Boys that Play Girls that Play Games
by Elizabeth Harper 
Jul 31st 2006 at 3:30PM
I am, quite honestly, at the point in my MMO life where I assume that any female character on screen is probably a male on the other side. And it no longer comes as any surprise to me when I see polls supporting this theory. However, what does continue to puzzle me is why players do this. I've played both male and female avatars in the past, but something about the pronouns always leaves me a feeling bit confused when trying to play the other side. This article suggests that it's just "pure MMO capitalism," with people simply playing to the advantage of being a pretty girl. I'm open to other ideas, though - why do you play a character of the opposite gender?Filed under: Analysis / Opinion
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Therizo Jul 31st 2006 4:00PM
When I make a character, the class, race, gender, and appearance all form a character concept. Roleplay or no roleplay, there are times when a concept I have in mind includes a male or female character. I have pretty much equal amounts of both, and have no particular preference for either.
Using pronouns isn't an issue for anyone who has played a real roleplaying game before, where the seperation between character and player is common. I have no problem using 'he' to refer to a player and 'she' to refer to his character. Folks who grew up on CRPGs don't have the benefit of this seperation, and feel that there's some innate connection between character or player, even if you have 30 characters to your name.
I find it as hard to figure out why folks are so facinated and puzzeled by this as you do to figure out why people do it. Do you also only play humans? Does playing a troll, gnome, or any other nonhuman species, which is completely alien, feel more acceptable than playing the same species of a different gender? Characters and Players are two fundamentally different things, and thinking of them as such eliminates a lot of confusion.
astro Jul 31st 2006 4:04PM
I'm not a girl. I'm also not undead, or a dwarf or a hunter with a frost wolf pet.
It's one make believe element out of dozens, hundreds of make believe elements.
Just go with it, or don't. Either way, it's not worth all the virtual ink that's been spilled on it.
gryx Jul 31st 2006 4:14PM
The question I ask myself is if I want to look at a fat male orc hind end? Or a skinny female troll one for the next 100+hours of my life. Also I try to get free stuff.
the Brightside Jul 31st 2006 4:21PM
I think it's worth studying not for the angle presented by the article--for the "Why do you do it?" aspect of the phenomenon--but more for our reactions to the practice. It seems wholly acceptable for females to play as males, and yet one of the longest-running tropes of the Internet is that the younger and more vulnerable/more attractive a female is, the more likely it's actually a male.
Are our gender roles so tightly constructed that the possibility of eclipsing their enforcement in a fictive space is really that uncomfortable? That one assumes all ingame females are actually males also suggests something about the social positions of females in the game-space. Do you treat ingame females differently than you would if you assumed they were truly females behind the avatars?
The poster above who spoke of species had an apt analogy. I don't think we should dismiss this, though; I think we should consider why we keep asking the same question.
Lomax Jul 31st 2006 5:00PM
The facts are simple. I played WoW for a long time with my fiance.
She's more popular and people try to do nice things for her.
But, they are less likely to listen to you if you are playing a girl avatar.
Despite that she played more WoW than me (ever since beta) and knew more about WoW in general. People were more likely to listen to what i had to say about strategy or gameplay.
Sexism in practice evidently.
Amethyst Nighthut Jul 31st 2006 5:14PM
Well, I personally play a female character mostly because, well, I can't stand how most of the male characters look in WoW. I mean, I can understand people wanting to play buff characters like that, but I just can't bring myself to play a character that has that much muscle mass on them, even if I RP them as not having it.
As for the freebies and the like... I seriously want to see that. I don't doubt that it doesn't happen, but I have yet to see it happen to me really.
James Jul 31st 2006 5:16PM
I love the responses to this article! Like some of the weirdos out there, my first WoW character is a Female Night Elf Hunter (oh ya, I've heard the insults, haha). When I first came to WoW, I've had this image from Diablo 2 about my Sorceress, female Ice Mage. Man, the good ol' days. In Diablo 2, I couldn't pick male or female, but I probably would've picked a female anyways, just cause in my eyes, it fits. When I was picking out the attributes of my hunter, the woman just appealed more for representing myself. I used to be a web-game programmer and came up with all sort of character names from story to story. The most favorite name I came up with was Falice. I loved the way I pronounced it, the way it rolled off my tongue, and in my eyes, it fits a woman, not a male. I'm not a rollplayer, but my name had to match my character. Through my experience, I've been mistaken as a female (less so now that mostly little boys have been playing female night elf hunters), which I brush off and move on. When I apply to a couple guild's, I always had a smirk when they asked race/class/all that jazz and I put Female Night Elf Hunter. I get laughed at sometimes, but I just laugh with them. I'm man enough to play a woman, that's good enough for me. Since then I've made plenty of alts. And of course, I got my Female Human [Frost] Mage that I wanted from Diablo 2, and I ventured into some male names that I came up with such as Dinkz, Fearless, Viros (which I ended up making a female paladin), and Nestarion. The sex of my characters is about 40%/60%. The first thing I look for when I make a character is how they look. It kills me to play my dwarf female priest (fear ward FOR THE LOSE!) and look down cause dwarves are so ugly :( (even males). But now, I'm in a very respected guild (with 3 other female night elf hunters, haha, that are all males btw), with tier 2 equipment and put a reassurance to others that female night elf hunters can own, even if they are males behind the mask.
P.S. I'm not gay, so don't ask.
jpc Jul 31st 2006 5:40PM
Male toons look *gay* in Cloth armor.
Sorry if that's not 'PC', but it is true.
So, as a priest, warlock, or mage, I think it better to be a female. Except gnomes in cloth don't look as gay, ...probably because they have a trans-gender look in the first place.
NE's in tight leather may as well be a female, I mean, do I need to say anything else about that? And in that same line, dwarves, and taurens probably shouldn't don tight leather (sry all you tauren female hunters- are there any? - lol)
Anyways, the point is that some things just 'fit' better than others.
Paolo Colonna Jul 31st 2006 5:42PM
I never get why people seem to be bothered by the real gender of the player behind a character. It's called role-playing for a reason. What next, should all male writers be frowned upon if they create female characters for novels, tv or movies?
And for the record, I play both female and male characters and I don't give a damn about other players' gender or sexuality.
toolmonkey Jul 31st 2006 5:47PM
MMORPG = many men online role playing girls.
That's my motto, that's what I'm sticking with. Male until proven otherwise.
Nils Jul 31st 2006 6:07PM
Very easy; if I play a game for hundreds of hours that character I have to look at all the time might as well be cute and easy on the eyes.
Geo Jul 31st 2006 6:24PM
@ jpc: What do you mean by looks *gay*? Me and my gay friends will tell you, if male toons REALLY looked gay, they would be much better dressed. ;)
Anyway… My problem with Alliance human and elf characters general, is that they could be wayyyyy better looking , be better proportioned (whats with night elves having such super skinny waists and huge broad shoulders), have more facial feature choices that look less pissed off, and look more flattering in cloth or leather armor.
Some people have commented on sexism in WoW, I think sexism in WoW comes from more character design (for example, the way the female night elves bounce at random intervals, or making the male toons less attractive then female toons) more than how my four female alts are treated by male characters in game.
James Jul 31st 2006 6:38PM
I personally find it more difficult to correctly refer to people who have multiple characters (especially when I don't know their real name). If I'm not specifically talking to one toon, then which name do I use? Do I refer to him by his mage name, or his warrior name? The first character I knew, or the one he plays currently? Don't even get me started on his level 19 BG twink...
Zigbee Jul 31st 2006 6:41PM
I've got a true role-playing background, from table-top to IRC chat to computer RPGs and WoW is my first MMORPG. As such, I've played about every combination of character there is. I've hit all the archetypes, all the sexes, all the races. Part of the reason I roleplay females is that I've always identified in real life with females...I have very few male friends, I just don't "get" guys or get along with them very often. My two casual (and highest level) characters however are male - this is simply because males fit the archetypes I was making. But one of the reasons I first tried out roleplaying a female character was because I'd "been there, done that" with everything else before - I wanted a challenge...and playing the opposite gender properly is definitely a challenge!
Nax Jul 31st 2006 6:46PM
I have 4 60s in WoW. 3 are Male and 1 is female. It took me a while to make a female character, being Male, I played male characters. My wife plays female chars, and I play male, it just worked that way.
I started my female, a NE Rogue, mainly because after trying to play a male Rogue, the visual representation just didn't match the concept I had in my mind. A Rogue was suppose to be lithe, nimble, graceful, and a male toons just didn't match that in my mind.
So, I created a female NE rogue, and and was able to get into the game play with the visual matching my mental concept. I hit level 59 last night.
Now, I've had some interesting experiences that I was not anticipating while leveling her. Like, level 12, I was running around Westfall, with my wife's female dwarven priest. A guy stopped give me health pots, sharpening stones, and cooked food, and didn't even talk to my wife.
Level 29, I was shopping for some new daggers. I hit trade channel, soliciting, a guy come up and give me two nice blue daggers. Just, for free. He said, I thought you could use these. I said, Thanks, and moved on.
Level 49, I was in the crater grinding on mobs for xp and leather. Ran into a guy that needed some help, we did the ape quests. Explained what I was doing, he said he had to go. No biggie, later dude. Suddenly, got this: "Damn, I've had fun with you tonight, I'd hate to leave you alone. I can stay up and help you level if you really need it."
I said I had it, no biggie. He give me 2 lvl 45 health pots, and left. Not 10 feet away, he got hit by a tar pit mob, I went to help, but he was getting low on health. I said, Use a pot. He died. He said, "I give you the last of my health pots." O_o?
My guildies LOVE to tease me about that one.
All of these experiences stand out as unique. I've not experienced any of them playing on my male chars.
It's been fun, and I really enjoy my rogue (wierdness, excluded).
-Nax
cheezedog420 Aug 1st 2006 2:22AM
Yea... #8 is right. Humans and Dwarven male look like a bundle of sticks in cloth armor. And here is a visual diogram to prove it.
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/items/armorsets/
Oh yea, Don't bother looking for the the birthday suit armor set, you have to go craft that yourself... Hahaha
Fabian Aug 1st 2006 6:56AM
My first and second chars were both male - a male undead mage that never got past level 25 and a male tauren druid that recently ding'd 60. I really love my tauren with his wolfshead-looking helmet. I also really enjoyed playing with a female player, playing a female tauren hunter (yes they exist).
But I recently started making a few alts. One is female nightelf shadow priest. Why female? Because that char is on an rp-server and we started playing there with an all-female nightelf guild planned out. Even though that venture went down the drain I joined up a sister-guild which is also female nightelfs only. This second guild is called "sisters of sin" and well, we live up to the name. Its interesting playing in a guild that is reknown on the server. As some other members held two large rp-marriage events word spread and the sisters are now common talk - and male toon's fear for their bachelor-status when a group of us walks around in IF or SW. That's pretty fun in roleplaying, and it wouldn't be possible with male toons.
I also assume that everyone I play with is male, until proven otherwise (by TeamSpeak for instance). I know I should be beyond that point, but I find myself surprised when I learn I play with a girl on the other end. ;)
And that besides the fact that I even had a (short as it may have been) relationship with a girl I met in WoW. On the other hand I enjoy playing the game with girls a lot. It's just more fun in my book. Although I still only know 5 girls in my guilds or friend list it's always more fun when they're around. Especially when playing random groups and you're the only one knowing that this town over there is played by a girl. It's just terribly funny to see some kiddies behave like idiots proclaiming the old "there are no girls on the internet" phrase and generally behave like a total dumbass because he thinks there are no girls about. Well we had some really fun times in TeamSpeak when grouping with such idiots.
Samidare Aug 1st 2006 2:24PM
I would pretty much agree with Nax and those who have commented along the same line.
I Have 4 60s and a multitude of alts inbetween. Some male, some female. I played a male rogue, and he was just like all the rest of them...rather boring. The look, the animations of his movment etc are seriously drab. After getting bored with pve I rerolled on a pvp server and made a female NE rogue. The character looked better, the movements where much suited for a rogue and I enjoyed the character. And not for the eye candy like most people assume.
As a female avatar on the screen my interactions where much different then as a male. Some gave me free things, but I turned them down being self sufficent to get what I wanted. But it does happen. Some people need to chill out on the elove stuff, for Christs sake. It actually makes me sympathize for girls who actually play this game.
But as for the pvp aspect it also carries its own weight. Like someone pointed out above sexism in this game is very obvious. So rolling a female toon possed another issue. Sadly the belief is.. females = weaker. So in pvp battles, even if there where 10 of us (ie:warsong gulch) or just me and my rogue friend who is a male gnome... I was the main target. People would go out of there way to take the weak one out first. And spend their time running back to their corpse for their wrong presumptions.
I switched servers and went back to the horde. Unlike those who want to be pretty on the screen I rolled a female orc hunter. I still liked her, and it fit the role I played. Sure people hit on me, but I let them know that it is a male behind the female toon they see. I show my skill and people like me for it. But if people are so stuck on weither or not I play a female or a male character in an online game... some fresh air and reality check might be needed.
Its a game, have fun.
Wordman Aug 1st 2006 2:40PM
If you are really "open to other ideas", then maybe you should first answer the question "why don't you play a character of the opposite gender?".
elizabeth Aug 1st 2006 3:44PM
Hmm... good question. I played for several years on a text-based RPG as a male character, and never having been a heavy RP-er, I'd always get a bit lost between myself and the character I was attempting to be. In a purely text-based world the pronouns are more of an issue, and many years of refering to myself as "she" always mixed me up - to the point where I eventually returned to playing a female character. In WoW, I currently have one male character that I play regularly, and, if one were to ask, I'd say I rolled it for a change of pace - I already have a female of the same race.