anea
Ooze
Palestout!
Posts: 8
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Post by anea on Mar 11, 2010 16:38:01 GMT -5
If I see a female character, I refer to the character as she. If the character is male, it's he. If it turns out that the female paladin is played by a man and I hear him on vent, then I'll switch the gender - otherwise, I always go according to the sex of the character.
Does that mean I may be wrong a few times? Perhaps. But it doesn't bother me when people mistakenly call me "he" (I don't bother to correct in a casual reference) so I figure other people may feel the same way.
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Caste
Ooze
80 Holy Priest
Posts: 11
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Post by Caste on Mar 11, 2010 20:07:02 GMT -5
If I don't know the person behind the toon, I refer to them by their character's gender. ie. "That blood elf is geared. I'm jealous of her!" This is despite the good chance of her player being a male. If I do know their real life gender, I refer to them that way. We have many male raiders who have female toons and it doesn't phase us one bit calling a female character a "he" or "him". (There are tons of female players in our guild, but we all seem satisfied sticking to our gender, so the opposite doesn't apply much to us. ) Though, it does make it awkward when you don't know and you feel you should when it comes to someone you've known for a long time. I was commenting earlier to my hubby how most languages are gender based after musing that one of our priests in our guild - with a very female name - is still an unknown for us. We hear she's a guy, then others say she's a she... We end up saying "it" out of sheer confusion. >.> It doesn't help he/she/it hasn't come out and answered nor talked on Vent. An ongoing mystery!
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Post by Ricah on Mar 12, 2010 3:20:45 GMT -5
I always refer to people's real gender, and for unknown people thats always a "he" until proven otherwise. For my own characters I pick a gender based on my idea of the characters background/class i have at that time, regardless of my own gender ( I am female btw). My night elf rogue is male, because i felt that a high dps dagger wielding killing machine should be a guy. Also, the name is taken from a character in the Magician series from RE Feist, and that was a male elf. However for my draenai resto shaman i felt that a gentle healer wielding the powers of nature itself HAD to be a lady And my draenai prot warrior needed to be big and bulky, with bulging muscles, so naturally a guy. Sometimes i base the gender purely on looks, for example i hate the look of the male gnomes, so whichever class i would pick as a gnome, it would ALWAYS be a female.
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Post by Kaorin on Mar 12, 2010 4:35:23 GMT -5
like some people mentioned before, IF i know the player's real life gender i use that to adress them. and if i don't know (yet) i try to avoid using he/she altogether and just use the name of the toon ;-)
now reading all the previous answers to this post made me think of an encounter with two cute bloodelf chicks a few days ago. i needed a group for the deatholme quests in ghostlands, and they were looking for more on general chat, so i joined them and we went forth and slayeth all the evil undead thingies there.
twas all really nice and so i didn't drop group right away, instead helped them finding one of those huge monstrosities they had not yet slain - i went scouting on my war chicken, while they had to go on foot (being lvl 19) .
so one of them belf chicks says in group chat: "gawd i want my mount" and the other is like: "yeah you keep pulling all those mobs and killing us" and a little later: "i like to flame him on group chat, especially since he's only sitting 2 ft away from me"
now i kinda light up and say: "aaaww it's so nice to meet other wow couples, coz, you know, my boyfriend plays too, just not on this server" and then the belf mage says: "wha you're a girl IRL?" and the belf priest: "we're both guys" and the mage: "but we're not a couple!!!!" and the priest: "NO WE'RE NOT GAY" and the mage: "srsly you're a GIRL? there are not many girls playing wow, we don't know any"
at that i point i was deeply flustered and blushing, and it took me a moment or two to respond at all. firstly i confirmed that i am truly female, and that there are more of us out there, just not always drawing attention to it. i apologized too, of course.
it turned out they are roommates, if anyone's curious ;-) i added them to my friendslist and met them again in tarren mill the next day, but i'm still a little embarassed when i think of my misunderstanding. at least they were not roleplaying at me!
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Post by Havoca on Mar 12, 2010 11:25:18 GMT -5
I am a female.
I play mostly female characters. I will roll a male toon if I have a name that I love and it only fits with a male toon.
My name is Alex, IRL...even people who might hear me in vent call me "he" because my name is Alex.
I am cursed.
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K/K
Ooze
Posts: 4
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Post by K/K on Mar 13, 2010 18:18:26 GMT -5
Mmm, never really thought about the whys, but I've always referred to characters by the character gender. And it doesn't seem incongruous when I refer to a female toon as "her" on vent, though I know the player is male, and he replies with a baritone-bass.
Maybe I'm just a closet RP-er. I have played most of my WOW on a non-RP server, but I do tend to give the characters a separate identity from the player, and will refer to them in third person when I'm talking to the player, particularly if a player has multiple characters. For example, "X would you like to bring your priest? She could use some drops from in there," rather than "You could use some drops from in there."
I do find it odd when other people assume every player is male even when talking to a female toon. So, maybe I fell into my current pattern in reaction to being 'him'd and 'he'd too often.
(and can someone help on how you punctuate the quotation marks in that last sentence properly? Oy!)
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Post by Megala on Mar 13, 2010 20:12:22 GMT -5
I usually refer to people by pronouns appropriate to the gender of the character they're playing. Like most people, it seems, it's different when I'm on vent (on vent I'm talking to the player, in game it's ambiguous whether I'm talking to the player or the character). In game, if I don't know a person I often switch pronouns while talking to them, figuring if either one is an issue they'll tell me which they prefer. In guild chat it's hard to just pick he or she because I don't know the people and I can't see their characters, so I usually just guess and alternate until people specify...
But if Example is a guy in my guild who plays a female toon and we hang out on vent, or have raided together often on vent, I will refer to Example as he--and when DBM says "Example has Incinerate Flesh, heal her!" I will waste valuable healing time going "Wait, 'her'? I thought Example was a ma--oh, right, incinerate, I should heal." I'm not kidding, I do this every time.
As far as players choosing to play characters of similar or different genders? I'd just like to point out that while, obviously not everyone chooses to play a character based on what they find most titillating, it's also true that not everyone finds the opposite gender most titillating.
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Caste
Ooze
80 Holy Priest
Posts: 11
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Post by Caste on Mar 15, 2010 8:05:09 GMT -5
"at that i point i was deeply flustered and blushing, and it took me a moment or two to respond at all." Aw, Kaorin. It's an honest mistake and happens to a lot of people. That saiad, I can sometimes pick up on who is a female or not when they type. Female gamers are a bit more conspicuous and I have joined PUGs only to say "You're a girl" and get a surprised "Yep!" Still, there are others that just mystify and gender confusion reigns.
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Post by Issy on Mar 16, 2010 9:56:57 GMT -5
I will confess one of my *oh the shame* stories now..
We had a real life guild meet up a couple of years back, and one of the first things I yelled was
*Sixii's NOT A GIRL???!!*
Which made him look a bit taken aback, and everyone else burst into peals of laughter.
I mean, I had been playing and raiding with him for about a year...
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Post by Nogamara on Mar 17, 2010 4:46:23 GMT -5
Hm, looking at my highest level characters: 4 male, 2 female The next-highest bunch: 3 male, 2 female
Actually I don't care and don't give a damn. It's easy to jump to conclusions though, if it's a female avatar, I'm thinking: ~50% of it being a male player, for male toons it's more likely ~80% I'd say.
As I've been playing online for over 10 years I have to say the number of females in WoW (or Ragnarok Online, which I played before) is ridiculously high compared to what I was used to in Quake in the late 90s. So I'm one of those few actually not being surprised when it's a female player.
Additionally I don't care, I tend to classify people more as moron/non-moron than male/female. Yes, I'm more of a misanthrope than a misogynist.
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Zan
Ooze
Altoholic Sorta-Anonymous
Posts: 11
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Post by Zan on Mar 17, 2010 21:38:58 GMT -5
My preference is to play male characters and usually call others by their character gender. I usually refer to myself using male pronouns even though I'm a female. Folks usually don't realize I'm a 'she' not a 'he' until I talk on vent, often times I've already proven myself as a player before revealing my gender. Part of my lament about SAN-US being Alliance side is simply that I can't bring myself to play any of the Alliance races' males. Wound up playing a female space goat because they're pretty far from being human. I've already gotten people hitting on me, making passes at me, and ignoring me when I'm giving people directions on how to do things like navigate WC and my toon's only level 18 (barely legal alt *headdesk*). I think it's a combination of female toon and queuing for a healer. I'mma gonna start telling people in random groups I wind up in that I'm a guy if they call me a 'she' and see if that changes their perceptions and respect levels any. I'm a closet gamer chick.
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Post by aleanathem on Mar 17, 2010 21:47:05 GMT -5
Female Horde have the same exact issues, Zan. Heck I'm a guy and I played a female blood elf paladin for about a couple weeks. I was hit on by more guys than ever playing a female night elf.
Although I had fun when they all would ask stuff and I finally told them I was a male. If I could've seen the looks on their faces. Priceless!
I think playing any female toon is going to get you hit on because half these people don't stop to think it's a real person on the other side of the screen.
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jen
Critter
Posts: 72
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Post by jen on Mar 18, 2010 1:27:17 GMT -5
I've been playing for almost 3 years and I was never ever hit on... even after I told the group I'm female. I've never been discriminated in any way, never had Vent go silent when I said hi. I'm starting to think something's wrong with me...
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Nefernet
Critter
The elf with a twoll inside
Posts: 75
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Post by Nefernet on Mar 18, 2010 4:03:37 GMT -5
On my server, so many guys play female toons that nobody notice. Unless when I talk on TS. In guild, I sometimes have problems making myself taken seriously, being one of the 3 girls of a 60 people guild, and the only female officer. But I'm lucky to have my boyfriend in the guild too and nothing goes too far.
I once have been in a pug with my tree druid where one of the hunters, hearing I was a girl on TS, spent the whole Archavon Vault trying to explain me the fights, as if I needed a guide, until I told him the name on my hunter main's guild (first server at the time...). That's when he began to do some dps : trying to impress me... It was funny, I admit. He was making a fool of himself but I admit I had a lot of fun.
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Post by salvaenus on Mar 18, 2010 5:04:20 GMT -5
.... often times I've already proven myself as a player before revealing my gender. I'm a closet gamer chick. I find this part of your post most intriguing, must a female player "prove" themselves more than male players? Do female players feel the need to stress their IRL sex (cause I am a gurl IRL and could so solo heal this) or once it comes out *le gasp* feel that you are no longer taken *seriously*? As for me, I have never been mistaken for a female player although I have a healy female character, but I must admit on the other hand I have had very little conversation with other players about the sex of the person behind the avatar. Perhaps because I really don't care what sex the person has, so long as they play with a certain modicum of teamwork and levelheadedness. (yes that is a word ;D )
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