Since MMO´s let us enter an alternate reality and be what we normally not are, heroes, villains etc i was wondering what gender you enjoy playing, since you have a free choice.

Poll missing... And it's been here more than once already...

Also, not every MMO allows you to choose between male/female. Some MMOs have a race/gender/class lock. Take a look at TERA, where Elin are only female and Popori are only male Same for Lord of the Rings online where all dwarfs are male (yes, they do pop out of the ground when they are born :p) and a lot of Asian F2P MMOs have a rather class/gender lock, where mages * rogues (archers) are mainly female and the warriors, tanks and healers are male.

But to answer your question, where possible I'll make a female character. It's the one thing that I have to look at constantly when playing, and then I'd prefer to see something I REALLY like :p

...see you've added the poll while I wrote my reply ;-)

[miod edit]

When i choose gender i think what i want this character to be general my Melee characters are usualy male and my range characters are usualy female. It realy come down to what i want this character to be.

Originally posted by Arglebargle
I don't get why anyone cares.   I always play both, especially when the costumes are widely different. 

I also roll both. I always roll a male on a RP server though.

TBH in most mmo's the males look as girlie as females so it doesn't really matter.

For me, it Depend´s heavily on Class... Tank for me, is everytime an Male...an Melee DD = Male ... Mage = Female 

An Archer/Summoner etc., i could play as both... and Heal Classes are everytime Female for me... 

Dunno why...but that´s how it is^^

Ultimately who cares? MMOs are supposed to be role playing games, so people enjoy playing whatever role they fancy.

I mostly play male characters except where there is a different experience to be had playing a female character (e.g. the Black Widow speech options in Fallout 3), and sometimes I will roll a female if the male character models aren't to my liking (like Norns in GW2).

Males playing female characters have probably picked up a bad name from people doing so while also pretending they are female IRL, or people who say they like to look at the sexy pixels, or people who say they can flirt and get free stuff. But, of course, this hardly applies to everybody.

I like to look at it this way - how is playing a female character in an MMO really any different from writing from the perspective of a female character in book?

For me, it all comes down to how my character looks. if I'm unhappy with the customization options for male characters, I usually roll female and vice versa. Then there's what looks best for different classes, what role I think fits the story, (if a story driven game), et cetera, et cetera.

I rarely think about what kind of "ass" I'm staring at, as for me, it's basically a bunch of pixels :P 

The only thing thast ticks me off, is if a MMO don't give me the option of choosing for myself, (Gender locked classes for example).

Originally posted by AzurePrower

 

---

Originally posted by dynamicipftw
IMO it is kind of weird and homo-erotic when men play with other men. 

---

 

Serious question. But do you wear a hazmat suit 24/7 so you don't touch yourself?

Because I see the male characters I play in online games as a representation of myself to add to the immersion. In single player it doesn't bother me because I'm playing the character of some one else's story and not chatting to others on a personal level.

Insecurities aside. I see those who play female characters as a presentation for themselves in online games like they feel they should have been born a woman on a subconscious level.

There should really be a professionally done psychological study for this phenomenon. It would be an interesting read.

 

I totally disagree with the red. The only way I would actually think like that is when computer games are like the Matrix, you can't tell the difference between it and reality.

The reason people pick female or male is becuase they can. There's no unwritten rule to say you can't.

I play male characters and will always make males. Why because I try to make my characters as close as I can to make them look like me. (Sometimes I may bend it a little and give him hair, but most of the time they are bald. ) I see my character  so to say as me in a virtual world.

I personally dont get why a guy would play a female. To me that seems just like a boy playing with barbies. Its not healthy.  It seems some likes the look of female's I fully understand that, But i think its rather perverted to play with a female so you can stare at pixilated T&A all day. There are much better free options on the internet to get your deprived fixation off on.

I don't see characters I play in a game as a representation of myself. They're more like fictional characters I create, which - surprise surprise! - they are.

So it's not much different than writing the female protagonist of a story.

Myself, I may play both, depending on what sort of character I want to create at that moment - that in turn depending on lore, class, race, etc... I guess it's likely I've up to now created more male characters, but I've played a lot of female ones as well.

For many years I always played a male.  Then one day a friend of mine was playing a female.  I asked why and he told me this.  Would you rather look at a guys a$$ or a females a$$ while you play?  I now play a female.

Also, around that time, I read that female characters get stuff for free.  I have found that to be true.  I have been given many items for free just because i looked good.  They could hear me in vent and knew I was a male but still gave me free stuff.

I will always play a female character for those two reasons.

Originally posted by toddze

I play male characters and will always make males. Why because I try to make my characters as close as I can to make them look like me. (Sometimes I may bend it a little and give him hair, but most of the time they are bald. ) I see my character  so to say as me in a virtual world.

I personally dont get why a guy would play a female. To me that seems just like a boy playing with barbies. Its not healthy.  It seems some likes the look of female's I fully understand that, But i think its rather perverted to play with a female so you can stare at pixilated T&A all day. There are much better free options on the internet to get your deprived fixation off on.

I think thats the difference between you and I. You see MMORPG's as virtual worlds, where as I see them as games. Me picking a girl in an mmo is no different than me picking the top hat in monoply. There's no deep subconscious reasoning behind it.

Originally posted by AzurePrower

 

---

Originally posted by dynamicipftw
IMO it is kind of weird and homo-erotic when men play with other men. 

---

 

Serious question. But do you wear a hazmat suit 24/7 so you don't touch yourself?

Because I see the male characters I play in online games as a representation of myself to add to the immersion. In single player it doesn't bother me because I'm playing the character of some one else's story and not chatting to others on a personal level.

Insecurities aside. I see those who play female characters as a representation for themselves in online games like they feel they should have been born a woman on a subconscious level.

There should really be a professionally done psychological study for this phenomenon. It would be an interesting read.

 

It depends how you see the character you play. If you see yourself as them then it's fine if men play men I guess. If you see them as an actor in a movie/story you are watching (my case) then men playing women is fine.

From my experience kids, newbies and RPers usually fall into the first category. Experienced MMO players / hardcore players / PvPers fall into the second.

Originally posted by immodium

 Me picking a girl in an mmo is no different than me picking the top hat in monoply. There's no deep subconscious reasoning behind it.

Very well spoken!

I started playing female characters from day #1 I started to play MMORPGs. Lineage II was my 1st MMO and I wanted to pick a male char first, but their animations are so ...sissy... so I picked a female one instead. From that day on I decided to play female in every MMO/game I'd play it I was given the choice.

Originally posted by Reizla

Originally posted by immodium

 Me picking a girl in an mmo is no different than me picking the top hat in monoply. There's no deep subconscious reasoning behind it.

Very well spoken!

I started playing female characters from day #1 I started to play MMORPGs. Lineage II was my 1st MMO and I wanted to pick a male char first, but their animations are so ...sissy... so I picked a female one instead. From that day on I decided to play female in every MMO/game I'd play it I was given the choice.

When I first started playing MMO's I did the usual "Make this toon look like me". I honestly thought everyone did that TBH. Now, I tend to pick female.

However I never used to role a toon on an RP server. When I did I actually found it to be very creepy. When grouping up with male toon's they'd always compliment me on my healing skillz. They did not thank anyone else through the dungeon, just me, the only female. :)

Now I roll male on RP servers. It did make me wonder though if I was female, would that sort of behaviour make me want to role a male?

I'm male and I play only male characters. It happened only 2 or 3 times when I made female characters b/c I couldn't stand how bad armours looked on males. Usually designers put more work on females.

I treat my characters as representations of me in game, so I want other players to "see" me as me if you understand what I mean =P