Playing Female Characters

MaidMirawyn

MaidMirawyn

New Member
As you may have noticed, I am female and play female characters. (insert shock here) You may also have noticed that there are lots of female characters among our guildees, but only a handful of actual females.

Okay, I'm stating the obvious. We all know that the vast majority of female characters in Guild Wars (and most other ORPGs) are played by male players. This has been a source of speculation among the gamers I know, both male and female.

So, let's hear it. Why do you guys play female characters, either for all your characters (Dredd) or just one or two?
 
I've been wondering this myself. Personally I do not because I feel sort of bad playing a female character, it just doesnt seem right to me being a guy and playing with a female avatar.
 
all my chars are guys, being a guy myself.

why would a guy play a female? well, I've considered it, and well, it'd be for the heck of it. and for some professions, like mesmer and necro, the female char just looks cooler.
 
my only female is a necro, and that's only because of Thriller. personally, i prefer the look of the male characters, the females tend to be... uh... a little promiscuous in their dress....
 
Baron Squirrel said:
my only female is a necro, and that's only because of Thriller. personally, i prefer the look of the male characters, the females tend to be... uh... a little promiscuous in their dress....
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Are you slandering my mesmer?

Oh wait, I had to seriously crop my screenshot to make a presentable avatar. Nevermind...
 
Ok reason I have female characters: I used to play Diablo 2 and I love playing casters. In D2 all the casters were women so I got used to playing them. I will be honest I play alot and I get tired of staring at a male character the whole time. Also I have not seen a Male characters armor I really liked especially with the male caster. Sorry Male Ele are the most annoying. And My Ranger was for a short time a male character and would have stayed that way but I read Chronicles of Narnia and wanted to name a character after either Susan or Lucy so originally My ranger was Susan than I read the last book and deleted Susan for the fact she stopped believeing in Aslan and Made Lucy.
 
I found a research abstract for a study entitled “THE SOCIAL GEOGRAPHY OF GENDER-SWITCHING IN VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS ON THE INTERNET”. Here’s some of what it had to say:

“The virtual social worlds of the internet give people unparalleled control over the construction and presentation of their identities. Gender-switching is perhaps the most dramatic example of how people exercise this control. It occurs when people present a gender that is different from their biological sex. While gender-switching figures prominently in academic commentaries and popular writings about on-line social life, there is little systematic research on the phenomenon…

The primary reason for gender-switching [given by participants in a research study] was the desire to play roles of people different from one's self. The primary barrier to gender-switching was the belief that it is dishonest and manipulative…

The images of gender-switching that emerge from this first systematic study of the phenomenon are considerably more benign than that usually portrayed in the literature. Gender-switching appears to be practised by a minority of MOO users for a small percentage of their time on-line. Gender-switching within MOOs of all kinds might best be understood as an experimental behaviour rather than as an enduring expression of sexuality, personality, or gender politics.”

I’m not sure that all of this applies directly to GW – the dishonesty issue, for instance, is really mitigated by the fact that everyone in the game expects female characters to be played by males (as Mirawyn pointed out). But I agree with these conclusions in general and especially the last sentence – I do not believe that players who frequently gender-switch in games like this are sexually confused or trying to expand everyone’s “tolerance” of gender issues.

As far as I’m concerned - I’m not personally averse to playing females in non-roleplaying-intensive games like this. I admit that I tend to “default” to my own gender, but I will switch when the female counterpart looks cooler or if I want variety. And like Dredd man pointed out, the male versions of many of the classes in Guild Wars are pretty lackluster.

Paul
 
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Woohoo! An honest answer from a guy who plays female characters. Just what I was hoping for!

Pre-emptive strike: And if you want to start arguing about who has the best armor, start your own thread! My thread! Mine! :p
 
MaidMirawyn said:
As you may have noticed, I am female and play female characters. (insert shock here) You may also have noticed that there are lots of female characters among our guildees, but only a handful of actual females.

Okay, I'm stating the obvious. We all know that the vast majority of female characters in Guild Wars (and most other ORPGs) are played by male players. This has been a source of speculation among the gamers I know, both male and female.

So, let's hear it. Why do you guys play female characters, either for all your characters (Dredd) or just one or two?
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Let me pose a related question to you, Mirawyn my love, and to other females in our group. Why are you averse to playing male characters? I can honestly say that I have never known a female to play a male character in a role-playing situation, period, except when the default character is male and there's no choice.

Paul
 
The first character I made was Relak (Necro), and I made him male. Why? Who knows. I guess it was because being male myself, I wanted an avatar I could identify with. Idk.
Second: Elysia. I really wanted a ranger, cause I liked the idea of having a pet. I made her female, cause frankly, I like the female ranger look better than the male.
My last one was Ira (Warrior). Yes, females can be warriors, but when someone's driving an axe into your skull, it's just cooler when it's a behemoth of a man with rippling muscles. :D
My next character I'm not sure what it'll be, or even whether I want to keep the slot reserved for a PvP character or make another RP. If I do decide to go RP, it'll probably be either a female mesmer (I love the dress. :eek: Yes, I just said that, shut up. :p ), or probably a male elementalist (The female ele's wardrobe is a bit lacking for my tastes.)
 
MaidMirawyn said:
As you may have noticed, I am female and play female characters. (insert shock here) You may also have noticed that there are lots of female characters among our guildees, but only a handful of actual females.

Okay, I'm stating the obvious. We all know that the vast majority of female characters in Guild Wars (and most other ORPGs) are played by male players. This has been a source of speculation among the gamers I know, both male and female.

So, let's hear it. Why do you guys play female characters, either for all your characters (Dredd) or just one or two?
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I was just wondering this the other day. As for me i have no female characters made in this game, and the fact that other men have female characters just confuses me because i dont know who is a guy or who is a girl.:confused:
 
You can analyze stuff to death sometimes. Sometimes there is no "reason" other than "its just a game". What goes hand-in-hand with this is that it has NO meaning, ulterior or otherwise.

I have had 5 characters. My first three were male like I am. Never even considered any female characters. My third and fourth were both female just because it was something different. One of my females even has a male name.


Again, there is NO significance attached. If I had a choice of an alien character one of mine probably would be an alien with exactly the same significance.
 
dorkelf said:
Let me pose a related question to you, Mirawyn my love, and to other females in our group. Why are you averse to playing male characters? I can honestly say that I have never known a female to play a male character in a role-playing situation, period, except when the default character is male and there's no choice.

Paul
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*blinks*

Why would I play a guy? I'm not a guy.

Besides, our friend Jen has (maybe had) a male ranger. I think he got deleted, though, before they got a second account.
 
Thinks it over in hindsight...

My monk was female because I tend to relate mending and healing to females... My ele was female because they are deceptivly destructive with their mouths (no insult intended, no sexist reference intended, us guys gossip too), and i think the ele males look wacko

My ranger and (first) warrior were male becdause i can relate to them, I Practice with a katana every once in awhile, and I own a compound bow

My second warrior was female because i wanted to get platemail droks armor and not have the big hogsface on the front
 
Oh, missed my husband's posting about the abstract earlier. That could explain the serious parts of this thread!

I don't assume that everyone has some deep reason for their character choices; I also don't assume it means a guy has issues with his gender. But I really did want to know why. (Chalk it up to my insatiable curiousity.)

Of course, y'all don't go online and try to pretend you're female. At least, not that I know about... ;)
 
For me, whether I'm playing a male or female character, it isn't "me" in the game, it's Ashna or Suko or whatever. Yes, I'm behind the screen, but I always refer to my characters in the third person. They're my roster, my "players on the bench", so whether they're male or female, it makes no difference except for me wanting to mix it up (see other animations and armors).
 
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