I'm not going to lie and say I'm not gender biased when it comes to gaming.

I mean, hand me the best produced RPG or MMORPG out there, and force me to play a male character through the entire game, and there's a damn good chance I'll probably lose interest after a month or two. Level of skill customization be damned. (Of course, there are exceptions. Everybody wants to be Batman, and there's not a lot of character involvement in an FPS.) In short, I will admit I have trouble identifying with male characters. I will occasionally RP one on pen and paper, but that's more open-ended.

But now there's also the Asian vs Western style debate. Ideal masculine appearance is quite a bit different in Asian countries than it is in North America, and different yet in Europe. The perception is changed again if you ask a man or a woman what is ideal for the opposite gender. From a female gamers' perspective, the "ideal female" character varies quite a bit as well as you travel the globe, as well. The level of feminism in games varies by game and region, too (armor coverage, body shape, etc).

So we have games like Aion, where some male players are insisting that the Asian developed male characters look too effeminate for them to play comfortably. We have opponents who blame this on homophobia. I won't argue that that might play a part in some people's decisions, but in regards to others...? As a mature female American gamer, I don't know if I could stand to play a burly male warrior (or a overly cute anime girl) for years. Some people don't seem to have this problem.

What are your thoughts on gender as it applies to game characters? On the way that male and female characters in games vary by region in appearance, perceived party role, personality, and voice? Have these factors ever prevented you from playing a game? Why or why not?

EDIT: I made a typo in the poll. Where it says "I am female. I have felt uncomfortable playing female characters.", it should obviously say "I am female. I have felt uncomfortable playing MALE characters."

I am male. I am comfortable playing any gender character.........., any sex, race style im fine with

When I was younger I tended to favor male characters more than female, since I kind of wanted to make the character a replica of myself. 

Right now though, I don't care if my character is female or male. There are advantages to playing both genders (If I have to stare at the ass of my character for months or even years, I'd rather have my character be a female than male. lol) It doesn't have to be human either, actually I've kinda grown to like more 'unique' races that resemble human less, unlike before when it had to be a human or it'd bother me to no end.

u rly made the thread XD

i think the world is changing, everybody deservers respect and space and character customization should follow to cather every group. give the option to go white trash fat old man to the most sparkling fabulous kid. everybody happy, everybody wins :)

i would be more concerned about game mecanics =x

Many of those that say the male characters look effeminate is because the game is asian nothing else. If the game was done let's say by blizzard 90% of these comments you see/saw wouldn't appear I'm sure of it because it's not an asian company.

There are people that are racist on these countries so anything that comes from there must suck and there are some that hate anime (dunno why maybe they watched only news on Tv when they were little?)

I personally don't like bulky or very short/tall characters and prefer a middle body size character that you see mostly in anime or FF games.

Really... as long as it looks halfway cool gender don't matter to me, and I don't mean high end graphicsl but more along the lines of art style and animations. In Most mmo's you just see the back of your head anyways sometimes so i just pick the ugliest concoction for the lols

One thing I can't stand tho is if the characters run with sticks up their bums or if the armor looks like cardboard cutouts.

I am male. I only like playing with white male characters. I don't care if they look 'asian' or slightly effeminate. I do care if they're of a different race or gender. Mind, I'm neither a racist nor sexist - but I don't have to explain that. I am unable to identify with any other character. I like my character, preferably, to look like me the most if he's human. Shorter than average, athletic with blonde hair and blue eyes.

Im male and prefer to play male characters. This "I want to look at a girls butt while playing" is a really sexist point.

I most oftentimes play as a male character because I am male in real-life so I am more comfortable playing as a male.  However, I don't have any problems at all as playing a female and I have a lot of fun playing as one :)

Regarding character choice, I don't really have a preference.  Every character has its own pros and cons so I just take advantage of what is given to me and have fun with it.

I am a female, and I am comfortable playing anything. I have never refused to play a game because of avatar appearance. I play females more often, but I do play males when the situation warrants. For example, I played a male night elf druid because that made more sense to me. Actually, male night elves have some of the worst male models that I have seen, and they still were not a problem.

I will say I have a problem with animalistic avatars...mostly frogloks. I think frogloks are very gross, and I hate them. I have never played an animal race, but that has never been a problem, because there are always more humanoid races to choose from. If it is human/elf/dwarf/gnome/hobbit...that sort of thing, I am fine. I have never seen one that looks ugly enough to not want to play on that basis.

Could someone explain to me what it is about some avatars that bothers them?

 Chances are though is that as long as there is a male gender for the class I want to play I will always play a male character. Why ? Well maybe I am somewhat old fashioned a little bit but I'm a guy so I play the male gender characters. I can't be something that I'm not. People say well it is better to look at a female character than a male character. I just scratch my head and say ok but then I say well they aren't real. It is only a pixellated  computer character.

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Originally posted by Dubhlaith
Could someone explain to me what it is about some avatars that bothers them?

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Here is the reason I created this thread:

http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/post/3116445#3116445

This one really blew up, too:

http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/251254/page/1

I would like to see a more -rational- explanation, also.

Yea, I saw you say you were creating this thread; that is how I got here.

I would like to hear a reasoned response from one of the guys about why they do not like some characters. Aion would be a good place to start. What is it about them that is effeminate? You can make men that look like just about anything, so...what is the problem?

Oh, Tisiphone, did you ever get to use your name again in the game?

I am female, and I am uncomfortable playing male characters (as in, I never do it and if I did not have a choice to play a female character I would not play the game).

I am also a visible minority (in North America), and whether or not I can create a character with the same dimensions, facial features, and skin tone as myself sometimes contributes to how interested I am in playing a game. I do not ALWAYS play a character that looks like me (in fact I often do not), but I highly value the option to do so. I also highly value the option to make my character's female dimensions less exaggerated than the stereotypical gaming norm.

I have no problem with playing other humanoid races in games, whether Elves, Hobbits/Halflings, Dwarves, etc. however I tend to identify better the more closely the race resembles humans. I could see myself playing a female Orc, Troll, Cat-or-Lizard person, etc., but am not sure how immersed I could get in a game by doing so.

I am female, and I don't really care whether I play a male or female character. I am predisposed to playing female characters, but in games like Warhammer, which don't let you choose your gender, it doesn't bother me.

What I do have an issue with is the assumption by most game developers that all those who play female characters want to have those characters appear impossibly thin and well-endowed, and that all armor that changes appearance based on gender provides much less visible coverage for female avatars than the comparable male graphic. I would prefer a realistic-looking pre-generated avatar, or the ability to customize my avatar such that it is realistic-looking without dragging the bars all the way to the opposite end of the scale. Both of these I have found to be lacking in the vast majority of games, not just MMOs, but also console and offline PC games. Frankly, I don't need my avatar to look like a prostitute in armor to feel attractive in real life.

The worst offender of the inability to select a realistic-looking pre-generated avatar is, by far, Free Realms. Both female character options are overly thin and, while not overly voluptuous, are moreso than I would expect for a game developed with children in mind.

Male, have felt uncomfortable playing female characters.

I have never played a female character because I would not like the idea that other RL men might be "hitting on me" lol.  Main reason is one of my RL friends played female characters in EQ, and that sort of thing would happen to him many times.  It began to disgust me when I found that he enjoyed it.  It's not something I take seriously, but I suppose I would prefer to be absent of that sort of distraction during my play time.

Plus, women with monolithic boobs are not my thing =D

I normally play both sexes on online games. I play whatever I find aesthetically pleasing.

I have erred more towards the male side just because I frankly don't like being hit on. That's just creepy. Even after telling them repeatedly I'm a guy, they keep going....Off track.......

Aion characters are effeminate by default. Added beards and scars just make them seem like bears. Just an opinion.

I've no objection to playing a female protagonist in a computer game, but if the choice is left up to me then I will always choose to create a male character and that goes double, triple, quadruple for MMOs.

It's mainly an aesthetic choice; male armour tends to look logical whereas female armour suffers from the infamous "platemail bikini" syndrome. I just can't take a half-naked female "warrior" seriously.

I also play on Roleplay servers with most games which adds a somewhat deeper element to ones gender choice; the necessity to interact with other people on the server in a manner that is compatible with the gender of your character.

Being male and "playing" male is much more straightforward than the alternative.

I would like to play a character that looks like this:

I would rather not play a character that looks like this:

Male, always used to play male characters - tried a female troll in EQ once and had to delete after about 30 seconds as it felt too weird, like i was walking around in female clothing IRL. Same goes for some of the asian games where the male faces are too young looking / effeminate for me and there's no choice. Some games have a similar style but with some more masculine choices e.g Runes of Magic. I can't get immersed into a game unless i can make a male character that looks masculine (to my eyes) and not too young looking either. There is some leeway on this if they're a different race like elves for example - i can handle them looking softer skinned.

On the other hand i've mostly given up trying to find a game that would get me the old *world* immersion buzz and since then occasionally d/l ing trials or cash shop games i sometimes pick female chars purely on curves and try and get them sexy armor. They're not *me* at all so it doesn't matter and i pick them purely for looking at while i play the game.

Related to this is i always used to play first person in the immersive games but if i play females ity's always 3rd person.

I picked the first one but boy do I hate the asian style males... They are hardly men. Latest example would be in Atlantica Online. Just plain silly. I bet those boys have no body hair yet.

I'm a latin american male so i'm not really sure how "cultural bias" would apply to me. While we basically have a western european culture many people in my region of the world seem to prefer the animation style of the far east. Hands down i prefer the style of Aion over WoW, i really don't mind much about my char's gender but i do feel uncomfortable playing ugly or animalistic toons.

I'm a male and I usually tent to make female characters.  The reason being is I don't want to look at some dudes backside while I'm playing If I wanted to do that I can do that for free at my house by looking at my own ass in the mirror.   But I will play games if I have to be a guy but its nice to be able to interact with female characters in the game via The WItcher, GTA4, Fallout 3.

Yes I'm a nerd that has no girlfriend , so I DGAF.  I don't come to your house and knock the dicks out of your mouth. <~~~~  Got to love Kathy Griffin.

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Originally posted by Caleveira
I'm a latin american male so i'm not really sure how "cultural bias" would apply to me. While we basically have a western european culture many people in my region of the world seem to prefer the animation style of the far east. Hands down i prefer the style of Aion over WoW, i really don't mind much about my char's gender but i do feel uncomfortable playing ugly or animalistic toons.

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Thanks for the insight, Caleveira. I had no background to make any assumptions on Latin American players.

Originally posted by Ihmotepp

I wouldn't like to play a character that looks like this:

 

I would like to play a character that looks like this: 

 

Just continued from ihmotepp's example..

I like my character to look more 'normal' without being schwarzenegger v2 with overdone muscles if possible. Females should have clothing & shape that isn't unrealistic, too. Not some bikini-harness bimbo with cup D boobs. Something like this:

Sorry about the size of the pic o_0;