Male playing female ?????? :D

[zedxrgal]

First off let me say that I am asking this question out of pure curiosity not attempting to poke fun at, cause a bicker or anything remotely close or negative.

Why do males play a female character???
Same question for females who roll a male.

I was thinking of rolling a male Worgen because I didn't like the female but ended up staying with a female because I thought she looked good with the way I made her.

So ......................... why roll a toon the opposite sex of what you are in real life??

[Redith]

1. Female characters look better as any magic class (mage, Lock, Priest) or else your a guy in a dress lol.
2. Sometimes its cool to see a badass chick in a hero position.
3. Im staring at the backside of a toon for hours on end, why not make it an attractive one lol.

[Cerah]

The vast majority of my toons are female, like me, but I have one male, my blood elf rogue. It really doesn't make a difference to how I interact with other players at all, from my experience. I made him male for rp purposes (he's my paladin's son), and it just fits. Just the fact that we can choose to play as a gender different from RL is kind of cool, IMO.

It's funny, but most of my bf's toons, including his main, are female. He just liked the look of female trolls better, so when he made his main, he made her female. Again, it makes absolutely no difference in gameplay, though I imagine we get a few odd looks if we /kiss before we log off in a crowded city

[Adam-Savage]

Im staring at the backside of a toon for hours on end, why not make it an attractive one lol.

That's the oldest excuse out there. Your toon has a cloak that would cover this up and even if it didn't then why are you even staring at his rear end anyway ? I could understand for the blood elf's as the male blood elf's do look and act gay.

[Victorelle]

well I rather play a male Blood elf for the dance XD

[Rhyela]

I believe he meant that's a reason for being a male playing a female character.

I'm female and play mostly females but do play males here and there - mostly plate classes because I like how they're bulkier and more intimidating-looking. I'm one of the few strange people that like draenei males, so that's what my paladin is. And my DKs have been male humans. I don't really care for most of the other male models with the exception of worgen, blood elves, and dwarves (they're so lovable!).

[Novikova]

Im staring at the backside of a toon for hours on end, why not make it an attractive one lol.

That's the oldest excuse out there. Your toon has a cloak that would cover this up and even if it didn't then why are you even staring at his rear end anyway ? I could understand for the blood elf's as the male blood elf's do look and act gay.

'act gay'? o_o No wonder they buffed the model so male players wouldn't have their masculinity threatened. Most wizards and magi in lore wore /robes/, not /dresses/.

Good lord. Play what you want. If you like the emotes, looks, etc. Go for it. It's a sharding pretendy fun time for the love of little green apples.

[bluddy]

i play a female blood elf cause well *don't hate me for this* they have a lot more character then the males...sigh and it's entertaining because everybody thinks i'm female

[Vephriel]

I have many male characters. I've never understood the big deal about playing cross-gender in games. There are a lot of races that I love the appearance of the males (Undead and Troll especially), plus it's just fun to play them sometimes. It's a fantasy game where you play through the eyes of fantasy races...there's already non-human characters, not much of a difference in playing a different gender while you're at it.

[bluddy]

Same as you Veph i just chose the races and genders i like :/

[Saturo]

All my males are either for personality (male undead are AWESOME) or because they look better in plate. On a female model, the plate armor most of the time seems to "stretch out", and it looks plain weird. I prefer it on male models, simply. Similarly, I don't have a lot of male casters (aforementioned undead being the exception) because I think robes look better on female models. I've about an equal split between male and female characters. I just tend to prefer most plate on males, and most cloth on females. I rarely play classes "in between", leather and mail.

Another flaw with plate is that a majority of the breast plates and metal bras are plate. I HATE playing a character wearing one of those. It's the same for pants, which you can't even cower up. A majority of the fanservice gear is plate, and those items usually look like real armor on a male character.

[Vephriel]

I agree about the plate wearers. The weapons and armor on those classes just look far better on males most of the time.

[Nick]

3. Im staring at the backside of a toon for hours on end, why not make it an attractive one lol.

I snorted at that. xD

But most my characters are female. I only play the male side of the classes when I like the models.

[Kalliope]

Male trolls look fantastic shooting bows.

It all comes down to how the character looks and what the player likes. I know a some guys who play female toons who refer to their characters as male. It drives me up the wall, but it just goes to show that they're not looking too closely at their characters' genders.

It's really not that big a deal. There are plenty of games where you don't get a choice in your character's gender.

[Teigan]

All my characters are female. I've tried playing male ones, but don't really click with them. I guess I just like women better. *giggle*

[Kryte]

I'll start off by saying I'm female.

I play both male and female characters, and which of the two I choose depends on a number of factors. My characters tend to get made when I have some sort of character concept just "click" in my head, and I'll go, "Oh, wouldn't it be cool to make a Night Elf druid?" I take into account the aesthetics of the race (Male trolls look awesome, but female trolls are horrendous. Conversely, I would never make a male orc, but there's something appealing about the females), overall personalities of the models, and whether or not the concept just seems to work in my head.

I've been playing video games since I was a kid, and the vast majority of video game characters were (and are) male, so I have a lot of experience being gender-flipped. I don't really think much of it. I sometimes feel a bit uncomfortable RPing a male toon, but it's less because of some kind of "wrongness" than it is me worrying that my femininity shows through in ways that keep me from portraying the character the way I would like.

[Lisaara]

I'm female and play all female characters. I just feel weird about playing a male. The only male I'd ever consider playing is a male draenei because I find them quite attractive. But overall, I only play females.

my boyfriend makes male toons cause he feels comfortable that way. My friend Nick plays female toons, specifically his worgen priestess.

so overall, to each their own.

[Felidire]

A few years ago I would only play male characters, practically all Night Elves (one or two Human.) I decided to roll a female character, and I gradually ended up rolling mostly chicks; I have no real reason, other than I like girls more than guys, c'mon, they're cooler.. Also, people tend to treat me better with a female char (I tend to act rather girly a lot of the time anyways, and have been called "she" and "her" a lot on various sites where it clearly states that i'm "Male.") x33

For certain races and/or classes I tend to be gender-specific: i.e. A draenei would always be female; a Death Knight (always a tank) is always a male, and always some sort of elf; with druids, I admit that i'm a furry, and so any druid that I roll is almost always a female, and usually with a cutesy-name. (Kitter, Tacokeety, Kibblepaws - are a few.) Although my first ever druid was a male, I always have one male tank character named: Felidire that I feel related to me, or is an in-game version of myself.

tl;dr -- unless it's a tanking class - or a character that I feel pertains to my persona(fursona?) - then chances are it's going to be female.

[Andine]

I just prefer characters that look good. In case of undead, I just simply can't stand the males, so that's it. With other races, I play males as often as females, but Draenei and Elves do tempt me with playing females.

[Sorcha Ravenlock]

As far as I can tell, there are three types of people playing MMOs (when it comes to this discussion):

1. People who see their character as a respresentation of themselves.
2. Peole who use their character to roleplay.
3. People who see their character as a tool to preform actions in the game.

(Ofcourse like always when you try to pigeonhole people, a lot of people will fall in more then one group and some in none at all )

Player 1 is usually asking the question you ask, because they assume everyone else plays the same way and usually because they feel treatened by people who roll the opposite gender. (I'm not saying you are, actually I think you aren't. But in years of years playing RPGs this question keeps popping up in the forums I visit, usually as an angry post, and always by this type of player.) The only reasons they can think of for people to roll a character of the opposite gender is because either other players are out to trick them (presumably they see MMOs as some kind of dating service, and are shocked to find the hot nightelf they've been flirting with for weeks is a guy), or assume that the other player is a closet gay/transgender/crossdresser and is living out a secret fantasy in game.
However, the thruth is that player 2 and 3 are likely to happily roll character of the opposite gender for reasons that are far different from what player 1 assumes.

Player 2 wants to tell a story with his character. Like the author of a book, the player doesn't care whether that character is male or female. Just like J.K. Rowling wrote a whole series of books with a male main character, the RPer cares more about chosing the right vessel for telling an (interesting) story then whether or not a character is an actual representation of their real life self. (As a matter of fact they might steer away from chosing someone like themselves, they see it as much more fun playing someone very different.)

Player 3 sees his character as a tool to play the game. This means either they chose their race and gender based on stats (in some games gender can affect stats) or on animation and looks. They don't care about gender, unless (like others mentioned above me) a particular gender looks better, has better animations or looks good in certain gear.
They don't see their character as a representation of themselves, but as a means to an end (in this case using skills when they press a button).
This group is also likely to roll a toon of the opposite gender because of " If I'm staring at the backside of a toon for hours on end, why not make it an attractive one?" And why not? If you are going to look at a character for hundreds of hours, why not chose one you like to look at?

Ofcourse there is a group of men rolling female characters to hang out in Goldshire and flirt with male characters in the hope to get free handouts and gold and because they get some sort of kick out of it. But that group is a very small minority. (And some women do this too )

Anyway, personally I tend to fall somewhere between group 1 and 2. I tend to roll characters that look like myself, and even though I do roleplay the characters never stray far from my own morals. If I can I will chose certain features (like brown hair and eyes) to make my character resemble me at least vaguely. I'm not comfortable roleplaying males, and if I do roll a male they never stay around for long, they always get deleted.
However, I'm very aware other people do not play this way, and so I'd never assume a player is the same gender as their character, has the same morals as the character (someone playing an evil nasty necromancer could be really nice and helpful IRL for example) or is some sort of enemy IRL because they play on a different side/faction.


So play what gender you like, only a small group of people are going to assume your character is the same gender as you anyway, and if they do it's their mistake not yours