A View From the Road: Confessions of a Virtual Transvestite

[Anarchy In Detroit]

I make themed characters, usually based on stupid names.

Bad Santa the one eyed dwarf healer (with red and green holiday armor of the apocalypse and snow white beard) in Dark Age of Camelot? Yeah that was me. So was One-eyed Yogurt Spitter the human rogue but the admins changed his name to some dumb (yes dumb, in comparison my name of incomparable wit of course) generic fantasy crap.

Corn Tower the brown thing with yellow spots in him? My corn studded turd themed tank in City of Heroes. Also taken from me by those dastardly mods. Dr. Mindbender wasn't even allowed.

I wouldn't play as a female unless there was a way I could make it funny. Usually I end up being ridiculous looking or pile of muscle covered in metal with an axe (preferably a hammer).

 

[Swaki]

i always choose to play as an very thin, borderline unhealthy, male whit just a bit of muscles and a whole lot of acrobatics and stealth, because thats who i want to be, but my sad excuse for bones makes that impossible and my love for beer doesn't really help either, and for that reason i always find it weird when males play as females, because i assume that like me they want to look like their character.

also you played the girl in pokemon?, pokemon offers no role playing so the difference between playing as a guy or girl is that the npc's address you "ha! you think a little girl can beat me!?(nanananununundaaaa)" instead of "ha! you think a little boy can beat me!?(nanananununundaaaa)"

 

[Chipperz]

Of course, there is another factor - people seeing women as the weaker sex (at least in the context of wielding 10' swords and impaling people with them) makes it slightly more rewarding when said female kicks ass anyway. Just look at any Joss Whedon show and you will know what I'm talking about.

This is why I have a female main character in most games. In fact, in City of Heroes and Champions Online, it's the same character. At 5'0 and with all the sliders turned down to minimum-while-still-looking-barely-healthy, she is usually the smallest thing on the team, but she's also a fully maxed-out Mace Tanker, and has been known to single-handedly take out whole rooms of enemies when the rest of the group has died. Her crowning achievement was holding Lord Recluse (the leader of the supervillains) for two minutes while the rest of teh group ressurected, got back from the hospital, rebuffed themselves and rejoined the fight.

Even with the same slider set, it just wouldn't be as badass if it was a guy.

 

[LTK_70]

Wow, now you guys make me feel all weird when I admit that I always create a character that looks mildly similar to me. Yes, I'm a guy, and I always play as a guy. I've never really considered reasons to play as a female character aside from 'well, why the hell not'. I guess that, if you make your character to be a hot ass-elf that hits on everything with a pulse, and when not doing that, hits everything with a pulse until it ceases to have one, it kills the immersion a bit. Is that just crazy to think or what?

 

[Ryuk2]

We play as characters that we like. You play female characters because they look nice from what i read. I play characters that i find funny, like Dwarf in WoW who says something about booze when you write ''/silly''. I can't play a character that i don't like. I tried to play Blood Elf, but i felt like a gay playing that and i hated how he looked (no offense to gay's). I tried playing Tauren, but it was boring to play as a big cow, that looks ugly and has nothing interesting to show me.

 

[Osloq]

I never play female characters which is kind of odd. Maybe I don't need that much escapism, I'm happy to play as the ten foot tall minotaur who has arms like two watermelons trying to mate in a sack but who spends most of his time picking flowers and making potions. I think the last female character I played was a female Darth Revan in KOTOR 1 on my second playthrough which was a long time ago.

 

[Voltano]

I don't play a lot of MMOs here, or even a lot of single player RPGs that allow radical "aesthetics" customization on this end because...Well, I just think of it as a joke.

The only time I recall ever playing female characters is when the class/race I wanted to pick for my character was forced to be female, like in the classic "Diablo 1 & 2" where the options of being a rogue, sorceress or assassin were female. Honestly, while I prefer to play spell-casters, yet I couldn't force myself to play the sorceress or the assassin in Diablo 2 and opted for the necromancer instead, hoping to make him a sorcerer build but usually dying a lot. Sad (and maybe a bit sexist), but I had other complaints about Diablo 2.

I don't think of it as "playing the opposite gender just because the option is available", as Susan stated, or sexual fantasies either like the "if I'm going to be staring at an ass for X levels", I just want to get into the game and solve the challenges before me. Whether I look good in doing it is irrelevant to me. Though looking back on Diablo 2, maybe I just prefer to see myself accomplishing these challenges than an avatar that represents me. I dunno.

 

[JediMB]

This feels appropriate:

And also being one who prefers playing female characters over male ones, if given a choice, these days... I suppose I can relate.

 

[Tharticus]

I do believe that people play females not just for better pandering but they also look better than manly characters.

This is an interesting article.

 

[HK_01]

Odd, I usually play male characters and maybe, after I'm done with those, a female character to find out how that is. I suppose it's because I am able to identify myself more with a man than a woman.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Almost all of my characters in MMOGs are female. Is there anything wrong with that?

Nothing at all

 

[Captain Pancake]

I never do that. Maybe I should more often. I don't play any mmorpgs though, but these articles on Aion are quite interesting.

 

[mwood]

A nice article, but it's a classic case of over thinking something. You're on your way to the ridiculously simple answer but you don't quite get there. I'll provide the solution right now.

It's true that our online personas are idealized versions of ourselves. And of course we don't want to be women. What we want is to be good-looking. Hey lets face it, we men are butt-ugly. That's as true in the virtual world as in the real one. Whatever your preference, there is no denying that women are all around more aesthetically pleasing than men.

There's a reason God created women second. Men were just his trial run. An imperfect Beta. Women are the final product. There's no shame in aspiring to that.

In regards to your first point on over thinking, I personally, don't feel he did. I felt he was trying to discuss all potential rebuttals in advance which could prove rather difficult in an article where you essentially maintain a conversation with yourself while still attempting to keep an open mind. However, now that I think about it and read what I just said, who am I to say he wasn't over thinking. I am the queen of over thinking and over analyzing! ;-)

As for everything else you stated; I couldn't agree more.

 

[Tony Harrison]

Maybe it's simply the novelty of playing something a bit different. The attractive male is getting stale, so there's either an ugly male or attractive female if you want a change.
Back when I played DaoC the majority of avatars were male, in Aion it's almost the reverse. I think it is now more obvious and accepted that female avatars are played by men (who are honest about their gender), where as before it would lead to a few more awkward situations.

I take it everyone saw last weeks Penny Arcade?

 

[mattag08]

Honestly, gender socialization could come into play here. Men and women are both able to have masculine, feminine, or androgynous qualities depending on their family and peer influences as a child. It might be prudent to argue that some one who "roleplays a female better" simply was socialized more feminine.

However, someone who plays a character of the opposite sex who considers themselves masculine will probably have a variety of reasons for doing so. Undoubtedly there are certain people who wish they could be the opposite sex, others will do it for the interesting social implications, and still others will do it purely for aesthetic or undetermined reasons.

I seriously doubt that playing a character of the opposite gender automatically makes you homosexual or even a wannabe transvestite. I'd wager that people who play the opposite sex in their games fall into a few categories:
1. Those whose gender socialization neutral/counter to actual sex means a person can identify with the opposite sex as well or better than their own.
2. Homosexuals who want to be the opposite sex.
3. Those who like a female character from a non-fiction or fiction literary work and want to play a character that mimics their actions for want of nostalgia.
4. Those who do not associate their character with themselves (i.e. those who reject the suspension of disbelief, those who take character creation from an artistic stance, etc.).

 

[Silk_Sk]

I'm telling you all there's no androgy-whatever implications or peer influences or upbringing involved. We all just want to be sexay. Women are sexier than men. Simple as that.

 

[Noone From Nowhere]

I already play a man in real life (thought not by the Book. You know which one I mean!). It isn't a very interesting role, in all honesty. It's a living, so to speak. When gaming, I'd rather make a change, be it to gender, species, or even materials one is made of (you better believe that I was a robot, often a fembot, in Phantasy Star Online!).
Women Crossplay as men all of the time and noone makes a big deal about it. It's all fair.

 

[shMerker]

I'm disappointingly utilitarian about this. I have a tendency to roll a lot of characters in an MMO so I usually roll female characters as a way to make them more immediately distinguishable from other characters of the same race on the menu.

 

[Woodsey]

Interesting article. Can't say I've ever even thought about playing as a woman in any game with some form of character creation.

Besides, don't you get nerds trying to hit on girls in MMO's ? Haha, that's what I hear at least.

Scary.