The Opposite Sex in Gaming

[TheZombieKing]

I'm doing a bit o' research on the subject. Its pretty straight forward question: What are you feelings on male or female players who play as the opposite sex in games? I'm specifically referring to when the player has a choice (i.e. Mass Effect, Fallout, PSO and basically any MMO), rather than games with predefined characters.

Anyhoo, you can either answer in the poll or post a reply! Your opinion is appreciated. Thanks in advance!

[Nitro Vordex]

People tend to think simply because you have a girl character, you must be a girl. This tends to not be the case.

The opposite sex character often has abilities or attributes that the other doesn't, many times those are the only reason. However, a lot of people tend to get tired of staring at their sex's ass after a while.

I have, or have had, a few female characters, simply because I wanted to play as them. PSO has a great example of this, as the HUcaseal has some unique animations, the FOmarl has the highest TP (or MST advantage, though don't hold me to it) and the FOmar has great attack techs. The HUney is great for attack and defense, if a little scantily clad ;o. These are attributes that are associated with the gender of that character a lot of the time, like how the guys tend to have the most ATP, or the females have the highest EVP.

I remember seeing something similar to this reguarding avatars on PSOW, someone asked why would you use the opposite sex as your avy? Well, the avys can be made to represent you, or represent your personality or who you are.

Ot course, these are just my ideas, and I'm sure everyone has different viewpoints. I know there is prolly more reasons for this, and I'd like to see everyone elses ideas for this too. Great topic.

[Zelutos]

I prefer to have a character of the same sex as me. Male.

[Solstis]

On 2008-02-10 20:51, Zelutos wrote:
I prefer to have a character of the same sex as me. Male.



Same.

If the game doesn't have tolerable male avatars (Dead or Alive series), I might allow myself some gender flexibility.

[DonRoyale]

I play both genders, just because I don't like being put in a box. So, therefore, I play the "filthy" race. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_nono.gif

[Scrub]

Broads never make good main characters in video games. It's always some generic 'hot chick' with no personality.

When given the choice, in an RPG and such, I can never pick female. Whenever I do, I just don't seem to have much fun with the character, I just can't really get into playing it.

Honestly, I've never known a male who plays predominantly female characters who WASNT creepy as hell. Just throwing that out there.

[darkante]

I really don´t think there is anything wrong playing as the opposite sex.

If i do feel like making a female character, it´s probably because i rather stare at that polygons ass then a man´s lol.
And in some games, choosing gender can have a huge impact on certain games like attributes, skills and such.

Seriously, it´s just a game.
Don´t think to hard in that matter...and if you do..then there is something wrong with you no doubt.

[Blitzkommando]

Depends on the game I suppose. In PSO I predominantly play as a female character simply because the male characters are more cut and dry with their stats while female characters tend to have more... unusual stats. RAmarl and HUnewearl fit how I play far better than HUmar/HUcast/HUcaseal or RAmar/RAcast/RAcaseal. I wanted the best of both worlds, techs and melee/ranged and got that capability with them. I didn't care much for HUnewearl character design, but RAmarl was my favorite design in the game. I just kept the tradition for PSU as well as because I didn't like male customization options or clothing.

Other games, primarily single-player, I tend to opt for male when it has a strong story. Though, if gender does affect the story I'll try and play from both sides.

However, when it's a fighting game I tend to opt for female as they are stereotypically fast, evasive, and often for whatever reason have a strong defense (from all the male opponents oogling?). But, again, that's not always the case. Smash Bros. I opted for Mario, Kirby, Luigi, and Dr. Mario (though I would play as all the characters) and the only female I was any good at playing was Samus. In shooters, as silly as it sounds, I opt for female characters because they are usually smaller and thus harder to hit by whatever minute amount. And, I guess being able to leave the bastions of kiddies in shock that they just got head-shotted by a female character is part of it as well. Say what you will, but I've found they tend to underestimate players using female models for whatever reason. I suppose that shows, again, much of my decision is rooted in character stats and aesthetics.

[Feelmirath]

I usually take a mix of male and female characters, but I tend to find in most RPGs the male characters kick more ass http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_wacko.gif

[KodiaX987]

On 2008-02-10 21:54, Scrub wrote:

Honestly, I've never known a male who plays predominantly female characters who WASNT creepy as hell. Just throwing that out there.



I am a sad panda. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_frown.gif

[SabZero]

I don't give it much importance, it doesn't bother me. I try to not assume things about a person based on their avatars. It can give you an idea though, albeit not literally (i.e. their gender).

[Rashiid]

On 2008-02-11 04:09, KodiaX987 wrote:

On 2008-02-10 21:54, Scrub wrote:

Honestly, I've never known a male who plays predominantly female characters who WASNT creepy as hell. Just throwing that out there.



I am a sad panda. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_frown.gif



Same. All my characters are female, and I'm far from creepy =3

[elainesangel9]

I think alot of the problemis with guys/girls trying to get in an online relationship with thhe opposite sex. If your going for that, for gods sake make your char your own gender,


I peronally like to make my own cast of Characters and give them backstories, like my char Shado might be a male, but his kikazz robot servant is a female. I think Its fun that way

[BlaizeYES]

i played as a female in jade empire, mainly because the woman sounded like mulan when she'd say "leaping tiger" and i just LOVED that. HEAVENLY WAVE

[rogue_robot]

Like elainesangel, I tend to give backstories to the characters I create.

There's also, however, an element of random chance to it. When I first started playing D&D, Baldur's Gate, and Neverwinter Nights, I started with a elf sorcerer/ranger of my own gender (especially in D&D, playing my own gender just seemed a logical choice, easier to role-play). When I got into PSO, PSU, and Oblivion, however, that character's playstyle quickly started to frustrate me - so I created an alt to vent the frustration, a Caseal who doesn't rely quite as much on magic - a character of the opposite sex. When I got Mass Effect, I didn't even think about using the elf - I just started straight in with the Caseal (well, she's supposed to be a Caseal, but PSU is the only RPG where I actually play her as one - in PSO, I play her as a RAmarl because I don't want to give up magic entirely, and most other RPGs don't even give robot as an option).

The alt turned out far more interesting than my original main, and she's been my main ever since (I do a small amount of DMing once in a while, so I've gotta be able to roleplay numerous personalities of both genders anyway).

[ljkkjlcm9]

only thing that matters to me, is how it affects the characters attributes and the story. For example, in Megaman ZX advent, the female has a different story, and is actually the stronger of the two choices. It's the choice I made for my first play through. On PSU, both my characters are male, but that's because they have the stats I prefer. If I played a primary force character, it'd probably be female.

THE JACKEL

[InfinityXXX]

I prefer to play as my gender

However, I did play as a Mithra on FFXI (only because the black male avatar was fugly...crusty dreadlocs...http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_frown.gif)

[AlexCraig]

I, like several people before have stated, like to put a backstory to my characters. And what good is a story without a mixture of males and females? On my one mem card for PSO, I have 2 males, 2 females. On my second, I used to have the same but I never really played one of the females, so I made a male force to balance the classes.

[Kylie]

I usually have no problem with it. However, the feminist in me is incredibly annoyed when it happens and the creator has seemingly no respect or understanding of women, so it depends on the case... But, yeah, I usually don't have a problem with it, and when I do, it goes deeper than someone just playing on the opposite sex. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_razz.gif



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Kylie on 2008-02-11 10:34 ]</font>

[Noblewine]

It doesn't really bother me. I know a cople of people online that play as female (actually guys) to mess with other players. XD

[KojiroAK]

I prefer to play as a male character (own gender), because then i can identify myself more with the character, but if the female character has the better stats/skills i play a female character.
(Or if the male character makes enerving walking sounds and/or looks like a guy that wears cleenex boxes.
(PSO players should know at which character i point))

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: KojiroAK on 2008-02-11 18:48 ]</font>

[elainesangel9]

idk HUcaseals in PSO were fun

[DoubleJG]

Guys can play as girls, and vice versa, just as long as they don't ACT like the opposite gender IMO. I get creeped out when I'm playing with a character of x gender and then find out they're the other one (like guys playing as girls that go hehehehehe). Ouch..

[Raine_Loire]

Ha ha, Laguna has a female guitar player in Rock Band, and it's funny- people assume he's a chick. Some dude was trash talking him and told him to come to Halo and he'd kick his ass because he couldn't stand losing to a "girl" in RB... so Laguna played against the guy and his brother, and had me talking... The guys got like- 2 kills against Laguna, it was slaughter. And everytime he got close, I could hear them screaming (yes, actually screaming!) "OMG WHERE IS SHE? WHERE IS THAT B*&%#? I CAN'T BELIEVE WE'RE LOSING TO A GIRL!" It was hilarious that they assumed even before I spoke that someone with a female character on RB is a chick IRL! To tell you the truth IDK why he plays as a girl, he just does. It's for our all girl band, lol. Any time a character can be customized with any depth he plays as a girl. I think females just tend to be better made and have more choices.

In PSU our mains are the same sex as us, but we each have an opposite alt. I fail to see why it would matter. In the past, girls have not had the option, since there were not a large amount of games with female main characters until they started making games where you had customizable chars. I never felt weird playing as Squall...

[Shiro_Ryuu]

I don't care really. I play as both males and females. I really don't want a total sausage fest when I play video games.

[EJ]

It depends on the game in all mmorpg's games I always make my first character EJ and male since I will be playing that character the most then after awhile I will make a Hex my female character.

I mostly play as a Male character since they mostly have the stats i prefer and play as a female when i to play a different play style when i get bored.

[Sord]

fighting games are usually exclusively girls thanks to stereotypical character set-ups.

As per PSU, I only play as one character, and she's a female. However, she looks very much like a male (the PSU male outfits and hair... eh, suck imo.)

[HUnewearl_Meira]

As with most things on the internet, the safest rule of thumb is to assume that everyone is a guy, until you identify evidence to the contrary. Granted, depending on how trusting you are, that "evidence" can be anything from the individual in question claiming to be a woman, to physically meeting the individual in person. That's all up to you.


Personally, I don't really have any significant issues with men playing female characters. I think that it's a little awkward in Free Form RP, but in a game, it really doesn't bother me in the slightest. It's really quite common, and frankly, I'm baffled that some people rail against it.

[Nai_Calus]

I get annoyed by 4-foot lolis that are supposedly 18 and show no concept of what girls are actually like, but if someone manages a female that doesn't piss me off by default, I don't give a shit if it's a girl or a guy playing it. Also depends on if I know the person in question. One person I know plays a 4-foot loli who's supposed to be 19, and while I don't buy the 'she's not a loli' line for a moment, he's otherwise a cool guy, so I leave it alone. XP

I play both, but lean towards the males. PSO I was more mixed since it was mostly by class, so one of my mains was a RAmarl, and you could make some cute RAmarls.

PSU... None of the female options appeal to me, really, so I've wound up with four males. Perhaps as a result none of my PSU characters are very well developed, and they're mostly PSU ripoffs of my PSO characters. Nai is my HUmar/FOmar Ian-Kun X, Lukas is my FOmar, Zero. So eh.

[rogue_robot]

Eh, one of the biggest flaws in the way character design was set up in this game is that it's impossible to have a midget woman who doesn't look at least a little bit loli. ST tied females' apparent age to height (not so for guys, who can just make use of face options). No matter how far left, right, or even down you push the proportion axes, if the height slider is to the left, all you'll end up with is a somewhat athletic or somewhat chubby piece of jailbait.



In my head, one of my characters is supposed to look quite intimidating for being so short. She's supposed to look easily capable of wielding a "tall person's" two-handed axe, in spite of her shortness. Her appearance is supposed to be such that her race being natural denizens of a high-gravity planet with a 40+ degree axial tilt that's located a little bit too close to its' sun to sustain human life would come as no surprise to any space-faring individual who's dealt with aliens before.

In PSU, she just looks like a loli masochist - a problem aggravated greatly by Newman being the closest approximation to her racial appearance. At least the narrow eyes take a little bit of edge off the loli-ness...

[KaneKahn]

Who cares? If someone thinks you are a female or male because of your character they should be scrutinized not you.

[Weeaboolits]

I just don't understand why people care, I sure as hell don't.

[Larian]

Sometimes its fun to try and act the other sex. As a joke the first couple of times I played as Sadie I was all like...Gee! I'm not sure what I'm really doing, I wish some big strong guy would do something to help me! I got some good free stuff about it. I felt bad the next day and the saw me one Lar...and they are like all wtf? I tried it to see if it worked and it did. I felt bad afterward though.