Diablo 2 had gender tied to class / role. I had one of each class, but I prefered to play the Amazon, Sorceress, and Paladin more than the other classes. At the time no one seemed to care what gender / role you played. This may have been my experience only. We all have different reason and expectations for the genders and roles we play. Many expect the in-game avatars to be copies of our real life selves, but they soon learn that this is not always the case.
Have I noticed a different treatment to female avatars? SWG pre-CU NGE, had a lot of begging for credits to train skills. Male avatars seemed to beg longer because they were ignored. But across the spectrum, female avatars get unwelcome advances. I suppose WoW offered the gender swap service to combat this, I don't know for certain. But my first day in Guild Wars 1 was nothing but whispers for lap dances.
Pardon any spelling errors
Konfess your cyns and some maybe forgiven Boy: Why can't I talk to Him? Mom: We don't talk to Priests. As if it could exist, without being payed for. F2P means you get what you paid for. Pay nothing, get nothing. Even telemarketers wouldn't think that. It costs money to play. Therefore P2W.
Now sure, as gay guy, I do not have the appeal to "see a girl's bum" while I play.
I don't understand this logic. If a gay guy wouldn't want to look at a girl's butt, why would a straight man want to look at a guy's butt?
I play whatever sex looks the best. In Age of Conan, the female animations were very clunky and looked goofy; thus, I played a male character. In Aion, the male characters looked too sassy; thus, I played a female character.
You mention that, it's funny, I felt the same way.
when I played WoW, I like the Female NELF only because I like the way the dual wield melee animations worked...Just seemed to flow the best of the races/genders.
Ironically, it was a hunter....LOL, so in the end, that was kinda pointless.
This is an interesting topic for me, because my views on it have radically shifted.
You see, when I first started playing MMORPG with UO, roleplaying was a MUCH bigger deal, and it kind of felt like your character was an extension of you in the game. So if I were to play a girl character, it would almost be like cross-dressing. I always played male characters back then, just like I always play male characters in P&P roleplaying games.
But modern MMORPGs just feel like much more of a "game" and much less of a virtual world. There is hardly any roleplaying (if any), and my character no longer feels like an extension of myself, but just a character. Instead of being "Creslin," I'm just a level 45 shaman.
So I really have no compunctions about what gender I make my character. I typically play male chars, but maybe I get tired of the male voice and armor look, then decide to make a female at some point. It really doesn't matter to me at this point. I feel like playing a female char in a modern themepark MMORPG is just like playing "Laracroft" in Tomb Raider.
Interest thing I've noticed though is that even though this topic has been popping constantly over the years, I've started to noticed that there isn't the same level of vitriole in the reactions as I remember, even a few years ago. It's almost as if it's becoming less of an issue. There are also a lot more people admitting that they play female characters, at least that's my perception of it. Perhaps it's just the time of day, the phase of the moon or the consistency of these particular forums, but is it possible we gamers are growing up?
1, it probably is less of an issue because some people have realized that the world hasn't ended and that the core center of their beliefs were never truly threatened.
2, I'd love to think that some people are growing up but there are still those who are determined to prove otherwise.
Like Skyrim? Need more content? Try my Skyrim mod "Godfred's Tomb."
I'm not Female Shepard. It's just a character in a videogame which I use to save the galaxy.
I'm not the female characters I've rolled over the years. They just happen to be characters I've created which seemed more interesting than only making male characters.
Do authors who write books about the opposite gender also spook you, Elikal?
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
Given how the OP sees his character in a game (ie as an extension of himself), his argument is understandable.
The thing is, all players don't see their characters this way.
I'm one of those: I just can't see a character in a game I play as an extension of my personality. To me, becoming a toon (that's visible on the screen at all times) and puppet-mastering yourself is what's spooky. It feels like some gross detachment.
So, does that mean I do not relate to characters I "play" in games? Does that mean my experience is somehow more shallow (or less profound)?
Well, I don't think so.
See, to me, creating and "playing" a character in a game is a bit like writing about a character in a story.
I design my "toon" as some character that intrigues me in some ways, as someone who I'd be curious about, someone whose story I'd be interested to know more about.
Hence, I think it's no wonder I tend to create characters who are actually way different than me - both in their physical and (imaginary) mental aspects.... Because, well, I'd get bored of "playing myself"! I'm already dragging myself through all sorts of narrative in real life (and dreams and daydreams), I think it's more interesting to step aside, let some other character take the spotlight and "identify with" him or her as you would identify with a character in a story you're writing, or even reading.
So, yeah. Just as writing about a female character can be as intriguing (if not even more so) as writing about a male character to a male author... I think a female character can be as intriguing to a male player.
P.S.: There's this pen-and-paper RP circle I used to know, way back. They actually didn't say "I play an elf character", but rather "I make an elf character play". Yeah, doesn't sound pretty in English, but you get the gist. That sounded quite fitting to me.
I have no problem with it. But I do play male av's, on the record and off the record. That said I'm not an Orc or Dwarf or whatever but people still play them in fantasy. Enjoy your fantasy while it lasts and be who you want to be. Yay flowers and fluffy bunny's too for the hell, sorry heck, of it.
Now let me say ahead, I always respect everyone's decision what to play in a MMO. It is just a feeling. Let me explain. Now sure, as gay guy, I do not have the appeal to "see a girl's bum" while I play. But here is the thing. When I create MMO characters, I NEVER make "my idea man". And boy, I tried. Several times in MMOs I create a male character that looked as my "ideal looking man", and it SPOOKED THE HELL OUTTA ME. I can't even say why. But the idea to play a char that looks like my ideal man, was... wrong. It was something so outside anything I could identify or accpet. I always felt it was just wrong and spooky, to have some "cute puppet", some "love doll" or whatever. It felt just freaky. And that is why I shudder at the thought, no matter if you play same gender or opposite gender: this idea to create a character as "your ideal looking girl/guy" is what just feels so spooking me off.
For me, a character I play must represent something of *me*, some part of myself externalized. (Is that a word?) For instance, I loved my EQ2 Sarnath and my Fae Ranger. Both represented character traits of me. Both where a part of me, in a way I could not describe. Or my dark skinned characters I make in most MMOs as main. He is me, for reasons I can not explain. But he is FAR from the type of guy I want. I mean, I know some people would even play any random char because they don't care at all. But when you play a char so many hours as you do in a MMO, does it not evoke *some* feeling within you?
And that is what I don't get, how can you play a char months or even years which is your "love interest"? That sounds just so... bizarre. So it gives me more than a little doubt in players who do this. I know from experience with female gamers who talked to me, that female chars are usually treated better. If they enter older MMOs, they are WAY more likely to get help, money and other stuff. And that, shall we say, ulterior motive is what I also kind of suspect. Like they know, ok with a girl char people will be more helpful and nice. Which is the case. Female chars DO get more help.
So what do you think about it? And to you guys who play girls, how do you feel doing that? I wonder.
It makes no difference what a character looks like, or what their gender is. I've played both female and male characters, I have never noticed anyone treat me different either way. I've never looked at a female character i created and got all swooney over them or whatever. I also play EVE and never felt like i was a spaceship or fell in love with said spaceship (except for maybe the Armageddon) For me it kind of depends on the aesthetics of an mmorpg on which gender I choose. If the male characters look metro then I might as well make female. If the male characters look like murderous bastards then I will probably play a male, unless the females look even more murderous.
Are you a Pavlovian Fish Biscuit Addict? Get Help Now! I will play no more MMORPGs until somethign good comes out!
I don't really disagree with the OP view, just don't really agree with it either.
Really these games are purely about having fun in whatever manner each person deems fun. So if they aren't harming anyone, griefing, trolling or otherwise attempting to ruin everyone else's time then I don't much care what their motivation for playing anything in any style is.
For my part I mostly play girls, am a girl but I typically play characters whose style/looks are not based on my RL looks at all. I have played a few male characters in games, but those are typically monster races, like Trolls, hehe.
Fun is the only thing that matters though in the end, eh?
Now let me say ahead, I always respect everyone's decision what to play in a MMO. It is just a feeling. Let me explain. Now sure, as gay guy, I do not have the appeal to "see a girl's bum" while I play. But here is the thing. When I create MMO characters, I NEVER make "my idea man". And boy, I tried. Several times in MMOs I create a male character that looked as my "ideal looking man", and it SPOOKED THE HELL OUTTA ME. I can't even say why. But the idea to play a char that looks like my ideal man, was... wrong. It was something so outside anything I could identify or accpet. I always felt it was just wrong and spooky, to have some "cute puppet", some "love doll" or whatever. It felt just freaky. And that is why I shudder at the thought, no matter if you play same gender or opposite gender: this idea to create a character as "your ideal looking girl/guy" is what just feels so spooking me off.
For me, a character I play must represent something of *me*, some part of myself externalized. (Is that a word?) For instance, I loved my EQ2 Sarnath and my Fae Ranger. Both represented character traits of me. Both where a part of me, in a way I could not describe. Or my dark skinned characters I make in most MMOs as main. He is me, for reasons I can not explain. But he is FAR from the type of guy I want. I mean, I know some people would even play any random char because they don't care at all. But when you play a char so many hours as you do in a MMO, does it not evoke *some* feeling within you?
And that is what I don't get, how can you play a char months or even years which is your "love interest"? That sounds just so... bizarre. So it gives me more than a little doubt in players who do this. I know from experience with female gamers who talked to me, that female chars are usually treated better. If they enter older MMOs, they are WAY more likely to get help, money and other stuff. And that, shall we say, ulterior motive is what I also kind of suspect. Like they know, ok with a girl char people will be more helpful and nice. Which is the case. Female chars DO get more help.
So what do you think about it? And to you guys who play girls, how do you feel doing that? I wonder.
It makes no difference what a character looks like, or what their gender is. I've played both female and male characters, I have never noticed anyone treat me different either way. I've never looked at a female character i created and got all swooney over them or whatever. I also play EVE and never felt like i was a spaceship or fell in love with said spaceship (except for maybe the Armageddon) For me it kind of depends on the aesthetics of an mmorpg on which gender I choose. If the male characters look metro then I might as well make female. If the male characters look like murderous bastards then I will probably play a male, unless the females look even more murderous.
I play EVE too and I've been admiring your tight clean railguns. Hmmm yeah. I like it like that.
Seriously...I never understood the problem. Its an avatar in which to react and RP with an MMO world. Its not brain damage or sexual deviance , confusion or emotional problems. Sometimes when i've played out every class and race ..I play a female. Sometimes the models look better. Sometimes I do it for the hell of it. I dont hit on people or try to "get stuff" for free. I play a game. I wonder if its just embarassment because of people finding out they've been macking hard on a female toon and discover it is a man behind the mouse ( or whatever gender based on the circumstance). If I ever ,for some reason, felt the desire and began flirting with another player and found out we we're the same gender...I'd probably apologize and laugh.
Its an RPG, and people decide for themself do they wanna go with cruel/epic/scarry or cute/funny/pretty avatar. Its shame that males fall in 1st cayegory and female 2nd, but anyway, who would play only male every game? - noone
I swear I posted a response to this like an hour ago, but it seems to be gone.
I have and always will ONLY play male characters in any game. I play male every game because to me female characters look too skinny and fragile to really do any damage, unless they're casters/archers or something - and I am more of a melee person.
It has only ever like once crossed my mind to even role a female character, and that was 6 years into WoW and I thought new animations might spice things up lol. My mind just isn't wired to wanna do stuff as the opposite gender, though, so that quickly ended at like level 3.
To me the basis of the original post seems to come down to: I don't do this.. so I can't understand why someone else would.
We could just as easily be on the Beef shouldn't be for dinner!! forums.. and have some Vegan posting how they don't eat meat and don't understand why some people do. Then they could go on to list all kinds of various reasons why they think its odd to eat meat etc etc
You don't have to understand why other people do something... and to me its pretty much that simple.
Altho what I was going to post was:
I don't underst6and why people worry about the gender of the person playing a virtual character.. in fact people like that spook me off.
So what do you think about it? And to you guys who play girls, how do you feel doing that? I wonder.
Im playing mixed genders, whatever my mood is.
I enjoyed the boobs in AoC, so i had only 1 male char there, but im not in this "i identify my char with myself" problem, i was always just the puppetmaster, pulling the strings and enjoying the Actors.
It isnt anything sexually or so, i just prefer to look at girls over man, i have a mirror for some reason ^^
These testorterone driven questions about a toons gender indicates a certain agegroup
I usually play female characters in MMORPGs. It's mainly because role playing, I just love the idea of playing a badass heroine.
For me all started with Lara Croft and the Tomb Raider series back in the day on PS1 console. I was impressed at that sexy girl shooting, jumping and kicking bad guys asses.
And overall I like females styles and animations better than males.
What's funny is in one of my game, I am in a large guild run by middle aged men and women.
While these women crate female avatars, they are the biggest "offenders" (using the term loosely and not meant to imply they are offensive) when it comes to running around in skimpy costumes.
My guess is that being a bit older, they are quite comfortable in their own sexuality and are probably thinking, "If I really had a body like that..Hell, I'd run to the grocery store in this outfit"
To me the basis of the original post seems to come down to: I don't do this.. so I can't understand why someone else would.
We could just as easily be on the Beef shouldn't be for dinner!! forums.. and have some Vegan posting how they don't eat meat and don't understand why some people do. Then they could go on to list all kinds of various reasons why they think its odd to eat meat etc etc
You don't have to understand why other people do something... and to me its pretty much that simple.
Altho what I was going to post was:
I don't underst6and why people worry about the gender of the person playing a virtual character.. in fact people like that spook me off.
People worry about the gender of a person playing a virtual character for many reasons, but a big one is that it's a social game, and people try and make friends online, and they'd like to think that at least to some small degree who they're playing with is somewhat like their character, at least gender-wise.
I don't care so much anymore, but back in the day it was EXTREMELY weird to get to know someone, then while playing with them as their female toon, get on vent or something and hear a deep, masculine voice. After that, all I could picture was a big hairy fat guy playing as a chick on the internet and it almost turned me off of even wanting to play these games 'cause I felt unclean and more awkward than ever about who I was talking to online/my choice of hobby. lol
My cousin did it all the time, as well, and it was just awkward for the first little while. It's just how it is.
Now I just don't give a shit who I'm playing with as long as it's fun.
"IF I NEED TO SEE AN ASS FOR HOURS AND HOURS...." cliche
LOL, that excuse always makes me laugh. Anyway, to each his own, it really doesn't bother me one way or the other. I've just never been able to make a female character in any MMO I've played. I have to be able to identify with my character, and I can't do that if I'm the opposite gender.
And yet, I automatically assume everyone who plays MMOs is a dude until they state otherwise, even if their character is a female. That's probably a bit sexist, but it's generally the safest route to take.
LIke most people when I first started playing mmos i only played male characters. The game felt like a virtual world to me and as so i identified with my character.
As i've contirued to play over the years mmos just feel like games to me and I no longer identify with my character. So now i'll play male, female, assexual it doesn't matter to me.
No mmo character feels like me anymore so it doesn't matter.
Not sure why the OP cares what others play. For being gay you are very judgemental of others choices. Kinda ironic I think.
Comments
Diablo 2 had gender tied to class / role. I had one of each class, but I prefered to play the Amazon, Sorceress, and Paladin more than the other classes. At the time no one seemed to care what gender / role you played. This may have been my experience only. We all have different reason and expectations for the genders and roles we play. Many expect the in-game avatars to be copies of our real life selves, but they soon learn that this is not always the case.
Have I noticed a different treatment to female avatars? SWG pre-CU NGE, had a lot of begging for credits to train skills. Male avatars seemed to beg longer because they were ignored. But across the spectrum, female avatars get unwelcome advances. I suppose WoW offered the gender swap service to combat this, I don't know for certain. But my first day in Guild Wars 1 was nothing but whispers for lap dances.
Boy: Why can't I talk to Him?
Mom: We don't talk to Priests.
As if it could exist, without being payed for.
F2P means you get what you paid for. Pay nothing, get nothing.
Even telemarketers wouldn't think that.
It costs money to play. Therefore P2W.
You mention that, it's funny, I felt the same way.
when I played WoW, I like the Female NELF only because I like the way the dual wield melee animations worked...Just seemed to flow the best of the races/genders.
Ironically, it was a hunter....LOL, so in the end, that was kinda pointless.
This is an interesting topic for me, because my views on it have radically shifted.
You see, when I first started playing MMORPG with UO, roleplaying was a MUCH bigger deal, and it kind of felt like your character was an extension of you in the game. So if I were to play a girl character, it would almost be like cross-dressing. I always played male characters back then, just like I always play male characters in P&P roleplaying games.
But modern MMORPGs just feel like much more of a "game" and much less of a virtual world. There is hardly any roleplaying (if any), and my character no longer feels like an extension of myself, but just a character. Instead of being "Creslin," I'm just a level 45 shaman.
So I really have no compunctions about what gender I make my character. I typically play male chars, but maybe I get tired of the male voice and armor look, then decide to make a female at some point. It really doesn't matter to me at this point. I feel like playing a female char in a modern themepark MMORPG is just like playing "Laracroft" in Tomb Raider.
Are you team Azeroth, team Tyria, or team Jacob?
1, it probably is less of an issue because some people have realized that the world hasn't ended and that the core center of their beliefs were never truly threatened.
2, I'd love to think that some people are growing up but there are still those who are determined to prove otherwise.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
My characters are just characters.
I'm not Female Shepard. It's just a character in a videogame which I use to save the galaxy.
I'm not the female characters I've rolled over the years. They just happen to be characters I've created which seemed more interesting than only making male characters.
Do authors who write books about the opposite gender also spook you, Elikal?
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
Given how the OP sees his character in a game (ie as an extension of himself), his argument is understandable.
The thing is, all players don't see their characters this way.
I'm one of those: I just can't see a character in a game I play as an extension of my personality. To me, becoming a toon (that's visible on the screen at all times) and puppet-mastering yourself is what's spooky. It feels like some gross detachment.
So, does that mean I do not relate to characters I "play" in games? Does that mean my experience is somehow more shallow (or less profound)?
Well, I don't think so.
See, to me, creating and "playing" a character in a game is a bit like writing about a character in a story.
I design my "toon" as some character that intrigues me in some ways, as someone who I'd be curious about, someone whose story I'd be interested to know more about.
Hence, I think it's no wonder I tend to create characters who are actually way different than me - both in their physical and (imaginary) mental aspects.... Because, well, I'd get bored of "playing myself"!
I'm already dragging myself through all sorts of narrative in real life (and dreams and daydreams), I think it's more interesting to step aside, let some other character take the spotlight and "identify with" him or her as you would identify with a character in a story you're writing, or even reading.
So, yeah. Just as writing about a female character can be as intriguing (if not even more so) as writing about a male character to a male author... I think a female character can be as intriguing to a male player.
P.S.: There's this pen-and-paper RP circle I used to know, way back. They actually didn't say "I play an elf character", but rather "I make an elf character play". Yeah, doesn't sound pretty in English, but you get the gist.
That sounded quite fitting to me.
I have no problem with it. But I do play male av's, on the record and off the record. That said I'm not an Orc or Dwarf or whatever but people still play them in fantasy. Enjoy your fantasy while it lasts and be who you want to be. Yay flowers and fluffy bunny's too for the hell, sorry heck, of it.
For me, it's always been about roleplaying.
I usually like playing a character that isn't anything like me IRL.
I don't consider myself, evil. Yet, I gravitate toward those types of characters.
I get a chance to "be" somebody that isn't me.
I guess that's one of the allures of playing MMO's for me.
It's not about fighting, it's about balance. It's not about enlightenment, it's about balance. It's not about balance.
Transexual Tendencies...
Taru-Gallante-Blood elf-Elysean-Kelari-Crime Fighting-Imperial Agent
Cant a grown man play dress up digital dolls and not catch some slack. So what if I like to dress my doll up like a Nevada Escort...
No matter how cynical you become, its never enough to keep up - Lily Tomlin
It makes no difference what a character looks like, or what their gender is. I've played both female and male characters, I have never noticed anyone treat me different either way. I've never looked at a female character i created and got all swooney over them or whatever. I also play EVE and never felt like i was a spaceship or fell in love with said spaceship (except for maybe the Armageddon) For me it kind of depends on the aesthetics of an mmorpg on which gender I choose. If the male characters look metro then I might as well make female. If the male characters look like murderous bastards then I will probably play a male, unless the females look even more murderous.
Are you a Pavlovian Fish Biscuit Addict? Get Help Now!
I will play no more MMORPGs until somethign good comes out!
I don't really disagree with the OP view, just don't really agree with it either.
Really these games are purely about having fun in whatever manner each person deems fun. So if they aren't harming anyone, griefing, trolling or otherwise attempting to ruin everyone else's time then I don't much care what their motivation for playing anything in any style is.
For my part I mostly play girls, am a girl but I typically play characters whose style/looks are not based on my RL looks at all. I have played a few male characters in games, but those are typically monster races, like Trolls, hehe.
Fun is the only thing that matters though in the end, eh?
it depends of the classes for me, and yes its true girls are treated more nicely and most of the times people give money and potions.
I play EVE too and I've been admiring your tight clean railguns. Hmmm yeah. I like it like that.
Seriously...I never understood the problem. Its an avatar in which to react and RP with an MMO world. Its not brain damage or sexual deviance , confusion or emotional problems. Sometimes when i've played out every class and race ..I play a female. Sometimes the models look better. Sometimes I do it for the hell of it. I dont hit on people or try to "get stuff" for free. I play a game. I wonder if its just embarassment because of people finding out they've been macking hard on a female toon and discover it is a man behind the mouse ( or whatever gender based on the circumstance). If I ever ,for some reason, felt the desire and began flirting with another player and found out we we're the same gender...I'd probably apologize and laugh.
I swear I posted a response to this like an hour ago, but it seems to be gone.
I have and always will ONLY play male characters in any game. I play male every game because to me female characters look too skinny and fragile to really do any damage, unless they're casters/archers or something - and I am more of a melee person.
It has only ever like once crossed my mind to even role a female character, and that was 6 years into WoW and I thought new animations might spice things up lol. My mind just isn't wired to wanna do stuff as the opposite gender, though, so that quickly ended at like level 3.
To me the basis of the original post seems to come down to: I don't do this.. so I can't understand why someone else would.
We could just as easily be on the Beef shouldn't be for dinner!! forums.. and have some Vegan posting how they don't eat meat and don't understand why some people do. Then they could go on to list all kinds of various reasons why they think its odd to eat meat etc etc
You don't have to understand why other people do something... and to me its pretty much that simple.
Altho what I was going to post was:
I don't underst6and why people worry about the gender of the person playing a virtual character.. in fact people like that spook me off.
Im playing mixed genders, whatever my mood is.
I enjoyed the boobs in AoC, so i had only 1 male char there, but im not in this "i identify my char with myself" problem, i was always just the puppetmaster, pulling the strings and enjoying the Actors.
It isnt anything sexually or so, i just prefer to look at girls over man, i have a mirror for some reason ^^
These testorterone driven questions about a toons gender indicates a certain agegroup
I usually play female characters in MMORPGs. It's mainly because role playing, I just love the idea of playing a badass heroine.
For me all started with Lara Croft and the Tomb Raider series back in the day on PS1 console. I was impressed at that sexy girl shooting, jumping and kicking bad guys asses.
And overall I like females styles and animations better than males.
Yeah. Especially because most people don't put much thought into the characters they make.
What's funny is in one of my game, I am in a large guild run by middle aged men and women.
While these women crate female avatars, they are the biggest "offenders" (using the term loosely and not meant to imply they are offensive) when it comes to running around in skimpy costumes.
My guess is that being a bit older, they are quite comfortable in their own sexuality and are probably thinking, "If I really had a body like that..Hell, I'd run to the grocery store in this outfit"
LOL
People worry about the gender of a person playing a virtual character for many reasons, but a big one is that it's a social game, and people try and make friends online, and they'd like to think that at least to some small degree who they're playing with is somewhat like their character, at least gender-wise.
I don't care so much anymore, but back in the day it was EXTREMELY weird to get to know someone, then while playing with them as their female toon, get on vent or something and hear a deep, masculine voice. After that, all I could picture was a big hairy fat guy playing as a chick on the internet and it almost turned me off of even wanting to play these games 'cause I felt unclean and more awkward than ever about who I was talking to online/my choice of hobby. lol
My cousin did it all the time, as well, and it was just awkward for the first little while. It's just how it is.
Now I just don't give a shit who I'm playing with as long as it's fun.
Western MMO's = male
Eastern MMO's = female
That's how it works form me.
I've been playing MMo's for 13 years or so and we are still having this discussion? Come on, let's all grow up, they are pixels.
LOL, that excuse always makes me laugh. Anyway, to each his own, it really doesn't bother me one way or the other. I've just never been able to make a female character in any MMO I've played. I have to be able to identify with my character, and I can't do that if I'm the opposite gender.
And yet, I automatically assume everyone who plays MMOs is a dude until they state otherwise, even if their character is a female. That's probably a bit sexist, but it's generally the safest route to take.
LIke most people when I first started playing mmos i only played male characters. The game felt like a virtual world to me and as so i identified with my character.
As i've contirued to play over the years mmos just feel like games to me and I no longer identify with my character. So now i'll play male, female, assexual it doesn't matter to me.
No mmo character feels like me anymore so it doesn't matter.
Not sure why the OP cares what others play. For being gay you are very judgemental of others choices. Kinda ironic I think.