Playing as different gender pole.

[Omnires]

This is just a pole because I'm board at the moment. I just want to know where the population of this game is like. Also, this is not a topic about what is normal or abnormal, so don't try to push your judgements on others.

Personally, I don't care. I even if I know the person is male or female in real life, in game I'll still call them by the gender of their avatar until they tell me otherwise.

With that said here are some videos on the topic for the people who do want to debate the psychology of this topic. Just don't turn it into a flame war.

 

[Nakiato]

Ready to move this thread to flame wars in 3... 2...

 

[NitroMidgets]

Meh. It depends on if I am allowed only one character or multiple. In The Division (which sucks dead donkey balls) I had three out of the four characters that were male and the one female character. I used the female one for the DZ as I like to think it added insult to injury when they were killed by a female character. If only groin shots counted as Critical Hits..........

 

[Pandagnome]

I play a different gender if they have good armor some look great on females and others better on males
but if there was a choice for robots i'd probably prefer that since it has no genitalia and looks even better in armor
or in a mech!

 

[Vladplaya]

I just play as my own gender, simply because I am use to doing that, and also in a lot of games where I did play as a female character, they had pretty poor and annoying voice effects for basic generic things like getting hit, or grunting when jumping/rolling, breathing sounds when sprinting. A lot of them were just unnatural and too high pitched. Kind of difficult to just enjoy the game when sounds from your own character are constantly distracting you.

Maybe that's just me though, perhaps I should learn to block stuff like that from my attention, but than it's easier to play as a dude and not worry about it in the first place.

 

[SomeUnregPunk]

I don't play my gender because there so few games that makes males that look like me.
So, I did play a male in Loadout and in Tera I played as one of those male only races... the golem race I think. A priest golem because I thought it was funny to use a gigantic dude that looks more at ease with a huge battle-axe, waving a tiny wand around to heal people instead.

That's honestly one of the reasons I liked the Arsenal from Firefall.

 

[Kouyioue]

I usually just play whatever weird character i can come up with. But only if there's an option to mute my chars' voices or they don't have voices.

Annoying squeaky Asian voices = automatic play as guy

 

[NoahDVS]

I usually play as a guy. I usually base my character on some stereotype I like (hippie, redneck, southern aristocrat). I might make him really ugly or I might just go for something vanilla-ish depending on what I feel like.

 

[Wintersiege]

I usually play the opposite gender (Female avatars) and usually the smaller races so Gnomes, Dwarves, Asura, Elin in WoW, GW2, and Tera. In Everquest our raid guild had mandatory max shrinking on all guild raids so I just got used to being smaller than normal.

 

[MattHunX]

Always like to create both a male and a female character.

 

[Rocket]

Ready to move this thread to flame wars in 3... 2...

Just let the thread run its course and die out.

We have games like Warframe, where a surprising number of people refuse to play certain frames because they are female with no male option, and the developers have no interest in changing that. I've noticed that the objectors on the Warframe forums tend to be young males.

Then we have games like Firefall, or any random online RPG out there, where you can choose whatever you like. I'm expecting this to be similar, assuming EM-8ER make it that far.

There are also games like the original Tribes, where a tactical advantage was to be had from choosing a female character over a male one. Less weight meant more jetpack time and height. That tended to be a distinct advantage.

And then there are the games where you really don't get a choice. Mostly single player games like Tombraider and the Gothic series.

Either way, it's just a game. Choose what you like. Play what you like. Be what you like.

 

[Nunaden]

Well... i acltually my own gender (male). i used it till lvl 30 in FF and then i switched to female 'Cause it looked faaar more better in the dreadnaught and other classes.
In LotRo i my main was male too, he fit perfectly into the ceremonial ranger of the north skin, even though he was a guardian (Tanker class, can distract enemies, debuff them, buff himself, heal himself, stun them and can gift other player an item that lets them teleport to them xD), he also was a human and was an armour smith.
My Twink was a female elf armourer and explorer. It was fun to run around with her sneaking abilities that she got from her race :3.

 

[MollilMayhem]

I've always played as my own gender, I guess because I tend to identify with my avatar. I remember one time in EQ I did make a temporary male character for a certain quest (I can't remember why it was important), and it felt very strange to me. At least in that game, there was definitely a difference in the way other players interacted with me depending on whether the avatar was male or female. I don't think that I noticed that so much in Firefall, in fact it was usually assumed that I was actually a guy (which was pretty funny).

 

[ble003]

when there are mechanical differences i'll choose the ones i like most.
for example:
used to play mostly faith (heal beacons) and wildcat (pdw) in alien swarm.
when i played dungeon fighter online i initially played glacial master male mage, but considered making a female spitfire because they get jetpacks; but i got bored of the game before doing so.
swap constantly in warframe, but i think mostly females.
played a huge golem with tiny twin swords in tera, for the same reason as punk's priest; but actually mostly wanted to unlock the loli-only chain-scythe class.

when there are no mechanical differences:
initially myself-ish or genderless
then based on pre-existing fictional characters (my own, if possible), which can be any gender. or just inspired by the cosmetic-pieces i have available. examples: ladd russo and dr. mcninja in superfighters deluxe, a character of my own who is in the business of remote-controlling things, levitating, sitting on a throne and having glowy eyes for my operator in warframe, all the main characters from all my settings plus keeping some like i got them in the last stand: dead-zone

and yes, can get put off by models and voices: was male/male-body-monstrous almost all the time in firefall because i swapped frames a lot and really didn't like some of the female frame models, while all the male ones looked at least ok.

 

[Omnires]

For the people who make alt characters do you make them at random or do you have a theme when making them?

I like to make atls with a theme in mind. Mostly there is a theme in how I name them. But in games where you can make character bios and/or make relationships between characters. I often find myself making alts who are in a family/familia.

For example, in one game two of my alts are brothers and one of the female alts the sister of the brothers, another female alt act likes the sibling's over-protective adoptive mother (if possible I like to make her a hybrid tank-healer who is like a Nun so "Mother" is both a title and just part of her name), and one alt who is close family friend.

I don't know why I do things like that. But to me, it makes the game feel more fun when I give my alts back stories and play them in line with their stories and personailities. It could just be the writer in me, I spent years helping other people make characters for games, books/comics, and the like.

 

[Nunaden]

stuff

I actually made my twink/alt cause of business matters. In LotRo teh job system was a bit complex, a "job" was made of 3 "sub jobs". My main was once a weapon builder and had teh sub jobs miner, weapon smith and carpenter. Miner allowed my to mine and refine ores, weapon smith allowed my to create weapons made of metals and carpenter allowed me to make weapons out of wood. The problem was: i cant get wood. My twink was explorer, meaning she was a taylor, miner and forest warden. Taylor allowed her to make armour out of pelt (medium and light armour), miner allowed her to mine and refine ore and forest warden allowed hear to refine pelts and to cut and refine wood.
The main point for a little story was the fact that all characters of an account share teh same house, so i jsut said that she was the adoptive daughter of my main, though i couldnt adopt her ingame cause they were teh same account... :/ (you were able to adopt players xD)

 

[Omnires]

In games where there is a family system it can be a lot of fun for players make family trees linking to each other. Even more so when players can get and wear titles showing their family links to other players. Like "Player 1 Sister of Player 2" and "Player 3 Husband of Player 1" and "Player 4 Father of Player 2". In some games, it is kind of funny to see a group of people all on the same team in town or on a mission as if they all just on a family outing.

In real life, where I grew up it was common to call your closest friends family. With uncle, aunt, and cousin being really close friends. And brother, sister, son, daughter, father, and mother being used as the highest honors. So using those titles in games with people who share a similar culture add that extra level of both fun and realism.

----Not important, just an old player remembering the old days----
Lol, a long time ago (like over 20 years) when I played an MMO for the first time as I was walking around lost a female player invited me to join a guild she was starting. She showed me the basics of the game and give me gear I need for my style of fighting. Because of her help I and another new player soon became well-known players for our high level of skill and being one of the few groups of people who could end game bosses in a group of 2 or 3 when normally most people would have a hard time killing those bosses in 30 and 50 man raid parties. So we made a family with our guild leader as our mother and we as her 2 sons as both joke and sign respect. Even after she stopped playing the game we kept using those titles. We even made up a rumour saying she was a goddess, so after awhile we just became known as the sons of the goddess until stopped playing the game. Lol, she is part of the reason why even now I help other players in games, especially total newbies who may have never played MMOs before.

 

[Sud Monkey]

The problem was: i cant get wood

A good reason to choose your character carefully

 

[Daynen]

In games where there is a family system it can be a lot of fun for players make family trees linking to each other. Even more so when players can get and wear titles showing their family links to other players. Like "Player 1 Sister of Player 2" and "Player 3 Husband of Player 1" and "Player 4 Father of Player 2". In some games, it is kind of funny to see a group of people all on the same team in town or on a mission as if they all just on a family outing.

In real life, where I grew up it was common to call your closest friends family. With uncle, aunt, and cousin being really close friends. And brother, sister, son, daughter, father, and mother being used as the highest honors. So using those titles in games with people who share a similar culture add that extra level of both fun and realism.

----Not important, just an old player remembering the old days----
Lol, a long time ago (like over 20 years) when I played an MMO for the first time as I was walking around lost a female player invited me to join a guild she was starting. She showed me the basics of the game and give me gear I need for my style of fighting. Because of her help I and another new player soon became well-known players for our high level of skill and being one of the few groups of people who could end game bosses in a group of 2 or 3 when normally most people would have a hard time killing those bosses in 30 and 50 man raid parties. So we made a family with our guild leader as our mother and we as her 2 sons as both joke and sign respect. Even after she stopped playing the game we kept using those titles. We even made up a rumour saying she was a goddess, so after awhile we just became known as the sons of the goddess until stopped playing the game. Lol, she is part of the reason why even now I help other players in games, especially total newbies who may have never played MMOs before.

I think you'll appreciate Chronicles of Elyria. Go check it out if you haven't. Families are an important mechanic in the game.

In games where alts are a thing, I just tend to go for variety in size, color, gender and function. I'm a connoisseur when it comes to games--I like to try all the things I haven't tried before. Whether I play one gender or another depends entirely on circumstance and random mood. Gender locked class games make it pretty easy to determine what gender you are, but in others it just depends. I also tend to start developing a little background for characters in games that are immersive enough and interest me enough to get the imagination going.

 

[Nunaden]

In games where there is a family system it can be a lot of fun for players make family trees linking to each other. Even more so when players can get and wear titles showing their family links to other players. Like "Player 1 Sister of Player 2" and "Player 3 Husband of Player 1" and "Player 4 Father of Player 2". In some games, it is kind of funny to see a group of people all on the same team in town or on a mission as if they all just on a family outing.

In real life, where I grew up it was common to call your closest friends family. With uncle, aunt, and cousin being really close friends. And brother, sister, son, daughter, father, and mother being used as the highest honors. So using those titles in games with people who share a similar culture add that extra level of both fun and realism.

----Not important, just an old player remembering the old days----
Lol, a long time ago (like over 20 years) when I played an MMO for the first time as I was walking around lost a female player invited me to join a guild she was starting. She showed me the basics of the game and give me gear I need for my style of fighting. Because of her help I and another new player soon became well-known players for our high level of skill and being one of the few groups of people who could end game bosses in a group of 2 or 3 when normally most people would have a hard time killing those bosses in 30 and 50 man raid parties. So we made a family with our guild leader as our mother and we as her 2 sons as both joke and sign respect. Even after she stopped playing the game we kept using those titles. We even made up a rumour saying she was a goddess, so after awhile we just became known as the sons of the goddess until stopped playing the game. Lol, she is part of the reason why even now I help other players in games, especially total newbies who may have never played MMOs before.

Well... we have kinships as replacement for guilds in LotRo ^^
The one i got lost in ^^ actually didn't recruit me with the normal chat spam but asked me if i want to join them after they helped me with some things. We often helped each others and made soem friends there... adn yeah... we got drunk together 2-3 times (we had some barrels of beer in our house of kinship ^^) i landed in a well in bree and a mate landed in the mud of teh shire xD
I think that families are a nice feature and are a pretty big appeal for fantasy games. But... yeah... there are not many good MMORPGs despite many that are playable on OS X...