Tufva
Ooze
The Art of Cat Herding
Posts: 17
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Post by Tufva on Mar 9, 2010 15:01:43 GMT -5
I'm female, and all my toons are female because they are, to a certain extent, projections of myself. Me too! I've tried rolling male toons and it just doesn't work for me at all - it feels all wrong and weird.
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len
Ooze
Posts: 24
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Post by len on Mar 9, 2010 18:18:00 GMT -5
All my characters are female, as am I! I just dont 'get' playing a character not of my gender. In RP I would use the character's gender if I was describing something that the character did, but I'd use the person's gender if I was chatting about the player out of RP context. It does cause some confusion as I know a lot of male players with predominantly female characters - very few the other way around though.
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Post by aleanathem on Mar 9, 2010 19:03:25 GMT -5
I'm male and I played male toons for much of my WoW career. My original male, night elf hunter's looks make me laugh a bit every now and then. I decided in Wrath to just mess around with female toons so I've mainly been rolling those lately. The major difference is how some guys just can't seem to think outside "the box". It's sad how hard some guys try to get anything that resembles a female. ><
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Post by labrat on Mar 9, 2010 19:38:07 GMT -5
I'm with hadawako- if I'm talking about the player, I use the player's gender if I know it, if I'm talking about the character, I use the character's gender. Juujube the paladin is "she", my first main Jumuuji the hunter is "he", I'm "she" though I get taken for "he" pretty often unless I start talking about my husband or am on Vent. I have a mix of male and female toons, with a bias toward female. I tend to come up with a character concept first, then design around that; I don't even RP (though I'm not opposed to trying), but my characters are less extensions of myself than they are independent characters that probably represent various aspects of my personality in a more detached sense. For some reason I can't make any decisions during the character creation screen unless I've come up with a personality to design around. (Steelspark, for the record, is a demented little amateur botanist who writes argumentative monographs about the uses of rare plants and is mostly in the warrioring business because she was born without any sense of self-preservation.) Given I'm typing this with my combat boots propped up, maybe I just have a really strong masculine side.
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Post by theanorak on Mar 9, 2010 22:11:44 GMT -5
Hmm. The number of female players who've said "I only play female characters" intrigues me. I wonder if proboards has a poll function...
EDIT: I've looked and it does. Perhaps something to think about a little later -- don't want you all thinking I'm a Border House blogger.
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Post by istarian on Mar 9, 2010 22:25:57 GMT -5
I like playing female toons because, as I tell my wife all the time, if I have to stare at something from behind, I might as well look at something attractive.
However, with SAN, I have gone with a male toon as it seemed to suit the name more.
Below is a true story of something that happened to me many moons ago...
Once upon a time I played a female toon on a rather successful social guild. People knew that I was a guy and that I had a girlfriend, but apparently not everyone...
One day, one of the guildies was grouped with me when the conversation turned to where we live. I mentioned London (I was in the UK back then) and he said he was there also. He then suggested a meet up. Replying that was a pretty good idea as a guild meet, he logged off with the statement "Cool, and I'll buy you a beer too. You're sweet."
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So now the dilemma. Did he think I was a woman? Was he a woman, playing a male toon? Was I exaggerating his interest? I asked an officer.
"Hmm... No, he is a guy judging from his emai address. And it sounds like he thinks you're a woman. I'll have a word."
When we next met up, he said the freebie beer was off. I was not that sweet.
Since then I have made a point to mention my wife as much as possible, and to use as many male cliches as possible...
It would be interesting to play a non-humanoid though. Gender really wouldn't be an issue if I had the chance to play a Nerubian, for example.
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Post by kiryn on Mar 9, 2010 22:27:18 GMT -5
I played a male troll priest once, but he only got to around level 15 before I stopped playing him, so I'm not sure that counts. All of my other characters have been female. I just think the male characters are fugly.
I've known a lot of guys who play female characters, and I'll usually say "she" if I'm talking to someone else who doesn't know the player is male, but I'll say "he" if the person I'm talking to does know.
If we're in a random PuG, I'm not going to refer to that female human paladin over there as "he" nor call them by their iRL name, because honestly, it's none of those people's business. But when we're raiding with our friends, of course the main tank's a dude. We can hear him talking on Vent.
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gameldar
Ooze
Gameldar of WoW in an Hour
Posts: 14
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Post by gameldar on Mar 10, 2010 0:45:33 GMT -5
I pretty much always play a male - my wife gives me looks if I play a female. I have one female toon that has made it anywhere... and if I get round to playing her again she'll be changing race (to a gnome!!) and becoming male at the same time!
I used to play a female character on a RP mud which ended up being my main character - not because of the graphics (being as there wasn't any) but it fitted in with my sorceress character idea. However at one point I got an OOC question about my gender to which I replied honestly and she said "I thought so - you're too nice to be female".
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jen
Critter
Posts: 72
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Post by jen on Mar 10, 2010 3:16:31 GMT -5
I realized I only talked about myself and there was no real gender problem there. My boyfriend's main is a male, his alt is a female. If we're doing a dungeon together, I'll say "He pulled the boss", even though the char is female, but "we're boosting Pat's shammy because she needs more gear". I always refer to people I know by their real life gender, even in pugs. Honestly, since I'm in a raiding guild and I hear most people on Vent on a daily basis, I have no idea what gender their characters are, I just know the people's. In pugs I assume all the players are male, regardless of character gender. As an offtopic, someone I know is doing her thesis on gender roles (girls in WoW) and I think she's including something about what character gender women prefer. I'll let you know when she's done, if you're interested. (Oh, and this just occurred to me. She asked me to find her more victims If any girl has the time to chat to her on IM about being female in WoW, I'm sure she's appreciate it.)
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Tufva
Ooze
The Art of Cat Herding
Posts: 17
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Post by Tufva on Mar 10, 2010 4:44:38 GMT -5
As an offtopic, someone I know is doing her thesis on gender roles (girls in WoW) and I think she's including something about what character gender women prefer. I'll let you know when she's done, if you're interested. (Oh, and this just occurred to me. She asked me to find her more victims If any girl has the time to chat to her on IM about being female in WoW, I'm sure she's appreciate it.) Intriguing, I am always very curious about these types of topics. I'd be happy to help out if I can. :-)
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Post by theanorak on Mar 10, 2010 4:55:02 GMT -5
As an offtopic, someone I know is doing her thesis on gender roles (girls in WoW) and I think she's including something about what character gender women prefer. I'll let you know when she's done, if you're interested. I'd be surprised if there were many social WoW players and/or committed gamers who *weren't* interested. I certainly am!
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Post by tahliana on Mar 10, 2010 6:59:20 GMT -5
My first character was male, but most of my subsequent ones are female, and there are good reasons for all of them: Rohain is a priest, and a healer (to me) seems to come from the more caring side (am I a chauvinist or what?!!!). Daísy had to have pink pigtails, and I just liked the irony of a cute looking gnome in pink pigtails waving big sharp pointy things around and bashing very tall baddies over the head with her shield, not to mention being decked out in full plate!
Tahliana is female. All my belfs are female, as the male ones look gay.
And I refer to my female characters as 'she'.
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Post by Passiflora on Mar 11, 2010 6:02:42 GMT -5
stick with character gender, that way even if you offend said player, you can always fall back on the characters gender as an excuse/apology method Yes i'm a bloke playing a female fire throwing belf. This however is totally unrelated.
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Post by pewter on Mar 11, 2010 7:40:28 GMT -5
For me, it depends on whether you're referring to the player or the character. For example, for a male player with a female character, it's "she" for the character, "he" for the player, just as "she" is a troll in game and "he" is a human IRL. This is exactly how I see it. If I am referring to the player actions, the player's gender is important, if I am referring directly to the toon I use the toon's gender.
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Post by balthazario on Mar 11, 2010 13:38:10 GMT -5
Overall, I use the players' gender. (If I know it) If I don't I will use the toon's gender until I find out otherwise.
I'm not at all RP, and all but one of my toons is male (a femal bank alt) so dealing straight up with toon gender is just easier for me.
Yeah, from an aesthetic point of view, I'd rather look at certain curves and jiggles, but it just doesn't feel right.
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