Originally posted by Adamantine

I'm a guy and a healer player.

I have no clue. Especially since its rare I find out peoples real gender in the first place.

Uhm.....Vent?  I've yet to play a modern day MMO where people didn't use either Vent or Teamspeak or some other newer communication system.

I can tell you the real life gender of almost everyone in my guild. There are 364 members in the guild, so....unless you're dealing with people who have very unisexual sounding voices and refuse to disclose their gender....it's not too hard to learn.

On topic....I do think more women play healers than men, but not by a lot.  I don't think the margin difference is much.

In the end--Does this point matter?

• Most games allow males and females of their races so players can be represented on whatever basis they want to be: RL gender, RL personality, desired gender, sense of humor, a cute butt to stare at (I've heard this reason a lot).
• Tanks may not ever look flowery but they are not so brutish. WoW's paladin for example is a very pretty tank. Some heal styles can look 'cutesy' but many do not unless you consider any sense of glowing hands cute. WoW's resto druid actually looked quite evil (for example).
• This isn't true for early games for whatever reason, whether it be stereotyping, engine capability or overlooked features but many games allow you to customize the build of your character. Your female humanoid can be built like a brick house / your males can have long hair, large and...effeminate chests, and delicate bulds. I have fun sometimes defying the character creation and making ...questionable... characters.

Originally posted by Endo13

I would guess they probably do, but not by a huge margin.

Yeah it's a very small margin but it's clearly there.  A slightly reduced desire to bludgeon things and a slightly increased desire to nurture things.

But only in a very general sense.  All the girls I know IRL play damage dealers.

Originally posted by Axehilt

Originally posted by Endo13

I would guess they probably do, but not by a huge margin.

Yeah it's a very small margin but it's clearly there.  A slightly reduced desire to bludgeon things and a slightly increased desire to nurture things.

But only in a very general sense.  All the girls I know IRL play damage dealers.

although i have encountered several players who claimed to be female in games, the few that i know that actually were, in WoW at least, had Mage characters, rather than saying Female players tend to be healers.. i'd be tempted to think they like to make things go boom...  ... but its certainly true that a lot of 'female toons' are healers..  how many of them were actually female IRL though.. is highly questionable

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Originally posted by Meowhead
Shouldn't the poll be 'Do guys playing girls have a higher affinity for healing than guys playing guys'?
I mean... girls playing video games?  Ridiculous!  They have more important things to do than waste time wasting time with guys playing silly electronic amusements. :(

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My electronic amusements are for when guys actually aren't around. I will say that, now I have been thinking about it, I haven't seen as many female warriors/fighters as other classes. It's a pretty even spread otherwise, but maybe slightly fewer melee classes. Maybe that actually does stem from the idea that women are weaker and can't stand toe-to-toe with a guy, so even in a game, they gravitate towards classes where physical strength isn't the thing. In WoW, I saw a very large number of female hunters, rogues, and shadowpriests. I guess being any priest has advantages. Even when I am playing as a rogue or like character, I still find myself looking for the heal button. Frustrating as hell.

Girls are not all Nightingales, and guys are not all Conans.

I've tanked, I've done DPS, and yes, I've healed. I don't choose a healer class unless it has something else interesting, however, and I much prefer ranged combat. And when I do heal, it's from a pragmatic point of view - ie, I need to reach a goal, and to get to that goal my group needs to survive - and not from some uncertain need to play nurse to a bunch of pixels.

Honestly, I know the male brain hasn't evolved much since the stoneage, but get a grip, already.

Originally posted by Bree'ah
Holy mother of... That was quite a mouthful... Apparently MMORPG.com is littered with prepubescent and middleaged boys with no idea that this is -not- the beginning of the MMO age, and that times change. This kind of Christian brainwashing shoulda been done with last millenium. Girls are not all Nightingales, and guys are not all Conans. I've tanked, I've done DPS, and yes, I've healed. I don't choose a healer class unless it has something else interesting, however, and I much prefer ranged combat. And when I do heal, it's from a pragmatic point of view - ie, I need to reach a goal, and to get to that goal my group needs to survive - and not from some uncertain need to play nurse to a bunch of pixels. Honestly, I know the male brain hasn't evolved much since the stoneage, but get a grip, already.

Dont write the harsh truth here on mmorpg.com, I been warned and temp banned for it many times. Well written though. I agree.

I would say that I have seen more girls play as healers, but I have seen more healers as men over all, because men dominate the gaming scene. (dominate = populate)

And while I may have seen many girls play as healers, I have only met a hand full that were actually any good. I am all for people of any sex, race, whatever, playing games... just don't play with me, because you more than likely suck  at the game and will probably get the rest of us killed.

Edit:

Just thought of this - More men play as healers because of population, but I would say more men also play as FEMALE healers. Just a strange thought...

Good question, but no. Me and 90% of my gaming girl friends either 1. dont have a healer, or 2. just don't play our healers lol

:)

Originally posted by Karnage69

... Just thought of this - More men play as healers because of population, but I would say more men also play as FEMALE healers. Just a strange thought...

Completely true! I hate healing, myself. And I'd say about 65% of healing classes in game are female toons. Not fact, just me roughing it. :)

Originally posted by kittyvonkita

Originally posted by Karnage69

... Just thought of this - More men play as healers because of population, but I would say more men also play as FEMALE healers. Just a strange thought...

Completely true! I hate healing, myself. And I'd say about 65% of healing classes in game are female toons. Not fact, just me roughing it. :)

Well i figured if i have to look at someone's ass for 2+ hours a day when playing a MMO, it is still better if i look at female ass, that's why i rolled a female.

I think as early in the MMO scene women took the healing roles because they could stand back heal and I think they enjoyed the accomplishment more of healing/casting than the melee. I think now you are seeing a new breed of female players who are used to playing games. So I think that the healing is more evenly spread than it was before. I think women are just as likely to pick a dps now as they are a healer.

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Originally posted by Scot

Yes they do and there are more nurses than men who are women too. As the profession of doctor became open to them they moved heavily into that as well. That does not mean they have to heal in a MMO and many don't.

You might concur from this that women are more nurturing types. Maybe they are? Basing that on a couple of pieces of evidence is hardly conclusive though. More importantly does it matter?

It is amusing that we have women coming onto the thread to rant about this. They do seem to have a problem talking about gender in a relaxed way. If I was to say the vast majority of road labourers were men do you think guys would post on here up in arms? If I was to go on and infer that it indicated that men were mentally inferior do you think any man would do more than laugh?

Get over yourselves girls, your gender is not that important. :)

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I agree with you in principle. Gender doesn't matter when compared to whole person.

But, while I don't feel like I had been very riled up about this issue, you might not be so dismissive if you lived in a world where you are repeatedly marginalised by questions just like this OP. Even today, as Gobla so likes to point out, women are not even allowed into combat positions, forget about special ops type positions. Add to that that women are still paid less than men in the same position.

I'm not saying men aren't stereotyped, usually as stoic and unemotional, not to mention not being able to wear terribly varied clothing. But they just don't understand what it is like. And they never will.

So no, gender isn't and shouldn't be a factor in almost anything, but it will remain one as long as we have things like this being asked, and most of the men here (serving at least as a cross-section of online gamers) pretty much assuming it's true, for one manufactured reason or another, it will continue to be an issue. Sexism exists, and will continue to so long as we let it.

Originally posted by k11keeper

Why do people always try to turn things types of topics into a hyper intellectual game to show off that they are educated and can use big words instead of talking about the topic? [...]

Mostly because this topic is stupid. How am I supposed to answer this question ? I simply dont know and I simply cant know.

Originally posted by Dubhlaith

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Originally posted by Scot

Yes they do and there are more nurses than men who are women too. As the profession of doctor became open to them they moved heavily into that as well. That does not mean they have to heal in a MMO and many don't.

You might concur from this that women are more nurturing types. Maybe they are? Basing that on a couple of pieces of evidence is hardly conclusive though. More importantly does it matter?

It is amusing that we have women coming onto the thread to rant about this. They do seem to have a problem talking about gender in a relaxed way. If I was to say the vast majority of road labourers were men do you think guys would post on here up in arms? If I was to go on and infer that it indicated that men were mentally inferior do you think any man would do more than laugh?

Get over yourselves girls, your gender is not that important. :)

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I agree with you in principle. Gender doesn't matter when compared to whole person.

But, while I don't feel like I had been very riled up about this issue, you might not be so dismissive if you lived in a world where you are repeatedly marginalised by questions just like this OP. Even today, as Gobla so likes to point out, women are not even allowed into combat positions, forget about special ops type positions. Add to that that women are still paid less than men in the same position.

I'm not saying men aren't stereotyped, usually as stoic and unemotional, not to mention not being able to wear terribly varied clothing. But they just don't understand what it is like. And they never will.

So no, gender isn't and shouldn't be a factor in almost anything, but it will remain one as long as we have things like this being asked, and most of the men here (serving at least as a cross-section of online gamers) pretty much assuming it's true, for one manufactured reason or another, it will continue to be an issue. Sexism exists, and will continue to so long as we let it.

So very true. It's easy to be laid-back and magnanimous, when you're in the lead.

I hope the girls do have a higher affinity for healing.  I can use some help.

Originally posted by gobla

Originally posted by Adamantine

Originally posted by gobla

In addition to that even if females were allowed to serve in active combat roles everywhere a large percentage of them would probably not pass the requires physical tests nor have the interest in joining the military.

Err ... this is extreme b.s. Females have naturally a little bit less body strength, yes, because testosterone builds strength, and men have naturally more testosterone and therefore more muscle power. But women have other bodily advantages, such as the better immune system. It matters when it comes to sports, but you dont need to be a top athlete to be a good soldier.

It doesn't have anything to do with the female body or mind.

It's got everything to do with the simple fact that in high school and such most boys often play more intensive sports while most girls don't. (please don't interpret this as girls do less sports then boys..... real life isn't simple like that)

I totally agree that females could pass those tests. They've certainly got the potential. But potential doesn't make it so. We simply live in a culture where the military and a large amount of sports (football, rugby etc.) are seen as male things. This has nothing to do with males being somehow superior at those things when compared to females (some males will be better then some females while other females will be better then other males). Or even some sort of alpha male instinct rearing it's head causing all men to drool excessively and compete whenever possible.

It's simply the culture we live in that's shaped over decades for at the time logical reasons that are by now more often then not no longer relevant or even true (if they were in the first place).

I call b.s on that women could pass the SAME physical tests as men. During my time in the military and in law enforcement women had lower physical test. Which is sexist. If they can pass the exact same test then they should be more than welcome to any unit but enough of the special woman standard. I have only met a handful of women that could possibly pass the same test though with the kids coming out of high school now I think they wouldbe lucky to pass the female physical test. In regards to women being healers in MMos the vast majoirty of healers I have met have all been female who also had dps alts. I don't know if it is because they were women or the fact that all 7 were nurses.

Some people here just when overboard with their interpretation of this thread. The question was not if girls were worse or equal at playing video games than guys, nor was it a scientific essay showing how girls tend to play healers more than guys. It was a question, a place to share your opinion. In my last guild, our main healer who was a girl, was one of our best raiders by far. Their skill  is not in question. Regarding the "apples" comment, you must be blind or not live in this world to not see how girls gravitate towards certain things more than guys, and vice versa. Why should it not be so when it comes to playing vide games? Because you think it isn't? Just like I can't prove with hard numbers that they prefer healers, you can't disprove it. 

Well I think it depends on the game, in say DR yes, yes they do. But healing in that game is sitting in a room, talking about guys, and telling gossip until someone walks in half dead. In other games I'd say it's a crap shoot, just depends on the healing class and the girl there. It's the mmo version of a knitting circle vs action based beat down healing.