you" and then the person responds with "not with those gay sausage fingers" - DIRECT QUOTE

New sig material

I always play girls, so I can get free stuff from guys.

[Fiend]

I was actually just talking about this yesterday... here's what I said in the 'reverse armor' thread:

Originally Posted by Fiend

I personally use female characters in most games because my wife prefers it. Seriously. I used to play male characters before she moved in with me, but after having her make fun of the males enough I completely switched to female characters around the time of Guild Wars being released.

I actually mentioned trying to make a 'me' character in Aion with their customization and she said I should stick to female toons since the male ones look too feminine. I think she's just trying to get me to have a female sorcerer so that she can see all the pretty dresses... she does keep hinting I should go Elyos too (she saw the dancing armor demo video).

It turns out I was right. I asked her about it afterwards and she said "if they made the dresses in real life, [she] would buy them."

I do occasionally play a guy character if the 'race' isn't humanoid, but for the most part my wife wants me to make my characters look like her (Aion will be fun for this). While she occasionally likes to screw around with people if I'm on vent/TS, I personally never lead people on to think I'm a girl and I don't expect to receive anything for free.

[Komea]

I'm a girl and i usually always pick female characters (ffxi,wow,RO)...except in wow i made a male paladin but didn't really play it much. I like to play as female i guess because it's kinda an outward appearance of myself in the fantasy game. I don't RP at all but i kinda like to make a character look like me, and then dressing them up in different armors and weapons and stuff is fun. Exploring the world with your virtual self. (o_o)

[Kaldur]

Guy and always play a male character.

[Icarus01]

MMO is like virtual barbie except with fireballs and spears

[SirrusApple]

LOL WTF
x)
mine will be a man
but you can choose the body size and stuff right..? so i can make mine as GIRLY AS I WANT TO

[Howling]

I play both, some classes just "feel" right as male, some as female.

[Dez]

Female all the way, female body builds have a lot more elegance. This makes them look better in armor, with weapons and their animations beat male ones.