Well I'm going to "butt in" on this sea of male respondents to say....
Men may sometimes play female characters in games, but women also sometimes play male characters. We all have our reasons for choosing the genders, classes, and races that we choose. Personally, I rolled my first male character as an experiment to see if I was treated any differently, and yes...I was. Sadly, I found that often when it's assumed that you are MALE, other players tend to show you a bit more respect, in some cases....they seemed to take what I said more seriously. Also....the "let me help you with that" mentality was all but non-existent when playing a male character, and for the MOST part....that's a good thing. There are men that sincerely are helpful, but there are also those that don't think we GIRL gamers are as capable as they are, and therefore they need to "take care of us." /gag
Anyhow....the way it ended up is with some amount of shock that their TANK was....o m g....a GIRL. Nonetheless, having not told anyone for months, they by then respected me as a player and I never had any problems. SO.....I play both female AND male characters, but I do tend to more often play females. Generally in each game I play....I have a token male toon.
By the way....if anyone ASKS me if I'm male or female....I don't lie. But with my first male character.....everyone just assumed I was male. Not ONE person asked me. They found out when our guild got a dedicated Vent server (I hate Teamspeak with a purple passion...I won't use it, the quality is crap).
Anyway....just wanted to present the point from the "other" perspective. I don't think it's "odd" to play any kind of character you want to play for whatever reason you WANT. It's a GAME. If you're having fun....goal accomplished.
This has probably been discussed before as the subject of men playing female characters in MMOs is definately nothing new but over the years this has begun to grate on me as a major part of my long term dissatisfaction with the genre. The increase in the use of VoiP connect has only made the situation seem all that much worse. How many fairies or 15'ish anime girls with grizzled truck driver voices does it take before one gets that creeped out epiphany?
Another trend I have been noticing is that the developers have been playing to this crowd a lot more by introducing gender locked classes most of which are female. I am a male and I like to play male characters but now I am being forced to join the many men online role playing girls crowd. I could play other games that don't do gender locks but that makes the pool of games smaller to choose from.
It just seems that the true definition of MMORPG is no longer Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game anymore but its' perversion. What is with that?
If a game says anything about me requiring to play my own sex, I won't touch the game. I don't play MMOs to find dates. I do play my sex almost all the time anyway, and if it's annoying for you to want to play a female only class, just think what the women think when there is male only class. Those kinds of restrictions suck in general anyway. I don't understand why some guys are so concerned about the people on the other side of toon, stop flirting with everyone and it won't be a problem. I play females because I want to, maybe because I am female but sometimes I just love the guys. I love Francis in L4D, he's my favorite, and if there was a male minotaur to play, i'd probably go for that. Minotaurs are awesome, and I'd want to be a bull! Why on earth would it bother someone to find out I was a woman playing a male minotaur... it's not reality!
parrotpholk-Because we all know the miracle patch fairy shows up the night before release and sprinkles magic dust on the server to make it allllll better.
I've been playing female toons about 70% of the time, since way back, beta testing EQ and complaining that my Dark Elf Cleric had to wear a thong and leather chaps. I've noticed as the years go by, graphics get better, female avatars look hotter, and more and more players realize that it's ok. It's been getting more and more common. More and more, I'll be surrounded by female characters in a game, and they're all guys. It's starting to even bother me a bit.
On the one hand, great, it's pretty normal, after all - but on the other, it's a little wierd to be in these game worlds that are so overpopulated by female characters. It'd be one thing if they really were female, but no, it's just a bunch of guys like me, and it messes with the immersion factor, that its getting to be the norm
I think devs need to get on the ball, as far as making male characters look better - and by better, I don't mean more attractive, but rather often just the opposite, more like what guys want to play. People like playing characters that look powerful, and often the sexy female looks more powerful, in a sexy female sort of way, than the male characters that just look normal and lame. Give players more customization options to make their male character grizzled and mean looking, and I bet less guys would play females, as ironic as that may seem.
When I want a single-player story, I'll play a single-player game. When I play an MMO, I want a massively multiplayer world.
My characters are both male and female. I usually choose depending on the class, and armor they will wear. I like females as agile or stealthy classes, and males as soldier classes.
Often, a game's character creation won't allow for a decent looking male character, so I'll play female, or vice-versa.
I usually play only male characters though exceptions have happened.
First, in SWG I had a female zabrak main - why? Because I thought the male zabraks looked horrible. :P
Another time was in AoC where I were leading a RP guild, knowing that most guildies knew I mainly played males I rolled a female alt and even morphed my voice on ventrilo just to left alone. xP Then again, it wasn't only because of this.. I have a strong "trickster" part of my personality and I couldn't, just Couldn't pass up the oppertunity to try and fool my own guild (it was hilarious).
Generally though, as said I play male characters. And like som might've stated the argument used widely is "if I am going to play all day then I'd rather look at a females body than a males". At least it's an explenation I've heard.
However, there is one part that I don't think I've seen mentioned (sorry if I missed it) and that is that female gamers Do tend to get special treatment from certain individuals. Especially if they are flirty. Free items, gold etc. Though admitedly very few female gamers take advantage of this - but some do - and I believe some Men roll females to take advantage of this as well.
Maybe because they prefer looking at a female back rather than a male back for hours on end? Not everyone roleplays on MMOs - an avatar has little to no bearing on the e.g. sexual preferences of the player. If anything, playing female toons just shows that someone enjoys the female form... just saying.
This! Exactly this!
I never roleplay in MMORPGs, so it doesn't matter to other people wether my toon is a girl or a bloke (or at least it shouldn't matter).
But:
I roleplay in terms of Pen and Paper games. And currently I have a female character, which is because it's a very different experience and it is more challenging referring to roleplaying / acting.
But kidding aside, I dont buy the excuse "I dont want to stare at a man when I am playing". If that was true then those same people would not want to look in a mirror because "they dont want to stare at a man".
Imo, the most likely explanation for men playing women is that they want the attention that female avatars get from horny males. Be it for getting free loot or favours.
I cant believe that people play MMORPGs to watch female avatars. There are much better venues if you want to look at female forms like I dunno, photographs or real videos?
But kidding aside, I dont buy the excuse "I dont want to stare at a man when I am playing". If that was true then those same people would not want to look in a mirror because "they dont want to stare at a man".
Imo, the most likely explanation for men playing women is that they want the attention that female avatars get from horny males. Be it for getting free loot or favours.
I cant believe that people play MMORPGs to watch female avatars. There are much better venues if you want to look at female forms like I dunno, photographs or real videos?
But I don't want to look at photographs and vidoes, I want to play a game. And while doing it, I wish to look at something beautiful. And as a man, I find female persons more beautiful than men, which is logical, right?
It really is just to please my eyes. And I never get extra attention, because most MMO players know that there is only a small chance to have a real girl behind a female avatar.
A female friend of mine tends to play male characters in MMOs, because she thinks they look better in her opinion.
And no, she is not so "male" in real life. She is a common girl in terms of behaviour and looks...
I'm a guy, I never roleplay, never lie about my gender and I do play both male and female characters for one or more reasons varying from game to game:
Personal preferences. I think males are warriors. Female characters have usually so small frames that in reality they couldn't lift that hammer/greataxe etc.. Also the male roaring sounds a lot more like there's a fight going on than those high pitched... screams(?).
Character modelling. Sometimes the other sex of the same class just looks better. More fitting. I couldn't roll a male mesmer in Guild Wars because he had tights for gods sake. That's just ridiculous.
Armor models. Some armors look better on female toons, others look better on male toons.
Size. The smaller your size is the less chance you will be targeted. It's psychological. People tend to attack the biggest target even in PvP. ...stupid people. Smaller size makes hiding behind objects easier.
Variation. If everyone in my party is a male, I roll a female, and vice versa. Just for the f*** of it.
Humor. Depending on either sound effects or the model. For example: Small girl with a huge rocket launcher.
Yes, I'd rather watch the backside of a woman than a man if I'm going to play for hours and hours.
I always expect that other players are males because most of them are. I haven't experienced any kind of special treatment when playing female toons although I must admit I haven't payed much attention either. I find it creepy when a male player starts to... socialize with me when I'm playing a female character. I put a stop to it right away and speak my mind about the subject. -Usually telling them to look for sites specifically for that and leave the game as it is.
The ones who think males playing females are creepy, I find creepy. Why do they care? Do they have some ulterior motive or are they just... conservative, homophobic etc.?
I AM NOT THE TOON NOR DOES IT REPRESENT ANYTHING I AM
I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been-Wayne Gretzky
I would say about 1/2 the toons I make in a game are female. This goes for MMO's and single player games also.
Fact is I dont role play any of those toons, male or female. Its just a toon. Its no different than playing Tomb Raider or Super Metroid, or...shit I dont know how many others. Just for the fact it doesnt even matter enough that Ive ever said to myself Im controling a female toon.
As a matter of fact when I think about it, Ive never made a male healer toon. And most if not all of my casters (magic) are female too. While my ranged attackers (weapons) are mostly male. Opposite is true for my melee toons. Dont think Ive ever made a female tank. While my stealthy melee is about a 50-50 mix of both. This goes for single player and MMO games.
You want to hear something odd. I have a harder time playing an effeminate male toon than I do playing a female toon. Its one reson why I could never play a male toon in COH/V, they ran like they just got finished having...ahm.
I have this distinct feeling the OP is torq'd that his chance at some social interaction (that he hopes will lead to some physical interaction) is ruined by people not playing what they are in real life. Its a game. A lot of us are playing because its entertaining, not because its a chance for us to play the muscle bulging sword swinging hero, or the the athletic lith spell caster. Its just a game. Its like TV, but interactive.
I hate to break this to you OP. No one who plays MMO's looks like thier toons, no matter how much you want to fantasize about it. And the few that could pull it off, you have zero and I mean zero chance of ever meeting them. Thats zero, buddy.
So if you really want to meet a RL girl, turn off your computer. Dont get pissed because youre losing the ability to tell the difference between a fanatsy game and reality. Whatever MMO youre playing isnt a substitute for real life, its just (or should be) a little bit of entertaining distraction.
"I understand that if I hear any more words come pouring out of your **** mouth, Ill have to eat every fucking chicken in this room."
With the exception of Sex specific classes I always pick male avatars.
Never been one of those guys that enjoy running around a game as a chick.
I think there is a fundamental divide on how people perceive their (and others) toons.
I think your post highlights 1 aspect of it.
By what you posted I preceive you see your toon as an extension of your real-life self. Your part of the story unfolding, you defeated the boss, you made it happen.
That if you play a female toon you see yourself as becoming effeminate (or that its an attack of you masculinity) because youre "playing as a chick".
While what I posted . Shows that I see my toon as no more than a animated character that I control. That Im not really part of the story, but just guiding it thru, Im not playing a female, Im just controling a female toon.
You know now that I think about it. The few people that I work with who play MMO's almost always talks about their toons in the 1st person. While I almost always refer to mine in the 3rd person.
"I understand that if I hear any more words come pouring out of your **** mouth, Ill have to eat every fucking chicken in this room."
It doesn't bother me much, but I have always wondered why so many people would want to play and roleplay a female character when they are male. It just seems wrong FOR ME, so its sometimes a bit hard to understand.
It's the commonly accepted equivalent of men playing with Barbies.
"Now here's a girl I can dress up any way I like, and that moves where I want her to move. And hot damn, does she look GOOD.'
I guess, why not? It's a game anyway and you have to spend a LOT of time looking at your avatar, so make it one you actually like.
But I agree, it gets creepier when some female avatar starts making avances towards you while you know it's a man IRL behind it.
@OP: wait, there are MMO's that have gender restricted classes?! That's an... interesting take on how to do things.
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums: Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
You know now that I think about it. The few people that I work with almost always talks about their toons in the 1st person. While I almost always refer to mine in the 3rd person.
Ah?
So when you're in group combat you're not saying things like 'need heal pls' or 'heal me' but instead 'heal him' or 'my toon needs a heal' ?
Or when you agree to meet others at a dungeon entrance, you say 'my avatar will be right there' and not 'I'll be right there' ?
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums: Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
You know now that I think about it. The few people that I work with almost always talks about their toons in the 1st person. While I almost always refer to mine in the 3rd person.
Ah?
So when you're in group combat you're not saying things like 'need heal pls' or 'heal me' but instead 'heal him' or 'my toon needs a heal' ?
Or when you agree to meet others at a dungeon entrance, you say 'my avatar will be right there' and not 'I'll be right there' ?
No more like, I'd hear them talking about a raid they did the night before (in WoW). And someone would say something like 'He let me die", or "he said I looked like shit with pvp and raid gear on." And its not so much what they said but how they said it. This was a person (female btw) whos tone of voice said she was annoyed and offended by what someone said about her avatar.
While Id say something like " I had my guy dropping dots from on top of this hill and the idiot couldnt figure out where I was till he died. I did it twice before someone else found where I was".
More like I think of my toon as charcter in a game instead of being me in the game.
It didnt happen to me, it happened to my toon.
Edit- See what MMO-Doubter posted. He said it better that I did.
"I understand that if I hear any more words come pouring out of your **** mouth, Ill have to eat every fucking chicken in this room."
I don't mind guys playing as girls. It's the ones that do it trying to get money out of people that are annoying - that happened A LOT back in the DAoC days. I've run into quite a few dudes playing girls that openly admitted they do it because more guys give them more free stuff because of it.
I think that's changed though. I'm sure less people give stuff out like that nowadays, but I may be wrong.
Also, I've talked to people in-game for a long period of time that I actually thought was a girl irl, and they actually pretended to be a girl both in-game and irl, and then like a year later is like, "Hey, just letting ya know, I'm a guy." He even cybered with some other dude seriously at times. :P
Comments
Well I'm going to "butt in" on this sea of male respondents to say....
Men may sometimes play female characters in games, but women also sometimes play male characters. We all have our reasons for choosing the genders, classes, and races that we choose. Personally, I rolled my first male character as an experiment to see if I was treated any differently, and yes...I was. Sadly, I found that often when it's assumed that you are MALE, other players tend to show you a bit more respect, in some cases....they seemed to take what I said more seriously. Also....the "let me help you with that" mentality was all but non-existent when playing a male character, and for the MOST part....that's a good thing. There are men that sincerely are helpful, but there are also those that don't think we GIRL gamers are as capable as they are, and therefore they need to "take care of us." /gag
Anyhow....the way it ended up is with some amount of shock that their TANK was....o m g....a GIRL. Nonetheless, having not told anyone for months, they by then respected me as a player and I never had any problems. SO.....I play both female AND male characters, but I do tend to more often play females. Generally in each game I play....I have a token male toon.
By the way....if anyone ASKS me if I'm male or female....I don't lie. But with my first male character.....everyone just assumed I was male. Not ONE person asked me. They found out when our guild got a dedicated Vent server (I hate Teamspeak with a purple passion...I won't use it, the quality is crap).
Anyway....just wanted to present the point from the "other" perspective. I don't think it's "odd" to play any kind of character you want to play for whatever reason you WANT. It's a GAME. If you're having fun....goal accomplished.
President of The Marvelously Meowhead Fan Club
I always play male characters because I'm male, simple as that.
Ummm... ain't your forum avi a girl?
M59, UO, EQ1, WWIIOL, PS, EnB, SL, SWG. MoM, EQ2, AO, SB, CoH, LOTRO, WoW, DDO+ f2p's, Demos & indie alpha's.
If a game says anything about me requiring to play my own sex, I won't touch the game. I don't play MMOs to find dates. I do play my sex almost all the time anyway, and if it's annoying for you to want to play a female only class, just think what the women think when there is male only class. Those kinds of restrictions suck in general anyway. I don't understand why some guys are so concerned about the people on the other side of toon, stop flirting with everyone and it won't be a problem. I play females because I want to, maybe because I am female but sometimes I just love the guys. I love Francis in L4D, he's my favorite, and if there was a male minotaur to play, i'd probably go for that. Minotaurs are awesome, and I'd want to be a bull! Why on earth would it bother someone to find out I was a woman playing a male minotaur... it's not reality!
parrotpholk-Because we all know the miracle patch fairy shows up the night before release and sprinkles magic dust on the server to make it allllll better.
With the exception of Sex specific classes I always pick male avatars.
Never been one of those guys that enjoy running around a game as a chick.
Playing: Rift, LotRO
Waiting on: GW2, BP
I've been playing female toons about 70% of the time, since way back, beta testing EQ and complaining that my Dark Elf Cleric had to wear a thong and leather chaps. I've noticed as the years go by, graphics get better, female avatars look hotter, and more and more players realize that it's ok. It's been getting more and more common. More and more, I'll be surrounded by female characters in a game, and they're all guys. It's starting to even bother me a bit.
On the one hand, great, it's pretty normal, after all - but on the other, it's a little wierd to be in these game worlds that are so overpopulated by female characters. It'd be one thing if they really were female, but no, it's just a bunch of guys like me, and it messes with the immersion factor, that its getting to be the norm
I think devs need to get on the ball, as far as making male characters look better - and by better, I don't mean more attractive, but rather often just the opposite, more like what guys want to play. People like playing characters that look powerful, and often the sexy female looks more powerful, in a sexy female sort of way, than the male characters that just look normal and lame. Give players more customization options to make their male character grizzled and mean looking, and I bet less guys would play females, as ironic as that may seem.
When I want a single-player story, I'll play a single-player game. When I play an MMO, I want a massively multiplayer world.
My characters are both male and female. I usually choose depending on the class, and armor they will wear. I like females as agile or stealthy classes, and males as soldier classes.
Often, a game's character creation won't allow for a decent looking male character, so I'll play female, or vice-versa.
It's really no big deal.
I usually play only male characters though exceptions have happened.
First, in SWG I had a female zabrak main - why? Because I thought the male zabraks looked horrible. :P
Another time was in AoC where I were leading a RP guild, knowing that most guildies knew I mainly played males I rolled a female alt and even morphed my voice on ventrilo just to left alone. xP Then again, it wasn't only because of this.. I have a strong "trickster" part of my personality and I couldn't, just Couldn't pass up the oppertunity to try and fool my own guild (it was hilarious).
Generally though, as said I play male characters. And like som might've stated the argument used widely is "if I am going to play all day then I'd rather look at a females body than a males". At least it's an explenation I've heard.
However, there is one part that I don't think I've seen mentioned (sorry if I missed it) and that is that female gamers Do tend to get special treatment from certain individuals. Especially if they are flirty. Free items, gold etc. Though admitedly very few female gamers take advantage of this - but some do - and I believe some Men roll females to take advantage of this as well.
This! Exactly this!
I never roleplay in MMORPGs, so it doesn't matter to other people wether my toon is a girl or a bloke (or at least it shouldn't matter).
But:
I roleplay in terms of Pen and Paper games. And currently I have a female character, which is because it's a very different experience and it is more challenging referring to roleplaying / acting.
I am male and intially I only played male toons.
I then went through a stage where I preferred to have a female avatar. Why? Because I prefer to look at the female form. Definitely a male perversion!
I am uncomfortable with playing a female avatar in games with voice. It just kills the whole roleplay experience for me.
For current games, if there is no ingame voice, I sometimes have a male avatar, sometimes female.
Well not all men are men, some men are girls.
But kidding aside, I dont buy the excuse "I dont want to stare at a man when I am playing". If that was true then those same people would not want to look in a mirror because "they dont want to stare at a man".
Imo, the most likely explanation for men playing women is that they want the attention that female avatars get from horny males. Be it for getting free loot or favours.
I cant believe that people play MMORPGs to watch female avatars. There are much better venues if you want to look at female forms like I dunno, photographs or real videos?
My gaming blog
But I don't want to look at photographs and vidoes, I want to play a game. And while doing it, I wish to look at something beautiful. And as a man, I find female persons more beautiful than men, which is logical, right?
It really is just to please my eyes. And I never get extra attention, because most MMO players know that there is only a small chance to have a real girl behind a female avatar.
A female friend of mine tends to play male characters in MMOs, because she thinks they look better in her opinion.
And no, she is not so "male" in real life. She is a common girl in terms of behaviour and looks...
I'm a guy, I never roleplay, never lie about my gender and I do play both male and female characters for one or more reasons varying from game to game:
Personal preferences. I think males are warriors. Female characters have usually so small frames that in reality they couldn't lift that hammer/greataxe etc.. Also the male roaring sounds a lot more like there's a fight going on than those high pitched... screams(?).
Character modelling. Sometimes the other sex of the same class just looks better. More fitting. I couldn't roll a male mesmer in Guild Wars because he had tights for gods sake. That's just ridiculous.
Armor models. Some armors look better on female toons, others look better on male toons.
Size. The smaller your size is the less chance you will be targeted. It's psychological. People tend to attack the biggest target even in PvP. ...stupid people. Smaller size makes hiding behind objects easier.
Variation. If everyone in my party is a male, I roll a female, and vice versa. Just for the f*** of it.
Humor. Depending on either sound effects or the model. For example: Small girl with a huge rocket launcher.
Yes, I'd rather watch the backside of a woman than a man if I'm going to play for hours and hours.
I always expect that other players are males because most of them are. I haven't experienced any kind of special treatment when playing female toons although I must admit I haven't payed much attention either. I find it creepy when a male player starts to... socialize with me when I'm playing a female character. I put a stop to it right away and speak my mind about the subject. -Usually telling them to look for sites specifically for that and leave the game as it is.
The ones who think males playing females are creepy, I find creepy. Why do they care? Do they have some ulterior motive or are they just... conservative, homophobic etc.?
I AM NOT THE TOON NOR DOES IT REPRESENT ANYTHING I AM
I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been -Wayne Gretzky
I would say about 1/2 the toons I make in a game are female. This goes for MMO's and single player games also.
Fact is I dont role play any of those toons, male or female. Its just a toon. Its no different than playing Tomb Raider or Super Metroid, or...shit I dont know how many others. Just for the fact it doesnt even matter enough that Ive ever said to myself Im controling a female toon.
As a matter of fact when I think about it, Ive never made a male healer toon. And most if not all of my casters (magic) are female too. While my ranged attackers (weapons) are mostly male. Opposite is true for my melee toons. Dont think Ive ever made a female tank. While my stealthy melee is about a 50-50 mix of both. This goes for single player and MMO games.
You want to hear something odd. I have a harder time playing an effeminate male toon than I do playing a female toon. Its one reson why I could never play a male toon in COH/V, they ran like they just got finished having...ahm.
I have this distinct feeling the OP is torq'd that his chance at some social interaction (that he hopes will lead to some physical interaction) is ruined by people not playing what they are in real life. Its a game. A lot of us are playing because its entertaining, not because its a chance for us to play the muscle bulging sword swinging hero, or the the athletic lith spell caster. Its just a game. Its like TV, but interactive.
I hate to break this to you OP. No one who plays MMO's looks like thier toons, no matter how much you want to fantasize about it. And the few that could pull it off, you have zero and I mean zero chance of ever meeting them. Thats zero, buddy.
So if you really want to meet a RL girl, turn off your computer. Dont get pissed because youre losing the ability to tell the difference between a fanatsy game and reality. Whatever MMO youre playing isnt a substitute for real life, its just (or should be) a little bit of entertaining distraction.
"I understand that if I hear any more words come pouring out of your **** mouth, Ill have to eat every fucking chicken in this room."
I think there is a fundamental divide on how people perceive their (and others) toons.
I think your post highlights 1 aspect of it.
By what you posted I preceive you see your toon as an extension of your real-life self. Your part of the story unfolding, you defeated the boss, you made it happen.
That if you play a female toon you see yourself as becoming effeminate (or that its an attack of you masculinity) because youre "playing as a chick".
While what I posted . Shows that I see my toon as no more than a animated character that I control. That Im not really part of the story, but just guiding it thru, Im not playing a female, Im just controling a female toon.
You know now that I think about it. The few people that I work with who play MMO's almost always talks about their toons in the 1st person. While I almost always refer to mine in the 3rd person.
"I understand that if I hear any more words come pouring out of your **** mouth, Ill have to eat every fucking chicken in this room."
It's the commonly accepted equivalent of men playing with Barbies.
"Now here's a girl I can dress up any way I like, and that moves where I want her to move. And hot damn, does she look GOOD.'
I guess, why not? It's a game anyway and you have to spend a LOT of time looking at your avatar, so make it one you actually like.
But I agree, it gets creepier when some female avatar starts making avances towards you while you know it's a man IRL behind it.
@OP: wait, there are MMO's that have gender restricted classes?! That's an... interesting take on how to do things.
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
@OP
So what?
Feel free to use my referral link for SW:TOR if you want to test out the game. You'll get some special unlocks!
I disagree with wanting to be a girl, but I agree that men are cuturally second-class citizens in the western industrialized world.
In general, I play male characters, but with Elves - I almost always play a female. No sense in trying to be macho as an Elf.
I DO find it disconcerting to hear a male voice from a female character.
"" Voice acting isn't an RPG element....it's just a production value." - grumpymel2
Ah?
So when you're in group combat you're not saying things like 'need heal pls' or 'heal me' but instead 'heal him' or 'my toon needs a heal' ?
Or when you agree to meet others at a dungeon entrance, you say 'my avatar will be right there' and not 'I'll be right there' ?
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
WH Online has male-only and female-only classes.
Also, I believe some Asian MMOs require players to play their own sex in-game. NO idea how they enforce that.
"" Voice acting isn't an RPG element....it's just a production value." - grumpymel2
I think it's more like: "My Elf Archer had quite a good dungeon run last night. She got a sweet new bow as a drop."
"" Voice acting isn't an RPG element....it's just a production value." - grumpymel2
#1 Reason for Male Players to Roll Female Avatars:
It upsets people like the OP.
No more like, I'd hear them talking about a raid they did the night before (in WoW). And someone would say something like 'He let me die", or "he said I looked like shit with pvp and raid gear on." And its not so much what they said but how they said it. This was a person (female btw) whos tone of voice said she was annoyed and offended by what someone said about her avatar.
While Id say something like " I had my guy dropping dots from on top of this hill and the idiot couldnt figure out where I was till he died. I did it twice before someone else found where I was".
More like I think of my toon as charcter in a game instead of being me in the game.
It didnt happen to me, it happened to my toon.
Edit- See what MMO-Doubter posted. He said it better that I did.
"I understand that if I hear any more words come pouring out of your **** mouth, Ill have to eat every fucking chicken in this room."
I don't mind guys playing as girls. It's the ones that do it trying to get money out of people that are annoying - that happened A LOT back in the DAoC days. I've run into quite a few dudes playing girls that openly admitted they do it because more guys give them more free stuff because of it.
I think that's changed though. I'm sure less people give stuff out like that nowadays, but I may be wrong.
Also, I've talked to people in-game for a long period of time that I actually thought was a girl irl, and they actually pretended to be a girl both in-game and irl, and then like a year later is like, "Hey, just letting ya know, I'm a guy." He even cybered with some other dude seriously at times. :P
Some guys take it seriously.
Nah - it's the cute butts.
"" Voice acting isn't an RPG element....it's just a production value." - grumpymel2