POLL: Gender Bender

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I was in a chatroom the other day and someone asked if I was female. The person (I will assume it is a he) mentioned how few gamers who play NWN are female. Which got me to thinking... I've been participating in a virtual world through a NWN server. At least half of the characters there are female. That doesn't seem to jive with the statistics I've been reading. The only logical explanation is that some of those 'ladies' aint no ladies.

So here is the question...and it is for both sexes.

How often do you RP characters that are not your gender?

Poll Information
This poll contains 1 question(s). 49 user(s) have voted.
You may not view the results of this poll without voting.

Poll Results: Gender Bender (49 votes.)

How often do you play characters that are not your gender? (Choose 1)
* I never play characters that are not my gender. - 29% (14)
* I sometimes play characters that are not my gender. - 51% (25)
* I usually play characters that are not my gender. - 18% (9)
* I always play characters that are not my gender. - 2% (1)

 

Most of the time. I play female characters for the same reason that the computer voices on Star Trek are female. (No, not because I'm married to the person who voiced it. ) Female voices are much more pleasing to listen to, and having a female voice coming out of a male character is just creepy. The female avatars are easier on the eyes, too.

As for the geeks online, I'd say it's probably about lesbian fantasies. If I were playing online (IOW, one continuous story and no need to restart with a new character), I'd probably play it a lot closer to who I really am. If the game rules were different for each gender, I'd consider it. I can RP either gender about as well as the other, so I'd only change mine if there were some (perceived) numerical advantage to it.

So for me it boils down to:
Short term - why not?
Long term - why should I?

 

I usually play female, since that's what I am. I've been playing one online game, Runescape, which I discovered is populated by 13 year old boys. My reasoning as to why males play females is for the cybering that happens when you make friends with someone. Because I play a girl, I get every PC hitting on me and asking me to be their 'g(irl)f(riend)'. When I say no, they get very uppity and call me nasty names. Boy will be boys.

Female characters look different - more hair choices, armor looks, etc. I'll play male on occasion, but it depends on whether my gender choice has an effect on the game. Fallout 2 had some different outcomes depending on what gender you picked.

Sounds like Felinoid and I have more in common than I thought.

 

It depends on the game. I probably play about 50/50 male/female. The little that I have played online I have played male. My user name would not indicate that I am female either. RPing here on SP I have 2 female and 3 male characters. I am comfortable playing either one.

 

I usually tend to play female once a while only for the "change" of it all, and like Felinoid said, it pleases the eyes and ears.

 

I always play male characters. It just makes it easier to relate to them.

 

not exactly gaming related (heck Dragonfly related her CHATROOM experience), but I once put up a Bloodrayne (http://www.bloodrayne2.com) avatar in my Yahoo Messenger. In 10 minutes, I've got random pervs (lost count...why bother?) asking me out for a date/cyber .

Got amused and traumatized at the same time. Never doing that ever again...

 

I only play females. If Im forced to play a male chara in a game, like Planescape, or something like that, then I loose interest... Ive tried RPing male charas before, and I just cant do it. I guess Im just too girly. hehe

 

For offline games, I sometimes play a female (one of my favourites was based on Arya Stark who grew up to become a katana wielding kensai a la Uma Thurman in Kill Bill) but I think that in an online game I would feel silly RP'ing as a female and would stick to my own gender.

 

So, offline, when youre playing face to face with other people you dont feel silly playing a female, but online you do? O_o

 

By offline, I mean playing a single player game on my computer.

 

Oh ok, that makes more sense. hehe

 

In RPG's I play male or female charcters depending on what the DM wants. Some Dm's I've played with only like you playing your gender (Male in my case) this is usually an indication of their attitudes.

Role-playing is just a form of acting and I can leave him/her in the game and become myself again.

The time it becomes strange is if a romance develops between charcters which has happened several times both straight and gay (male and female).

In cRPG's I tend to play about 50/50 mainly to see if different quests etc come up as a different sex.

 

In my case, it varies a bit. In pnp, the only female I played was because it was a Drow and I didn't want to be a male Drow. In solo crpgs, I tended to play females, because it was nicer to look at and listen to. However, if there's romances, I prefer to play my own gender. It's the only aspect in which I fail to rp the other gender, as I usually don't understand their taste. Online I've only played males.

 

I play mostly male, but if I do play a female, I let my fellow RPers know early. Fair play and all that.

However, the NWN community I play with have at least 20% of all members to be females. If the DMs find out that someone is trying to decieve someone else, they are investigates and if they find the claims to be true, they are dealt with swiftly. They have no problems with someone who roleplays at the opposite genders, but liars are dealt with swiftly.

 

I play whatever I feel like playing

I've had girls hit on my male characters, guys hit on my guy characters, and a fair few other combinations.

It's not just guys who are like that, but there are a damn lot more guys online

One of my most notable conversations ooc was when someone commented on the lack of females who play games online, the three people in discussion were a guy playing a guy, a guy playing a girl and myself playing a guy. I commented I was female and both went on saying it was bad and wrong I was playing a male character. When pointed out that there was a guy playing a female in this conversation they replied
"Yeah well, that's just more normal"

 

i only play male pc's, dunno why.. playing a girl would just be weird..


oh and i am a guy

 

I play both...doesn't really bother me, although I usually play male online and either offline (Single player).

 

In an online game i used to play, long long ago, I had played a male character only, and it was a normal MMORPG enviroment for me. I got PKed every so often, but on the whole it was normal.

One day, I decided to use my second character slot and start a female. Suddenly, everyone wanted to help me out with advice and give me money and items. Throughout my entire time playing her, I didn't get PKed atall.

I got all my equipment up to about level 15 free, and I didn't even have to cyber!

 

Interesting results....