Gender Identity

[Worba]

Also, knowing a fair bit about real world animals, males, particularly among mammals, are generally bigger and stronger and more prone to fighting, which makes me more inclined to believe my hunter would choose a to tame a male tiger or a bull rhino as his partner when heading into combat..

I take it you've never seen a female crocodile guarding her clutch of eggs... XD

A female guarding young is certainly on "turbo mode", but males in the wild routinely target said young to make the females go back into heat; lions, bears etc. If the male is small and/or not super motivated, then the female has a fair chance of driving him off, but otherwise... not so much.

This ofc isn't the case across the board - in some species the female is larger, males are more willing to accept young of previous litters, etc etc.

[pengupuff]

Like others in this thread, I tend to default all of my pets to male. I can't really explain why... it's just how I roll. The one exception to that is my Karoma. From the start, I knew I wanted it to be named Lanterna, and that just sounds feminine to me, so she is a girl.

[Morven]

I don't feel myself bound by the lore gender of the tamed beast, because in my mind I don't have THE Loque, I have a similar creature, because the real one is still out there.

Probably about 2/3 of mine are female. Lions of course are male. Terrorpene is male. Karkin is male. Skarr is male. There's a few others.

[Izzi]

Like a few others have said in this topic, I generally go with whatever "vibe" I get from the pet to determine it's gender. And like another person said, I don't feel bound to the "lore" of the tamed beast either since, well, it wouldn't make sense if many people had the same exact pet, lore and all ("Harkoa has a million mates named Loque??"). I always imagine myself having a "similar" one. Obvious gender indicators I stick with, though...ie: manes on lions make them male, etc.

That said, I guess my stable is pretty evenly-gendered (which kind of came as a surprise to me). Sometimes it takes me awhile to settle on a gender for a pet (I'm still not sure what gender my red fox is...somedays I see it as female, othertimes male). Only once was I "wrong" on a pet's gender; my first and favorite pet, a cougar, I originally saw as male, but a very close friend of mine at the time kept insisting it was female so I stuck with that instead.

[Firesighn]

I generally just run around with them some before I decide how they fit into things. Maybe I don't feel like my hunter actually has the pet, I just really want it and have to put it on a hunter somewhere. I like the looks of it so I have to put it on a hunter somewhere. Kal doesn't ACTUALLY have an orange magma spider named Naraku. Or a green one named Kanaya. I just wanted those pets and stuck them on my main.

If I run around with them and decide my hunter actually has them I'll be more serious when I name them and they usually just kind of slide into a personality too. Pulse the (female) giant orange wasp is a cuddler. She crawls all over Kal and wants attention (and hangs off his back while traveling). Scythe the (male) raptor is a doofus. Torgo the (female) scorpion is kind of a jerk. My goblins (male) black tiger is stoic and aloof, whereas his green (female) one is more affectionate. They just kind of slide into their roles.

[Miacoda]

The majority of my pets are male. Probably because I think I've just enjoyed irl male pets more. The only ones that aren't are the named ones. Magria, Ankha, Gondria, Karoma, Aotona, Jadefang, all female in my mind, and I just cannot see them as male at all. I also see Anthriss as female.
And even though Gosh-Haldir is <The Clutchmother> I have trouble seeing crocs as female in general. They just look too male in game, hehe (irl its easy to see them as either female or male).
All of those named mobs (minus Gosh-Haldir, my Haldir is.. well I'm not quite sure if she/he is male or female. Male for now but ugh, I still wonder) are the only female pets I have. The rest are male.

On Espen, its the same. The majority of my pets are male, but Karoma, Gondria, and Ankha are female. Though my black Mastiff, Astrid, is female. It just seemed very fitting, heh.

[Chimaera]

For me, it usually depends on the sort of "feel" I get from the pet. I also often have a name for them already in my mind, which pretty much decides.

Though I do like to sort of go against what people would expect for my pets. If I tame something icky, ferocious, or otherwise unfeminine, I like to give them very girly names. For example, my devilsaur is named Lucy, and when I get my blood elf hunter leveled, I plan on taming a lava spider and naming her "Daisy".

[Monica Gems]

I used to have mostly male pets.

Princess Huhuran (clearly, lol), Gondria, Magria, Ankha, Jadefang, Aotona, Karoma, the blue/purple Cata beetle, the ZG panther, and the ZA dragonhawk I have all seem female (note that most of those are pets that end with A in their original names). The beetle was not very manly coloured, the cat is a mate of my Skarr, and the dragonhawk... is a dragonhawk. Don't care what the boss in ZA thinks, there's nothing manly about a dragonhawk! Loque felt female to me until I started playing with him. The roars didn't seem to suit a female pet too well.

So, I guess my perception is based on playing with them if they're nameless, and based on their names if they are named (PRINCESS Huhuran, KING Krush; the vibe is already set for me when I tame).

in my mind I don't have THE Loque, I have a similar creature, because the real one is still out there.

Just read this, and maybe this is why I HATE seeing pets named after themselves. Oh how creative, Jadefang the Jadefang. You are now dragging the rare spawn behind you while it grumbles its unhappiness; renaming it gives a personal touch, makes it your pet, instead of it looking like you have the one and only <raremobsname>. Seems cold and impersonal.

[Senna-Umbreon]

It's usually a tie between females and males, though most of my REALLY good pets (AKA my "main" ones. The ones I take everwhere with me.) seem to have been male. And I'm gonna just chime in with some of the others on the "it depends on the "feeling" I get from the pet" thing, since that's really the only thing that determines a gender for my pets. Heck, I even have some pets of the same mob that I have on multiple Hunters (Like Loque, and previously, Gondria) who on one character may be female while for the other may be male. (Oddly, my Troll has a female Loque and had a female Gondria, while my Night Elf had the males of those two mobs.). And sometimes, I'll even throw species/biology out the window! One of my (Now neglected) alts has Humar.. Who's female in my mind. Whoo female maned lions! O.o;; Essentially, it doesn't matter what the mob is, it matters what I think the pet itself seems like. (For example, my current Ankha is female, but who knows, if I ever tame it again on a different character.. It could well be male!)

Currently, for my main.. I think it's a tie between males and females. *Goes and counts* In fact, out of the 20 pets I use.. I have 10 males, 9 females and one.. Gender-neutral. (My Pogeyan. I think he was originally male.. but the other day I for some reason decided he's now "Undetermined" instead XD)

[Wassa]

I'm female and while on both of my current hunters I have more male pets than female pets, on Wassa the pets I use the most and bonded strongest with are female. Wassa had only female pets in BC and most of Wrath as well.

[Sesamee]

I'm female and while on both of my current hunters I have more male pets than female pets, on Wassa the pets I use the most and bonded strongest with are female. Wassa had only female pets in BC and most of Wrath as well.

Same here. Out of the 23 pets I currently have 13 are male and 10 are female. My favorites seem to be the females though, idk why!

[meepitco]

Honestly, when I'm camping, I start to think of names, and personalities for the pet. For my blue madexx, I have always seen it, as a her. The rest I see as male. Don't know why. Probably never will know.

Anthriss, on the other hand, I always saw her as..her, too. When I tamed her, a personality for her came up into my head. "Quick reacting spider, that won't stop for any barrier", speaking I tamed her, then horde killed me.

But my corehound, I see as a male. And his name is the most badass name ever. Fluffy.
On Magrallea, I find myself using female pets. On Lysara, I find myself using male pets. It never stops

Well....there's my 15 seconds of nonsense.

[lilaughingwolf]

I go off how my pets act (emote threw pet emote) and the feel I get from working with them. I have a mix of both male and female pets and love them all, their gender seems to fit them the best. Pet emote has also desided the gender on a few with their first emote..it seemed right so it stuck.

[lilaughingwolf]

Honestly, when I'm camping, I start to think of names, and personalities for the pet. For my blue madexx, I have always seen it, as a her. The rest I see as male. Don't know why. Probably never will know.

Anthriss, on the other hand, I always saw her as..her, too. When I tamed her, a personality for her came up into my head. "Quick reacting spider, that won't stop for any barrier", speaking I tamed her, then horde killed me.

But my corehound, I see as a male. And his name is the most badass name ever. Fluffy.
On Magrallea, I find myself using female pets. On Lysara, I find myself using male pets. It never stops

Well....there's my 15 seconds of nonsense.

I have a Devie named FluffyYummz....I love my Yummiez so that is a kick tookie name for a core hound I also have a ravie named Pookie and he rocks

[Zuilu]

My pets seem to be pretty equal, actually..

Deth'tilac: Female, named Sithrax.
Gondria: Female, named Felidae
Pink tallstrider: Male, named Floyd
Polar bear: Male, named Gummy
King Krush: Male, named Hokupoku
Skarr: Genderless, named Kioo
Oil-stained wolf: Genderless, named Peta..
Purple cata croc: Male, named Muffin.
Blue Madexx: Female, named Petal
Red Madexx: Male, named Steve
Loque'nahak: Female, named Unicia
Arcturis: Female, named Ursi
White turtle: Male, named Albert
Ghostcrawler: Genderless, named Nurf
Burning Boar: Male, named Sparky

So, I have 5 females and 7 males. Not bad ^^
And my most used pets are quite equal as well: Male polar bear, male tallstrider, female Deth'tilac, female Gondria, and then I pick a random pet such as Petal or Sparky to come with me.

[dragonaa]

i find like many other hunters have said i get a vibe from the beast i tame and it tells me my loque is a female and my skarr is female but my favorate pet dragon (purple outland raptor) is a male i find alot of my pets are female but many are male as well

[Helsinki]

I don't feel myself bound by the lore gender of the tamed beast, because in my mind I don't have THE Loque, I have a similar creature, because the real one is still out there.

I like to look at rares the same way. I still tend to keep their in-game genders, but I do view my rare pets as similar creatures rather than the named mob (because I NEVER name them after the original rare or keep anything in mind about their lore or original identity). For this reason, my spectral cats are all female. I have a hard time feeling attached to female pets though, with few exceptions. Most of my pets are male. I like to give my pets human male names with a preference for "old man" names (Walter, Marv, Ernest, Harold, Alfred, etc). That sort of naming scheme doesn't seem to work well for most of the female pets I've had. If I give them "pretty" names, I view them as being very vain and frilly. If I give them "old lady" names, I feel that they'd be more suited to baking cookies than being bloodthirsty fighters/protectors. For my female pets, I try to stick to strong names that border on being timeless - like Lilith or Alice.

It's also easier for me to attach a personality to male pets. They can be goofy or dimwitted while still being powerful in my mind without me disliking them for it. Sounds a little bit misogynistic I guess, even though I'm a female IRL >.>

[Vephriel]

It's also easier for me to attach a personality to male pets. They can be goofy or dimwitted while still being powerful in my mind without me disliking them for it. Sounds a little bit misogynistic I guess, even though I'm a female IRL >.>

Ahaha, I completely know what you mean. Female pets I can never get a good personality with, males just seem to have a more broad spectrum of characteristics for me to bond with.

[GormanGhaste]

If I give them "old lady" names, I feel that they'd be more suited to baking cookies than being bloodthirsty fighters/protectors.

You're obviously not acquainted with the battle-axes I know!

[Kalhoun]

I generally go by game lore/names - if the mob is named a female name, I tend to keep them as females when I tame them (like Gezzarak and Gosh-Haldir). If it's an unnamed mob, I generally default to everything being male. Not sure why. I'm female but tend to only play male toons, but I don't know if that has anything to do with it.