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MMOs and the curious gender gap
NoUrbanLight
Member Posts: 70
Don't know if this has been done before, but it's a subject that's piqued my interest.
So, current belief is that men outnumber women in gaming. This is more true in the MMO scene, far less so in the casual gaming scene. It's also slowly closing. Unfortunately despite many a web search I can't actually find hard core reliable statistics, just broad based statements... and last time I saw a television special on it, I neglected to write them down.
One statistic I did remember though is that it was found that about 80% of female characters in a game are played by men.
Now, my personal experiences in dealing with individuals are limited by number, and littered with so many different results, so I thought I'd fling the question out to a larger base of users. What gender do you play, and what are you're motivations for doing so?
I know one man that plays women because he likes escaping the assumptions people tend to make outright about men as most are not true for him personally. I know one girl that plays men because she got sick of being hit on within an hour of logging on. One guild mate is a guy that plays women because his own character is the one he's stuck staring at the most so it might as well be one he finds aesthetically pleasing.
So what do you all have to say? Please, tell your friends. The more examples, the better then data. You don't need to give up your character name or anything if you're worried what people would think, I'm just honestly curious here. Heck, you can even do the poll without having to post at all.
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"Big surprise... there was no protection by this urban light..."
Comments
Although I can roleplay, I don't associate myself to my characters at all...it is easier to appreciate a girl toon than a guy, and be fond of that toon. See, if I am to play a toon hundreds of days I must like her and find her sweet. I am a real geek, but heck, I like to like my toons. Especially when I hear them jump, a human male barbarian is a big: turn the sound off you damn it! While a girl...let's hit spacebar again! :P
I do believe there are more girls than guys in some casuals games. I am pretty confident telling you that more girls are playing Bejewels than guys, maybe the same for Puzzle Pirates.
- "If I understand you well, you are telling me until next time. " - Ren
i'm not sure what girls playing casual games like bejeweled has anything to do with MMOs or this topic at all. Not that I dont play those games when I'm bored at work but its a huge misconception that there aren't alot of girls in MMOs and most of us enjoy 'casual' games over MMOs (total lie). Please don't spread any more of your 'confident' opinion around ... you have no facts...your not even a female! Heck its completely off topic and opens up a HUGE can of worms your going to end up turning this thread into a girls vs boys debate from hell just like the last dozen threads that turned that way.
I break gender barriers .. I rarely play female toons. Sometimes I do but only when its a game where their body isn't completely hanging out of their clothes. Of course thats just my own personal like for my female toons. Most often its because I like to create a little bit of a persona for the character even though I'm not a major Role player in MMOs its fun to have a character!
Please Refer to Doom Cat with all conspiracies & evil corporation complaints. He'll give you the simple explination of..WE"RE ALL DOOMED!
Glad to contribute to an interesting poll.
I am male and I have always made male characters. In-fact, in some Korean MMO games that force you to be female to be the type of class that I want to play I just quit and uninstall right there.
I consider my character an extension of my own person & want it to resemble something close to myself, or at least someone that I would want to be. My "avatar", as it were.
"There is as yet insufficient data for a meaningful answer."
100% of characters in online video games are played by people I'll never meet (nor wish to), which makes their real-life gender completely irrelevant to me. Personally, I'm far more disturbed by folks obsessed with this question, than whatever someone chooses for their pixelated avatar.
How come this comes up again? :P
From the entertainment software association:
Perhaps it's rather skewed in MMO's because they are all about teh kill?
Although I do find men playing female avatars sorta strange. But hey thats just me, whatever spins your dials. The only time I really find out is on team speak so its a non-factor anyway as I hardly ever use or even look at text chat.
Two more options missing from that poll
Males that play both
Females that play both
Bans a perma, but so are sigs in necro posts.
EAT ME MMORPG.com!
I broke the species barrier!
I play both...it depends on the game. In some games, armor for male characters is purely sad, so I play a female character, and vice versa.
Don't forget transgendered, pegglegged midgets playing hermaphrodite alien robots.
Honestly, I find this curiosity about gender as ridiculous as asking someone's religion or skin color in an online video game. Who cares? If I wanted to get that personal, I'd get out of my mother's basement.
Well I started out in fps playing a female toon for one simple reason, the avatar was slimmer and also was the only character on launch that came with a camo type outfit. Seemed like a no brainer at the time, and as I got pretty good people got to know me as this character.
When I started playing mmo's I started with this female name and persona because folks from my fps guild came over with me and that is how they knew me. I also love to roleplay and am amused when people think they can tell a person's gender by how they act and dress. Maybe it's because I was raised by women or work in a predominantly female workforce, but I have a fairly decent grasp of the female psyche....atleast enough to roleplay one convincingly.
At any rate, after a while I decided to make a male toon and now I actually prefer it. I would definitely make a female toon if I could make a cute one, but the only games that I loved how the female toons looked was SWG, Vanguard, and maybe EQ2. I'm currently playing LOTRO and I don't really like the faces or the hair for females. And my male guard looks so cool. My male hobbit looks awesome too, so i probably don't have time for another alt.
Really it's no big deal what gender toon you play. A lot of people are young, insecure in their sexuality or just homophobic and they project these fears onto players ingame. It's juvenile and immature, but sexuality is a core part of our being and it challenges some folks. Personally, I'm very secure in who I am so I find it amusing that threads about men playing female toons get so much attention.
that's exactly what i was thinking, i play both male and female characters, i'm not really into role playing, but i really like variety. i'm a total altaholic and i always want to play all classes and enjoy every part of the game, and i find it adds some variety to play female characters sometimes.
I play both, depending what type/class I want to play in a perticular game. In some games, the class I want to play are female only. Also, being male myself, when I spend hours playing a game, I find it pleasing to watch a nice female tushie in the 3rd person.
I tend to play either. I don't see or understand what difference it should make. I am not interested in having 'online relations' with anybody. My RL gender should not be an issue. These are called MMORPG.. RPG meaning 'ROLE PLAYING GAME'. I have known just as many RL girls to play guys online as well. Makes little or no difference. My ability to hunt/raid/kill will not be effected by wether I play a male or female avi.
I use both male and female avatars.
It may argued that this has no bearing, but in a sense the fact that some people see it as having having no bearing is in and of itself significant. Why? Marketing.
There are still games being made that are targeted at specific demographics, some of which are based completely on gender. It's interesting 'cause you don't hear much about some of them as the user they direct it at occasionally gets affronted at the idea of how the developer views their wants and stereotypes them aaaaaand... the product fails. Sometimes even before it hits the shelf.
The fact that the gap IS closing is what's intriguing. The only reason I even mentioned casual games next to MMOGs is that one wonders why it closed faster there then here. Does it mean that people's views are slowly changing as social standards change, or that companies are simply getting off their tookus' and more skillfully crafting a more appealing product? Ironically, one of the few places where the divide of pink and blue (instead of black and white) is noticeable is in children's educational products where games are used to dominate a kid's attention. As one blogger put it: "I think the MMORPG industry is getting better by adding a variety of “interests” not based on gender, but based on interest. Developers are listening to the gamers more, but the educational industry needs to adjust their gender software ASAP! It bothers me when they advertise to my daughter or my son because it makes my children feel guilty if they want a game that says it’s for the opposite sex and a child should never feel guilty."
Maybe it really does have less bearing cause we all hit a point growing up where we've established our own identities and couldn't care less what people think of us in that way only to find sometimes we're in like minded company. I was made fun of plenty of times as a smaller kid, but once a teenager, no one cared if I studied guns.
But then part of this subject besides player base numbers is player choices in gender identity. The reason this topic actually occurred to me is due to rumor a handful of eastern games are actually requiring proof of gender to play said gender in game. This intrigues me because if someone honestly felt the need to impose someone's choice like that when the solution could be so simple as "Make male armour look as good as female armour," then all one would have to do is smack a guy in the digital art department upside the head
. Obviously, this is just an example as posts show it's far more varied then that, but still an amusing one.
I think we've proven so far though that the point is that there is no problem that needs to be solved. So why on earth would it be perceived as one?
Thus why I'm just asking what individual motivations are.
And to all those wondering why this comes up multiple times? Cause it matters to some people in obtuse ways, whether important or simply for curiosity's sake. And those thinking it'll get flamey? Well then, it'll get locked. Most of the posts I've seen so far have been completely within bounds of polite and are just expressing opinion. You don't like someone's opinion, then detail your's as an alternative.
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"Big surprise... there was no protection by this urban light..."
IMHO, it doesn't matter what gender you play, as long as you enjoy the game. That's how it should be right?
There was only one time where I had an issue with a guy playing a female character/toon : Ex-room mate using a female chara to get "phat lootz" and even have a guy "fall in love" with that particular persona and not have the courtesy to say "hey I'm a guy" instead leads him on.
That's the point I see it becoming an issue.
I actually hang out with people that I play with. I prefer them to get to know the real me because I am myself no matter if I am at the mall or am sitting at my laptop. Games are way better when people are themselves, I mean it is creepy when a guy dresses up in tights for real and jumps out of a tree and says" hark who goes there" ( yes that actually happened behind the ymca) so Yea I think it is just as creepy for them to do it in a game. I am a girl and I play a girl because I know alot of my friends that play for real so it would just feel weird to go around trying to act like a guy . I wouldn;t know where to start anyhow. When people pretend to be someone else it is a real disappointment when you meet them. Players are real people and have feelings so they should be treated the same way you would treat them in person.
I only play male avatars because i try to make a character i play in most cases look like me, I do admit dudes that play girl avatars weird me out. A friend i have played mmo's with for the longest time and know in real life prefers in most cases female avatars for the sole reason that he wants something nice to stare at. That reason weirds me out the most because i find it odd that he plays a game to stare at the pretty pixels and such. I don't have a problem with it though and we are still close friends as a matter of fact quite a few people in my WoW guild have avatars that are female, but they are really cool people. I still find it weird that some guys play chick characters, but each person plays differently and I respect that, i will always prefer to play a male avatar though.
Current MMO: Aion
MMO Watch: Warhammer 40k Online, SWToR, GW2.
Played: Planetside, SWG, EQ, EQ2, L2, WoW, RFO, KAL, MxO, Voyage, RO,Vanguard,Tabula Rasa, Horizons, CoH/CoV,, Lotro, FFXI
First MMO: Everquest (Tunare Server, Ronin/Tide Guild)
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"Big surprise... there was no protection by this urban light..."
I had a lengthy response typed out, but it sounded really sexist so I deleted it lest I be sensured or accused of being something I'm not. Too bad about that whole political correctness thing. I won't be speaking my mind wholeheartedly about this subject because of it.
- Phos
I am male and I have played both male and female characters. Though I tend to pick female more often. To me, some classes and their armor look much better on females than the males and vice versa. I'll use WoW as an example. I dislike how cloth looks on males (except male undead) but on females it looks better. For female I hate that they are half naked in mail/plate.
I don't roleplay anymore but in SWG, I used to roleplay a female Mandalorian Bounty Hunter because I thought it would be interesting. I know some find it weird but IMO, it's no big deal unless that person is pretending to be the opposite gender for personal gain(free money and free items). If anyone has played SWG, I'm sure whichever server you were on had their own all "girl" guild and those were the type to have gender fakers.
I think for some people it has a lot to do with what game they're playing as well.
"God, please help us sinful children of Ivalice.."
I prefer male characters, like many others I like for my avatar to at least represent me on a gender level...if not more.
I have played a female character, however. On WoW I decided to make a Troll because I thought the racials were neat. I couldn't stand the way the male avatars looked though. Females stood upright, and had absolutely amazing combat animations. So, push come to shove, I will choose visual appeal over sex. If they don't look great in combat, I've no time for em. Gender has very little to do with that aspect.