Guys Playing Female Characters And The Reverse

[Dark_Angel13]

I play rpg's a lot, Skyrim, WoW etc etc. Some fps' also allow you to play a female character, Borderlands for example.

My point in this is, is it weird for a guy to play a female character in a game and on the same note is is weird for a girl to play a guy in a game?

I myself have no issues with anyone who does this, I think it's could to be diverse with how you play a game and play how you want to. I recently made a female character on WoW and a fair few people thought it was strange because I'm a guy, including my gf. I understand that with an online rpg like that, that if you play a female character you should be female so people don't treat you differentely or w.e so yeah I guess that one is a little strange.

But I also made a fem mage on Skyrim, I told my gf and she again called it strange and so did the friends I told about it. So what do you all think about this? Is is strange for a man to play a female character? Is it strange for a female to play a male character?

[Renzourin]

i do it all the time as i put it to all my friends and shit ask your gf this if you had a choice as a woman to stare at a mans ass or a womans ass which would you pick the man's right? the smae with me id rather stare at the womans ass then a mans especially if theres no difference between class types

[seirachan]

It's not strange.. the only reason I used to make female characters is because of all those kids shows where you go inside of your game and I was thinking if that ever happened to me id like to be my own gender please lol. It's kinda random which gender I choose cause in games like World of Warcraft you kinda go attached to the character you made and it all kinda forms this story around them. Sometimes I'd think of my characters knowing eachother

Back when i played WoW My main was a Blood Elf Paladin Female. I felt her aura to be a kind, strong woman. She would always help those in need. Years later I made a Male Blood elf Priest and I made up a story in my head that they once loved each other but he turned into a deathknight and she went to kill him but he beat her and just before he killed her he started to remember who he was and left. I wanted to make a music video about it but I couldn't get all that WoW stuff working right.

But yeah I don't think making a character of the opposite gender matters. Your making a roll playing character that should grow a story regardless of gender.

I find 90% of girl characters in MMO's are really guys, even if they claim to be girls. I had a ex that claimed to be a girl in game and he had 2 boyfriends, one married. He even played a guy character.

Unrelated my mothers first time playing Warcrack she made a female night elf and some guy helped her out he later asked her gender then her age and she said, "40" then he left the group and logged off. We all laughed so hard.

[Koby]

I make female characters fairly often in mmo's. In PSOBB, my highest leveled character was a female.

In WoW, I currently have 4 characters, two of which are female.

There's nothing wrong with it imo. Check out the newly airing anime in Japan called Sword Art Online. They play a virtual mmo, similar to the .hack series, however the creator done haxed the game which made it to where no one can log out till they beat the game and if you die in the game you die in real life. If someone tampers with your headset in real life, you die, etc... Also he made it switch from their avatars (created identities) to their real identity. It showed the player base suddenly switch. Turns out a lot of the girls were actually guys and visa versa. Some people made a big deal out of Sword Art Online showcasing such a thing, but I thought it made it more realistic because that actually happens. No need to deny/hide it.

[spinelli39]

Yeah I don't think its weird for guys at all. I also find 9.5 out of 10 girls on mmo's are actually guys.

As a girl I personally prefer to play girls. If I play another persons character and their like short and bald or a hideous ogre I don't care for it at all. All of my friends who are girls and play, and all the girls I've come across all seem to play girls, and pretty ones at that. I personally don't know of an exception but that certainly doesn't mean there isn't.

[† Anras Rune]

lmao. I remember this used to be a problem for me when I played with friends on Monster Hunter games with friends. I always had a guy, just cause I was used to playing as a guy and thus didn't care what he looked like as long as he kicked ass. Whereas, once my friends finally started getting good (many of them eventually surpassed me in all my glory XD) I noticed that the guys that played as girls were getting killed a lot more than usual. I eventually figured it out, they were using female armor that looked good, instead of higher defensive qualities. I mean, I had one friend using velociprey armor (for those that don't play, it is a low level armour made from raptor thingys) just because his character looked like an air hostess. -__-!!

Other than crap like that I see no problem in it. Unless of course they start acting like ladies and doing the whole cybersexism thingy. That gets annoying, especially considering there are f**kloads of girl gamers, around 42% according to past studies.

[Dark_Angel13]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who plays both genders and yes there are A LOT of people who pretend they're a girl or a bloke. In my expereince on WoW etc I've met a few people who have tried to pass as woman but they've all slipped up somehow or said something that didn't sound like a girl would say. In that respect I think it's better for a person to play their gender, not hiding what they are.

I've also ran into men who play as female characters in mmorpgs and fps', they think they won't get killed and male gamers will take it easier on them. Which in all honesty is true to some extent, I'd hesitate a little to kill a female character if it came down to it.I'd like to note that it isn't because I think girls suck at games(I've gamed with girls and not afraid to say I've got my ass kicked by them), it's just something I wouldn't do, I mean I'd probably show more mercy to a fem character in an rpg over a male one or at least make it a quick death...I often try to drag out the pain haha =).

The worst thing is that with any online game or multiplayer game, you're going to face this problem and if you're new to WoW or something and you ask for help you may just get told to fuck off because they think you're not who you say or you're just a begger. Clearly beggers get no mercy, insta headshot to them/knife to the throat.

An example of me being a bit more merciful to the opposite sex is in Day Z, they added fem characters a while back and the other day while playing I saw one scoping out a farmhouse, clearly after some form of weapon as she didn't seem to have any. I had a perfect chance to blow her head off from my spot in the trees, instead I stopped and left. I wouldn't so much say that was a mercy thing as I'm not much of a player killer but still, it made me think about the matter some of you have mentioned.

[† Emotional Outlet]

I don't play multiplayer so I haven't much experience in that regard. I'd be nice in situations like that (unarmed person looking for weapon--appears to pose no threat to me) regardless of the character's sex.

I usually play female characters because I want to be pretty in the game. (◕‿◕✿) But not to the extent that I wear horrible armour just because it looks good, haha. I don't mind playing dudes--it's not as HARDCORE, but my current Sims family is a gay male couple with a teenaged daughter and her imaginary friend. And whenever I play fighting games, I prefer to be quicker than stronger, so I usually end up playing females.

It could be that most other RPGs I've played, the main character you end up with is a dude, so I'm used to games having male leads. In a lot of movies and books I've read, it's usually males who take the lead. So it's certainly familiar territory and it could be that people, regardless of sex, would want to play as a female because it's different--sex appeal notwithstanding, haha.

Of course, slightly off-topic, you have the species thing too--even if there are non-human intelligent species, they usually aren't given main roles in the story, especially if they aren't humanoid or are just humans recoloured blue or something and have no eyebrows. Major roles are left to characters people can relate to more appearance-wise--which usually means humans or, at the least, someone who usually has a human appearance but can transform into a giant dragon or whatever.

But yeah, I don't think it's weird for males to play female characters or for the opposite. Play whatever you want. I know in some games, male and female stats are built differently, so if a female has a better stat build for a class you want to play as, it'd be reasonable to play as a female. Same for male characters. It's no weirder than male authors writing female characters or vice versa, haha.

[Minkseru]

I find that sadly games spend too much time on adding extra graphics to the female characters so sadly females generally look better in most rpgs. Besides as I have heard put before and I definitely agree to, "If I am going to have to stare at my characters ass for hours on end I would much rather stare at a chick than a dude."

That is just my personal feelings on it. I give my characters life and as such I would find it weird to play just one gender, be it the same or opposite of me.

[Malyssa Rahl]

I tend to play whatever I have a story made up for. If I have a good story for a male human rogue, I'll make a male human rogue. If I have one for a female elf mage, I make a female elf mage. The decision of what my character's ass looks like has never come into play... I honestly find that reason to be a bit creepy... They're pixels... Not at all sexy. I could understand that perspective if they used actual models.. Like, filmed people and used them in the game, but that'd be a little weird too... and hard to do properly.

Having said that. I don't see any problem with people playing opposite or same sex characters. Although, I do have to say that they guys who hit on other guys, even if just in an attempt to get free stuff, need to step back, and realize that they're hiding in the closet ^^

[lolrawr]

I always play as the dude. If I'm with a group of friends and we're doing co-op on something and there's a woman, I might pick her.

I don't play mmo's so I don't know about people faking their genders, but it is somewhat confusing I guess. Because unless I know what you look like IRL I associate you with your avatar. So the same would be with a game character.

[dark4yoyo]

Well first thing is that it depends on the game, sometimes you can chose you gender, and sometimes (like in borderland), each class has a single gender, that changes things a bit since you don't really chose your gender.

That aside I also usually play mmo's as a female character, because well, might as well be looking at a cute female character than at a hairy ogre while playing.

I don't find that weird, though I other people usually find it weird. Sometimes in mmo's with friends I'd pretend to be a girl to joke around, but I don't hide my gender normally.

I don't play mmo's anymore though. I play fps' now and you usually can't chose your gender in them, It'd probably be male though, as you can't really see your character in fps'.

Edit: I just noticed that you can't see the gender anymore in the small profile thingy so I am indeed male.

Edited August 28, 2012 by dark4yoyo

[Dark_Angel13]

Lot's of good points showing up on here and still glad I'm not the only one to be diverse with my gender choose. I'll admit that in some games if I'm going to be playing them for a long time that I probably would rather choose a female to look at but only because she'd be prettier then seeing some hairy man running around killing stuff, not because I'd be staring at her ass the whole time(also if you're doing that I expect you get killed a lot because you're not very focused).

I also create my characters according to the little story I make up for them, I made my nord warrior/assassin on Skyrim because I imagined him being a decendant of my guy from Oblivion

[Earl]

I'm a guy, and have never even contemplated playing as a female in any game type. When I play certain games, I tend to want to be a big, masculine type (just manly basically) and find that anyone guy that feels the need to play as a female character is insecure about their sexuality.

[Koby]

I'm a guy, and have never even contemplated playing as a female in any game type. When I play certain games, I tend to want to be a big, masculine type (just manly basically) and find that anyone guy that feels the need to play as a female character is insecure about their sexuality.

On the contrary, I feel guys who are afraid of anything that might not seem masculine, to actually be insecure about their sexuality.

For example, guys who are afraid to wear anything pink.

I think a guy willing to play the opposite sex in games has nothing to do with whether they're a man or not.

Also it doesn't take being masculine to be manly. In fact, many of the masculine men (body builders) for example are just that, insecure about their manhood.

[Earl]

I'm a guy, and have never even contemplated playing as a female in any game type. When I play certain games, I tend to want to be a big, masculine type (just manly basically) and find that anyone guy that feels the need to play as a female character is insecure about their sexuality.

On the contrary, I feel guys who are afraid of anything that might not seem masculine, to actually be insecure about their sexuality.

For example, guys who are afraid to wear anything pink.

I think a guy willing to play the opposite sex in games has nothing to do with whether they're a man or not.

Also it doesn't take being masculine to be manly. In fact, many of the masculine men (body builders) for example are just that, insecure about their manhood.

Very good reply, and it definitely can go both ways. Now you've got me thinking about myself..

[† Emotional Outlet]

Edit: I just noticed that you can't see the gender anymore in the small profile thingy so I am indeed male.

Haha, people can still see it on your profile, so for an extra click, you can have all the knowledge in the world!

One of the sergeants I worked with liked pink a lot--I wouldn't accuse him of being insecure in his masculinity in the least, haha. If I play a male character, I usually play weird ones like Voldo from Soul Calibur.

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JB17m79SBdg

[Dark_Angel13]

Love Voldo, he's so freaky and awesome, plus you can really chain together combos with him and if you're pvping on the game you tend to make your opponent be like wtf! crazy spider man thingy!

[† poetictragedy]

I don't play any multiplayer games either, but I've gotten used to playing male characters (by force, haha) playing RPGs and what have you.

Buuuut if I have a choice or can create a character, I usually go with a lady. On the other hand, that doesn't mean that Marth isn't my choice SSB character. I guess I'm just whatever. XD

[Dark_Angel13]

I don't play any multiplayer games either, but I've gotten used to playing male characters (by force, haha) playing RPGs and what have you.

Buuuut if I have a choice or can create a character, I usually go with a lady. On the other hand, that doesn't mean that Marth isn't my choice SSB character. I guess I'm just whatever. XD

True most rpg's do force you to play a male character, I haven't seen many that have a female protagonist