How to Spot a Gender Faker

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Guide of how to play a girl gamer...

I usaly just help anyone I can not an female avantar just more becouse they might be female. I personly never play an female charater, becouse well....hard to roleplay. Also why would I care what the sex is of the person 100s of km away from me.....really why do those folks think they will get? Sexes chat....:/

However I do not developers do actualy help with this hype by giving female charater extreamly short skirts and these kind of things. It is still clear that the majority of the devs are male :P

Quote: "There has yet to be an MMO that gives you XP for Dancing."

Dance Online gives you XP for dancing.

I need to take issue with this article.  It tends to make it seem that all male players who play a female avatar are doing so just for the stuff they can get or for the way they are treated in game.  I would much rather hope that the majority of males playing female avatars are doing so because they are role players.  I have had one female avatar for a very long time now.  She has lived in many lands and is always a magic user.   She does NOT need others to survive and an offer of some trinket just to get her attention will most likely end up with the other avatar getting a very stern rebuff. 

I have recently created another female avatar.  She is monk and her personality is based on a Mord Sith as described in the literary series, "The Sword of Truth".   She is very aloof and treats male avatars like inferior beings, not worth her time.

So, you see, I have a feeling that many males playing female avatars are doing so because they are role players.  I am sure that females playing male avatars are doing so for the same reasons.

Originally posted by Wobblebob

Quote: "There has yet to be an MMO that gives you XP for Dancing."

Dance Online gives you XP for dancing.

Originally posted by thepatriot

Originally posted by Wobblebob

Quote: "There has yet to be an MMO that gives you XP for Dancing."

Dance Online gives you XP for dancing.

Didn't the original SWG givve you dance XP?  Don't know if it does anymore.

I play exclusively funny characters.

Small and cute races.

Most evil profession around.

Love the small evil guys :D.

Am I missing something here? When did 'Role Playing Games' (the name indicating that you play a role of something different to what you are) become 'Creepy Online Dating'. If you want to virtual make out with someone then look up Lavalife, RSVP or something.

Theres absolutely nothing wrong with playing a character of the other gender, for aestetic purposes or roleplaying or whatever you feel like. Personally I think there is something wrong with the people that assume everyone should make characters of the same gender as themselves just so they can hit on you. I play both male and female characters depending on what I like the look of, sometimes male models look awesome, sometimes the female ones do, it varies.

Also as amusing as the article was, it seems a bit stereotypical. You are basically assuming all female gamers are in the same boat as you. There are as many promiscuous and flirty online girls as there are guys pretending to be. The bottom line is though, if anyone is silly enough to offer me stuff for perving on my avatar, im not going to say no, although I will probably block them after I recieve said goods for being creepy.

This article cracks me up.   Brightens my day thats for sure.  While I've run into plenty of guys that are cool and don't give me any extra attention when they find out I'm a girl(usually something i say gives it away or one of my rl friends accidently do it when they play) I still find it easier to play a male toon.  Why?  Because the kiddies (teenagers especially) leave you alone.  

Although I've played plenty of female toons that everyone left alone (because i swore alot so they thought I was a guy, go figure I guess some people are stuck on that girls should act like ladies attitude back then) WoW introduced (in my opinion) new gamers especially younger ones to the mix and they are no holds bard with the old fashioned sexist attitude.

A guy that lets things go to far or is beyond nice only because its a 'female' supposedly in my opinion deserves whatever happens (ok not everything like RL loss of money, but if they wanna throw away gold and items to impress a chick online thinkign it might lead to something more offline wise  deserve a kick in the pants).   This does not apply to people who do it for RP reasons, this is just one normally jaded female gamer's point of view.  

You'll never see any of my toons male or female scam money or items out of anyone.  I like to earn it myself, if a guild mate or a friend donates money (donation as in i didn't even ask they just offer the help) I won't say no of course honestly who would?  Though I would try and enforce some way to repay them like paying back the gold or crafting a particular item in return etc etc.

The condescending generosity part has always made me laugh a little.

I've been part of guilds where they've had no idea I was female, I don't go out of my way to deny it or shove it anyones face. The second I jump on Vent for a raid (or whatever) the next time I log on I'll have a bunch of guys asking if I need help with this, that and the other.

Saying we've got it made though? That's a load of BS. If a guy says he's a guy in a guild chat, no one questions it, no one cares, he's just a gamer. If a girl says she's a girl in guild chat, the innevitable response is... prove it. In case you're wondering, the response to that is, bite me!

Oh and by the way, I never complain to people online, unless it's a friend and I genuinely have something to complain about. If someone asks me if I had a good day, and I had a good day, I'll say I had a good day. I'm not going ramble to just anyone without need. Way to hit on those stereotypes AJ.

AFter watching my wife play MMORPGs, I wanted to point some things out...

1) Stripper Names, she loves to use them.  Mainly because she has always been a natural tease.  Her favorite MMO name is one of her favorite lesbian pornstars. 

2) She has fun dressing provocatively and running around topless.  She gets a kick of all the tells she gets from guys.  Even she doesn't dance at request though.  Actually, she usually despises in-game dancing...

3) After she realized that guys do give her "special treatment" she started taking advantage of it herself.  Of course she displayed the appropriate appreciativeness, but then when she logged off would tell me how stupid some guys are online to actually think giving items to her will result in anything.  She was able to get her full tier 2 before anyone else in her guild in WoW this way.  All her epic mounts were also paid for by others!

Everyone is different, but I'll say one thing for my wife, she is good at getting anything she wants from other gamers.  It is always entertaining to her the reactions of others on a VOIP server the first time they hear her voice and then see their reaction in-game. 

gender faker == wanna be transvestite

no other way to put it

sad but true

always has been, always will be

nothing else to say

Originally posted by Wobblebob

Quote: "There has yet to be an MMO that gives you XP for Dancing."

Dance Online gives you XP for dancing.

Originally posted by korvass
Not a bad first time piece from AJ. Curious what she'll write next. Couple minor faults really. Dancing thing being one.

AJ, try SWG; you get xp for dancing, music, image design and entertainment quests (it has a full entertainer system as a profession, where you can piece together your own music/dancing routines, and change nearly every facet of the character).

Not a bad, and quite amusing read all-round. Curiously you didn't touch on the male-playing-female cybering part of internet gaming.

Heard quite a few horror stories of actual females so desperate for attention that they play on RP servers and participate in such things as cyber.  Additionally, they have a new "boy friend" nearly every week.  I guess they view it as a graphical messenger.  Quite sad and disturbing really....  Most of them are minors.

Originally posted by Sinkael
I have about had it with these ignorant "female gamer" stories, you know what a majority of "female gamers" want? For editorials to quit segregrating (sp?) them off as some kind of second class player. You know what a female gamer is? A gamer, just like everyone else, and they do not need to be constantly referred to as something different.

As for the basis of the article, do men get treated differently in games then women? OF COURSE! Lets look at almost every single fantasy story being pushed down our throats, along with every popular story throughout history. Now take a look at the morals most of us got brought up on, "don't hit girls", "the man walks on the outside to keep the girl safe on the inside", "open the door for the lady", "don't use swear words around ladies", etc etc etc. We have been programmed from birth that it is the mans responsibility to protect the woman, it's an engraved response within most men.

But don't you women worry, with the state of the country and the decline in personal responsibility and accountability, and the decline in family values, you women won't have to worry about us men doing they annoying things like opening the door, pulling out your chair or tossing our jacket over the mud puddle for you.

I don't know guys that do any of that unless they're dating you or want to date you lol my male friends never hold the door for me or pull out my chair and I'm just fine with that.  Why?  Because I'm not interested in them!!   The few non interested in me guys that have ever done this (usually just getting the door to the building) are usually co workers and they're being polite or its just coincidence they get to the door before me (because i tend to take my time sometimes) .   

You missed the whole point of this article....its to protect guys from FAKE WOMEN lol!!    This article isn't an ignorant female gamer story this is a guys stop thinking with your pants and you wont have a reason to complain about fake females scamming you help article.

I'm not a gurl, I'm a straight guy, but I don't agree with the #3 point. Real gurl players will say "fine", "okay", or just change the subject (if she knows you) or ignore you (if she doesn't know you). Why? Simple, to a gurl, why should she tell you what happened on her day unless you're one of her "circle" of friends or best friend?

If the gurl "talked" about her day after being asked out-of-the-blue, that is a guy.

Then this: 2. She's violent because it's "that time of the month"

Gurls are not "violent every day of the month", they are not beasts to be violent everyday. But I see your point, I think the examples you gave doesn't fit the point you are trying to make. Camping? KS'ing? A gurl on "that time of the month" is more likely to do just that because she is not feeling well. She is online either because she has to or because she wants to put her mind on something else via an MMO. If it isn't her "time of the month", she will take that effort to go out, quest, and be patient enough not to KS.

And I really don't know why it is #2, I haven't encountered any faker or even a real gurl giving that reason... "it's that time of the month".

Another: 5. She has to go and "wash her hair," "do her nails," etc.
You mixed a gurl activity to a general activity. Real gurls do say she's going to wash her hair, take a shower, and other general-type activities. What they do not "usually" say is "do her nails" and the like, "usually" because there are gurls who still tell those reasons, sometimes it isn't even true, just giving out a reason to log-off.

8. Too much pink ??
I don't think so. Maybe there in the US, but in other cultures, pink is "cuteness", "pretty-ness", especially for us Asians, even gurls will choose Pink if given a choice - yes, all-pink. We Asians also take care of how our characters look, and most Asian gamers (who are not farmers) are playing MMOs just for the vanity of it.

Finally this: most girls will take it (and say thank you if she's a lady)
Now, you as a guy just admitted that guys don't know how to say thank you. I beg to differ, I say thank you to people who helped me without me asking at all. Yes, even while running, fighting a mob, or getting PK'ed, I take time to say thank you, win or lose, live or die. A thank you is a thank you. Saying 'thank you' is not a gurl thing, it is universal. Either you were not raised by your parents to be good and respectful of others, even to a stranger (trust and respecting a stranger are two different things), or you are just lazy (lazy in the sense that, say you are multi-tasking or talking to a bunch of people, it will be hard to take time to say thank you of course).

Hey, its a good read. Just sharing my opinions. Also I do not know your experiences with guys playing a gurl character, but I'm sure you won't be able to detect me :p I had four characters in the past that is so believable, until now they still don't believe I own those characters :p

It was part of my experiments and studies about virtual world and MMOG in general. Hmm... you know, you gave me an idea for an article :p

Good read. :)

Other than myself, I also know a couple of guys who people will never believe they own the popular gurl character on their online game :p Almost all of us are "Role-Playing" Gamers, that explains our secret of perfecting it :p But no, we don't take advantage of people, and are straight guys :p hahaha... It's fun, I even Role-Played with a male character who later turned out to be a gurl IRL :p

Originally posted by shae

The condescending generosity part has always made me laugh a little.

I've been part of guilds where they've had no idea I was female, I don't go out of my way to deny it or shove it anyones face. The second I jump on Vent for a raid (or whatever) the next time I log on I'll have a bunch of guys asking if I need help with this, that and the other.

Saying we've got it made though? That's a load of BS. If a guy says he's a guy in a guild chat, no one questions it, no one cares, he's just a gamer. If a girl says she's a girl in guild chat, the innevitable response is... prove it. In case you're wondering, the response to that is, bite me!

Oh and by the way, I never complain to people online, unless it's a friend and I genuinely have something to complain about. If someone asks me if I had a good day, and I had a good day, I'll say I had a good day. I'm not going ramble to just anyone without need. Way to hit on those stereotypes AJ.

Originally posted by mxmissile

gender faker == wanna be transvestite

no other way to put it

sad but true

always has been, always will be

nothing else to say

 

no other way to put it

sad but true

always has been, always will be

nothing else to say

Originally posted by premierebori
I just find a female form more pleasant to look at especially if you are going to spend many hours playing her.

You know what would be truly ironic?

If the writer of this article were actually a guy, and using the persona of a female in order to get more responses to his writing....

Originally posted by Sinkael
One more thing, and yes I know I am guilty of it too in my previous post, but who the hell is this AJ person to make such broad assumptions for all women who play games? I mean did she poll a bunch of women? Where is her facts and statistics to back up her claims?

This should be labeled as an opinion piece and not as an article on gamer girls, because that is all it is, one womans opinion on what she wants. I know several women who play games who could fall on either side of those assumptions.

I mean, it would be like me posting an article on women in journalism and then making some broad assumptions about how female writers are constantly taking on persona's of their male counterparts. I mean, seriously, AJ is commonly seen as a males name, doing a job that was traditionally a male job, in a male dominate industry, who's first piece is about the sexist treatment of women in said industry.
Bah, I have piss and moaned enough, so I will just end with this plea to the MMORPG staff, please, stop with the opinion pieces and have your writers actually start posting NEWS, with FACTS to back it up.

Are we even reading the same article? Or are you simply hoping for a post count?  Its not about any of those things she's not making assumptions simple observations which in my opinion ARE correct since i've witnessed it myself and experienced some of it as a  gamer that is female.  You're not even female!

I dont know any true gamers (that are female) that fall on the 'bad side' of those assumpitions, a princess or two yea but only role play wise.  I know females that play games that DO fall on the 'bad side' but they're not true gamers.    The few that might fall on that side that are true gamers are far far far few and inbetween (extremely rare)

btw AJ is not commonly a male name, infact i've never known a male named AJ i've known two girls named AJ though.

Originally posted by evilastro

 

Originally posted by mxmissile

gender faker == wanna be transvestite

no other way to put it

sad but true

always has been, always will be

nothing else to say

 

someone who actually cares about real life gender = sad lonely dateless person looking for cyber sex

no other way to put it

sad but true

always has been, always will be

nothing else to say

Hm, considering I was in a guild for about 7 months on World of Warcraft that I had to actually work in, I find these specifications hard to believe.

I, just as everyone else, was online at 12 PM sharp to begin raid preparations. I maybe got ONE new epic bi-weekly. As far as my epic mount, I was able to purchase that myself at Level 60 Ding because I made the money myself from selling crap on the Auction House.

Just because most girls are annoying little jail baits that want you to show them how to move with WASD doesn't mean they all are.

Originally posted by elvenangel

Originally posted by Sinkael
One more thing, and yes I know I am guilty of it too in my previous post, but who the hell is this AJ person to make such broad assumptions for all women who play games? I mean did she poll a bunch of women? Where is her facts and statistics to back up her claims?

This should be labeled as an opinion piece and not as an article on gamer girls, because that is all it is, one womans opinion on what she wants. I know several women who play games who could fall on either side of those assumptions.

I mean, it would be like me posting an article on women in journalism and then making some broad assumptions about how female writers are constantly taking on persona's of their male counterparts. I mean, seriously, AJ is commonly seen as a males name, doing a job that was traditionally a male job, in a male dominate industry, who's first piece is about the sexist treatment of women in said industry.
Bah, I have piss and moaned enough, so I will just end with this plea to the MMORPG staff, please, stop with the opinion pieces and have your writers actually start posting NEWS, with FACTS to back it up.

Are we even reading the same article? Or are you simply hoping for a post count?  Its not about any of those things she's not making assumptions simple observations which in my opinion ARE correct since i've witnessed it myself and experienced some of it as a  gamer that is female.  You're not even female!

btw AJ is not commonly a male name, infact i've never known a male named AJ i've known two girls named AJ though.

I wonder if we are reading the same article, the one I read listed eight things that this person has observed, formed an opinion about and then touted her opinion as fact for all women. Perhaps you should go back and reread the article, each point in the article is an opinion, an assumption, just because you agree with them, does not make them fact. Now perhaps you can point out the place where AJ listed her sources or the poll she used to reference her "facts".

As for the AJ reference, my "fact" is as valid as the authors, I don't need any statistics or references to back it up, I said it was true, therefore it must be true.

Originally posted by Sinkael

Originally posted by elvenangel

Originally posted by Sinkael
One more thing, and yes I know I am guilty of it too in my previous post, but who the hell is this AJ person to make such broad assumptions for all women who play games? I mean did she poll a bunch of women? Where is her facts and statistics to back up her claims?

This should be labeled as an opinion piece and not as an article on gamer girls, because that is all it is, one womans opinion on what she wants. I know several women who play games who could fall on either side of those assumptions.

I mean, it would be like me posting an article on women in journalism and then making some broad assumptions about how female writers are constantly taking on persona's of their male counterparts. I mean, seriously, AJ is commonly seen as a males name, doing a job that was traditionally a male job, in a male dominate industry, who's first piece is about the sexist treatment of women in said industry.
Bah, I have piss and moaned enough, so I will just end with this plea to the MMORPG staff, please, stop with the opinion pieces and have your writers actually start posting NEWS, with FACTS to back it up.

Are we even reading the same article? Or are you simply hoping for a post count?  Its not about any of those things she's not making assumptions simple observations which in my opinion ARE correct since i've witnessed it myself and experienced some of it as a  gamer that is female.  You're not even female!

btw AJ is not commonly a male name, infact i've never known a male named AJ i've known two girls named AJ though.

I wonder if we are reading the same article, the one I read listed eight things that this person has observed, formed an opinion about and then touted her opinion as fact for all women. Perhaps you should go back and reread the article, each point in the article is an opinion, an assumption, just because you agree with them, does not make them fact. Now perhaps you can point out the place where AJ listed her sources or the poll she used to reference her "facts".

As for the AJ reference, my "fact" is as valid as the authors, I don't need any statistics or references to back it up, I said it was true, therefore it must be true.

In my experience it is a fact and honestly you still miss intepreted the meaning for the article its not to generalize females its to help you dumb males who complain about getting scammed by FAKE ONES!    Yes there are going to be some girls that might fall into one of the listed items, but if you get a GUY pretending to be a girl they're going to fall into SEVERAL if not all of them all at once unless they're really that good of an actor.

Originally posted by Sinkael

Originally posted by elvenangel

Originally posted by Sinkael
One more thing, and yes I know I am guilty of it too in my previous post, but who the hell is this AJ person to make such broad assumptions for all women who play games? I mean did she poll a bunch of women? Where is her facts and statistics to back up her claims?

This should be labeled as an opinion piece and not as an article on gamer girls, because that is all it is, one womans opinion on what she wants. I know several women who play games who could fall on either side of those assumptions.

I mean, it would be like me posting an article on women in journalism and then making some broad assumptions about how female writers are constantly taking on persona's of their male counterparts. I mean, seriously, AJ is commonly seen as a males name, doing a job that was traditionally a male job, in a male dominate industry, who's first piece is about the sexist treatment of women in said industry.
Bah, I have piss and moaned enough, so I will just end with this plea to the MMORPG staff, please, stop with the opinion pieces and have your writers actually start posting NEWS, with FACTS to back it up.

Are we even reading the same article? Or are you simply hoping for a post count?  Its not about any of those things she's not making assumptions simple observations which in my opinion ARE correct since i've witnessed it myself and experienced some of it as a  gamer that is female.  You're not even female!

btw AJ is not commonly a male name, infact i've never known a male named AJ i've known two girls named AJ though.

I wonder if we are reading the same article, the one I read listed eight things that this person has observed, formed an opinion about and then touted her opinion as fact for all women. Perhaps you should go back and reread the article, each point in the article is an opinion, an assumption, just because you agree with them, does not make them fact. Now perhaps you can point out the place where AJ listed her sources or the poll she used to reference her "facts".

As for the AJ reference, my "fact" is as valid as the authors, I don't need any statistics or references to back it up, I said it was true, therefore it must be true.

Originally posted by elvenangel

Originally posted by Sinkael

Originally posted by elvenangel

Originally posted by Sinkael
One more thing, and yes I know I am guilty of it too in my previous post, but who the hell is this AJ person to make such broad assumptions for all women who play games? I mean did she poll a bunch of women? Where is her facts and statistics to back up her claims?

This should be labeled as an opinion piece and not as an article on gamer girls, because that is all it is, one womans opinion on what she wants. I know several women who play games who could fall on either side of those assumptions.

I mean, it would be like me posting an article on women in journalism and then making some broad assumptions about how female writers are constantly taking on persona's of their male counterparts. I mean, seriously, AJ is commonly seen as a males name, doing a job that was traditionally a male job, in a male dominate industry, who's first piece is about the sexist treatment of women in said industry.
Bah, I have piss and moaned enough, so I will just end with this plea to the MMORPG staff, please, stop with the opinion pieces and have your writers actually start posting NEWS, with FACTS to back it up.

Are we even reading the same article? Or are you simply hoping for a post count?  Its not about any of those things she's not making assumptions simple observations which in my opinion ARE correct since i've witnessed it myself and experienced some of it as a  gamer that is female.  You're not even female!

btw AJ is not commonly a male name, infact i've never known a male named AJ i've known two girls named AJ though.

I wonder if we are reading the same article, the one I read listed eight things that this person has observed, formed an opinion about and then touted her opinion as fact for all women. Perhaps you should go back and reread the article, each point in the article is an opinion, an assumption, just because you agree with them, does not make them fact. Now perhaps you can point out the place where AJ listed her sources or the poll she used to reference her "facts".

As for the AJ reference, my "fact" is as valid as the authors, I don't need any statistics or references to back it up, I said it was true, therefore it must be true.

 

In my experience it is a fact and honestly you still miss intepreted the meaning for the article its not to generalize females its to help you dumb males who complain about getting scammed by FAKE ONES!    Yes there are going to be some girls that might fall into one of the listed items, but if you get a GUY pretending to be a girl they're going to fall into SEVERAL if not all of them all at once unless they're really that good of an actor.

I am going to start offering a new service.  You pay me to hit you people on the head.  Jeez, what is all the fuss about male or female?  It is a GAME! Hello it is called ROLEPLAYING!  I dont give a shit about real life! if whilst playing I meet a female character I will consider her female and if I meet a male I would consider him male. END OF STORY.  Asking for gender is a disrespect to both the person and the very idea of RP.  If you are bothered with real life go live a real life cause you suck at MMORPG.

Although the article does point out some things it is truly just an opinion which can be easily contradicted.  Matter of fact both me and my girlfriend are heavy gamers and have female characters, and  I must say that often my female characters appear more female than hers just becasue I can emulate her attitudes too well at seeing them every day.  I actually chat much more than her and one of my characters is very bad tempered and grumbles a lot (cause I deemed to RP her like that).  I guess if my girlfriend had to create a male he would be more real than any of my males.  Lol when all of us play we tend to put into our characters too much of the good we believe we have.  When others play with our gender they play with what they really see.

It may be true that some girls may not seem very good gamers (especially PVP), but hey they often do not loose themselves in a frenetic race to level and own, and you know what?, that makes them the best gamers for they take it easy and realy enjoy the story and the fun and don't make such a fuss if they loose.  Most of the RP players I know are male however the best true RP players I know are female.  Absolutely no one can generalise and this is just my opinion as much as the author in the article expressed his/her opinion.

Hey RP is all about experiencing other worlds and other boots.  If you guys out there think that playing the opposite gender makes you a transvestite then I am sorry but either you have to grow up or you have to learn what RP is all about.  As a male I find that playing a female character in role play is the maximum experience for it allows me to emulate the hell of a universe I love but I will never understand :P

FFS ppl lets play shall we

You know what, while this could be taken as a guide to help guys act more like gamer girls, I person take it as a guide to help me make guys things I'm a guy.  Maybe then they will just leve me alone, lol.  No, really, I play games generaly to do something, not to hang out with random strangers. 

Though I have to say, I tend to make my character dance over and over again, but then again, I am amused easily and bored quickly, so that my just be me.  Also sometimes I make a character to dress skimpy, and make, well... sluty, just because I can.

Anywho, great artical, I loved it.  In fact I think I will show some of my guy friends... yeah, who insite on makeing female characters, can't blame them really, most male characters are preaty dorky looking.

Originally posted by shava
You know, this topic comes up over and over again, and it's rarely without an underlying topic of homophobia.  When, as a grrl gamer (48 years old, gaming multiplayer online games since early MUDs, RPGs since late 70's, wargames since early 70's) I play an MMORPG character, it's about 2/3 likely to be female, in my experience.  The stronger the RP in the RPG, the more likely my avatars will be female.

But you know, no one ever writes an article about how to spot a woman playing a guy.  And you know why?  Because no one feels uncomfortable about being manipulated by women playing guys. 

For you guys out there who feel uncomfortable being manipulated by females (ersatz or not), I have one recommendation:

Therapy.

Get over yourself.  Get over your ability for your gut, your "chivalrous" conditioning, or some anatomy lower down allowing you to be manipulated by half the human race.  This will plague you forever.  It will hurt you in RL business and social contacts.

Women are real people.  I don't enjoy people assuming that, because I'm female, I need *extra* help, more than if I were a man.  I don't enjoy people assuming that I am trying to manipulate them because I'm female.  I don't like people assuming that, if I *do* accept help, I am saying it's ok for some guy to hit on me (something that, I think, would be called harassment in an office situation).

But this attitude that women -- or people who try to play women -- are evil (after sex, after extra help, making a fool of you or your friends) is an issue that lives in men's heads.  It's a product of misogyny and homophobia.  And if it's perpetuated by people who use it, it's because men who are manipulable do not make the effort to wake up, get their brains in a pile, and change their own behavior triggers.

It's not us guys!  It's not the women, and it's not the guys-playing-women.  It's you.  Stop being vulnerable, and smack your friends when they fall prey to their own worst impulses.

Get over your collective selves, please!

Gold farmers don't kill games, people who buy gold kill games.  If there weren't a market for griefers, there wouldn't be the kinds of various grief we see.  Whiney female AVs who take advantage...of whatever...are there because people not only tolerate but regularly reward the behavior.

I've been competing with the sleek manipulative women in the business environment my whole life who thing a bit more fashion and makeup and a few fewer pounds gives them an advantage -- and I see that playing out *successfully* regardless of merit, skill, intelligence, or a record of performance --  because...uh..guys will be guys, and women won't speak out.  So guys, get over it; and women, speak out for integrity in female AVs of whatever gender of player.

Sometimes games are just a magnifying glass for our RL pathologies.

Shava

While I understand the intent of your post, I think you missed the intention of the OP.

I played with a female avatar in an online game and "she" started coming on to me, saying "hun" and other things to make me believe he was a "she".

I thought it was weird, and it really creeped me out, then he, she, it or whatever it was asked me to cyber and I said - I really don't want to cyber with a guy playing a female avatar. (not that I want to cyber with anyone mind you)

He replied - "ah why did you have to spoil all the fun!"

Sorry what is fun for he,she or it is not fun for me - specially when I'm being baited and I am an unwilling participant. What he tried ot do with me is sick and dishonest.

So maybe Shava you should rethink your post.

Your post sounded more like to me that you're the one with the "issues"

Lighten up.

Originally posted by zigmund

While I understand the intent of your post, I think you missed the intention of the OP.

I played with a female avatar in an online game and "she" started coming on to me, saying "hun" and other things to make me believe he was a "she".

I thought it was weird, and it really creeped me out, then he, she, it or whatever it was asked me to cyber and I said - I really don't want to cyber with a guy playing a female avatar. (not that I want to cyber with anyone mind you)

He replied - "ah why did you have to spoil all the fun!"

Sorry what is fun for he,she or it is not fun for me - specially when I'm being baited and I am an unwilling participant. What he tried ot do with me is sick and dishonest.

So maybe Shava you should rethink your post.

Your post sounded more like to me that you're the one with the "issues"

Lighten up.

I find this article outrageous and sexist. Women are the only people who can come up with interesting names? Women are the only ones who care what their outfits look like? I agree that stupid names are dead givaways and that likewise silly speech is also, but this article is way too ridiculous and stereotypical.

I am filled with rage.

Originally posted by shava
You know, this topic comes up over and over again, and it's rarely without an underlying topic of homophobia.  When, as a grrl gamer (48 years old, gaming multiplayer online games since early MUDs, RPGs since late 70's, wargames since early 70's) I play an MMORPG character, it's about 2/3 likely to be female, in my experience.  The stronger the RP in the RPG, the more likely my avatars will be female.

But you know, no one ever writes an article about how to spot a woman playing a guy.  And you know why?  Because no one feels uncomfortable about being manipulated by women playing guys. 

For you guys out there who feel uncomfortable being manipulated by females (ersatz or not), I have one recommendation:

Therapy.

Get over yourself.  Get over your ability for your gut, your "chivalrous" conditioning, or some anatomy lower down allowing you to be manipulated by half the human race.  This will plague you forever.  It will hurt you in RL business and social contacts.

Women are real people.  I don't enjoy people assuming that, because I'm female, I need *extra* help, more than if I were a man.  I don't enjoy people assuming that I am trying to manipulate them because I'm female.  I don't like people assuming that, if I *do* accept help, I am saying it's ok for some guy to hit on me (something that, I think, would be called harassment in an office situation).

But this attitude that women -- or people who try to play women -- are evil (after sex, after extra help, making a fool of you or your friends) is an issue that lives in men's heads.  It's a product of misogyny and homophobia.  And if it's perpetuated by people who use it, it's because men who are manipulable do not make the effort to wake up, get their brains in a pile, and change their own behavior triggers.

It's not us guys!  It's not the women, and it's not the guys-playing-women.  It's you.  Stop being vulnerable, and smack your friends when they fall prey to their own worst impulses.

Get over your collective selves, please!

Gold farmers don't kill games, people who buy gold kill games.  If there weren't a market for griefers, there wouldn't be the kinds of various grief we see.  Whiney female AVs who take advantage...of whatever...are there because people not only tolerate but regularly reward the behavior.

I've been competing with the sleek manipulative women in the business environment my whole life who thing a bit more fashion and makeup and a few fewer pounds gives them an advantage -- and I see that playing out *successfully* regardless of merit, skill, intelligence, or a record of performance --  because...uh..guys will be guys, and women won't speak out.  So guys, get over it; and women, speak out for integrity in female AVs of whatever gender of player.

Sometimes games are just a magnifying glass for our RL pathologies.

Shava

---

Originally posted by Stradden
This article wasn't meant to suggest that all guys who play female avatars are bad, or that it's somehow wrong (I've been known to play a female avatar or two). What this article IS doing, is finding a humorous way to point out the fact that there are guys out there who pose as women to gain some of the advantages that can sometimes come with it.

---

Anyone who gives women free stuff in a MMO just because they are female is an idiot, and the people posing should get everything they want.

Originally posted by Stradden
This article wasn't meant to suggest that all guys who play female avatars are bad, or that it's somehow wrong (I've been known to play a female avatar or two). What this article IS doing, is finding a humorous way to point out the fact that there are guys out there who pose as women to gain some of the advantages that can sometimes come with it.

Originally posted by Stradden
This article wasn't meant to suggest that all guys who play female avatars are bad, or that it's somehow wrong (I've been known to play a female avatar or two). What this article IS doing, is finding a humorous way to point out the fact that there are guys out there who pose as women to gain some of the advantages that can sometimes come with it.

I felt this write up was well intended yet the limited "MMO" experiance of the writter and stereo-typical views seem more attuned to a 12-14 year old.

There's been no MMO to date that rewards dancing with EXP!?!?  I wonder if the greatest online gaming conspiracy of all time (SOE/LA defrauding the subscriber base with the "new game enhancements") had wiped away any memory of the Entertainer in Star Wars Galaxies; pre-cu was the best MMO created besides SOE failing to develop any content.

Sorry, the write up was a fun read although very untrue in the real mmo realms, unless it was specifically written with WoW in mind.

edited:  Some of the best gamers I know are female players. I'd say they are actually a majority in terms of quality gamers.  

LOL good tongue-in-cheek article for a smile :)

What wasnt mentioned though was the reaction of other rl females to other rl females.Some of them are horrible to the other female toon simply because shes a female toon. Mayhaps a bit of territorial jealousy? LOL dunno, all I know is I have experienced out and out hostility from other female toons towards my female toon. The same other female will treat my male toon with sugar.

Toons with the largest bust size are almost always male players. It is really that simple.

Hmmm where to start.

As a girl gamer I kinda feel as if this whole article was written just to get a rise from girl gamers.

Well you succeded.

It's rare that I find myself so pissed over something I read here that I find myself for a lack of words to phrase my response, yet strangely that's where I find myself at the moment.

~ slow deep breaths ~

Originally posted by Adythiel
As mentioned earlier, having glaring errors such as the no MMO gives experience for dancing lends to the fact the parts of the article weren't properly researched out. And when I come across articles with such errors, I don't bother finishing reading the article.

As mentioned in another post, it seems to be slanted very heavily towards World of Warcraft. MMOs have existed since the mid 90s with Meridian 59. I know a lot of new people are coming to see this part of the industry exists, but doing a bit of research before writing up an article gives a person much more credibility. As it stands now, I will be scrutinizing any future content from this particular author until I can honestly believe she properly prepares her articles with adequate research.

Up to the point of mentioning no experience for dancing in an MMO, it started out somewhat interesting. Although, this topic has horribly been done to death both through articles and on so many forum posts.

Hold your horses there this wasn't written by a woman, no self respecting woman would ever right such total donkey-piss and try and pass it off as an editorial.

Originally posted by Sorrow

Originally posted by Adythiel
As mentioned earlier, having glaring errors such as the no MMO gives experience for dancing lends to the fact the parts of the article weren't properly researched out. And when I come across articles with such errors, I don't bother finishing reading the article.

As mentioned in another post, it seems to be slanted very heavily towards World of Warcraft. MMOs have existed since the mid 90s with Meridian 59. I know a lot of new people are coming to see this part of the industry exists, but doing a bit of research before writing up an article gives a person much more credibility. As it stands now, I will be scrutinizing any future content from this particular author until I can honestly believe she properly prepares her articles with adequate research.

Up to the point of mentioning no experience for dancing in an MMO, it started out somewhat interesting. Although, this topic has horribly been done to death both through articles and on so many forum posts.

Hold your horses there this wasn't written by a woman, no self respecting woman would ever right such total donkey-piss and try and pass it off as an editorial.

 

Originally posted by ginatrout

Originally posted by Sorrow

Originally posted by Adythiel
As mentioned earlier, having glaring errors such as the no MMO gives experience for dancing lends to the fact the parts of the article weren't properly researched out. And when I come across articles with such errors, I don't bother finishing reading the article.

As mentioned in another post, it seems to be slanted very heavily towards World of Warcraft. MMOs have existed since the mid 90s with Meridian 59. I know a lot of new people are coming to see this part of the industry exists, but doing a bit of research before writing up an article gives a person much more credibility. As it stands now, I will be scrutinizing any future content from this particular author until I can honestly believe she properly prepares her articles with adequate research.

Up to the point of mentioning no experience for dancing in an MMO, it started out somewhat interesting. Although, this topic has horribly been done to death both through articles and on so many forum posts.

Hold your horses there this wasn't written by a woman, no self respecting woman would ever right such total donkey-piss and try and pass it off as an editorial.

 

Not bashing you or anything....but it was written by a woman.  Yeah...I had to re-read the header of the article cause I thought a guy wrote it.

<---a woman btw

Originally posted by Sinkael
I have about had it with these ignorant "female gamer" stories, you know what a majority of "female gamers" want? For editorials to quit segregrating (sp?) them off as some kind of second class player. You know what a female gamer is? A gamer, just like everyone else, and they do not need to be constantly referred to as something different.

I have rolled numerous male and female toons. I do it so that all my toons don't look similar. But I don't do it to take advantage of anyone. And if people ask me if i am a girl i tell them I am a dude. There is nothing wrong with a female rolling male either. MMORPGs are made to have fun not to pick up on people. If you are looking to date someone stop complaining about males rolling female, shut off the game, leave your house and go somewhere were you actually might meet someone.

Sigh god that infuriates me even more to realize a fellow female gamer would stoop to the second class gamer mentality.

I guess it's time to get bare knuckles here.

The FACE of Online gaming is changing. 

It's time for the players to sit up and take notice as the industry has been.

The hard fact is out that women are taking over the online gaming scene. EVERYWHERE you look the statics show women now outnumber men in online gaming. 

The image of the weak, lost, incompetent female gamer is an image of the past.

Women are some of the strongest, most creative, most intelligent  gamers out there and we are proving it.

Female gamers are taking gaming titles all around the planet.  Not because some enamored guy gave it to us, but because we TOOK it.

There are now all girl guilds, and teams all across the world competing and kicking guy's asses in every type of game.

There are many guilds embracing women in leadership roles, guildmaster and raid-leader.

Not only are we playing the games we are making the games. I myself have been in the industry for many years, and have had to fight constantly for recognition from my peers just for being a woman in what they precieve as a man's world.

The image that if we are a girl gamer we must be old, fat, and married to a " REAL " gamer is another conception that just makes me want to scream.  Yes I am in my 30's, yes I am married to a gamer and dev, but I am not fat,  I am not a cat-lady, and I have NEVER been carried a day in my life.

I have run the full gambit of gaming over the past 20 some odd years, from my brother forcing me to be the damsel in distress for his old pencil and paper D & D games when I was little, to guildleader of a 200 member pk guild , to CS guide, to GM, to concept artist, to dreamer of the future of gaming.

Women are here, and we aren't going anywhere.

I think when people think of girls in gaming Stevie Case epitomizes the face they should be seeing.  She is the image of the modern gaming girl.

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2004/Jan04/01-08WomenGamers.mspx

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061006-7922.html

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/11/11/DDGAPMAD8G1.DTL&feed=rss.entertainment

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/04-07-2005/0003338769&EDATE=

These are just a few of the thousands of links out there addressing the rise of women in and behind online gaming..

Originally posted by Sorrow

Sigh god that infuriates me even more to realize a fellow female gamer would stoop to the second class gamer mentality.

I guess it's time to get bare knuckles here.

The FACE of Online gaming is changing. 

It's time for the players to sit up and take notice as the industry has been.

The hard fact is out that women are taking over the online gaming scene. EVERYWHERE you look the statics show women now outnumber men in online gaming. 

The image of the weak, lost, incompetent female gamer is an image of the past.

Women are some of the strongest, most creative, most intelligent  gamers out there and we are proving it.

Female gamers are taking gaming titles all around the planet.  Not because some enamored guy gave it to us, but because we TOOK it.

There are now all girl guilds, and teams all across the world competing and kicking guy's asses in every type of game.

There are many guilds embracing women in leadership roles, guildmaster and raid-leader.

Not only are we playing the games we are making the games. I myself have been in the industry for many years, and have had to fight constantly for recognition from my peers just for being a woman in what they precieve as a man's world.

The image that if we are a girl gamer we must be old, fat, and married to a " REAL " gamer is another conception that just makes me want to scream.  Yes I am in my 30's, yes I am married to a gamer and dev, but I am not fat,  I am not a cat-lady, and I have NEVER been carried a day in my life.

I have run the full gambit of gaming over the past 20 some odd years, from my brother forcing me to be the damsel in distress for his old pencil and paper D & D games when I was little, to guildleader of a 200 member pk guild , to CS guide, to GM, to concept artist, to dreamer of the future of gaming.

Women are here, and we aren't going anywhere.

I think when people think of girls in gaming Stevie Case epitomizes the face they should be seeing.  She is the image of the modern gaming girl.

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2004/Jan04/01-08WomenGamers.mspx

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061006-7922.html

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/11/11/DDGAPMAD8G1.DTL&feed=rss.entertainment

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/04-07-2005/0003338769&EDATE=

These are just a few of the thousands of links out there addressing the rise of women in and behind online gaming..

 

 

Kind of a funny article but meh.

To me a gamer is a gamer. It doesn't matter what sex you are. So no special treatment from me. Unless of course it's my wife.

Here's a comment from a friend of mine who has been playing female characters for years.

It was an 'interesting' article. It covered a few of the situations, but left out most of why I play both genders. Granted, the backside swaying in front of me is not hard to accept while she is running, but the biggest reason for men to play female characters is actually so that there will appear to be a higher ratio of female characters in the game than there is actual female players . This makes the MMO look better and more realistic as well as makes actual females feel more likely to be comfortable in game. It woulkd be a bit 'strange' if all the characters were male because almost all the players were male. My guess is that currently, over 90% of the players are male. Mind you, why women play Male characters in-game ... I have no clue.

Originally posted by Navra

My guess is that currently, over 90% of the players are male. 

Originally posted by Pietoro

Originally posted by Navra

My guess is that currently, over 90% of the players are male. 

Your guess is completely wrong.

42% of online gamers are female.

The reason it seems like there are more males, is because 90% of online game communities (websites, mesage boards, etc) are male-oriented, male-run, and cater to male tastes. So therefore... a lot of women gamers aren't outspoken or represented on those sites.

Originally posted by tylerwick
 think its funny, all these "facts" on this page are not backed up..  Or am I blind?

Originally posted by tylerwick

Originally posted by Pietoro

Originally posted by Navra

My guess is that currently, over 90% of the players are male. 

Your guess is completely wrong.

42% of online gamers are female.

The reason it seems like there are more males, is because 90% of online game communities (websites, mesage boards, etc) are male-oriented, male-run, and cater to male tastes. So therefore... a lot of women gamers aren't outspoken or represented on those sites.

I think its funny, all these "facts" on this page are not backed up..  Or am I blind?

It left some gaps, but on the whole a pretty entertaining article.  Frankly I have yet to see anyone successfully tackle this subject, but it's fun to see the amount and type of response it generates.

Any dude who thinks it's weird for a guy to play a girl avatar has got their own issues to work out, or have been burned after their fawning and attentions go unheeded or are responded with "dude, I'm actually a guy."

My first MMO character was female (SWG... with xp for dancing) and the thinking was like a lot of guys out there and on this board, "who's backside would I rather stare at for hours on end?"  No debate.  The problem is when you go from solo play to a guild... or regularly hook up with new online buddies.  That started to get a little awkward, especially when someone in my guild tried to set me up with someone else who didn't know.  Ditched the best character I ever played and started from scratch to mend those fences.

Was I treated differently?  No question about that.  People gave me more stuff (keep in mind, this was my first MMO, had no clue yet), and everyone came at my beckon call.  I thought everyone was just really freindly, until I was hit on the first time... then again... then again.  Another reason I just called it quits on that avatar, just too much hassle.

Now I have to keep things segregated in games I play.  One out of every five characters are female... and the female is strictly for solo play.  Too much explaining to do if nothing else... pitty... she's damn fun to watch

An interesting read til I got to the part about "dark elves in World of Warcraft".   Next time have someone write an article that actually plays the game they are commenting on mmkay?

On topic though, I personally never assume that the player is a he or she in RL.  My usual comment if I call someone "her" and "she" replies that "hey I am really a guy" is simply this:  She may be a He in Real Life, but He is a She *here* and will be addressed as such. 

You dudes don't want me referring to you as a girl?  Then.... Don't Play A Girl.

Oh and stop dance emoting on the mailbox, you're getting in the way of my mail.

Originally posted by Stradden
I want to step in here again and be clear. At no point does the author say that female gamers are second-class gamers. The fact of the matter is that some people, be they male or female, take advantage of others (who are generally male) through "being a girl".  It happens, and there are some players out there who will bend over backwards to help out another player if they think that player is female. It may be sad fact, but it's a reality of online gaming.

Female gamers, as has been stated numerous times in this thread, make up a much larger percentage of the online gaming community than many people realize. This article in no way takes away from that, in fact, at the end of the article, AJ is very clear about the fact that a female gamer doesn't  need any help.


This article was written with the intent to amuse and also to give a few tips to people who might be taken in by that particular type of scam. It is not meant as an endorsement of the activity itself.

God do you guys ever think before you speak.

The problem is, this is not amusing to women in the slightest.

This is just more of the same biased, undocumented, unresearched, opinionated drivel that perpetuates sexism in gaming.

Do you find humor in the sexual inuendo, harrasment, and out-right verbal rape that most female gamers have to deal with in these games just because we want to game.

Where is the mention of that, because I promise you more than A NYTHING else guys give girls in online gaming.. sexual harassment is #1.

My neice is 13 now, she started playing EQ at 10. She played a shaman and loved it, the bear hats just made her laugh so much. She would usually end up as party healer, and she wasn't a great gamer, but she was good, and she made friends and got in a guild and had a regular group and really enjoyed her time gaming.

You wanna know what " guys gave her.. " when they found out she was a girl and a young girl at that?

" Hey sexy what's your phone number, you wanna be my girlfriend... "

" Mmmm baby you wanna suck my... "

" Hey B..ch I wanna bend you over and stick my.. up your a.. "

" Oh yea why don't you tell me where you go to school and maybe I can meet you after school.. "

Even her own guildmates..

" Sweetie you know what BJ means? "

" So do you have any hair down there? "

Or how about the ones that were subtle and just sent her urls to their pics.. just not telling her the pics were hardcore.

Yea real bloody amusing...

You both should be really truly ashamed.

---

Originally posted by Sorrow

---

Originally posted by Stradden
I want to step in here again and be clear. At no point does the author say that female gamers are second-class gamers. The fact of the matter is that some people, be they male or female, take advantage of others (who are generally male) through "being a girl". It happens, and there are some players out there who will bend over backwards to help out another player if they think that player is female. It may be sad fact, but it's a reality of online gaming.

Female gamers, as has been stated numerous times in this thread, make up a much larger percentage of the online gaming community than many people realize. This article in no way takes away from that, in fact, at the end of the article, AJ is very clear about the fact that a female gamer doesn't need any help.

This article was written with the intent to amuse and also to give a few tips to people who might be taken in by that particular type of scam. It is not meant as an endorsement of the activity itself.

---

God do you guys ever think before you speak.
The problem is, this is not amusing to women in the slightest.
This is just more of the same biased, undocumented, unresearched, opinionated drivel that perpetuates sexism in gaming.
Do you find humor in the sexual inuendo, harrasment, and out-right verbal rape that most female gamers have to deal with in these games just because we want to game.
Where is the mention of that, because I promise you more than A NYTHING else guys give girls in online gaming.. sexual harassment is #1.
My neice is 13 now, she started playing EQ at 10. She played a shaman and loved it, the bear hats just made her laugh so much. She would usually end up as party healer, and she wasn't a great gamer, but she was good, and she made friends and got in a guild and had a regular group and really enjoyed her time gaming.
You wanna know what " guys gave her.. " when they found out she was a girl and a young girl at that?
" Hey sexy what's your phone number, you wanna be my girlfriend... "
" Mmmm baby you wanna suck my... "
" Hey B..ch I wanna bend you over and stick my.. up your a.. "
" Oh yea why don't you tell me where you go to school and maybe I can meet you after school.. "
Even her own guildmates..
" Sweetie you know what BJ means? "
" So do you have any hair down there? "
Or how about the ones that were subtle and just sent her urls to their pics.. just not telling her the pics were hardcore.
Yea real bloody amusing...
You both should be really truly ashamed.

---

Hi, my name is Chris Hanson with Dateline NBC..............

Of all the topics someone could've chosen to waste time and effort on, this really has got to be the all-time-winner for wasting time and effort on a totally pointless, who-cares, subject.  It's filled with dozens, if not hundreds, of the same drivel other "editorials" have covered on the same topic.  It sets a new standard for inanity.

I suppose all of the worthwhile subjects that this "managing editor" could've wasted time and effort covering have already been covered?  Well fine, even if that's true, please waste your time and effort in the future repeating useless drivel of more pertinent issues, like the ongoing abuse of gnomes in fantasy rpg's.

This subject is so monumentally stupid, it'd truly difficult to comprehend.

I mean, this is pointlessness on a biblical scale.

Maybe Kalmenicus was right about you guys.  Maybe f13 was right.  Maybe TenTonHammer was right.  Sad, but probably true.

Two things I disagree with:

1 "too much pink" -- while playing SWG I, amongst my toons that I created I had Amethyst that always wore...can you guess?....PURPLE! and had purple hair and I had Hybiscus who had bright pink hair and wore bright pink clothing

2. "real girls don't dance" -- my first toon on SWG was a bothan entertainer/tailor...ended up going the music track because I was too much of a noob to realize that I wouldn't be able to do tailor plus music and dancer and I was going up music first since it was the hardest one as one had to be able to play the same song the group was playing; I also had other entertainers that did dance during my time in SWG; wish I could find another game that had entertainer as one of the professions....why? it's a very easy profession to "multi-task" in if one had a macro running AND it was one of the most social professions in the game (one could sit and watch others chat or join in chatting...and oh at some of the convos that took place, always felt that people who totally afked their way through the profession didn't know what they were missing out on)

I did have a theory at one time that males playing femaie toons would only use the "sexy" species but that theory got blown out of the water the first time I met a female wookiee that was played by a male.

Honestly, I think it's difficult to stereotype people that play MMOs.  Who's to say whether the *tee hee* is from a male trying to hard to play the role of a female, a female acting overly "girly" and helpless in order to get freebees (what? males are suppose to have the market cornered on knowing how to get freebees from others?), or some other situation.

I think one of the biggest issues for me is the assumption that girls don't play games so the chance that there's a male behind that female avatar are VERY high.  Truth is females make up a good chunk of gamers (isn't it over 40%?) so.....guess what?....there's also a chance that a female behind the male avatar (Reminds me of a story...one of the few male toons I've played was a second account in TSO, I even went so far as to name him [my main's name]'s Guy.  Still some people were a little slow on the draw.  A female toon that comes on my property  is flirting with him and trying to kiss him.  I used my female toon to tell her to stop trying to kiss him.  She didn't even bother to ask how my female toon knew what she was doing.  She tried to blackmail me into making her a roomie with the fact that she wasn't going to stop until I did.  My reply, using my female toon, was along the lines of "fine, but don't expect me to accept [the kiss interaction]."  Maybe, MAYBE she finally got the hint  that he was called my guy for a reason .  She left the property pretty quick after that. The male toon didn't really talk much as he was on a laptop that couldn't really handle TSO so he lagged like crazy.  He existed mainly for the purposes of being a 4th in pizza and keeping the social up on my female toon if no one else was around).

My advice: Don't be giving girls any more free stuff or help than you would other toons.  Don't make assumptions about people based on the looks of the avatar.

Originally posted by Sorrow

Originally posted by Stradden
I want to step in here again and be clear. At no point does the author say that female gamers are second-class gamers. The fact of the matter is that some people, be they male or female, take advantage of others (who are generally male) through "being a girl".  It happens, and there are some players out there who will bend over backwards to help out another player if they think that player is female. It may be sad fact, but it's a reality of online gaming.

Female gamers, as has been stated numerous times in this thread, make up a much larger percentage of the online gaming community than many people realize. This article in no way takes away from that, in fact, at the end of the article, AJ is very clear about the fact that a female gamer doesn't  need any help.


This article was written with the intent to amuse and also to give a few tips to people who might be taken in by that particular type of scam. It is not meant as an endorsement of the activity itself.

God do you guys ever think before you speak.

The problem is, this is not amusing to women in the slightest.

This is just more of the same biased, undocumented, unresearched, opinionated drivel that perpetuates sexism in gaming.

Do you find humor in the sexual inuendo, harrasment, and out-right verbal rape that most female gamers have to deal with in these games just because we want to game.

Where is the mention of that, because I promise you more than A NYTHING else guys give girls in online gaming.. sexual harassment is #1.

My neice is 13 now, she started playing EQ at 10. She played a shaman and loved it, the bear hats just made her laugh so much. She would usually end up as party healer, and she wasn't a great gamer, but she was good, and she made friends and got in a guild and had a regular group and really enjoyed her time gaming.

You wanna know what " guys gave her.. " when they found out she was a girl and a young girl at that?

" Hey sexy what's your phone number, you wanna be my girlfriend... "

" Mmmm baby you wanna suck my... "

" Hey B..ch I wanna bend you over and stick my.. up your a.. "

" Oh yea why don't you tell me where you go to school and maybe I can meet you after school.. "

Even her own guildmates..

" Sweetie you know what BJ means? "

" So do you have any hair down there? "

Or how about the ones that were subtle and just sent her urls to their pics.. just not telling her the pics were hardcore.

Yea real bloody amusing...

You both should be really truly ashamed.

 

Speak for yourself, please.  I am a woman and I found the article extremely funny.  Did you even read the article?  Because I feel like you read a different article than the one I read.  The one I read was NOT a how to guide for how to find a girl on-line and harrass her, as you seem to think.  To me it was a very funny article about the huge discrepancy between how guy gamers think we (as girl gamers) act, and how we actually act.  I agree that what happened to your niece is appalling, and highly inappropriate, but it really has nothing to do with this article.  Maybe you should read it again, a little more closely this time.

Oh, and if you are such an advocate for equal treatment of men and women, don't start off your rebuttal by saying that men don't think before they speak.  Just because you didn't agree with what he said is no reason to be sexist about it.  Oh yes, sexism does go both ways, and only weakens your position, which as I've pointed out was pretty weak to begin with.

Originally posted by Wobblebob

Quote: "There has yet to be an MMO that gives you XP for Dancing."

Dance Online gives you XP for dancing.

In that I will agree the you'd never catch me playing WoW just to dance!  LOL!  I don't understand the article writer saying there is no MMO that allows a player to gain exp for dancing.   Hmmm...so then when I played a master artisan/merchant/dancer ....keyword dancer here...that was just my imagination.

Don't worry...no biggy I get the writers point and I think the writer did nail it on what was written in the regard of many things.  Good article and pretty much spot on.       

I am a real female person, but people tend to assume I am male. It's kind of irritating, really. I am not a girly-girl IRL, and I don't *usually*  play one online, so maybe that's it. I can be pretty crass and vulgar, but, then again, I've always been "one of the guys" IRL, too. (No, for the record, I am not a lesbian. I just like men *a lot*. LOL.) I can pretty much guarantee you I have never typed nor made any sound resembling "teehee" in my life.

The exception was early SWG when I played a cantina dancer. I really played it up. I designed my character to be attractive and spent a lot of time chatting up my customers (nothing tasteless, just friendly banter). But, hey, a girl's got to make her tips, and being a cantina dancer gave me a chance to be girly, sociable and graceful... ALL things I am NOT, IRL .

On the other hand, I am a "crossdresser" too. I have a male drakkin wizard in EQ1 and a brand new Elven Fighter in L2... but honestly, they are a little on the girly side anyway, graphically. I am really enjoying my time on the other side of the fence. I feel like I've got a really fun secret.  (At least until people hear me on Vent, I suppose...) FWIW, I don't try to roleplay being a guy. I just play the same as always and let people draw their own conclusions, so I am not really a gender faker as such. So far, the issue of my real life gender hasn't come up.

Originally posted by trix
this is one of the worst articles i have ever read and the only mmo this dude has ever played is obviously wow cause he doesnt know anything about what hes talking about SWG gave xp for dancing and number 3 and 5 conflict with one another. looks like someones guild has a chick who gets loot over him.

and i play chick chars because honestly who wants to look at a dudes ass all day?

i dont know when the last time was that this guy went to a strip club but i can say ive never met a stripper named puffypant..... and if i did i think id be more worried about that chick being a dude so you might wanna check the names of the strip clubs your going to bro. if the sign says brown eye you might not wanna go in.

Hmm... seems I've spent the last 6 years (in RL) married to a guy. OR the author has never played an MMO with real women.

Originally posted by gracie_G

Originally posted by Sorrow

Originally posted by Stradden
I want to step in here again and be clear. At no point does the author say that female gamers are second-class gamers. The fact of the matter is that some people, be they male or female, take advantage of others (who are generally male) through "being a girl".  It happens, and there are some players out there who will bend over backwards to help out another player if they think that player is female. It may be sad fact, but it's a reality of online gaming.

Female gamers, as has been stated numerous times in this thread, make up a much larger percentage of the online gaming community than many people realize. This article in no way takes away from that, in fact, at the end of the article, AJ is very clear about the fact that a female gamer doesn't  need any help.


This article was written with the intent to amuse and also to give a few tips to people who might be taken in by that particular type of scam. It is not meant as an endorsement of the activity itself.

God do you guys ever think before you speak.

The problem is, this is not amusing to women in the slightest.

This is just more of the same biased, undocumented, unresearched, opinionated drivel that perpetuates sexism in gaming.

Do you find humor in the sexual inuendo, harrasment, and out-right verbal rape that most female gamers have to deal with in these games just because we want to game.

Where is the mention of that, because I promise you more than A NYTHING else guys give girls in online gaming.. sexual harassment is #1.

My neice is 13 now, she started playing EQ at 10. She played a shaman and loved it, the bear hats just made her laugh so much. She would usually end up as party healer, and she wasn't a great gamer, but she was good, and she made friends and got in a guild and had a regular group and really enjoyed her time gaming.

You wanna know what " guys gave her.. " when they found out she was a girl and a young girl at that?

" Hey sexy what's your phone number, you wanna be my girlfriend... "

" Mmmm baby you wanna suck my... "

" Hey B..ch I wanna bend you over and stick my.. up your a.. "

" Oh yea why don't you tell me where you go to school and maybe I can meet you after school.. "

Even her own guildmates..

" Sweetie you know what BJ means? "

" So do you have any hair down there? "

Or how about the ones that were subtle and just sent her urls to their pics.. just not telling her the pics were hardcore.

Yea real bloody amusing...

You both should be really truly ashamed.

 

Speak for yourself, please.  I am a woman and I found the article extremely funny.  Did you even read the article?  Because I feel like you read a different article than the one I read.  The one I read was NOT a how to guide for how to find a girl on-line and harrass her, as you seem to think.  To me it was a very funny article about the huge discrepancy between how guy gamers think we (as girl gamers) act, and how we actually act.  I agree that what happened to your niece is appalling, and highly inappropriate, but it really has nothing to do with this article.  Maybe you should read it again, a little more closely this time.

Oh, and if you are such an advocate for equal treatment of men and women, don't start off your rebuttal by saying that men don't think before they speak.  Just because you didn't agree with what he said is no reason to be sexist about it.  Oh yes, sexism does goes both ways, and only weakens your position, which as I've pointed out was pretty weak to begin with.

Maybe you should learn to read...

I NEVER said MEN don't think..  I said

" God do you guys ever think before you speak. "

A retorical question, maybe we should apply it to you as well.

Originally posted by trix
the author is a dude

Originally posted by Sorrow

Originally posted by gracie_G

Originally posted by Sorrow

Originally posted by Stradden
I want to step in here again and be clear. At no point does the author say that female gamers are second-class gamers. The fact of the matter is that some people, be they male or female, take advantage of others (who are generally male) through "being a girl".  It happens, and there are some players out there who will bend over backwards to help out another player if they think that player is female. It may be sad fact, but it's a reality of online gaming.

Female gamers, as has been stated numerous times in this thread, make up a much larger percentage of the online gaming community than many people realize. This article in no way takes away from that, in fact, at the end of the article, AJ is very clear about the fact that a female gamer doesn't  need any help.


This article was written with the intent to amuse and also to give a few tips to people who might be taken in by that particular type of scam. It is not meant as an endorsement of the activity itself.

God do you guys ever think before you speak.

The problem is, this is not amusing to women in the slightest.

This is just more of the same biased, undocumented, unresearched, opinionated drivel that perpetuates sexism in gaming.

Do you find humor in the sexual inuendo, harrasment, and out-right verbal rape that most female gamers have to deal with in these games just because we want to game.

Where is the mention of that, because I promise you more than A NYTHING else guys give girls in online gaming.. sexual harassment is #1.

My neice is 13 now, she started playing EQ at 10. She played a shaman and loved it, the bear hats just made her laugh so much. She would usually end up as party healer, and she wasn't a great gamer, but she was good, and she made friends and got in a guild and had a regular group and really enjoyed her time gaming.

You wanna know what " guys gave her.. " when they found out she was a girl and a young girl at that?

" Hey sexy what's your phone number, you wanna be my girlfriend... "

" Mmmm baby you wanna suck my... "

" Hey B..ch I wanna bend you over and stick my.. up your a.. "

" Oh yea why don't you tell me where you go to school and maybe I can meet you after school.. "

Even her own guildmates..

" Sweetie you know what BJ means? "

" So do you have any hair down there? "

Or how about the ones that were subtle and just sent her urls to their pics.. just not telling her the pics were hardcore.

Yea real bloody amusing...

You both should be really truly ashamed.

 

Speak for yourself, please.  I am a woman and I found the article extremely funny.  Did you even read the article?  Because I feel like you read a different article than the one I read.  The one I read was NOT a how to guide for how to find a girl on-line and harrass her, as you seem to think.  To me it was a very funny article about the huge discrepancy between how guy gamers think we (as girl gamers) act, and how we actually act.  I agree that what happened to your niece is appalling, and highly inappropriate, but it really has nothing to do with this article.  Maybe you should read it again, a little more closely this time.

Oh, and if you are such an advocate for equal treatment of men and women, don't start off your rebuttal by saying that men don't think before they speak.  Just because you didn't agree with what he said is no reason to be sexist about it.  Oh yes, sexism does goes both ways, and only weakens your position, which as I've pointed out was pretty weak to begin with.

Maybe you should learn to read...

I NEVER said MEN don't think..  I said

" God do you guys ever think before you speak. "

A retorical question, maybe we should apply it to you as well.

Do you knowwhat I find funny...in games like the one I am playing now I go out of my way to "earn" everything my character gains, whether monotary or in the form of items.   Now there are times I maybe short a silver piece or two and will ask nicely if anyone can spare it.   I promise to give it back as soon as I have earned it.   Most of the time someone nice will spot me the silver.  I will then proceed to add them to my friends list to make sure I get the silver back to them as soon as I can.  I tell them as much and what happens.  THey always say don't worry about it.   Well I worry about it.  I don't wish to be the one that everyone points a finger at and says yea..see there is a girl gmer taking advantage of her gender.   LOL!

Just the other day a guy gamer offered to make me a really killer bow for my ranger I play.  He said you get me the lumber I need and I''ll make you the bow.   I was like cool.  I didn't really care to delv into the harvesting part of this game but I guess one must suffer along with the rest who partake of tedium.  LOL!  Now during my time harvesting I am tlking to people in open chat about what I am upto..you know just /ooc chatter...when not onetell but no less then 6 tells come in from 6 different players offering to provide me with the lumber I need for my bow.   I thought about it for a minute, then decided to pass.   Nope...I am not going to take the lumber and have that bow made I will stick to my choice of earning it just like everyone else.   Besides the lumber on the market sells for 6+ gold!  My character stays poor.   What do you expect she is a ranger.  Rangers are always poor.   Hey arrows cost money!  So anyway...I will take handouts if I think the person is doing to just be nice and allows me to pay them back.   I will not take something and not give something in return - like an item they might find useful.  Some turn it down and others do not.   But hey at least I tried.   :)  

Originally posted by shava

Originally posted by tylerwick

Originally posted by Pietoro

Originally posted by Navra

My guess is that currently, over 90% of the players are male. 

Your guess is completely wrong.

42% of online gamers are female.

The reason it seems like there are more males, is because 90% of online game communities (websites, mesage boards, etc) are male-oriented, male-run, and cater to male tastes. So therefore... a lot of women gamers aren't outspoken or represented on those sites.

I think its funny, all these "facts" on this page are not backed up..  Or am I blind?

No, just lazy and unduly confrontational.

These are as factual as surveys of gamers are likely to be.   They're power point slides from the Entertainment Software Association, a very large (and I'd assume the largest) gaming software professional association.  The full study results as released to the public is here:
http://www.theesa.com/archives/files/Essential%20Facts%202006.pdf

I assume there's a considerably more detailed version of the study in the members-only section of their web site.

Geez, dude, don't troll.

Shava

Neat, first time Iv been called a troll.. Go me!

Anyways I was just curious as to where the facts come from...   Yea. Im a troll

Originally posted by Pietoro
The premise of the article is what's irritating to a lot of people... why the heck are you going around trying to hunt down any possible girls in your game anyway?

The majority of 'girl avatars that try to get free stuff' are just guys that know how to yank the chains of other desperate guys. It's hard enough to be taken seriously when you're a female gamer, most of us go out of our way NOT to mooch, because we get enough crap as it is just for being girls without buying into the demeaning charity a lot of guys think we need.

The REAL manipulative, golddigger type women, aren't playing MMOs.
They don't want your virtual +3 Sword of Uber, they're out in RL milking rich guys with Ferarris.

Instead of trying to find and flirt with every possible female (why else would you care so much to find out people's RL gender in a computer game?), just play the damn game and stop bothering them already.

Originally posted by Taike

Originally posted by 70nY
OR... Males can STOP using FEMALE Char. I wounder what real man would play video game as female and act like one..

Someone in vent told me: You are a faggot for playing SilkRoad.

The little voice in my head then proceeded to tell me:  In answer to your question and from my personal experience, a fat mexican DJ.

Originally posted by trix

 

---

Originally posted by Taike

Playing games for a few years and having some long-term online friends I've run into some trannies.
You know, after awhile you stop caring and say fuck it you duct-taped penis faggot.... LETS FUCKIN GET IT ON.
Good article though, I'll put this test to the use and next time I see puffy pants ILL MIND FUCK THE SHIT OUT OF HIM into submission.
All this shit aside, AJ... I love you. You make good article and make me proud to be korea. Fuck Robocop.
Puffypants... I'm gonna fuck the shit out of you.
In all seriousness, people will be what they want to be. So take the time to get to know them, if they are rocking... fuck them in the ass and callem puffy pants. AJ IM DIGGING YOU, PM ME FOR SOME SAIBOR ABOUT CHIXX WITH DIXX.

NIGGER OUT.

Btw, to all you "females" posting on this thread... we make sweet lovings now.

 

---

??

Originally posted by SirBongsAlot
LOL the topic shoulda read "How to Spot a Gender Bender" LOL sad very sad

Originally posted by Stradden
I want to step in here again and be clear. At no point does the author say that female gamers are second-class gamers. The fact of the matter is that some people, be they male or female, take advantage of others (who are generally male) through "being a girl".  It happens, and there are some players out there who will bend over backwards to help out another player if they think that player is female. It may be sad fact, but it's a reality of online gaming.

Female gamers, as has been stated numerous times in this thread, make up a much larger percentage of the online gaming community than many people realize. This article in no way takes away from that, in fact, at the end of the article, AJ is very clear about the fact that a female gamer doesn't  need any help.


This article was written with the intent to amuse and also to give a few tips to people who might be taken in by that particular type of scam. It is not meant as an endorsement of the activity itself.

Originally posted by mxmissile

gender faker == wanna be transvestite

no other way to put it

sad but true

always has been, always will be

nothing else to say

 

LOL! I think it's the other way around.

male IRL staring at his male avatars ass==wanna be transvestite or gay

nothing like staring at the perfect body of your choice, eh.

I only started to read the comments on this article because of the SWG dancing thing.  Others got to that first.  ~ I just want to say that SWG -WAS- one of the best games ever - too bad they killed it.  AO was great in it's day - I'm still waiting for the next game to give me that feeling again.  WOW just passes the time.

Anyway, I don't have any trouble with my female chars- Although I mostly solo these days.  I have no urge to know anything about the rl people behind the chars I do play with unless I already know them.  I quit a guild once cause the people kept talking about themselves in rl.

Everyone plays for different reasons - The more things a game has to offer, the more fun it is.  I like being able to team with cool people, and then when I'm bored doing repetitive missions alone, I like to read all the obnoxious people fighting on chat, hehe.

Originally posted by SirBongsAlot
LOL the topic shoulda read "How to Spot a Gender Bender" LOL sad very sad

No... that reply was very sad... err, lol.

Anyway, rumour has it there may be a LotRO Deed for dancing. There's one for being the target of a /hug emote for heaven's sake.

I figured this article was a badly researched pile of made up jokes. Being a charitable guy, I assume the author was trying for parody.

The dumbest most lamest excuse is saying they made a female av because they rather look at her ass then a male av. This is so stupid to give this excuse.

The reason a male would make a female is either he wants to get over other guys like it was said in the op or this male has female tendencies and wants to act out his feminine side.  Now, you won't get an male to admit this and rightly so but these bad "macho" studs who use females in games usually have limp wrists and it ain't due to the constant use of the mouse either.

I read this part about guys who run females in games and how they supposely are expressing female tendencies in a book a while back by some professor of human behavior, guy was from some major college in some southern state.  While I don't believe all guys who run females in game are like this I will believe many are in secret anyway.

"In MMOs, women are often given special treatment by their male counterparts in-game. Problem is, that pretty elf maiden you're "just trying to help out" could really be an elf lord in disguise. AJ gives us some pointers on how to spot a faker."

Or put another way:
AJ gives us some tips to make sure the players guys help in a MMO have a vagina in real life, and not a penis. This is important because if they find out that the girl is really a guy it might mean they instantly turn gay.

So what's the next article going to be MMORPG.com?

-Ways to make your male roleplaying full of testosterone?

-Ways to keep the little old misses in the MMORPG kitchen?

-Best way to say the word fag and have it understood in the right way?

Once again the MMORPG.com editorial staff has shown they put no thought into their writing and who it might actually affect. Bravo!

Originally posted by sololoco

The dumbest most lamest excuse is saying they made a female av because they rather look at her ass then a male av. This is so stupid to give this excuse.

The reason a male would make a female is either he wants to get over other guys like it was said in the op or this male has female tendencies and wants to act out his feminine side.  Now, you won't get an male to admit this and rightly so but these bad "macho" studs who use females in games usually have limp wrists and it ain't due to the constant use of the mouse either.

I read this part about guys who run females in games and how they supposely are expressing female tendencies in a book a while back by some professor of human behavior, guy was from some major college in some southern state.  While I don't believe all guys who run females in game are like this I will believe many are in secret anyway.

 

 

Of course, you are free to belive what you want. Dosent make it true though eh?

Lets get this straight, the artical isnt a daming piece on guys playing female avatars, you can do this honestly and openly, it's about guys who fake being girls. This has a lot more to do with the behaviour demonstarted. I have played female avatars, though I in no way adopt 'female' personality traits when I do so (to accept the existance of stereotypes and cliches for the sake of the point).

Why do I sometimes play female toons? Well, girl avatars usually *do* look cooler then male avatars, and anyhows it's nice to have a change. This is probably beacause the artists that drew them are usually guys and most male artists vastly enjoy drawing the female form, so I guess that explains why that's true.

Have you ever played Tomb Raider? Perfect Dark? Are the millions of guys who enjoyed playing these avatars fey represed homosexuals or transexuals (as you seem to infer guys playing female toons to be)? Noone even seems to question playing these games as a girl, but they seem to be hung up on MMORPGs. Again, this supports it all being about the behaviour shown and not the 'gender' of the avatar.

So, in short...

Guys playing girl toons is ok by me.

Guys pretending to be girls by exhibiting girly behaviour to gain stuff is just wrong, though part of me blames the sap for giving the stuff in the stupid hope they get a gamer GF rather then the gurl hinself.

I agree with allmost ewerything in the article... There aint many "real" girls in mmorpgs but theres plenty of fakers.I personally made a female character in silk road (cus all the guys looked so dumb) and levelled it to lvl 37, then went killing noobs and they were really humilitied (i dont know if that written right... ) "to be owned by a girl", but i didnt got any special treatment cus "i were a girl charakter".

Originally posted by sleepyguyftl

"In MMOs, women are often given special treatment by their male counterparts in-game. Problem is, that pretty elf maiden you're "just trying to help out" could really be an elf lord in disguise. AJ gives us some pointers on how to spot a faker."

Or put another way:
AJ gives us some tips to make sure the players guys help in a MMO have a vagina in real life, and not a penis. This is important because if they find out that the girl is really a guy it might mean they instantly turn gay.

So what's the next article going to be MMORPG.com?

-Ways to make your male roleplaying full of testosterone?

-Ways to keep the little old misses in the MMORPG kitchen?

-Best way to say the word fag and have it understood in the right way?

 

Once again the MMORPG.com editorial staff has shown they put no thought into their writing and who it might actually affect. Bravo!

(there has yet to be an MMO where you gain XP for dancing). 

Star Wars Galaxies has always allowed entertainers to gain XP from dancing.  That title has been out for years.  Dancing is one of the fastest ways to level a toon from 1-90 in the game.

---

4. Dancing
dancing is just tedious and distracting (there has yet to be an MMO where you gain XP for dancing).

---

I geuss the person that wrote this has never heard of SWG.  There was a whole profession based around dancing for XP.

I play Female Toons alot, I guess I just prefer to see a woman ass on the screen while I play 500+hours, something in me just says no to  looking at a buff guys butt, I'm not sure what that makes me but I'll keep playing Female toons.

Originally posted by johnnychangs
I have a funny story.

About 3 years ago, I was having a blast playing SWG on the Sunrunner server.  An online friend/guildie of mine...lets call him Bill...told us  over Teamspeak that he had a new "friend" ingame.  I met her ingame...lets call her Amy...an Entertainer of course...and she was very flirtatious and "girly".  Eventually Bill and Amy got married ingame, it was a big event, I was in the wedding party and everything.  As I mentioned before, my guild used Teamspeak, and it was an important tool for all of us.  We had a policy of mandatory Teamspeak for guild "hunts" and gatherings.  For some reason, Amy never joined us on Teamspeak.

One day, Amy mentioned in guild chat that she had a microphone and needed help setting up Teamspeak.  After a while, she connected, and spoke....
It sounded like a really bad voice pitch changer thing, and actually had some kind of feedback at times.  Those of us that were on Teamspeak were sending tells to each other ingame, wondering what the hell he/she was doing.

A few minutes later a good friend of mine logged on Teamspeak.  He was known to be very vocal and definitely not shy.  We all said hello, and after Amy said hello in her wierd robotic manly girl voice.  My buddy then said "What the hell is that...are you a dude trying to change your voice?"

Amy then logged off Teamspeak and quit the guild.  I didn't see her ingame ever agian.  Bill was sad in a wierd demented sort of way, and we kidded him about the whole incedent for quite some time after.

The end

I read somewhere recently that there is either a plugin or new feature for Teamspeak that allows you to modify your voice.  Good for guys like Amy, but creepy for the rest of us.

Why are there always articles about Males that play Female toons and not the other way around?, one reason is because the majority of the MMORPG trolls are men , second reason is because Men troll forums too rather than Women  .

But joke aside this article shouldnt be about making people that play oposite gender toons search their inner self and ask themselves if they have gay tendencies or not, it should just be taken as a heads up for all those naive enough to think that Real Woman would beg for coin and items in mmorpg's; no buds those are actually undercover freaks that seek easy gaigns . Women and honorable men that play Female toons wont Beg you for your hard earned coin, so now you know how to spot a cross-dressing-noob

And by the way if you do play an oposite gender character you shouldnt feel the need to justify yourselves to every guy that says : You're wrong.

I never thought twice about playing tomb raider and running around with a table strapped to the front of me - did you?

I'm not an orc in real life either (althought some sunday mornings it could be up for debate).

Don't fancy playing a girl myself, but i dont mind others doing so - makes the world that much more attractive :)

The XP for dancing line is a little worrying however, someone writing from a supposed position of knowledge really should of known this.

Originally posted by mxmissile

gender faker == wanna be transvestite

no other way to put it

sad but true

always has been, always will be

nothing else to say

 

I hate how people assume your character looks like you. FYI your character is not you. Are all the people who play tomb raider transvestites also? Even if a female characters owner is a female doesn't mean shes attractive in real life.

most female characters owners are males who think female characters are easier on the eye and have enough brain cells to release nobodies characters look like the owners in real life. I prefer playing both male and female characters, but it gets annoying playing female because of these idiots, and I sympathise for real girl players and reckon alot of them play male characters anyway. People who give virtual items to virtual characters in the belief thier owners are hot in real life and will "get" with them are IDIOTS, who I presume are mostly 12-15 years of age or still living in thier parents basement too shy to talk to girls in real life. I pity them.

Man I can't believe this thing is still going! lol   Honestly and those of you that even bother posting one line about SWG has dancing xp are .... just plane retarded.  Its obvious that her gaming examples are mostly from WOW, maybe she's not even played SWG.  

There's not alot of girl gamers in mmos?  Maybe you just dont know when you've met real females because they 1. don't tell you they are and 2 probably don't care you think they're  a guy I've certaintly never cared when people auto assume because i have a male dwarf that I'm a guy.   I'm not out to scam anyone im simplying playing a character and atleast people leave me alone.

Guys that play female toons acting out feminine / gay tendencies?  Maybe a select few but I'll vouche for guys for once and simply say its either 1 the hilariousness of playing a female that guys auto hit on because its female (thats usually why my best friend used to do it, we'd have a good chuckle when hanging out offline over the stuff people say) 2.  yea for some reason i dont understand it myself but they do like looking at that pixelated ass. 

There's no articles on why girls play guy toons or how to spot one because we don't go around scamming girls or rather most of us dont (i'm sure there's cases of it since we're human too and girls that scam guys are in my experience rare compared to guys that do it).  

Lighten up people seriously this is the 21st Century.

BTW: this is almost exactly the same as an article in PC gamer a while back.

Originally posted by Wobblebob

Quote: "There has yet to be an MMO that gives you XP for Dancing."

Dance Online gives you XP for dancing.

So did SWG, but I'm sure that's already been said.

Originally posted by elvenangel

 2.  yea for some reason i dont understand it myself but they do like looking at that pixelated ass. 

I disagree with many parts of the article itself, mostly because it seemed the only experience with MMO's was based on WoW. The female avatars in WoW are hardly even female as it is. They all have these Olive Oyl rubber band arms that can only be sexy to other cartoon characters. Males who enjoy playing sexy female avatars will not choose WoW as their game.

Also, the article made it seem like females have an edge when it comes to freebies. This may have been the case many years ago but nowadays females really don't get a whole lot of special favors any more due to the enlightenment in the past 5 years that any girl can be a dude. This article is at least 5-10 years old in its accuracy.

And another inaccuracy... There IS an MMO where you gain experience for dancing. A quite popular and successful one too. I'm sure most of our readers caught that too. I'm not gonna say which one because to the tens of thousands of players who played it, it's pretty obvious.

I've played with some very close friends for over a year and the whole time they were convinced I was a female. And not because I'm feminine, but because my character was. She wasn't flirty or trashy, just bubbly, fun and happy. I broke a lot of hearts of men that truly thought I was female. They never even thought to ask me, and if they did, I would have told them the truth, but the subject never even came up. I've played 3 long term games now and in all 3 it took over a year for my friends to even care what my sex was. they just assumed I was female.

What's funny about these responses is first, the number of guys who admit they have female characters, on occasion I do to but I give them obvious names (like TimeDrag) and role play smoking a cigar while lighting a match of my "leg beard". I usually make the females after running through all the male alterations a game offers, I like playing every race and class type and having them all look the same just has no immagination. You did kind of mess up on one point with the names part, usually guys who are out to use other guys have sex based names, actually IRL I would use another term for the names but it'd get my post deleted, toss in some 69's and you got a faker.

The second amusing aspect is all the girls who get offended about how females get treated, the article isn't about real girls ladies, it's about guys acting out the fantasies of little boys who've never gotten any. Of course they get treated differently, you're not out there slinging it around like a tramp so of course you're not being followed by a bunch of drooling virgin sycophants. The article is actually exposing the very people who (in the author's view) make all female players look bad.

There is another side of this coin too, I've seen females RP guys as well (and usually better than the female fakers, though sometimes a bit too much scratching). Some do it because they want to see how guys treat guys, one young lady did it because she wanted to see if her boyfriend was cheating on her thinking he would admit it to another guy where he wouldn't tell a female toon. She only fessed up to me after I threatened her male toon for talking about her real female char in a derogatory manner (again stuff I can't print here).

The worst side of the female fakers though wasn't included in this article, that's those freaks who like to play female to cyber little boys. I've seen a number of them, one guy who was older than me (I'm 49) RPing a teenage girl to entice teenage boys, and even try meeting with them. I wont say how he was caught since I don't want to compromise any investigations but if a girl is too willing and sleasy it's a good chance she's a he. We also caught a 12 year old boy doing the same thing, needless to say his father was very surprised to hear that he had a daughter when the sysop called his house... (don't need to take that picture much further than that). Just watch who you're dealing with and who you send those "intimate" pictures too, or you may wind up the next big thing on some freak perv site.

EDIT: I'm too Dee Dee Dee to be able to delete this, sorry.

Urgh all the bigotry and homophobia on these boards makes me sick. Theres a valuable lesson to be learnt here: Next time you think having sex with a sibling is a great idea, use a condom. Spare the world a few morons.

There is something else that has come to mind.  I don't have a problem with a male playing female avatar, or even with a female playing a male avatar, I don't even care why they do it, if they like watching a avatar of the oppisite sex (though I personaly believe that from my experince, the male avatars aren't really that great looking) or because they like the armor selection better, or for RP reasons. 

What I really don't like is when someone who is not a newbie (or new to the game), someone who knows what their doing, and probably has a high level toon, capable of doing grinding of their own, either male or female, acts like they don't know what there doing, just to get free stuff for their low level toon.  That is what I find wrong. 

So if some guy, who is new to the game, thinks he needs to play a female avatar, and act like a female in RL, just to get more help, which I am not denying is most likely true, while decifing if still wrong in mine mind, that is their choose, but I think it's wrong to act like you need the help, when you know you don't. 

I don't want to be decifed by anyone, male or female.

Sexist article imho.

I’ been online gaming since the BBS era back in the 1980s. I’ve seen no difference between male and female.

The author points out a very important issue, namely the sexism in games, however the author seems to step in its own trap.

I almost always play female avatars. And I'm male. Dunno why. Be it to break gender stereotypes, gender oriented issues or just plain that I don't like male avatars. The author seems to put that as a problem. Are one supposed to play the sex you have in real life? Aren't you allowed to play your opposite gender? The problem is NOT that the "pretty elf maiden" you're trying to help out is an elf lord in disguise. The problem is that people are being treated after what gender they have. In fact, the problem is that females are supposed to be "pretty maidens" treated as damsels in distress and males lords with big muscles and fat armor.

 I find it very tedious when people overplay the gender, as in WoW's DArk Elf dance. Why does women always need to be sexualized and objectified? Just look at the armor. Male armor are bulky and cover the whole body. The female equivalent hardly covers the nipples, but still is supposed to be called "heavy" armor at some times?

Another thing that bothers me is that some people get angry when they find out that I'm a male playing female. First they believe I'm queer. Well, wouldn't have a problem with that, but they mean it in a bad way unfortunately. The majority of games are very heteronormative and the community is very hostile against homosexuality in general. Another reason why they get mad is that they feel I've tricked them. But why do they need to treat females different then males? Are females more in need of free loot more than males? No. Am I exploiting the unwritten gender codes by playing an avatar with opposite gender? No, it's not my fault they try to be "chivalrous". For me, chivalry is just another act of sexism.

As the author points out, some play avatars just to get free stuff from others, exploiting the sexist ideals that some people seem to live by. Well, boo hoo, but I think they deserve it, treating females as lesser beings...

Edit: where do I delete this?

Presume everyone is male until you hear otherwise on teamspeak.  Everyone wins with this solution, as women can avoid the "special treatment" and you don't chat up a guy.

Originally posted by Deady

Presume everyone is male until you hear otherwise on teamspeak.  Everyone wins with this solution, as women can avoid the "special treatment" and you don't chat up a guy.

oh sick guide, really..very nice techniques for spotting fakes (even though me and a few friends made a guide like this a few years back and it was about the same)..i skimmed through the previous parts..and didn't see a poll...so...

Edit: argh I pressed "Enter" by accident" and sent the poll before I was done

Originally posted by Sinkael
You know what bothers me the most about this article?

The fact that the author will be praised for such a poor editorial, she will be rewarded by the MMORPG.com staff because of the massive response the article has garnered. This is a terrible act, it will promote more articles with half facts and full out fallacies. My understanding is that MMORPG.com was a news sites, I assumed it would follow some traditional journalistic standards, such as fact checking the accuracy of posted articles. However, the more articles I read the more I have come to the conclusion that MMORPG.com is not much more then a fancy blog willing to post any opinion as fact as long as it is written at a high school level of comprehension.

I challenge you, MMORPG.com, to raise your standards and start screening your writers and at the very least do some basic fact checking and start labeling editorials, such as this one, as opinion pieces.

I have a friend who plays a lot of Guild Wars.

He and his little gang of mates love it.

Micky, however plays a woman.

Since we have all known eachother for decades, I always ask him why he doesn't use teamspeak. Save on the typing

He maintains that no one knows he is a bloke. And that he will only join TS if I can find him a voice synthesiser so that he can sound like a woman.

Which is quite bizare since he doesn't use one on the phone to us. Or dress like a woman when we all play together in the same room.

I'm sexist. I prefer to play with girls.

I like girly girls. Pink knickers and all the rest. Mostly I find geezerwomen easy to spot. but some still manage to fool me. The other girls are pretty good at outting ringers. In the end if the person telling me about their bondage fantasies turns out to be a bloke, (one did and even came to visit me 6 months later when it turned out he worked in the area)....I don't think it matters too much.

Kinky talk and webcam voyeurism is about as far as I am willing to go anyway. Not much chance of anyone getting pregnant.

My ultimate nightmare is when the girl who I am stalking turns out to be 15. Frankly I'm more comfortable chatting up a fat bloke.

Originally posted by Sinkael  My understanding is that MMORPG.com was a news sites, I assumed it would follow some traditional journalistic standards, such as fact checking the accuracy of posted articles.

Wow this article is most certainly the most ignorant article i've ever read on a gamesite. The writer of the article must be very young and has probably never had a close relationship with a real girl.

Just a few facts I hope guys will take more seriously then the writer of this article.

1. Girl gamers are pretty much gamers. We come in all kinds and sorts, we can be friendly and sweet or plain assholes just like men.

2. We are not from another planet.

People's gender is probably the last thing I care about when playing, I'm more focused on whether we play well together or screw up a lot. I play both male and female characters. My casters are always female, I think it's because, to me, male characters look silly in robes. All my melee characters (which is usually what I prefer to play) are male, because they generally look more intimidating.

lmao

wow this article generated quite a bit of serious minded responses for one that was oh so obviously "tongue-in-cheek".

WTG to the author --- got alllll kinds of attention! Lmao!

Ah the irony of a female *assuming you are lol* generalising over the behaviour of other females.

Thanks I needed that to remind me women are indeed as bad as men when it comes to being one eyed.

And thats my generalisation for the day

Originally posted by Shana77

 

<snip>

2. We are not from another planet.

Originally posted by Darthus

Originally posted by Sinkael
You know what bothers me the most about this article?

The fact that the author will be praised for such a poor editorial, she will be rewarded by the MMORPG.com staff because of the massive response the article has garnered. This is a terrible act, it will promote more articles with half facts and full out fallacies. My understanding is that MMORPG.com was a news sites, I assumed it would follow some traditional journalistic standards, such as fact checking the accuracy of posted articles. However, the more articles I read the more I have come to the conclusion that MMORPG.com is not much more then a fancy blog willing to post any opinion as fact as long as it is written at a high school level of comprehension.

I challenge you, MMORPG.com, to raise your standards and start screening your writers and at the very least do some basic fact checking and start labeling editorials, such as this one, as opinion pieces.

I would like to point out that you're somewhat contradicting yourself. You say that this is such a poor editorial. Here is the definition of an editorial:

1. an article in a newspaper or other periodical presenting the opinion of the publisher, editor, or editors.

You then proceed to bash the piece for not being factual or "accurate" enough for you. It's obviously a tongue in cheek opinion piece. There may be pieces of info in there that someone could use to actually spot a faker on an MMO. That is beside the point. It was posted as an entertaining piece of feature content, and from all accounts on here (and the almost 200 comments) it did exactly that. If someone took this as a GameFaqs.com factual guide, I believe that is their own fallacy.

I challenge you to relax a bit, enjoy a fun piece of writing on an interesting topic and move on with your life.

Originally posted by KLPinAZ
Try not to forget that there are actually female gamers- I'm one of them, and I get so irritated when people assume I'm a guy in a female avatar- or demand that I prove my gender by providing my websites, my email address, etc.  Once while I was playing DDO, I got on the mic, and everyone in the party went bananas when they heard my voice.  From there on out I started getting all kinds of questions as to whether I was single.... I'm not, but that's not the point.  I was playing the game to play, not to date.  And that's the important thing right there.  Once you find out I'm female, continue to treat me just like Joe Schmoe standing next to you in the party. 

Originally posted by Drakonus

Originally posted by Deady

Presume everyone is male until you hear otherwise on teamspeak.  Everyone wins with this solution, as women can avoid the "special treatment" and you don't chat up a guy.

LOL...good idea, best I've heard yet.  I do that anyway, but finally someone said it...LOL.

Originally posted by KLPinAZ
Try not to forget that there are actually female gamers- I'm one of them, and I get so irritated when people assume I'm a guy in a female avatar- or demand that I prove my gender by providing my websites, my email address, etc.  Once while I was playing DDO, I got on the mic, and everyone in the party went bananas when they heard my voice.  From there on out I started getting all kinds of questions as to whether I was single.... I'm not, but that's not the point.  I was playing the game to play, not to date.  And that's the important thing right there.  Once you find out I'm female, continue to treat me just like Joe Schmoe standing next to you in the party. 

I'm sorry to hear that, but what do you expect? there are very few real female gamers and lots of idiot male players alot of them desperate tbh. Just put on a gruff voice, see how long you can fake being male, or they wont leave you alone just say something off putting like "I'm fat", "i dont shave my legs" etc. and you'll never get bothered again. (i know you shouldn't have too)

Originally posted by Consensus

Originally posted by KLPinAZ
Try not to forget that there are actually female gamers- I'm one of them, and I get so irritated when people assume I'm a guy in a female avatar- or demand that I prove my gender by providing my websites, my email address, etc.  Once while I was playing DDO, I got on the mic, and everyone in the party went bananas when they heard my voice.  From there on out I started getting all kinds of questions as to whether I was single.... I'm not, but that's not the point.  I was playing the game to play, not to date.  And that's the important thing right there.  Once you find out I'm female, continue to treat me just like Joe Schmoe standing next to you in the party. 

I'm sorry to hear that, but what do you expect? there are very few real female gamers and lots of idiot male players alot of them desperate tbh. Just put on a gruff voice, see how long you can fake being male, or they wont leave you alone just say something off putting like "I'm fat", "i dont shave my legs" etc. and you'll never get bothered again. (i know you shouldn't have too)

@Consensus Actually there's a good number of real female players, not everyone is a fake. I've met a good number of female players and am still good friends with them (of course, I'm not hitting on them, I'm married and view one woman as more than enough trouble for any man)

@ KLPinAZ that's part of life, you're not exactly standing in front of people like you do in real life where they can gawk at your chest and never know the color of your eyes  You seem to be on two sides of the street with this though, on one hand you're upset because they don't automatically assume you're a real female, and on the other hand you want them to treat you like "one of the boys". Well as one of the boys myself I can tell you that they're a mix of dirty old men out to see your tater tots and drooling virgins, also out to do the same. If you want a man to act the way you want him to act you're just going to have to train one yourself, like my wife did... hey! she did what?!?!

You can marry in any game, people been RPing it since text only and I've presided over a few myself

Dearly beloved, we are gathered here this day to join this unholy bloodthirsty maniac with this unsuspecting dude...

I guess I'm a tad po'd at the title of "Gender faker" primarily because being that I am transgendered this generally smacks of a hostile attitude toward folks like myself. Oddly, I "came out" through MMOs, being that I generally played the gender I felt the most congruent toward, yet I didn't pull off the *tee hee* crap, I just acted like myself. Most of the time folks thought I was the gender of my character generally because I kept silent most of the time and really disliked the unwanted attention, I usually was the one that would verbally kick the #@%^& of someone for trying to 'court' me. In the end, this "gender faker" stuff is partly bunk due to that I know some female gamers that are fairly stereo-typical in behavior, maybe not to the level of *tee hee*, but definitely they did not want to be considered men with female avatars, and usually were offended by such claims. Oddly, those males that did have female avatars had no issue with stating that they were in fact males in real life unless they were RPers, which they separated the persona of their character from their own real life persona (and made it clear too).

In the end, when I see articles like this, I have to laugh, but I still think it's fairly demeaning to be an idiot and assume people who have an non-congruent avatar to their biological sex are 'fakers' is not only a stretch, it's PnT BS show to-be-debunked material.

-- Brede

Originally posted by ladyattis

I guess I'm a tad po'd at the title of "Gender faker" primarily because being that I am transgendered this generally smacks of a hostile attitude toward folks like myself. Oddly, I "came out" through MMOs, being that I generally played the gender I felt the most congruent toward, yet I didn't pull off the *tee hee* crap, I just acted like myself. Most of the time folks thought I was the gender of my character generally because I kept silent most of the time and really disliked the unwanted attention, I usually was the one that would verbally kick the #@%^& of someone for trying to 'court' me. In the end, this "gender faker" stuff is partly bunk due to that I know some female gamers that are fairly stereo-typical in behavior, maybe not to the level of *tee hee*, but definitely they did not want to be considered men with female avatars, and usually were offended by such claims. Oddly, those males that did have female avatars had no issue with stating that they were in fact males in real life unless they were RPers, which they separated the persona of their character from their own real life persona (and made it clear too).

In the end, when I see articles like this, I have to laugh, but I still think it's fairly demeaning to be an idiot and assume people who have an non-congruent avatar to their biological sex are 'fakers' is not only a stretch, it's PnT BS show to-be-debunked material.

-- Brede

Ouch...not to come across as being crass here and I think most would agree that this particular article was not meant to be slanderous towards transgendered/transsexual people at all.  Am I wrong here folks?   I mean technically you read the title and assumed that this article was aimed at people like yourself when clearly it was not.   If you look beyond the seriousness of your personal issue and understood what the aritcle was about you'd see the author did not intend this to be an article that was intended to hurt others that are transgendered.   It is about "guys" that play female avatars to take advantage of the very nature of how "guys" wish to gain favors of the opposite sex by showering them with gifts - in MMORPG's it is loot and stuff.   Now you didn't devulge what gender you are congruent toward...I am assuming it is female.   If it is and I am correct and you are female...then this article was clearly not aimed at you at all.   Am I mistaken in this line of thought?   You do identify with my gender - right ?  So if you are female and this article is written about guys that play female avatars to take advantage of other guys then clearly this article was not aimed at you - correct?

I can understand why you'd be a little upset with the title though and do sympathize with the issue you are having to deal with, but sometimes it is best to step back count to 10 and think for a second about something clearly.    ::sighs::  If you read the poll I placed on this forum you'd see that a huge majority of people could careless about the gender of the person behind the avatar.  What most seem to get upset over is when a "guy" playing a female avatar does it to take advantage of the natural tendencies of men to help women.   So see...nobody here thinks any less of you - they better not.   You can't help how you were born anymore then little Billy walking on the other side of the street across from you who has autism.    OK.   I really don't think the author intended it to come across as you preceived it.

This article was repulsive. As a reputable gaming community site, I can't believe that MMORPG.com would allow such blatant sexual discrimination to be plastered across their board.

 We're always violent?

We always complain?

 If we like pink we're a guy?

 Ugh, this article is ripe with unobjective connotations, leading me to think the author sybered some hot Night Elf he later found out was a guy. This is purely revenge, and it's pungent. This is perhaps the most maligned article I've read regarding gaming and gender that not only insults females, but also any male with half a brain. Why do you CARE if the girl you're playing with might be a guy if you have no intention of doing anything remotely sexual with them?

 As a female gamer, yes, I get called honey, hot stuff, sexy, and I hear all kinds of remarks that have a sexual undertone, but I can laugh about it, I'm a cartoon, it's a social environment, and we're playing a game. I would be doubly offended if one of these guys accused me of being a male because I said "Tee hee" as the author states as a dead giveaway. The author is essentially presenting a LOAD of misinformation that will cause many girl gamers, or even girl avatars to be ostracsized based purely on SUSPECTED gender, motivated by this dreck. Gender has NO REAL BASIS in gameplay anyhow, given each one of our avatars are equally balanced. Games are skill based, not gender based as the author seems to prefer.

 I, for one, will not be reading anymore articles by this author, whose opinions are nothing more than antoginistic and ripe with sexual agenda.  It's bad enough, as women who enjoy gaming on the same level as men, must thrive in an industry that is male dominated, and beforced to appear as hypersexual vixens, running around and and shaking our goods. It's everywhere from Lineage 2 to World Of Warcraft, which essentially douse the male avatars in so much armor they can barely be seen. These developers overtly dictate the female appearance, and yes, it is often to an extreme.  (Anyone who has played WOW is familiar with the Succubus who runs around snapping a whip and moaning.) There is so much hyspersexualization when it comes to the femal form in gaming that it's no wonder it breeds self-superior minds like the author of this article. 

 I am convinced beyond a doubt that this man was folled by someone inhabiting a female avatar and has taken out his agression here in public by slandering ALL female avatar players, be they male, female, or transgendered. That MMORPG.com would propogate this agenda is sickening. We need a counter article, preferable written by a woman to put this guy in his place. 

Ummm Phaylen...did you not read the first post in this thread.   Maybe I should quote it for you.  "Today, new MMORPG.com Staff Writer AJ Glasser writes "her" first piece for us. In MMOs, women are often given special treatment by their male counterparts in-game. "

Do you people that read these articles have any level of reading comprehension whatsoever?  I am a female gamer and I'm seriously wondering what all the fuss is about.  

Wow.

No, I only noted the name, AJ Glasser, and the article.

It's even more disturbing a woman would write such an inauthentic piece of garbage. (which is why I presume 99% of the participants in this thread refer to the author as "he" or "him"

You know it's funny but reading the complaints people seem to just skim over an article then declare it as sexist, or gay bashing without bothering to really read the damn thing. There is absolutely nothing bashing gays, or sexist about the article. Not one of you whining about it has posted a single quote from it or said exactly what you thought was offensive.

For those of you who are gay, tell me, where in the article does it say anything about guys dressing as girls being gay? The article was about those who use it to sucker other guys out of money or items, not sexual orientation. Later comments BY SOME POSTERS are about child molesters who also abuse this, and if you have a problem with people not liking that form of abuse you can shove it. Some of you just seem bent on being straight bashing hypocrites.

If you want to claim it's sexist because it uses generalizations about the way males and females act then you obviously haven't been exposed to the world very much. We have some areas where we all cross over but even the biggest flamer out there will still, on occasion, act like a typical man, and even the butchest tomboy will act like a typical female, if you want to try and claim otherwise you're a hypocrite and a liar. I have friends on every side of this little coin, straight and gay, male and female and seen enough with my own eyes to know better.

I think the article was amusing and light hearted, if you got bent out of shape over it you came into it already bent.

Originally posted by SeanSPS
Phaylen, I give you three cheers, or something. I loved your post.

As a response the the previous:
    I never said the article was gay bashing at all, I merely pointed out that some would argue that men playing as women in MMOs stereotype women and that it is degrading. Well, straight guys also stereotype us gay guys, and that's degrading too, so  I really don't see why people should use that as a excuse to complain about "gender-fakers." The bigger issue is the fact that the image of women portrayed is all about sex.

    But whatever, this article isn't about us queers, I was merely making a comparison.

The comment wasn't about just one person but about a number of the posts in this thread. Personally I don't see her stereotyping women, she says what is common, not that every woman does the same or acts like what she said, instead she points out that the fakers overdo the stereotype. She's also not attacking every gender swapper out there, just giving a tongue in cheek guideline. Some people abuse gender swapping for gain or nefarious use, it's given those that do it for RP or other purposes a bad rap over the years. You should also remember that some people are complete and utter newbs not only to games and the internet but life itself, they need things explained to them before they get themselves in trouble.

You're right that some people will complain about gender swappers, but those same people will complain about anything, they're the same grumps that grow up to be a grumpy old gumby yelling and muttering at everyone they see . Some just sit here in the forums looking for anything to attack, be it the article, or the swappers, doesn't matter, they'll just grump, the article (IMO) was meant to be lighthearted and something to laugh about, try rereading it in that light.

How anyone can claim this article was done tongue in cheek is beyond me. Claiming women are always violent, use stupid emotes and dance seductively to assert their femininity and "Pretend" to be females to gain gifts and allowances from male player is the only attack made in this entire thread. No, in fact, the attack that motivated this entire thread to begin with. The author was grossly negligent in her journalism, presenting a manipulated verson of her perspective of Female Avatars and their players, and misrepresenting herself as a source of information with which to tell the difference between the gender portrayed and the character player.

 Saying all those opposed "skimmed" the article and are making empty arguments are merely endorsing a very damaging mindset in the gaming community. It's not just damaging to women, but anyone who inhabits female avatar. The information provided is divisive to the community, it's extremely inaccurate and yet presented as legitimate on a reputable gaming site. I think gamers should be concerned, absolutely, and question the journalistinc integrity of this "Gaming site." No I don't think those who oppose this article are "Trolls," I think they are valid voices within the community who have a worthwhile perspective that deserves as MUCH (If not entirely more) consideration as the original author of the artical who has no more merit than the average poster here at these forums.

 To write an article that essentially bashes women, accuses most of them as being Men, hurls every stereotype in the book (We do our nails while playing...  we're always violent... Did you people saying we skimmed the article not see this yourselves?) and presents this maligned information to the community via MMORPG shows nothing more than a lack of journalistic responsibility.

 I can take a joke. As stated, I laugh when hit on in the game. I'm a cartoon character. I have a sense of humor. I get sarcasm. Nothing in this article wrung of sarcasm, but instead of a scornful agenda by a sexist author. This wasn't funny to me. This was offensive to any female, or really any individual who plays a female character with the intention it is intended to serve. The goal of the game. This article serves to pigeonhole female avatars based entirely on gender portrayed, and if the author is indeed a female, she obviously has no self respect to speak of thinking an article like this is remotely funny. 

 I'm an adult. I enjoy recreation gaming. Gender in games I remain oblivious too. It's a non issue and should remain so. Your credibility should be based on your skill as a player, your reputation earned as a player of integrity. This is certainly not even considered in this article. Instead, it comes off like a man who found out his in game lover was a man and is upset about it. Perhaps it is a woman who lost her in game boyfriend to another man. Regardless, all one can do is speculate on the reasons that would motivate ANYONE, man, woman or furry - WHATEVER - to write such an undignified, inappropriate list of sexist slurs based on game content. It's nothing more than dispicable.

 It is what it is, what it is not is enjoyable reading, in my personal opinion. It is not genuine game related information, in my opinion. Nor does such a form of sexual/gender misguidance belong on a game related website that focuses on community and development. No matter what way you color it, this article was in the poorest taste possible.

 This article, sure it was about women, but does that make it okay? In this thread alone other minorities have taken great offense to it's maligned bit of non-information. Why? Because it's damaging to the community as an entirity. No different than as if it had been written about any singled out culture, or anyone of a specific color, sexual orientation or whatever. This article represents intolerance, period, it breeds divisiveness in the community and fosters an inaccurate ideal of how a Female Avatar is represented in a virtual environment.  Simply put, it's worng, and these damaging stereotypes and misleading "tidbits of gender identification"  should not be perpetuated on a legitimate site. End of story.

Lol i personally found the article funny. Some of it was actually true and some of it was... ehh..

Bc one there is such a thing as too much pink. I always go for the armor that looks the coolest.

I never ever say *Tee Hee* It just sounds stupid.

Stripper names... Well idk i go for names that sound cool or are original. I would never create an account that is named Sweetstuff888 It's just asking for trouble.

Why I am logging off is none of your damn business.

If i am moody then it is simply because you are probably annoying me

How my day was is really none of your busniess either. Unless you're actually my friend on a game or irl

I don't need your free stuff either. I'd rather get it myself. Period.

(there has yet to be an MMO where you gain XP for dancing)

Originally posted by phaylen

How anyone can claim this article was done tongue in cheek is beyond me. Claiming women are always violent, use stupid emotes and dance seductively to assert their femininity and "Pretend" to be females to gain gifts and allowances from male player is the only attack made in this entire thread. No, in fact, the attack that motivated this entire thread to begin with. The author was grossly negligent in her journalism, presenting a manipulated verson of her perspective of Female Avatars and their players, and misrepresenting herself as a source of information with which to tell the difference between the gender portrayed and the character player.

 Saying all those opposed "skimmed" the article and are making empty arguments are merely endorsing a very damaging mindset in the gaming community. It's not just damaging to women, but anyone who inhabits female avatar. The information provided is divisive to the community, it's extremely inaccurate and yet presented as legitimate on a reputable gaming site. I think gamers should be concerned, absolutely, and question the journalistinc integrity of this "Gaming site." No I don't think those who oppose this article are "Trolls," I think they are valid voices within the community who have a worthwhile perspective that deserves as MUCH (If not entirely more) consideration as the original author of the artical who has no more merit than the average poster here at these forums.

 To write an article that essentially bashes women, accuses most of them as being Men, hurls every stereotype in the book (We do our nails while playing...  we're always violent... Did you people saying we skimmed the article not see this yourselves?) and presents this maligned information to the community via MMORPG shows nothing more than a lack of journalistic responsibility.

 I can take a joke. As stated, I laugh when hit on in the game. I'm a cartoon character. I have a sense of humor. I get sarcasm. Nothing in this article wrung of sarcasm, but instead of a scornful agenda by a sexist author. This wasn't funny to me. This was offensive to any female, or really any individual who plays a female character with the intention it is intended to serve. The goal of the game. This article serves to pigeonhole female avatars based entirely on gender portrayed, and if the author is indeed a female, she obviously has no self respect to speak of thinking an article like this is remotely funny. 

 I'm an adult. I enjoy recreation gaming. Gender in games I remain oblivious too. It's a non issue and should remain so. Your credibility should be based on your skill as a player, your reputation earned as a player of integrity. This is certainly not even considered in this article. Instead, it comes off like a man who found out his in game lover was a man and is upset about it. Perhaps it is a woman who lost her in game boyfriend to another man. Regardless, all one can do is speculate on the reasons that would motivate ANYONE, man, woman or furry - WHATEVER - to write such an undignified, inappropriate list of sexist slurs based on game content. It's nothing more than dispicable.

 It is what it is, what it is not is enjoyable reading, in my personal opinion. It is not genuine game related information, in my opinion. Nor does such a form of sexual/gender misguidance belong on a game related website that focuses on community and development. No matter what way you color it, this article was in the poorest taste possible.

 This article, sure it was about women, but does that make it okay? In this thread alone other minorities have taken great offense to it's maligned bit of non-information. Why? Because it's damaging to the community as an entirity. No different than as if it had been written about any singled out culture, or anyone of a specific color, sexual orientation or whatever. This article represents intolerance, period, it breeds divisiveness in the community and fosters an inaccurate ideal of how a Female Avatar is represented in a virtual environment.  Simply put, it's worng, and these damaging stereotypes and misleading "tidbits of gender identification"  should not be perpetuated on a legitimate site. End of story.

So are you saying i should feel offended or that i hate myself in some way because i agree with the EDITORIAL?  I think some people are just too easily offended which just makes things worse.   The article is light hearted in the fact it pokes fun at the way people who pretend to be a gender they are not (for a malicious purpose) often using the most common generalized if not sexist view of female behavior and then pointed out those things using her own general (or personal) view of female behavior.   She doesn't once say this is how all women are, or behaviors are locked into this box of types.  She simply offers examples in an attempt to enlighten people who have a hard time accepting that alot of female toons are DUDES and then complain about being cheated.  

Does it offend me? No because I'm not a damn thing like  the general female thats used as an example for the article.  Would I be if i was? Probably not because I honestly don't care, hell I've played with female toons for days and didn't even realize till they invited me to a guild they are actual females like me, because it wasn't important to me. 

Its online/fantasy/aka NOT REAL if someone wants to claim I'm a guy because I do or don't do these things or act a certain way then let them.   I've met female gamers that have acted nothing like this article points out, I've met once that match it, I've met ones that I thought was a guy because of their overly stereotyped feminine behavior but were they trying to be malicious and get something out of me? No.   But I know of ones that have done this to male guildmates in the game. 

Its an editorial its not supposed to be some super tell all factual based peice of information.   Its taken from her perspective and experience while playing WoW or other mmos.   I dont believe this article hurts the community, what hurts the community are people pretending to be somethign they're not for a malicious purpose, whiners, elitists, and easily offended rampagers quick to light fires for little reason other than they disagree.

Originally posted by phaylen

How anyone can claim this article was done tongue in cheek is beyond me. Claiming women are always violent, use stupid emotes and dance seductively to assert their femininity and "Pretend" to be females to gain gifts and allowances from male player is the only attack made in this entire thread. No, in fact, the attack that motivated this entire thread to begin with. The author was grossly negligent in her journalism, presenting a manipulated verson of her perspective of Female Avatars and their players, and misrepresenting herself as a source of information with which to tell the difference between the gender portrayed and the character player.

 Saying all those opposed "skimmed" the article and are making empty arguments are merely endorsing a very damaging mindset in the gaming community. It's not just damaging to women, but anyone who inhabits female avatar. The information provided is divisive to the community, it's extremely inaccurate and yet presented as legitimate on a reputable gaming site. I think gamers should be concerned, absolutely, and question the journalistinc integrity of this "Gaming site." No I don't think those who oppose this article are "Trolls," I think they are valid voices within the community who have a worthwhile perspective that deserves as MUCH (If not entirely more) consideration as the original author of the artical who has no more merit than the average poster here at these forums.

 To write an article that essentially bashes women, accuses most of them as being Men, hurls every stereotype in the book (We do our nails while playing...  we're always violent... Did you people saying we skimmed the article not see this yourselves?) and presents this maligned information to the community via MMORPG shows nothing more than a lack of journalistic responsibility.

 I can take a joke. As stated, I laugh when hit on in the game. I'm a cartoon character. I have a sense of humor. I get sarcasm. Nothing in this article wrung of sarcasm, but instead of a scornful agenda by a sexist author. This wasn't funny to me. This was offensive to any female, or really any individual who plays a female character with the intention it is intended to serve. The goal of the game. This article serves to pigeonhole female avatars based entirely on gender portrayed, and if the author is indeed a female, she obviously has no self respect to speak of thinking an article like this is remotely funny. 

 I'm an adult. I enjoy recreation gaming. Gender in games I remain oblivious too. It's a non issue and should remain so. Your credibility should be based on your skill as a player, your reputation earned as a player of integrity. This is certainly not even considered in this article. Instead, it comes off like a man who found out his in game lover was a man and is upset about it. Perhaps it is a woman who lost her in game boyfriend to another man. Regardless, all one can do is speculate on the reasons that would motivate ANYONE, man, woman or furry - WHATEVER - to write such an undignified, inappropriate list of sexist slurs based on game content. It's nothing more than dispicable.

 It is what it is, what it is not is enjoyable reading, in my personal opinion. It is not genuine game related information, in my opinion. Nor does such a form of sexual/gender misguidance belong on a game related website that focuses on community and development. No matter what way you color it, this article was in the poorest taste possible.

 This article, sure it was about women, but does that make it okay? In this thread alone other minorities have taken great offense to it's maligned bit of non-information. Why? Because it's damaging to the community as an entirity. No different than as if it had been written about any singled out culture, or anyone of a specific color, sexual orientation or whatever. This article represents intolerance, period, it breeds divisiveness in the community and fosters an inaccurate ideal of how a Female Avatar is represented in a virtual environment.  Simply put, it's worng, and these damaging stereotypes and misleading "tidbits of gender identification"  should not be perpetuated on a legitimate site. End of story.

Oh for crying out loud take a pill. Your little argument here makes no sense at all and shows me all too well that you didn't bother to read the damn thing, you're just here spewing a bunch of ignorant hate acting like a self righteous moron. I'm not even going to read all of this drivel because I can tell that from your first and last comments.

No where in the article does it say women are always violent, the article isn't even about women you brain dead excuse for a life form, it's about guys who pretend to be females to try and sucker other guys. Both your comments in that field show just how freaking ignorant and full of manure you are.

I wont bother responding to any of your other drivel since I'm sure it will be as laden with outright lies and misinformation as you can muster with that empty wanna be a lawyer head of yours. You're just another hater posing as the righteous, Go crawl back under your soap box

EDIT: Oh and just to be clear about why I say YOU'RE being sexist is you choose to attack a woman for writing an open and honest article about guys who gender swap to abuse it (not RP, not out of sexual preference but to abuse it)

AJ You did a great job, keep it up

Wow, Timeviewer, I could probably respond to your post, but when I saw it degrade into a really unnecessary form of personal attack, I can't see discussing or debating the topic with you further. You have shown you level of intengrity through your own actions, no help needed.

 I agree with BanthaFodder regarding the EQ2 Elves. I think the males there are really beautiful, and quite easily mistaken for a female much of the time. I think EQ2, along with DAoC is one of the rare games that didnt hypersexualize the female Avatar- I played a little white Ratonga named wendy and really enjoyed it (Prior to one of SOE's famous "combat revamps").

Originally posted by phaylen

Wow, Timeviewer, I could probably respond to your post, but when I saw it degrade into a really unnecessary form of personal attack, I can't see discussing or debating the topic with you further. You have shown you level of intengrity through your own actions, no help needed.

 I agree with BanthaFodder regarding the EQ2 Elves. I think the males there are really beautiful, and quite easily mistaken for a female much of the time. I think EQ2, along with DAoC is one of the rare games that didnt hypersexualize the female Avatar- I played a little white Ratonga named wendy and really enjoyed it (Prior to one of SOE's famous "combat revamps").

If the RL sex of the player in your group matters, you didn't understand the purpose of gaming!  Which is only to make fun.

At any rate, there will always be someone britghter, someone witht hat extra wit, to let you believe he/she is the other sex.

It matter not, let's get the xp machine started or I will quit your group! 

Originally posted by ladyattis

I guess I'm a tad po'd at the title of "Gender faker" primarily because being that I am transgendered this generally smacks of a hostile attitude toward folks like myself. ...

Flute, I think your post was brilliant! Essentially you have precisely summed up what most of the posters here intended to say, some not as eloquently.

 But- you play a Dwarf! You realize that to the pedophile age-players out there whose WoW dwarves and Gnomes= kiddiePorno, or to the little people of the world who inhabit the small Avatar, and to those of us who ONLY play with people who are RL short playing a short character, you're a height faker! Oh the injustices. How dare you be a big person playing a shortie McShort shorts on a video game flutie? Faker, faker faker! DECIEVER!

:P

<3

Phay

Originally posted by Flute

Originally posted by ladyattis

I guess I'm a tad po'd at the title of "Gender faker" primarily because being that I am transgendered this generally smacks of a hostile attitude toward folks like myself. ...

I expect that as with so many other things this article simply picked up and used the existing stereotypes without pausing to think at all about whether reinforcing them was a good idea.  The title "Gender faker" does inherently include the assumption that by playing a gender different to the player's own they are somehow "faking" (with an implication that doing so is "bad" and should be spotted) when these are role playing games, so the starting point is that an elven female avatar is a female elf, regardless of who is at the keyboard.  I wonder if the writer will explore that aspect in a follow-up article.

Rubbish stereotypes abound in MMORPGs, and have for a long time, for example in this response posted somewhere above in the thread:

In any MMO I automatically assume a female character is 'driven' by a male gamer, unless I learn otherwise. And often enough, the girls have some of the toughest chars I've met ingame and I find myself suprised to learn the gamer behind the char is a girl (or woman!) in real life.

So not only "if you play this game you must be male" which you have to disprove, but "if you are good you cannot be female" - which is complete and utter rubbish.  The most devastating combo I ever had in SWG space combat was myself and a RL friend (2 women) - we left a lot of pretty spakly Rebel spacedust for a while, and I expect that those we flew against would certainly have said "those guys were lethal".   We were - when flying as a team we never lost a fighter in PvP (inherently nimble ships, harvesting, master shipwright, reverse engineering and shopping skills for the win!  We had those ships tweaked down to the last few mass units).

And as for transgendered people, the only people I know are a successful artist (F), a top manager (M), a high-level advisor to the military (F), and a senior lawyer (F); they are all overachievers and are not "faking" anything, and they really do not fit the "television stereotypes" that most people have been spoon-fed by shows such as CSI New York or CSI Las Vegas.  I doubt many people would argue that there is not a background hostile attitude out there towards folks in the transgendered community still, I am sure that attitude is expressed in MMORPGs as in any other aspect of social life, possibly more so due to the youth-bias in that community.

For my own part the priest dwarven female is a "she", and I want her to heal me when my health bar is fast falling to nil - I don't really care whether it is some 60 year old guy from Michigan sitting a the keyboard or not, although it's usually not that hard to tell after a while.  And for me someone who was "MtF" is a she ("F") - she always was, having been set on that path before birth.  That there are people out there who might be both (M+F), neither, bit of each or just not sure yet in no way diminishes that they are all people, and if they are playing a priest etc in an MMORPG with me I want them to heal me anyway before my character hits the dust. 

Western societies are generally based on Yes/No dicotomy when biologically players are on complex interlinking spectra not a set of single dicotomies, so there are always going to be issues.  I can't remember seeing an MMORPG game where even the aliens were not built into a "male/female" dicotomy, despite various sci-fi novels having explored alternate biological models for aliens in admirable depth.  Possibly why Dorids are typically never playable - no gender, so it is harder for people to relate to the character.

Hate to go with a stereotype myself, but overall MMORPGs still seem to be very much mostly designed by guys for guys, and it is entirely unsurprising that the end result lends itself to things that are quite biased and promote stereotypes.  A couple of simple examples - if a WoW dawarven female "bounced" that much she would probably either promtly kill whoever made her support garments or never run for the pain, and WoW warlocks can only have scantily clad female succubi slapping themselves provocatively: there is no option for a female avatar to have a male succubus instead.  The best so far (until they killed it) was in my view SW:G which had such a range of dances and clothing that people could do as they pleased - you could be modest and dance elegantly if you wanted to, which was a refreshing change while it lasted (*mumbles something about NGE being a complete disaster*).

And for all you guys out there who swear by "prove it by Ventrillo" remember that really can be "faked".  A RL friend (M) of mine had a female character in one game where he shamelessly "worked it" for every single gold piece he could fleece off his guild mates, strangers, anyone.  They had a big guild meeting to "meet up" on Vent, so he just had his fiancee speak for him and forever more "she" was a "she for sure" to the guild.  Just goes to show that you should just play the game for what it is; if you get hung up on who is sitting at the keyboard behind the avatar you are hitting on or making possibly invalid assumptions about then your paranoia will get you eventually

"Yes, of course I'm an elf in real life!"
"No you're not, be gone from my presence, Tauren!".

Flute

Nice post but I think you missed the intent of the article, personally it doesn't matter to me who's behind the toon, but players, especially newer players, get suckered everyday. Usually this just amounts to said mark being relieved of cash and valuables, some kids, and even adults, don't have a clue that someone even would play a character other than their own gender to do this. On the darker, and usually unspoken, side of this is those who use it to meet with younger children.

While most older players already realize all this I'm sure some newbies have read this and walked away with a little more "street smarts" in their dealings with other players. Some may not like them being told at all. The article isn't attacking people just for playing another gender but rather exposing those who use it to abuse it.

You yourself exposed the fact that even the voice can be faked (one of the highest payed "female" phone sex operators was actually a guy, I remember seeing a show about him a number of years back), why should it be wrong for the article to do the same? I don't know if you have kids, or if you do if they're old enough to play, but if you did wouldn't you, as an experienced gamer yourself, tell them? I'm sure you would (at some point). Why then shouldn't there be an article for those who don't have someone there to tell them?

BTW I do agree that many games seem stereotyped towards males, When the 4th Coming was in beta that only had male puppets and no plans to add female, a woman I knew played and use to jokingly complain about having to walk funny because of something hanging between her legs. It wasn't until much much later, when they realized how many females actually played, they added female puppets. Many others either look like the girls guys would like to see in porn movies or (even creepier to me) little girls. Some games even force you into a particular sex depending on what class you want to play, 9 Dragons is a good example of that, there was another, the name escapes me at the moment, where if you wanted to be an elf you had to be female, all others were male.

Part of that is the designers and part of that is the culture where some games come from, female equality isn't exactly the norm on this planet. The only way that's really going to change is if the companies get hit in the pocket book, and that's unlikely since there will always be enough guys who will fork out money for a game just to watch that "bounce".

It would be nice to see a game a little more balanced and realistic with the puppets, but artists always like to show off, ego is part of being an artist. People have wanted a more fluid customization for years but the most we've seen so far is face/hair/height A-E.

A journalists most important work is to create a debate. AJ certainly did good here.

I went searching for facts on the net and found several market surveys with interesting information.

1. 30% of all players are girls. Take 3 players and one of them will be a girl !
2. Girls are much more likely to play MMO's than other games (the social aspect maybe). This means that the ratio of girls are actually more than the 30% (which was for all games). So it might look like it is closer to being 4 out of 10 are girls.

These numbers are measure every year by ELSPA, which is the UK producers association, and as far as I have the numbers back, this has been so.

It is said games are not a girls world, but MMO's just might become just that.

    I have to agree with this article, especially about names.  What  self-repecting woman would name herself, HonneyBunns, or Little Lover?  These are players on TIbia, I like see these guys and I always laugh and say get real dude!

Originally posted by sbowling
Is is just me, or have the articles on this site started to really suck lately? When you write such a stupid article, you should expect a bunch of stupid replies.

It's not just you...

Kalmenicus knows.

Funny. I read the OP but started ignoring the posts when they started flaming.

I thought I'd just mention a funny thing that occurred to me as I read this post. I play MMOs with my girlfriend. We've used teamspeak and vent in different MMOs over the years. When other people realize she's a r/l female, they always behave better.

There's usually a big difference when there's a female online compared to when it's "just the boys." People aren't nearly as rude or crass or offensive when she's online. Also, guilds are much quicker to invite me (us) to raids when she is online.

I could get into the reasons for it, but that would just be flame-bait and I'm not interested in keeping track of all that.

Thanks for the OP, it's a fun read.
- Phos

I neglected to mention that, as a female gamer, I have a few male avatars.  When you play a game for so long, once in a while when you make a new character, you want some variety.  One thing that I have noticed is that when I play male characters, no one hits on them at all.  They just leave you alone.  Also, some people seem to think it's pretty darn funny.  The reactions I've gotten on teamspeak when playing a male char range from, "Who are you?" to, "THAT'S SO FREAKING AWESOME!  A CHICK PLAYING A GUY!" 

When it comes down to it, most of us are playing games to have a blast, not go date hunting.  With this in mind, I don't think it really matters if you're playing a guy, a girl, or a 6 foot bunny rabbit.  You're just wasting time and enjoying yourself.

The article amused me but in reality it doesn't matter who's behind the pixels, be it man or woman.  As a female gamer I somewhat resent guys attitudes towards me.  I'm offered help more than guys are, I'm offered items, and asked if I need "anything" while in game.  And its just as bad in vent.  I don't know how many times I've heard one guy spill out something crude/inflammitory/offensive only to be jumped on by another (sometimes more than one) guildie with something like "Dude, shut up there a girl in vent."

WTF?!

I'm female, yes, but that doesnt mean I should be treated any differently than anyone else in the guild.  I can't count the number of times I've gotten into vent with someone who didnt know me and heard, "OMG its a girl!"  Like we're a dying species or something.

Girls DO play games.  Alot of them won't speak in vent or say that they really are a girl because of the BS we have to put up with.  If I beat someone in a duel they get laughed at because they were beaten by a girl.... Because I happen to have breasts means its something amazing for me to be a good player?!  I don't know how many people have asked me to cyber. WTF? Just because you can't get laid IRL doesnt mean anyone in the game want to e-sex your dumbazz either.  I really don't mind guildies wanting to help me out... its great for a guild to be like a family.  But when I'm the one being singled out and asked if I, specifically, need anything, anything at all... it gets annoying.  I'm not helpless, I'm not a user, and no I don't need your help while I'm solo grinding, or your gold to train, or anything else for that matter.

Alot of girls I know feel the same way.  We want to be treated as gamers, not as girl gamers.  The reproductive equiptment your born with shouldn't matter.  Its how you play and what you can do that counts. 

I'm not going to be very popular by saying this, but in 2 years of playing World of Warcraft, I've learned to instinctively feel who "could" be a woman player. As I've been a tank for those 2 years, never left Prot spec longer than 1 Hour, Including lvls 10-60, I've had to learn to pay attention to other players, and their behavior, and I've found that most real women players do indeed not fit the profile of overexaggerated feminine behavior.

The rule I substract from this instinct, is that 9 out of 10 female players, seems to get "distracted" very fast. Apparently paying too much attention to the beautiful coloring of the instance, or that flower in the corner, or perhaps even scared of the virtual mice, THAT I do not know, but whenever I encounter someone that seems to be always doing something other than what they're supposed to be doing in such an obvious way that its almost ridiculously hilarious, 9 out of 10 responds positive to the question whether they are female players.

At the same time, 8 out of these 9 players, are stíll more capable players than most male players I've encountered. Where every Cliché about hunters is true for most of the instances, where you have to litterally téach male players how to play, because they have to press teh red buttonzzzz, female players wait. They wait for the tank, they usually don't run up ahead going boom-baby and they want to structure things just as much as I like to. In other words, the only times my experience with female players were bad ones, was when I tried to teach them something and they left the party within miliseconds. Women cannot, ever, take pointers, unléss, you do it with flowers, the sucking up, and everything you ever threw at your girlfriend. ( And I don't do that ingame :P)

And yes, I am overexaggerating a bit, as is the OP.

on star wars galacies you can be a dancer and get xp , but anyway not those loser guys who play as girls know what to not do to make themselves be more like a girl so this article is kind of helps them, but at least it helps you know what to look out for

I'm gonna have to agree with one of the other replies here and say the author has never played with real female gamers.   Or didnt know when he did.  

Lets see I have been in MMORP gaming sense 2002 , Everquest, WoW, Everquest 2 and a list of beta testing on those and other games.

Here is some of my experence on the issue at hand as a female gamer who plays female characters.    I actually got treated worse than the gender benders, or *cough* certain kinds of rp ers or male characters.    I didnt play the tease game so there was a tendancy to put me off once new guild members or members of a regular group found out I wasnt going to play "the game".  

I suppose If I had worked up a vocabulary of *tee hee*s and flirty responces that would have helped but considering how many personel tells trying to initiate suggestive conversatons I got when I wasnt being flirty ... well ... no, lol thats all I have to say about that.

I'm only flirty with my husband and I kind of like it that way.   Do I make pretty characters .. sure why would I want an avatar that isnt beautiful?  Even in wow though you dont have to over expose your self that much if you dont want to.   The tabards and shirts will cover any lacking armor in the right places if you want it to.  

I did do some experimenting on my own to see if there was a difference in gender treatment though and I actually found that when I played a male character (I tried this for a short time in both everquest and wow)  I was actually treated better than when I played a female.    I got a lot of statements that included the word "bro" and offered me lots of regrouping opportunities and gifts.  

I think the actual truth is that with many of the male players of these game they expect the female characters to be part of the intertainment and if you dont go along with that your not treated well.   That being said I have a feeling that many of the gender benders are aware of that and are willing to play that game to get extra benefits from their fellow players. 

That  does lend some validity to the OP, with regard to gender benders.   Its important to note that many female gamers are not a part of this though and that what we are really about has not really been addressed by the gamer community IMO. 

Do we exist in significant numbers?  Yes .. more than you might want to believe.