MMORPG "gender switching"
 

Okay, here's a question: How many people think its "wrong" (or however you want to put it) for a male to play a female character, or vice versa, in MMORPG's?

I've read lots of stories about how people get extremely offended when they find out the person they've been playing with isn't the gender they thought. I know its somewhat of a minor thing, but I thought I'd get some opinions from the good 'ole TFP board.

And in case your wondering what brought this on: I'm going to be purchasing WoW when it comes out. I have a tendency to have characters pop into my head, fully formed. Needless to say, this particular character happens to be female.

I know people who gender bend on table top..its odd..but I guess you get used to it?

exploring sexual identity is healthy and when doing it in a game has the added bonus of not being too embarrasing. if it's not for someone, then they shouldn't be forced to do it, but i don't see any reason to be offended by it. when an author writes a book with a character of the opposite gender, he/she has to get into that character's mind and develop it. gaming is just a simpler extension of that.

I dont think its wrong, but when i see a male character, i assume its a male playing it. When I see a girl character, i assume its a male, but i know that there is a chance it could be a girl.

Guys tend to latch on to chicks in games... playing as a chick can get you free items, help, attention, and a small following of horny gamer nerds like myself (although I avoid doing this). I'm sure all those guys who are following you around won't be happy when they find out you're a dude.

I did this in DAOC. It's pretty fun actually, although it can get weird. Like when some guy starts hitting on you and following you around. Most of the time I would play along, then stay a little bit afterwards, and then I would tell them that I have to log. It's wrong, but it sure made getting money and items easier. For the record, if someone asked me if I was a girl, I would tell them the truth.

It just confuses me. Being a male, I've always created male characters in MMORPG's. I usually just assume that male characters are played by males, and female characters are played by females. I really hate not knowing whether or not a female character is really a female, and I feel that it's rude to ask something like "R U RILLY A GURL>>?"

Mangina. Seems wierd to me.

Occasionally ill play a female only because there prettyer to look at (usually) most of the time ill play a guy as my main char.

I think male players should play male characters and female players should play female characters. There's simply too many stupid circumstances that can come out of it otherwise. In MMORPGs, your online character is role-played by yourself. If you want to be a girl character when you're really a guy, I see that as wanting to role play as a girl in real life. I don't care if you have issues with that in real life, but don't bring them into the game world. When I see a character in an MMORPG, I don't just think of the character, I think of who's playing it. Have it mixed is just weird as hell.

-Lasereth

I don't find it wrong, but confusing, much like a lot of the other posters. All it has done has made me assume everyone playing is a dude, which leads to red cheeked moments after making a very vulgar joke or some derogatory comments.

the thing is, I don't see the character as an extension of myself, but a different entity entirely. She has her own history, outlook, and attitude, which are noticably different from mine.

Does this mean that there will be some people who act differently toward me? Yes. But when you think about it, that's they're problem, not mine. I simply make the assumption that whoever is playing is human, and not automatically decide if someone is male or female based on the avatar. Rather than treat people differently based on gender, MMORPG's should force people to be aware of thier actions at all times, because you never know who's who.

That, and I'd rather stare at a Night Elf chick for the time I'm playing the character.
Sorry, couldn't let you guys think I'm too intelligent. :D

I heard a story about a guy playing Everquest. There was a guy who was friends with a female character in his guild, and they would flirt and talk and group together. Well, one day the guy with the male character told the "female" that he (giant nerd) loved her (guy with giant penis). When the girl tells him that he's a guy, the (giant nerd) guy flips out and quits the guild and EQ.

The moral of the story is that there are people who use the internet who don't quite have the social skills that most possess in real life. While I might find it funny that a man fell in love with a RPG character, he was devasted.

I personally don't see anything wrong with having a female/male character, but you do have to be careful in how you interact with others while you're in that world.

that much I'm aware of. It disturbs me no end that people involve themselves to the level of "falling in love" with someone they know absoloutly nothing about.

On my end, the character is practically a fridgid cold bitch, so I don't think I'll have a posse of nerd followers. And if I do, I'll be very creeped out.

I think the same thing. Sometimes you can tell if it's really a female by the way they type, sounds weird I know.

The amount of true Roleplaying that goes on in MMORPGs doesnt really warrant much thought about this, at least from a RPG point of view. To most people the game is about working towards "Uberness" in every possible way.

I have somewhere around 50 characters in MMORPGs ( i dont play all them anymore). When i look at the gender distribution i seem to favor female characters. 1 male to 4 females. I am a guy in RL. There is absolutely nothing related to sexuality in my choice of gender in a MMORPG. Not on a conscious level at least..

I choose females because there are inherent bonuses, someone further up this thread mentioned getting more help and items.
I also like the feeling of being considered not dangerous and then prove them wrong.
In Ultima Online i was in a group of all female chars. We dressed up like ladies, meaning no visible armor, and then we hunted PKs and acted as bodyguards at events. Pulling out a Heavy Crossbow from your dainty little dress gets some serious attention :D

i don't see how role playing a role in a role playing game is offensive or rude or anything.. i mostly play female chars (mostly in PnP as i don't have the cash for most MMORPGs) in games.. it's no different from playing an elf, chaotic-good or a bard.. just because you're a male, human, true-neutral accountant.. doesn't mean you have to be one in your gaming world of choice..

^^

Personally i dont see anything wrong with playing a female charcter. i guess u can see it as playing cammy or chun li in street fighter. in some cases u are forced to play a female like in diablo 2 sorc/amazon. i myself play female characters because i think it looks cool. as Skifter2 said above its a fun feeling of not being considered dangerous and prove them wrong. imagine a gnome female tanking a big ass dragon while a fat ass ogre or troll cant do half of what your doing, now thats some fun stuff :)

I have nothing against others playing female chars, but I myself haven't excluding Diablo 2. I mean as long as you don't make a female character just to get free stuff from some of the horny little gamers out there, i'm not gonna complain.

this is a real issue?

before i piss someone off I will just say. . . lame. it's a game. a game for us to have fun with. a game where you can play via roleplaying. who CARES?

i use to see this crap on old text muds.

lamelamelame

The funniest part is when the guy asks the girl to marry him in game.

*sigh* Good times...


And on another note: MMORPGs aren't about RPing anymore. Most people who really get into RPing play DnD on the side. *shrug*. Just my experiences.

I'm not a real-life RP'er, but I agree with you 100%. I'd say less than 5% of the people that play MMORPGs actually roleplay. You know what, I'd say less than 5% of the people that play them can talk coherently. All I want in an MMORPG is to hold a semi-intelligent conversation without l33t speak. Talking like a normal human is enough roleplaying as far as I'm concerned; that would make me happy. But ya know what, that doesn't even happen. It's all about l33t and haxors now. Pretty sad, actually. People are saying that WoW won't have these types of gamers and that everyone will RP...ha ha ha. Who are you trying to kid! People should be banned for not talking at least regularly.

-Lasereth

This kind of reminds me of when I played Asheron's Call (well, I still kind of do actually), I had sworn allegiance to a female character named Alexis the Great. I was sworn to her for close to two years, and I never really knew if she was a male or a female... I always assumed she was a female but I was never really sure and it kind of disturbs me now for some strange reason. :\

I always play a female character in online games. I dont role play just like PvPing and griefing.

I've played female characters before. Probably about 10-20% of the characters I make are female. It's just how I feel when on the char creation screen. Whatever name I come up with, my race and my Class all determine the gender. My character isn't an extension of me. If it were I'd have 30 characters of the same class, race and name.

I assume everyone is asexual since we are on the computer and you cannot be sure who is who.

About the roleplaying bit....come to Face of Mankind. Leet speakers not welcome...roleplayers are. The game is massively player driven story lines. Live it, like it, love it.


Art

When I played EQ I knew guys who played female characters for precisely this reason.

My biggest problem isnt playing a female character when your a guy or vice versa, its 'ROLEPLAYING' them ie flirting, talking about your outfit, bending over in front of people, sending provocative tells etc. IMO this is the same as going into a chat room on yahoo and pretending to be a member of the opposite sex, even if you are exploring something its still lying to everyone else in that chatroom and you should not expect to have a real friendship with them if you ever tell them the truth. Any relationship you establish will be based on the assumption you are that particular gender and alot of assumptions are made based on that.

Good luck with your character in WoW, my advice would be to find a "serious roleplaying" guild in beta or first month of release and carve out a reputation for yourself as a roleplayer, this will help you solve alot of the problems that "shemale" characters encounter in-game.

I usually play as Females in FPS because they're smaller less easy to hit, but those who know me, know I'm inbetween genders in reality. I've got a solid 50/50 percentile on female and male charecters. Like Z said, It's ROLEPLAYING. You're playing a role that you're not in real life. You're not a Sword-wearing Orc Barbarian anymore than you're a Female Elf with a Latex Bikini.

I know 2 females that MMORPG that play primarly as Males, so it does go both ways.

But how do you KNOW I'm not a sword-toting orc barbarian?

Sorry, just had to.

play whatever you want. some people might think its wrong tp play a female when your a male but i have no idea why. if they assume your female because you play one in the game then maybe they assume your a troll/orc/elf or whatever. The point is its a game its a fantasy. if people were not allowed to do stuff that wasnt true to real life in games then games would all be horribly dull and we would log into our mmorpgs and have to pay bills and go to work and get cussed out by our bosses because we were late.
All in all people are stupid so who cares what they think just do whatever you want.

Well, I've certainly gotten more than I bargained for on this thread :D . I'd just like to thank everyone for thier opinions, and for satisfying my curiosity.

I've created/played a dozen chars in EverQuest, and only one of them has been female. I just don't feel comfortable playing a female character. *shrug*

Big whoop. I play P&P RPG's and some people play females.. good for them some of them are druids too. Heck some of the are Lawful Evil. This doesn't mean they are evil bastards, they simple chose to be evil this game. Play the game ignore the person, if you become friends then you can know the truth. If I played EQ, which I don't, but if I did, I would be making a female character right now to fuck with you guys. ;) Its just a game. and Yeah in an FPS the chicks are generally smaller, and thus harder to hit.

oh shit

every time i get hit on by a female lizard monk i'm gonna have to ponder. is it gak ????

isn't that what the term "Role Playing" is all about?

you pick a CHARACTER to play. it's a totally different entity. each character is different and has a different story that you observe and/or create.

it's just some people don't get it and get obsessed over stupid things like that.

you play eq? I'm on Fennin Ro. sometime you should type ;tell fenninro shiminyfu I think thats what it is to do serverwide chat.

That must be one hell of a bar....:D

Z you play? Didn't know.. I don't.. Tho I think a friend of mine started up an EQ account... Next time he visits I'll have him install it here. He already stated that I can play when he's not on. But time will tell when I might be doing so.

Oh Good Lord. Give me a break. Offended? Leaving guilds? Oh the broken hearts of the idiots falling in love with a personaltiy. Gee, talk about crappy social skills. Guys are so afraid of having a close relationship with another guy. HAHAHAHAHA. This should be crosslinked in Humor.

Ohh so true

Of all the superficial things that people do in today's society, this is the dumpest. The whole point of playing MMORPG is to live under a different identity in a completely fictional world. if people creat characters like themselves then we would probably have a bunch of nerd avatars running around in every MMORPG.

Also this may just apply to me. When I play a third person game I like to choose a good looking female character. My reasoning is if I have to look someones ass for the entire game it might as well be something pleasing to te eye.

My thieves [UO] tend to be females. Don't know why... maybe just that I can entice the person, then steal while talking with them. :D

I have made female characters in EQ a couple times but never stuck with them. It just feels...dishonest. I don't have a problem with people paying the opposite sex characters at all but was never able to do it myself.

I have known a couple people that actually pretended to be female, and after a couple years of telling people that they were female IRL, were exposed as male. That's very dishonest and a little wierd IMO.

I don't actually play MMORPGs but I really don't see a problem with people doing that. I Never assume anything about anyone I meet online, so I really don't have anything to worry about.

as a side note, when I play games where I get to choose my char, I always use a female avatar. dunno why, I just Do.

about half my mmorpg toons are female,

if im gonna spend over 100 playing one character i sure enjoy looking at some sweet sweet pixel ass.

for me its like tomb raider or any other game with a female lead.

and i must say ive never actually been hit on, this is most likely do my use of language and jokes in game.

the only thing is that i only play male chars in rp servers (i play half my time on rp server, less lamers ) cause it just feels weird getting hit on by some guy, and kinda rude on my part to go ooc to tell him off.

Played 3 or 4 male characters in EQ of note and one female, female was the last character I played. Wasn't really weird. If you have a problem with a players avatar, then you have problems. It's a game, not reality.

Unless of course you've been having hot cyber sex and giving items and whatnot to someone because they made you believe they were another sex, in which case, be as pissed as you want.

I've played female characters in an MMORPG before, and I can't see how it's "wrong" to play a character of the opposite gender. If someone gets upset about finding out that the person behind the character is of the other sex, they simply need to get out more.

I fell in love with my fiance' after meeting in an online rpg ( everquest ). I being male played a male elf, she being a female and not liking every guy hitting on her played a male dwarf. We were in the same guild and even though she was a male dwarf in graphics she never hid the fact she was female when talking. We would talk for hours in game and then finally decided to call each other and talk. I never fell in love with the cartoon 3d model, I fell for the person BEHIND the toon.

HAHAHAHhaha .. My first charecter in EQ was a Male charecter, back when, like you said, people gave shit to female charecters, so I said fuck that and made a female. GD I wish I didn't tho cause now I get called sweetie and hun and shit from everyone. It's excellent.

Most of my characters in any MMORPG I've played have been male, unless it was a group of us making chick characters together for one reason or another. I've known a bunch of guys that made females and chicks that made males, the guys say they get free stuff or they prefer looking at female virtual ass rather than male and the chicks say they don't want to be harassed. I can understand all those points of view so I don't think there's anything wrong with it. As for a guy pretending to be a chick, I don't see a huge problem with it, since I'm not looking for romance when I'm playing so it doesn't really matter what they really are as long as they aren't letting the mobs aggro me :)

I notice in the TFP rules though that they have disallowed doing that here, so I guess the upper-ups would disagree with me about it being not a big deal?

Hmm.. Well I always have the suspsious idea that a female character may be actually a male. Most of the times I can tell if it's a girl by the way they type, and in a guild I used to be in, people would show pictures of themselves to other guild members.

Actually in 2 instances, I have met 2 females playing as a male character. :D

Well, I've been playing FFXI alot lately, and the Mithra race is only female, however they have some stats that you can't get on other races. I would play a Mithra in a heartbeat if I thought it would help my game any.

This has just come up in the City of Heros beta.
Some guy (maybe?) just got bent out of shape because another guy was playing a female character.


I play female characters sometimes (online and in Pen and Paper)just because. That's one reason I probably like the Tombrader games as much as I do. I don't roleplay that much, and if someone starts "flirting" I will mention that I am a guy in real life. I would never flirt with people on-line. What if it is a girl, but some underage kid? Could be a much more rude awakining than finding out that a hot female elf was a guy...

It's escapism. It's a game. It is roleplaying. If you are a guy and want to pick up a girl, get out from behind the computer and go look for one.

Even though I don't like it, I actually will agree with you. If a game limits character stats to a specifid race, and that race is only female, than I can understand that someone wouldnt want to cripple their gameplay if they wanted a character that has higher dex and agility than all other races. Because if you wanted to make a thief or something that would benifet from this, it's understandable.

hey, i'm a guy and i've played female characters, but in game i talk to both male and female characters the same unless i know the person and i know whether or not they are in fact a guy or a girl. even though if i do know they are a girl i'd talk to them the same anyway

well as i see it, role playing is not at all about role playing yourself. Its about playing a role, whatever that role is.

I played a bad ass chick in KOTOR when im a nice guy in real life. its just interesting to see whats different. you can play whatever role you want to.

If all guys went guys and all girls went girls. Then there would be a total of like 5% females in these games.

if you build a friendship with a character in a game, until you know the person behind it, thats all it is. a friendship with a character in a game. if you are a guy who decides to hit on a girl in a game. If the girl is controlled by a dude it doesnt make you gay. the game universe is totally seperate to the real world. when i play these games, im pretty sure that all the friends i made were controlled by people i would never talk to in real life, they might be boy racers or wiggers or whatever, i dont care because in the game world they are orcs or druids or warriors etc. and thats it.

You might be surprised at the number of women who play games, Hanabal...especially online RPGs.

Something like 21% of people who put in 4+ hours a week gaming are males under 18 and 28% are females over 25 or 30. Although the male younger adult bracket probably puts them both to shame, a whole lot more than 5% of online gamers are women.

As for the actual issue of the thread...I play online and in a pen and paper group and I've never played a female character. I've played a few genderless entities but thats about as far as I've gone.

I feel comfortable roleplaying with gender-bent characters and do so pretty often, but I couldn't tackle the task of getting into a female mindset and trying to accurately portray a character.

I always pick female avatars in shooters for tactical reasons. They're often smaller targets and some people have a split-second reservation about blowing a virtual female away that they don't when faced with a male or an alien or whatever.

another thing to consider. Are you offended when its a girl playing a male role. if the answer is no, which im pretty sure it is, then youve got issues.

Basically when you see a girl in a game your male pig takes over and imagines sex with her. when you later find out that shes controlled by a guy, your homophobism takes over and your offended.
but you imagined sex with the girl not the guy controlling her so youve got issues.

how many guys out there imagined sex with lara croft when you were playing. guess what, its a guy controlling her.

For me it really depends on the type of character I'm going to be playing. In the new World of Warcraft game I plan on being a night elf hunter and typically all the night elf hunters are females, so I am going to be a female although a dude in real life. Also, I can't envision some burly guy with huge muscles creeping around in the forest like I will be doing. Much easier with a small slender female character.

However when I make my second character, a druid, I will be smashing my way through every enemy I find and I will try and makethe biggest buffest character possible. If I'm going to pretend to be a race of purple nature worshippers why not go all the way and make my character perfect?

I play Everquest fairly regularly and most of my characters are female. I don't roleplay being female. I don't like if someone asks me and sometimes I volunteer the information. In my guild, we all know who the real women are because they are usually the RL wives of other guild members. However, I don't completely trust that it is true. I would never put myself in a position where it would even matter. It is a game. I treat it as such.

Good friend of mine played a female character in EQ and in FFXI.. never really understood why he did it.. not like he ever needed to get free items or anything, we were always in a tight group of people in an "uber" guild.. and he was one of the core members..

Guess he just liked the looks of the female chars?

oops, please delete

posing as a female character in an mmorpg upsets the people that are masturbating to you

My main in EQ is a female DE. Fuck she's the one I like to play the most. I dont roleplay her or anything I just act normally and no one could give a shit.

except the people trying to add you to their masturbatorium
:)

I think its kind of strange, but its all part of the RPG experience. If you cant handle it, dont play. It's that simple.

I pretty much always make male characters. Maybe because I'm male has something to do with it. I dont think it is fair to read anything into the gender choices people make when creating a character.

Almost all the people that play these games are guys, so i assume that everyone is a guy. i have had girl characters on Tibia, and it is a lot easier to buy things for cheap. i just think it is funny that guys will try to be your friend when you have a girl character.