A View From the Road: Confessions of a Virtual Transvestite
- Thread starter John Funk
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I certainly know many people whose personalities match their online persona. I know many tanks who are strong, silent men and speak in not much more than a monotone, if at all - much like a warrior focused on taking damage for his entire party would be. I've also known rogues who are pretty much assholes. Of course, I know many tanks and rogues who aren't that way, but I know few non-tanks and non-rogues who are.
I played guild wars for about 2 years and I had a male warrior, a male monk, and everyone else was female including my elementalist, ranger, nercomancer, Dervish.
Now that I think about each of my relationships with my characters were different. My make warriro felt like a fantasized extension of myself. He even shared by first name. To me I felt like I was my warrior.
My female character were different... instead of feeling like I was that character, it felt like I was playing with that character not playing as that character, almost like they were a friend, teammates, or perhaps.... girlfriend
. They were certainly attractive and anyone who plays guild wars knows about what the majority of female armor looked like. This different relationshop is probably brought on by the third person perspective the game offer. If it were first person, I'd probably pick a male character for everything.
Now that I think about each of my relationships with my characters were different. My make warriro felt like a fantasized extension of myself. He even shared by first name. To me I felt like I was my warrior.
My female character were different... instead of feeling like I was that character, it felt like I was playing with that character not playing as that character, almost like they were a friend, teammates, or perhaps.... girlfriend
. They were certainly attractive and anyone who plays guild wars knows about what the majority of female armor looked like. This different relationshop is probably brought on by the third person perspective the game offer. If it were first person, I'd probably pick a male character for everything.
I'm an Asian male and in every game that has allowed me to customize my character's look and gender I played as a Latina female.
What does that say about me?
What does that say about me?
I always play female because most games force me to play male. So it's always "hey cool, I can play someone with the same bits as me." Then I make a mediocre looking brunette, with brown eyes.
I find it interesting that lots of people play as female because the avatars look better. I agree. I have to wonder though if it's not an expression of the socio-cultural believes of our society. As many have suggested here the belief is men are unattractive period, so why spend any time on their models? So the guys look bad, not as a reflection of real life, but simply as a reflection of effort on the part of the programmers.
For the record I've now had this discussion in the context of three different hobbies. So, for all you gentlemen out there, You are beautiful. I mean it's a word people use to describe vases for heaven's sake.
[tongue-in-cheek] Fight the societal complex that is brainwashing you into having a poor body image, and that says to be beautiful is to be feminine. Channel your inner ancient greek, and understand that beauty is more than just sexual attraction. Fight for equality of the sexes![/tongue-in-cheek]
I find it interesting that lots of people play as female because the avatars look better. I agree. I have to wonder though if it's not an expression of the socio-cultural believes of our society. As many have suggested here the belief is men are unattractive period, so why spend any time on their models? So the guys look bad, not as a reflection of real life, but simply as a reflection of effort on the part of the programmers.
For the record I've now had this discussion in the context of three different hobbies. So, for all you gentlemen out there, You are beautiful. I mean it's a word people use to describe vases for heaven's sake.
[tongue-in-cheek] Fight the societal complex that is brainwashing you into having a poor body image, and that says to be beautiful is to be feminine. Channel your inner ancient greek, and understand that beauty is more than just sexual attraction. Fight for equality of the sexes![/tongue-in-cheek]
Funnily enough, a female friend of mine tried to play as a male character, and after a bit of time, she worked out the stock responses to stop people think she was playing a girl.Susan Arendt said:
What she noticed was that there was much more hostility towards male characters (especially the Healer/Medic syndrome : "WHY WEREN'T YOU HEALING ME DUMBASS?!!!" "Well, you'd just yelled Leroy Jenkins..."), and that the male banter was almost primarily insulting towards everyone, including each other. After having being fawned over as a female avatar, it was quite a shock.
Funnily enough, when I'm playing it depends on what side of the world I'm on. My Evil characters tend towards male while my Good characters tend towards female. That may say more about me though.
(On a related subject: I've also had ugly females and handsome men, as well as vice versa.)
I always thought if your going to look at something for a few hours a day/week why not it be attractive?
I play exclusively male characters even though I'm female. The biggest reason is to avoid being hit on by idiots, for sure, but I personally find it more fun to try and make an idealized "pretty" male than an idealized pretty female.
If you ran into a pink haired Gackt look-a-like during the Aion beta, that was me.
If you ran into a pink haired Gackt look-a-like during the Aion beta, that was me.
Amen.
I also play female characters, on Mass Effect I play a black woman solider, which is the definition of exact opposite concerning my pastey, cracker, pacifist, man-ass...
In WoW I have exactly ONE male character and he's a ginger-haired Dwarf Priest, So even he finds it hard to escape having to wear a dress.
Although my main reason for playing mostly females on WoW is because until recently I was only allowed to play Aliiance on my server, but since the faction barrier's been taken down I can now play Horde too, But I very quickly noticed that nearly all the male characters on Alliance side, besides Dwarves look ridiculous compared to their female counterparts.
The exact opposite however can be said for Horde, whose male side of the faction mostly look awesome.
All but one of my Fable 2 characters either start off as women or towards the end just end up BECOMING women.
The one exception is my attempt to make a character as close to what I would be in a fantasy setting, which ends up being a masked wizard weilding a giant hammer (And I don't mean battle-hammer, I men a giant sized workman's hammer.)
I have no idea what drives me to create female characters, but if a game provides me witht he option to create one I'll always opt for that first.
Actually, quite the contrary. In my experience, i find the split of male/female avatars to be pretty much 50/50. As for breaking the mould, there's only a mould so as long as people follow the trend. My own friends tend to ALWAYS make females that are the paragon of beauty (for them). Similarly, in most gaming circles i've been in, it feels as if female avatars are actually in the majority.
As for myself, I just pick whichever offers me the best vibe for the character I'm trying to create.
Though i'd also like to support the theory that female characters are treated better in MMO's. I've actually tested this out on a number of different games. Even if the gamer knows that pretty ass may not actually belong to a real girl, it's still part of the psychological aspect. If you know how to act moderately neutral and not pick a dorky name, a female character indeed does garner more attention than a male one. Whatever sad implication upon the condition of male gamers that may be.
As for myself, I just pick whichever offers me the best vibe for the character I'm trying to create.
Though i'd also like to support the theory that female characters are treated better in MMO's. I've actually tested this out on a number of different games. Even if the gamer knows that pretty ass may not actually belong to a real girl, it's still part of the psychological aspect. If you know how to act moderately neutral and not pick a dorky name, a female character indeed does garner more attention than a male one. Whatever sad implication upon the condition of male gamers that may be.
I prefer Male characters, but if I can, I'll take a non human species as an option, whether it's an Orc or an Alien, I prefer to play non humans...
I think perhaps the problem is that all the options are likely true, for someone, somewhere.
So... If you ask, why? Then you have to be prepared for the fact that everyone has a different reason. There are a lot of people on this planet, after all.
Also...
A little advice: Homosexuality, and gender identity are separate issues, and confusing the two is quite harmful to both groups.
(also, you might want to look the meaning of transvestite VS transsexual, and other terms starting with 'trans')
So... If you ask, why? Then you have to be prepared for the fact that everyone has a different reason. There are a lot of people on this planet, after all.
Also...
Unless you're intentionally trying to be offensive, I suggest you be more careful how you phrase things in future. No. 2 on your list is particularly offensive.mattag08 said:
A little advice: Homosexuality, and gender identity are separate issues, and confusing the two is quite harmful to both groups.
(also, you might want to look the meaning of transvestite VS transsexual, and other terms starting with 'trans')
I happen to be the guy who chooses female avatars to ogle their ass. In games that have different base stats between women and men I might choose a girl if I wanted the extra speed or didn't need the extra physical force, but the case is usually because I like watching a pair of breasts jiggle during cutscenes.
But these are only for games that I don't really care about. For games like Fable 2 or the Sims on the other hand, I'll always create a character that represents what I am: an overweight white male.
But these are only for games that I don't really care about. For games like Fable 2 or the Sims on the other hand, I'll always create a character that represents what I am: an overweight white male.
In online games, I always go with a male character, because I don't want to be bothered by people thinking I'm a girl.
In single player create-a-character, it depends on how I want to play.
Being good-female.
Being evil-male.
In single player create-a-character, it depends on how I want to play.
Being good-female.
Being evil-male.
I love RPing, so I do not bound what I play as. One of my favorite characters of my own creations is a big manly guy, and he also had fallen in love with a druid woman (who was played by a guy actually)
Though most people thought I was a big type guy or something.
Though most people thought I was a big type guy or something.
I myself play both sides of the fence. I don't have any MMO's to play, but RPG's are usually my thing. Usually I have a few factors in my decision. First of all, the overall look of the characters in general. A lot of times I just don't think people's faces look right, so I'll go with the one that bugs me the least. I also tend to start several files at a time just to keep my ADD happy(I've just recently played all the way through a Bethesda game -Fallout 3- for the first time, never finished the main story on any of the Elder Scrolls) and will choose entirely different characteristics for each.
For example, on Monster Hunter (PS2) I have one male character and two females. Each female character specializes in either the Hand-to-hand, or Ranged weapons. This gives me time and resources to make more items in less time. The male character does both kinds of weapons, because the face I picked is the only one that doesn't look like Sloth had a baby with E.T.
On another PS2 series, Champions of Norrath, I've created a character of every available class, but only have one male character when given the choice. I've actually wondered about the implications before, and mostly I chose females for all the other classes since the armor details looked more interesting than the male counterparts, and I don't mean that just because there's "bewbs" underneath. Believe me, I've created each class and gender just to check them out, and only kept the females. All the guys look like they're dressed in non-matching pajamas. Although I could say a few things about the voices of the characters that I won't get into.
But really there's no prevailing preference for my character creations. They're just foils in my daydream-videogame time. If a writer has a story to tell, it ultimately doesn't matter if the characters are male or female compared to the author's gender, does it? I mean as long as it's still a good story, and doesn't involve a large genetic freak and a fugly alien having kids, right?
For example, on Monster Hunter (PS2) I have one male character and two females. Each female character specializes in either the Hand-to-hand, or Ranged weapons. This gives me time and resources to make more items in less time. The male character does both kinds of weapons, because the face I picked is the only one that doesn't look like Sloth had a baby with E.T.
On another PS2 series, Champions of Norrath, I've created a character of every available class, but only have one male character when given the choice. I've actually wondered about the implications before, and mostly I chose females for all the other classes since the armor details looked more interesting than the male counterparts, and I don't mean that just because there's "bewbs" underneath. Believe me, I've created each class and gender just to check them out, and only kept the females. All the guys look like they're dressed in non-matching pajamas. Although I could say a few things about the voices of the characters that I won't get into.
But really there's no prevailing preference for my character creations. They're just foils in my daydream-videogame time. If a writer has a story to tell, it ultimately doesn't matter if the characters are male or female compared to the author's gender, does it? I mean as long as it's still a good story, and doesn't involve a large genetic freak and a fugly alien having kids, right?