Guild Wars 2

Does anyone else feel uneasy playing a toon of the opposite gender, I do.

I’m a guy, and even though most female toons are more pleasing on the eye to look at, playing one just makes me feel, “Strange”, not to mention the countless guys hitting on my toon, only to find out I’m a guy, and calling me well, some unpleasant names to say the least.

Like I want to make a female norn warrior, because I don’t like how the male norn’s torso seems to be shorter on one side than the other, lol.

I play only female toons. No male ones and i’m male.

It really has to do with how secure you are with yourself. Why does it even bother you? You need to really think about it.

As for me. If i’m going to be looking at something for hours on end I’d rather it be a females rear then a mans lol

Maximum health reduced to 1.

I know i do!! Also cant make them look good either, which makes it worse i think, though i have no male characters.

I play mostly female toons and in all the years of playing I can only remember once or twice someone saying something. I really don’t think that’s a common problem. If you’re getting remarks, maybe you’re saying things in chat that gets people to react.

I play characters of both genders. It doesn’t bother me at all to play a female character. Then again I comfortable with who I am as an adult male so I don’t feel “strange” or threatened at all when I play female characters. I don’t recall ever being “hit on” in game when I play a female character. Even if it happened it was probably something I forgot because it wouldn’t have bothered me. I simply ignore such things.

I have several female characters. Friends of mine who are also male have a few female characters. I don’t feel any unease since I don’t see any of my characters as extensions of myself. They’re just characters. But characters I really like.
There are also plenty of women who play male characters. They just rarely ever get mentioned.

wrathmagik.3518:

I play only female toons. No male ones and i’m male.

It really has to do with how secure you are with yourself. Why does it even bother you? You need to really think about it.

As for me. If i’m going to be looking at something for hours on end I’d rather it be a females rear then a mans lol

yep, I even used a makeover kit to change my main’s sex to female after a couple years. I have like, one male charr and 8 females of all the other races.

Not really. I’ve honestly never been fond of self-insert when creating characters ; it honestly got mostly old after I was like 12 or something. eg. I am not a midget, a giant cat, or a plant. I mean what about those people that play many toons? Do you associate with all of them?

Also, I didn’t know people still thought female toons = female player. Nobody has hit on my toons before though there’s been an odd compliment then and there, but honestly with hundreds of characters looking around the same, how do people even single them out?

Though despite this, I would definitely report any form of harassment. I don’t think you have to be a particular gender to get offended by that.

I don’t think it necessarily is a matter of insecurity in ones own gender identity or sexuality for all players uncomfortable with playing a different gender. If you deeply view the character as an extension of oneself, a sensation vaguely similar to gender dysphoria (though weaker and more distant) when it doesn’t match ones identity seems reasonable.
(That said, most are probably not identifying with their characters this deeply – insecurities are unfortunately very common!)

I play a mix, with maybe a slight leaning towards male characters. I’m male myself.

I play what ever I wish has both genders and has none meta skills and stats. Wup wup warrior for the win. Key is play the game you own how you like.

Playing as a human makes me feel uneasy.

Seriously – if I try to create a custom male human character I don’t really gel with it and I hate trying to make a character that looks like myself irl. If I try to create a female human character in some games I find that I can make a character that’s more relatable than a male character oddly enough. For example in Mass Effect I played default male Sheploo but custom FemShep. Also it’s sometimes down to the voice acting – eg if I prefer male or female voice for the character (in MEAndromeda I prefered Sara’s voice actor over Scott’s, although going against the grain I actually preferred Mark Meer’s voice for Shepard).

However in any game that allows it I will always make a beast race or alien, never a human unless its the only option.

I like asura because they remind me of rabbits with the long ears, and I like rabbits.

I play a female asura simply because its not my first character – my first character was a male asura thief which I was able to project my character on and relate to much more than any other race in gw2 – the quirkiness, the science/metaphysics, the attitude and so on. However I got bored of thief very quickly (like a week after launch) so made a female asura mesmer, just for a difference – and I’ve stuck with it ever since.

Actually the female asura’s voice has to be my favourite PCs voice out of all of them that I’ve heard. Only Taimi’s is better.

I play 11 males and 11 females, and I try to keep the numbers close as I create new ones.

On my mains, I have 9 & 9, and I’ll try to get to an equal number of each race. So, for my next two characters, I need a female Human and a male Norn.

I play one of each gender, of each species. They also range in skin tone and build.

If role playing a female character makes you uncomfortable, keep doing it. Think of it as an exercise in seeing women as real people under their physiology.

On the list of things I can’t play:
I can’t play a character with a joke name or one without a backstory. They gotta have meaning else I lose all interest in them.

It’s not that I am uncomfortable with my own gender/sexuality. It’s just since I first started playing online games where, character creation was a thing. I would always try to identify with some part of the toon itself, or model it after some facet of myself, as a way of immersing myself into the game, even if it’s only, "Pixels".

Now I could see myself making a female toon, only, maybe see it was my feminine side coming to life. I know I am going too much into it, and this is just a game, but, it’s sometimes hard for me to get behind something such as progressing in a game like this, if I don’t feel like I can relate to my toon.

I’m an odd one, sorry, but thanks for all of the responses.

I don’t know what it is, but females just look more badas@ when they fight :P

I’ve seen threads like this several times over the years, in this forum and others. It’s always guys and female chars. I’ve never seen one for gals and male chars.

I’m only playing male characters, since I’m a man and I want everyone to treat me as one. Simple as that. I don’t want anyone to think that I’m a girl. If I were playing a female character, I couldn’t relate to that character at all, like I would be playing someone else’s toon.

I also find it irritating when female characters in games are usually oversexualized. It happens a lot especially in modded games. Fallout New Vegas and Skyrim are good examples. No, I’m not a feminist.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

I’ve seen threads like this several times over the years, in this forum and others. It’s always guys and female chars. I’ve never seen one for gals and male chars.

Well…im a girl, and i hate playing as a guy. I just dont see the big enough deal to make a thread for it..soo..

I suppose it depends on how you see your character/s.

I know to some people their character is a representation of themselves in the game world, so they not only play their own gender but typically only play humans (or races that look like humans) and try to make the character look and act like them.

I do pretty much the opposite – to me they’re characters in a story, no different to if I was writing a book or acting out a play. They are fundamentally not me so there’s no reason for them to look or act like me. Instead I think about the kind of person I want to make and ‘match’ everything to that. I’m equally liked to make a male or female character (in GW2 I currently have 5 females and 4 males).

My 1st/main character is usually female, but thats because she’s usually a recreation of the same character I play in all western RPGs (obviously race, class and skills will change between games but the overall theme is the same. But the only other thing she has in common with me is that when possible I give her waist length hair, but hers is black and straight instead of brown and frizzy like mine.

As for how people treat female characters honestly the most common problem I have is people assuming I’m male regardless of the character. Sometimes I correct them, sometimes it’s not worth mentioning. I’ve very rarely had anyone hit on me or otherwise act appropriately. (And once when it did happen, in a different game, I was not only playing a male character but playing an old, overweight, heavily scared guy with one eye and a grumpy expression. That was odd…dunno if they were into that or just flirting with everyone.)

Sometimes, when people tell me it happens all the time, I wonder if it’s just that I don’t try to make my female characters pretty. It was weird when I realised that – I certainly don’t try to make them unattractive either but pretty certainly isn’t my first concern (and according to my husband the results are mixed). Or maybe it’s the way I act when I’m playing them, or the people I talk to. I don’t know, but it’s certainly extremely rare for people to either try to flirt or to give me a hard time for playing a female character.

The real life genders of players really means nothing unless you’re looking to connect on a more personal level with them. No one will know either way unless you tell them so don’t worry about it and ignore the thirsty ones hitting on pixels lol.

Kako.1930:

The real life genders of players really means nothing unless you’re looking to connect on a more personal level with them. No one will know either way unless you tell them so don’t worry about it and ignore the thirsty ones hitting on pixels lol.

And if you do start getting to know someone outside of the game you can always sort that out in the process.

I met my husband on an internet forum and I thought he was female at first (in retrospect I don’t know why, just something about the way he talked), and he thought I was male. More of an issue was that we both fundamentally disagreed on a number of topics and thought the other person was being a complete kitten. More than a decade later some of those arguments are still on-going now and then, but at least we got the gender thing straightened out.

When I was a young lad I felt the same OP but as the years went by I began to shift from seeing the char on screen as myself to just seeing it as a protagonist on screen. Meaning playing female char’s became a thing for me (I still also play male char’s as well) where I also got the added bonus of looking at some nice eye candy.

Now when you get hit on it is only wrong if you go along with it (if that’s not your type of thing). I always make it clear who they are talking to.

Dante.1763:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

I’ve seen threads like this several times over the years, in this forum and others. It’s always guys and female chars. I’ve never seen one for gals and male chars.

Well…im a girl, and i hate playing as a guy. I just dont see the big enough deal to make a thread for it..soo..

Yah. Same.

Maybe I should make a thread about females unable to play male chars because it makes us feel weird and we’re unable to relate to our chars….

No. But I also don’t identify with my characters or see them as an extension or representation of myself. They’re kind of like tools or like action figures to me. Like Curunen I also tend to go for nonhuman characters when given the chance.

There was this time years ago in WoW when some random person began hitting on me while I was playing a female tauren warrior. After staring at the proposition in disbelief for about 30 seconds I ignored that user. Your guess is as good as mine.

I am amazed that some people see a female character and think that means it’s a female player. It’s just a character in a game.

Also, perhaps this’ll be a spoiler for some but they’re not actually charr or asura either.

Excelsior.

I also feel a bit strange playing MMORPGs with a different gender.
My Asura twins (Zedekk and Zedexx) as well as my Lalafell in FF14 are all male.

In other games, I have no problem, in Dishonored 2 for example, Emily has 30hrs playtime, Corvo 0 seconds. In LoL I main Ashe and Tristana. But there the lore is built around them. Here I am a guy, and even though I like the evilness of the female Asura, I would not even think about playing something else than a male one. Plus, I avoid MMO games with genderlock for said reasons.

Me and my characters share a lot. I mean, they share my attitude for example, because I am the same as in real life. And unlike many video gamers, my character reflect my style as well in terms of clothing, I am actually wearing (trench) coats and leather gloves, just like my Asura in his “noble” set. And we are both male. It’d be “wrong” somehow if I’d play a female character in this game.

If the OP were any more thinly veiled, it’d simply be transparent. So let’s go right ahead and get this thread locked up nice and tight.

I main not one, not two, but three female characters. I’d have more males, but their bodies are so completely ridiculous – practically at He-man levels of sexism, that I just don’t find the fellas appealing to play as.

In the five years I’ve been playing, I’ve not had a single sexist remark thrown my way. No one has given me free stuff, no one has found out I’m a guy (honestly, I just assume all scantily clad female characters are guys, although mine are heavy armour wielders so have no skin showing), and no one has accused me of gender bending or of being misleading.

In all likelihood, this is because I don’t flirt with people in a video game. I save (well, used to, when I was a bachelor) that for real life, like normal people.

I only make male characters, saying why would probably give infraction points for sexism lol

Odokuro.5049:

It’s not that I am uncomfortable with my own gender/sexuality. It’s just since I first started playing online games where, character creation was a thing. I would always try to identify with some part of the toon itself, or model it after some facet of myself, as a way of immersing myself into the game, even if it’s only, “Pixels”.

Now I could see myself making a female toon, only, maybe see it was my feminine side coming to life. I know I am going too much into it, and this is just a game, but, it’s sometimes hard for me to get behind something such as progressing in a game like this, if I don’t feel like I can relate to my toon.

I’m an odd one, sorry, but thanks for all of the responses.

People are a lot more than their gender, imo. It doesn’t have to be your “feminine” side, OP. I have an RP main who is not only a guy, he’s an extroverted ladies man who shudders at the idea of monogamy (poor him, his family’s story has maneuvered him into having to be the heir after all). None of that is me. But he does include my enjoyment of fine food, appreciation of well tailored garments, and general desire to be liked that leads to being nice to other people rather than cruel.

I also have a shiftless ex-Seraph guardian who embodies my distaste for cleaning the house and preference to lie around having fun rather than buckling down to do what must be done Both of them also contain personae snippets that aren’t me at all, too, it’s just helpful to be able to empathize a little with them so as to flesh them out and care what happens in their stories.

Putting facets of yourself in the characters you write, be it in an MMO or in text fiction, does not mean you’re somehow identifying with something you yourself are not in RL. It just means you’re injecting some plausible depth.

(I must say that until Donari’s first incarnation as a WoW blood elf swashbuckling rogue ship’s captain, my track record at writing believable men was dismal. I started out, for instance, with a dim wit strong arm misogynistic thug who liked to drown kittens and whose only saving grace was he would never sell out his boss. He always got his comeuppance, though, once I whispered others in the RP to make it clear I knew he was a jerk and they should trick him into failure as they pleased. But in GW2, alt friendly as it is, I have a good chunk of male characters that I think hold up well in RP).

Odokuro.5049:

Does anyone else feel uneasy playing a toon of the opposite gender, I do.

I’m a guy, and even though most female toons are more pleasing on the eye to look at, playing one just makes me feel, “Strange”, not to mention the countless guys hitting on my toon, only to find out I’m a guy, and calling me well, some unpleasant names to say the least.

Nah.

I feel weird staring at a guy’s backside when I play games, so I prefer my toons to be female. Most of my male toons end up being walking jokes (IE cartoon-ish), but I prefer the female toons.

I have roughly 50% of each gender. I even RP on an opposite gender toon. The trick is to remember it’s a character, not you!

Mel.3064:

I only make male characters, saying why would probably give infraction points for sexism lol

There is a definite lack of… interesting male attire

Odokuro.5049:

Does anyone else feel uneasy playing a toon of the opposite gender, I do.

I’m a guy, and even though most female toons are more pleasing on the eye to look at, playing one just makes me feel, “Strange”, not to mention the countless guys hitting on my toon, only to find out I’m a guy, and calling me well, some unpleasant names to say the least.

Like I want to make a female norn warrior, because I don’t like how the male norn’s torso seems to be shorter on one side than the other, lol.

Yea, I agree OP. You can’t enjoy the game or become immersed in it unless you identify on a fairly deep level with your character. Guys who play female characters are just feminine men in RL (which is fine I guess). A number of my good friends play female characters. And they’re great people who I enjoy hanging out with. But they absolutely have a lot of feminine qualities. And I think they just enjoy the chance to express and experiment with those qualities when they play their various games (although they would never admit it… And would probably say a lot of the things that have already been said by people in this thread).

I dont really care one way or another, i dont position myself into the characters, even though I do like to think my characters are realistic in their designs.

When i started in the headstart I made a human female warrior, and probably since its my first character its docked about 60-70% of my play hours. Was it any other race or a male character it wouldve probably been the same.. well, if it was an asura probably.

Fallesafe.5932:

You can’t enjoy the game or become immersed in it unless you identify on a fairly deep level with your character.

Maybe you can’t, but this doesn’t go for everyone. And while I know this is an old, old argument, I’ve never seen anyone actually answer this to my satisfaction: How the heck are you able to more easily identify with an Asura, a Charr or a Sylvari than the opposite gender?

Guys who play female characters are just feminine men in RL (which is fine I guess).

/snort
Sure.

A number of my good friends play female characters. And they’re great people who I enjoy hanging out with.

Good lord, this is only a hair’s breadth from the old friend argument certain people make.

But they absolutely have a lot of feminine qualities.

Or maybe you’re focusing more on the feminine qualities everyone has because they’re comfortable playing female characters in games and you think they therefore have to have these qualities. Or you’re projecting qualities onto them for the same reason.

The fact of the matter is that some people identify more with their characters than others, and if those same people don’t feel comfortable identifying with the opposite gender, we get threads like these. It’s important to remember that people are different from one another and that the conclusions of any one of us about why others do what they do are worthless because none of us has made a study of this.

Personally, I’ve been playing tabletop roleplaying games since my early teens and video games since before that. When I play CRPGs, I tend not to invest that much into characters, because to me no game can ever come close to what a real P&P RPG can let me experience. Computers just aren’t very good DMs. Thus, I have absolutely no problem playing whatever looks best to me. In GW2 this means female humans and Sylvari, and male Norn, Asura and Charr.

Fallesafe.5932:

Guys who play female characters are just feminine men in RL (which is fine I guess).

Every single one? How do you know this? Does this mean that all humans that play Charr are feline humans?

penelopehannibal.8947:

Fallesafe.5932:

Guys who play female characters are just feminine men in RL (which is fine I guess).

Every single one? How do you know this? Does this mean that all humans that play Charr are feline humans?

No-one knows you’re a cat on the internet!

Regarding characters in general and particularly species, I like to project my personality onto my main which is why I find it easiest to relate to asura.

It’s nothing to do with making a character look like you – I don’t look like an asura irl but I love and can relate to how the asura player character acts and behaves. It feels right.

Years ago a friend of mine said these words
“Well, if i have to play a game and watching my character’s kitten then i prefer to watch a female one”.

Well, i do agree though i play also male characters.

Nope.

I make both male and female characters. Just because I choose to play my big mean looking male Charr doesn’t mean I’m a male irl, if that’s what OP is indicating.

Play the game how you want – remember to have fun!

Maybe you can’t, but this doesn’t go for everyone. And while I know this is an old, old argument, I’ve never seen anyone actually answer this to my satisfaction: How the heck are you able to more easily identify with an Asura, a Charr or a Sylvari than the opposite gender?

Simple… the unconventional races correspond to particular aspects of temperament and personality. Asura appeals to people who idealize intelligence or humor. Sylvari appeals to people with a naturalistic and/or aesthetic ideal. And Charr appeal to people who idealize/admire strength and the projection of power.

Selecting a character is a very personal process. And men who play female characters are responding to feminine aspects in their nature. Don’t be afraid to admit it.

Fallesafe.5932:

Yea, I agree OP. You can’t enjoy the game or become immersed in it unless you identify on a fairly deep level with your character. Guys who play female characters are just feminine men in RL (which is fine I guess).

Gotta disagree with you there. My identity is not bound to my gender, so playing a male or female toon doesn’t make me any more or less immersed. I just prefer to play female toons because I like their voices and appearance more.

Additionally, if I wanted to make a generalization about guys who play male characters… are you interested in men? That’s the kind of generalization you’re making.

Years ago a friend of mine said these words

“Well, if i have to play a game and watching my character’s kitten then i prefer to watch a female one”.

Well, i do agree though i play also male characters.

That’s always been pretty much my feeling on the matter. I’ve heard some people call men “gay” for playing female characters in games… but who exactly is staring at men’s butts all day?

Fallesafe.5932:

Simple… the unconventional races correspond to particular aspects of temperament and personality. Asura appeals to people who idealize intelligence or humor. Sylvari appeals to people with a naturalistic and/or aesthetic ideal. And Charr appeal to people who idealize/admire strength and the projection of power.

So wait…

• Four ears
• A tail
• Fur
• Very large and sharp canines
• Claws
• Walking on all fours
• Talking like you smoked 6 packs of cigarettes

Those are easy to identify with… but some boobs and makeup aren’t?

Fallesafe.5932:

Selecting a character is a very personal process. And men who play female characters are responding to feminine aspects in their nature. Don’t be afraid to admit it.

Actually, it’s relatively impersonal to me. I like looking at women’s butts, so I play female characters.

Why do you like looking at men’s butts?

I only play male characters when forced to, or because I’ve created a back story for a male character…otherwise it’s all females and I don’t have a problem with it at all. and if anyone else does, too bad. It’s my character and I’ll play what I want.

Fallesafe.5932:

Guys who play female characters are just feminine men in RL (which is fine I guess).

Or maybe they just like the eyecandy?

Not everyone plays this game for the RP.

I always play whatever I like the most animation/voice-wise, don’t care at all if male or female.

Fallesafe.5932:

Selecting a character is a very personal process.

You really shouldn’t project what you think and feel onto others. I’ve at least one character of every race, and while I do have my favourites, the selection had nothing to do with who I think I am or what aspects of a personality I like.

And men who play female characters are responding to feminine aspects in their nature. Don’t be afraid to admit it.

Again: Unless and until you can present at least one peer-reviewed study, that’s just, like, your opinion, man. The problems with your statement begin with defining what is and isn’t feminine in a personality and escalate from there. Depending on what you define as feminine, I have no problem admitting that I have those traits, if I have them, but none of them are why I chose to play my humans and sylvari as females. The way the males of those races look simply didn’t appeal to me.

I mean, heck, if there was a game with playable female dwarves with beards I’d play them because no game does that. That’s the kind of thought process that I invest in MMORPG characters. Sometimes it’s the voice actor/actress, if there is one, but mostly it’s aesthetics/kittenery*.

I’m really curious now why you think you know the reasons for other people’s choices.

Edit:
*bad donkey-ry. I love the filter this forums has, but sometimes it’s not conducive to communicating one’s ideas.

Across three accounts I play 23 female Charr and 1 male Charr.

~ Kovu

Across three accounts I play 23 female Charr and 1 male Charr.

~ Kovu