Guild Wars 2

The whole thing about mass killing isn’t really a choice here or in many games given many have competitive aspects – and combat prowess is one of those competitive aspects built into the basic human nature.

GW2 at heart is a fighting game dressed up with a whole lot of fluff. There are no alternate choices beyond fighting – your entire character build revolves around combat and every game mode revolves around combat. I personally think it is ridiculous to try role playing in GW2 because there are no roles to play – you fight, that’s it. It’s a very one dimensional game, made up for by the combat mechanics being really good and fun.

So taking that as standard, I find the most I can do is to want to relate a character with my personality – I don’t care about gender and as I said in a previous post I will avoid playing human unless there is no other option – will always play a beast race, whether a male argonian in TES or female asura in GW2 and so on. I relate to asura humour, quirkiness, science/metaphysics and also love rabbits/hares – asura remind me of hyperintelligent rabbits, and there’s even a norn npc child in one of the pve maps who has really funny dialogue thinking you love bunnies because you have big ears. (see attached images) This kind of dialogue is what I love to see and why I play asura in GW2.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Lietta

Yes I’d love to play a game where there are other options than combat – for example when Star Citizen eventually reaches alpha 3.0 and beyond, I intend to immerse myself through role playing as there will be many ways to enjoy the game that don’t go looking for combat (although you’d still have to defend yourself)..

Doggie.3184:

Male characters onry. Playing a female or a character I can’t relate to or represent as myself isn’t as fun or immersive. I also dislike hearing high pitched grunts and screams all the time. It’s excruciatingly bad in Asian games especially since they’re into intentionally making females as loud and absurd as possible.

Yeah, games with stereotypically Korean/Japanese voice actors encourage me to play more male characters — the absurdly high pitches for a warrior/fighter (come on, they’re strong, which means deeper voices) really kills any interest in the character.

Makes me wonder, do some girls play the opposite gender too? Definitely not from my small group of friends who play games.

I’ve heard many do — for both aesthetic and social reasons.

I usually just port over character aesthetics from ones which I play in D&D. It’s probably around 50/50, though there is absolutely no denying I have nearly all of my play-hours on male characters. My D&D buddies used to give me a bit of kitten for playing females, but they eventually realized playing outside of my skin made me a way better player at the RP elements of tabletop gaming, and almost all of my female characters have at some point topped everyone’s list as “favorite character ever,” whereas my male ones were often quite bland because I’d all too often inject my own self into the character rather than taking things as the character would. The alien nature of playing a totally different gender really changed my mind quite a lot in terms of how I approached tabletop games from then on. Important note: I don’t e-RP in games. It’s not very good. And usually ends up with bedroom talk which is just weird.

I usually end of maining the male ones because I tend to play with people who are close friends (so there usually ends up being an attachment to character aesthetic/identity), and my D&D characters tend to be too obscure to pull off in any game making the attempts usually result in ineffective builds/strategies. That said, using the fidelity of the model is a totally valid excuse to play something or not.

I’ve never been hit on in GW2 or seen anyone else be hit on in-game unless they go into RP groups or try to make their character as minimally-dressed as possible and beg for attention or whatever, but RP groups are usually all… “heated” conversations as it is. Understand your environment and play accordingly. You’ll up your chances by playing a female, obviously, but I’d see it as hilarious to be able to tell some weirdo over the internet who’kittenting on me that I’m actually a dude.

At the end of the day, do whatever you’re most comfortable with, OP.

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.

My BF’s Norn is his only female toon because he also does not like how the male Norns look…they are so bulky! lol I think its funny though how a lot of guys play female toons. Way fewer girls play male toons that’s for sure but I do have 1 male toon, its an asuran I made to look like Marvin the martian all because of that silly vigil helm!

I’m a guy that plays a female norn because I like the height and the aura effects. I think the armor looks way better than on male norns.

I play whatever I want…I have females and males but I like to be immersed and my character to represent me so my main is a human male.

So make one. You have an ignore button.

I’ve played just about every day for nearly the entire time I’m free from work for a few months on 95% female characters…And the most I’ve gotten is just people trying to talk to me. Which has only been twice. My two main girls, even, are showing a fair bit of skin. My necromancer has a Winged skirt and Carapace top. Still no one bothers me. I am one in a crowd of many and I assume everyone else likewise has their camera out too far and are too engaged in battle to notice me.
5 of my 17 are male. I’ve always preferred female customization, so the farthest I’ve gotten is 40s with the Sylvari guy. My friends and I, all four of us, are women. We use both. We are also all writers and roleplayers. Our characters have life and personalities of their own. I’ve also grown up playing games. I’m used to using men. Using my Sylvari guy is no different than me putting in Shadow of Mordor or Persona 5.

I don’t identify with my characters since there are way to few ingame possibillities to faithfully do so.

I watch the adventures of my characters as if they were a movie or some sort of highly interactive book.

Of all the options in the character creation system of this game i liked the Asura the most and find the females the least annoying.

So as a middleaged male i control the adventures of 6 Female Asura characters… and they all look very much alike as well after deciding what ‘look’ i like most.

Female Asura’s can look a lot like mice and i quite enjoy mice/rat society in cartoons.

The perfect playable race in this game for me personally would be a female Skritt.

Dall.9752:

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

Literally this.

I stopped playing GW2 a few years ago. In Feb of this year I was watching old Babylon 5 reruns and then discovered that Ivanova (Claudia Christian) voices the female norn. I came back, made a new female norn and haven’t looked back.

I prefer female Norn, male Charr, male Asura, male Human and female Sylvari (although I generally dislike Sylvari voices).

Saw some studies a while ago about gamers and the race and gender of their characters. It’s interesting how for one extreme their character is an avatar (and those guys don’t generally like their character to be to different from themselves or how they perceive themselves) and how for the other extreme their character is completely disconnected from their identity (and can therefore play any race or gender based purely on function or aesthetics.)

Tomb Raider Laura Croft Enough said

JohnnyJHB.7360:

Ivanova (Claudia Christian) voices the female norn.

Woah, seriously?! :o That’s really cool, I had no idea.

Used to be very conscious playing as a character of opposite gender but I kind of stopped really caring about it much. To me it all boils down to what you prefer to play as rather than what gender you are irl. I just play or use what I enjoy.

Personally, I find it easier to make a well rounded female character than male.

i like having a mix,
i like my stupidly huge norn warrior dude and i like my sleek and sexy lady chars.

i dont see an issue with playing either

its not like when i choose to make a lady char i think i’m a woman,
infact if you think about it, its the more manly option!
because it means i’d rather spend my time with a scantily clad babe in the middle of the screen than a guy! XD

you know what they say… everyone on the internet is a guy until proven otherwise.

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.

pretty sure there is nothing at all deep about my pastel colored gigantic norn named Fruit Loop Warrior or my cosplay character Sniperoth (take a wild guess what he looks like) or my ele named Pointless Timewaste.

some people do it to explore the other side… some do it just because they don’t want to stare at their own gender’s kitten running around everywhere… some people just do it because they really don’t like the race model for their own gender (male norn looking… lopsided, for example)

Fallesafe.5932:

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

my husband has about an even 50/50 split on genders in this game. he had 2 female characters in the last game we played. he is DEFINITELY NOT a “girly man” in any sense.

i am most assuredly a female.. and i have 2 male toons here, and 2 male toons in the last game i played.

the way i see it is this: if you’re ok with playing a character of the opposite gender.. that’s fine. if you’re NOT comfortable with playing a character of the opposite gender, that’s fine too.. just don’t go telling either group they’re wrong in their feelings.

Danikat.8537:

Now I’m sure someone’s going to respond to this with something like “anyone with any sense understands it’s just a game. Just because you do it in a game doesn’t mean you’d do it in real life”.

And I’d agree that’s absolutely right. But if I’m playing as a person who does things I would never do in real life (and wouldn’t do things that I will do) how is that person me? Even if they look like me, they’re still a different person because they’re acting completely differently.

And if they’re not me why do they need to look like me? Or be the same gender as I am?

I’ll bite.

If you’d never kill, then in a world like Tyria, you’d just be a helpless citizen who likely would be dead or live sheltered lives among two-faced aristocrats that have no perspective of the world.

Even if you are just a farmer or a merchant, you still would have to protect yoruself and your goods from thieves, murderers or just the wildlife itself. If we’re going to be speaking about aspects that divide us and our characters, the willingness to kill isn’t one of them, at least for me.

It’s all good to consider diplomacy but to have such options, you need power. Nothing you mention of your true parallel in Tyria indicates that you would have any power at all thus when trying to talk down someone that is willing to kill you for whatever reason, you negotiate on the terms of the individual with the power.

Leo G.4501:

Danikat.8537:

Now I’m sure someone’s going to respond to this with something like “anyone with any sense understands it’s just a game. Just because you do it in a game doesn’t mean you’d do it in real life”.

And I’d agree that’s absolutely right. But if I’m playing as a person who does things I would never do in real life (and wouldn’t do things that I will do) how is that person me? Even if they look like me, they’re still a different person because they’re acting completely differently.

And if they’re not me why do they need to look like me? Or be the same gender as I am?

I’ll bite.

If you’d never kill, then in a world like Tyria, you’d just be a helpless citizen who likely would be dead or live sheltered lives among two-faced aristocrats that have no perspective of the world.

Even if you are just a farmer or a merchant, you still would have to protect yoruself and your goods from thieves, murderers or just the wildlife itself. If we’re going to be speaking about aspects that divide us and our characters, the willingness to kill isn’t one of them, at least for me.

It’s all good to consider diplomacy but to have such options, you need power. Nothing you mention of your true parallel in Tyria indicates that you would have any power at all thus when trying to talk down someone that is willing to kill you for whatever reason, you negotiate on the terms of the individual with the power.

You realize the world of Tyria makes no sense, right? The Seraph can’t handle the problems in Queensdale or Kessex Hills, despite enemies being exceedingly weak and the areas are traversable in less than day. The Pact can field massive armaments and armies, but can’t handle problems at their front doors. Meanwhile in the real world, even the “Wild West” wasn’t that wild.

Surprise; it’s a game, where people do unusual things.

Vagrant.7206:

Leo G.4501:

Danikat.8537:

Now I’m sure someone’s going to respond to this with something like “anyone with any sense understands it’s just a game. Just because you do it in a game doesn’t mean you’d do it in real life”.

And I’d agree that’s absolutely right. But if I’m playing as a person who does things I would never do in real life (and wouldn’t do things that I will do) how is that person me? Even if they look like me, they’re still a different person because they’re acting completely differently.

And if they’re not me why do they need to look like me? Or be the same gender as I am?

I’ll bite.

If you’d never kill, then in a world like Tyria, you’d just be a helpless citizen who likely would be dead or live sheltered lives among two-faced aristocrats that have no perspective of the world.

Even if you are just a farmer or a merchant, you still would have to protect yoruself and your goods from thieves, murderers or just the wildlife itself. If we’re going to be speaking about aspects that divide us and our characters, the willingness to kill isn’t one of them, at least for me.

It’s all good to consider diplomacy but to have such options, you need power. Nothing you mention of your true parallel in Tyria indicates that you would have any power at all thus when trying to talk down someone that is willing to kill you for whatever reason, you negotiate on the terms of the individual with the power.

You realize the world of Tyria makes no sense, right? The Seraph can’t handle the problems in Queensdale or Kessex Hills, despite enemies being exceedingly weak and the areas are traversable in less than day. The Pact can field massive armaments and armies, but can’t handle problems at their front doors. Meanwhile in the real world, even the “Wild West” wasn’t that wild.

Surprise; it’s a game, where people do unusual things.

What does that have to do with anything I said?

Leo G.4501:

If you’d never kill, then in a world like Tyria, you’d just be a helpless citizen who likely would be dead or live sheltered lives among two-faced aristocrats that have no perspective of the world.

Even if you are just a farmer or a merchant, you still would have to protect yoruself and your goods from thieves, murderers or just the wildlife itself. If we’re going to be speaking about aspects that divide us and our characters, the willingness to kill isn’t one of them, at least for me.

It’s all good to consider diplomacy but to have such options, you need power. Nothing you mention of your true parallel in Tyria indicates that you would have any power at all thus when trying to talk down someone that is willing to kill you for whatever reason, you negotiate on the terms of the individual with the power.

Leo G.4501:

What does that have to do with anything I said?

See highlighted sections.

Your argument is predicated on the idea that a normal civilian needs to kill other people to survive in “wild” conditions. There are two problems with that idea:

• It’s not supported by historical precedent. The Wild West was actually relatively peaceful, and it only became unstable as the Union Army started to wage war and claim territory belonging to Native Americans. Additionally, as it moved westward, it changed existing local laws, causing instability.
• There’s a strange disconnect in GW2 between the number of visible “peacekeepers” in any city/province and what they can field as an army. DR, LA, the Grove, etc. can actually field very large armies, yet they can’t keep the areas on their front doorstep civilized.

The only logical conclusion is that this is an MMORPG, not real life.

Vagrant.7206:

Your argument is predicated on the idea that a normal civilian needs to kill other people to survive in “wild” conditions.

…

The only logical conclusion is that this is an MMORPG, not real life.

It’s not about need, it’s about willingness. You don’t need to kill other people to be willing to kill other people in a state of war (your point of the Wild West being somewhat peaceful until armies started getting involved is moot when you consider that most beast races are in some phase of war and therefore the environment doesn’t exactly reflect the Wild West you’re making an example of). My point, that the killing of others is where we and our characters differ because we would never kill, is not true for everyone.

And no, that doesn’t make me a psychopath, just a realist.

For me I got 10 characters and got a 50/50 split of ladies and gentlemen. No reason in particular at all and not sure why I do it but eh it was sort of a little thing I wanted to do. Though I kind of wish I didnt have 10 characters because I mostly only use about 4 of them and the rest are bechwarmers. Ironically enough out of those 4 I also have a 50/50 split!

I guess I’m old enough to be able to identify myself to a character I play regardless of his or her gender. I usually play whatever I think looks cooler to me, so males in Bioware and Blizzard games, females in Square-Enix games and GW2. And I have no problem bonding and identifying to my characters, or others identifying me to that character.

For GW2 I identify easier to a female human than to a male charr or norn. But then I identify even better to an asuras of either gender than to a GW2 human because I’m the mathy/science type and I just love them for that.

Playing a character of the opposite sex doesn’t bother me at all. My grasp of gender is tenuous enough to begin with, and it happens that I usually find female characters more interesting than male. So 23 of 27 ended up being female. Similarly, I find charr to be thematically more interesting (by far) than any of the other races in this game, so 26 of 27 ended up being charr rather than human.

Nothing against male humans, I just find them a bit boring.

shrug I’m a (female) internet oldbie. So for me, if I’m playing predominantly male PCs, it’s because I’m getting hit on whenever I play as female. I doubt I’d go on WoW playing a female toon, forex.

GW2, it’s split about evenly, mostly so I can see how skins work on the different toons.

I’m in the camp where I don’t connect with my characters. I mostly write stories in my head following them, and as such I can play as whatever I want with no conscience. 3 male toons, 4 female toons. Though my male toons are “cooler”, I like to stare at the female toons more, so given a limited choice between only male or female, I’d take female any time.

Male toons have seemingly more bulky and oversized shoulder armor. For my taste anyway, and I’m not a fan of the male voice either. So it’s either a female model or other racial toon for me.

Best thing to do is play whatever you like for whatever reason you like, and just ignore everyone. People don’t exist.

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.

Nah. Honestly male characters wearing skirts made me feel more uneasy. I switched to Human Female Meta and I don’t regret it.

I’m a guy. All of my characters are female (I have 12). I think they look better. I like the voices better. I’m used to judgemental pricks who think theyre the definition of normal giving me trouble over it. But that’s rare for me online. I play to entertain myself, not them.

All my toons are fembots bar my main. I just think women are better looking than men. Sorry chaps!

Tanner Blackfeather.6509:

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.

Pretty much this. I view my character as an extension of myself, and model all my characters after myself as a result. Playing a non-Humanoid male in any MMO just doesn’t feel right to me.

That being said, there’s a lot of unnecessary hate and presumptions being tossed around regarding everyone’s character preference. Everyone is different and has their different reasons for playing whichever characters they play.

My main was mesmer norn male for 3 years, thanks to anet fashion designers I had it enough and just swapped to female. Rocking tits for 2 years now

I have never been able to seriously play a female character, I never connect with it and therefore don’t give a kitten about it. And if I don’t give a kitten about it, I don’t bother leveling or gearing it.

Xdmatt.3958:

I have never been able to seriously play a female character, I never connect with it and therefore don’t give a kitten about it. And if I don’t give a kitten about it, I don’t bother leveling or gearing it.

Basically this. But it doesn’t stop me from playing games with female protagonists.
Just in the case of GW2, I can’t seem to stick to female characters all too long.

Girls are just prettier. Males and females prefer them in the end, without need for any sexual implication.
Its funny because its true.

Ardid.7203:

Girls are just prettier. Males and females prefer them in the end, without need for any sexual implication.
Its funny because its true.

I could argue that guys are prettier, and I could even argue this being a guy who is sexually attracted to women. In fact, it used to be pretty common in ancient societies.

See how that works? It’s called subjectivity and opinion. In reality, neither sex is objectively more attractive than the other, and arguing otherwise is pretty clearly absurd.

When it comes to online games, I prefer to play female characters because I’m a woman and dressing female characters is more fun to me than doing the same with male characters. That and it feels more natural to play as a female character. In regular RPGs or anything that isn’t online, I prefer male characters. I’ve been playing games for a very long time and I guess that I got used to playing male heroes.

Just play whatever you want. At this point, so many guys play female characters that I assume all female characters are males by default unless they tell me otherwise. xD

First off I want to say I’m a female. Male or female chars don’t matter to me, I’m more in it for aesthetics. Whether it’s a femal cat(cute) menotaur with their slick looks or a male human with their eye candy appearance, if I like the looks I’ll make and play with them.

Truly though, I have more charr then other races. I think it’s because I like 4 legged animals and the charr being able to run on all 4 was one of the main reasons I bought this game.

Like said, I’m about the aesthetics.

play what you want and are comfortable with! it’s a game! most have multiple characters! I’m sure some of them being opposite gender is fine. you are not necessarily being your character. it might be weirder if you are RPing with people or if you’ve misled your guildies. I’m female but have about half male characters I made to resemble kpop idols lol, I love playing them. but my main is female i admit because here’s the only place I can feel so kick but and I want to identify with it. and look pretty with outfits I’d never have irl, but to each their own!

It’s interesting to see everyone’s take on playing the opposite gender. Since I play both, according to some of the posts I am either out of touch with my inner self, not secure with my masculinity, misogynistic, effeminate, insecure, overly confident or some combination of them.

I tend to play male characters because I’m a guy, I naturally gravitate towards male characters. I do play female characters but it’s usually because something prompts me like the ridiculous looking male Norn physique, the butt ugly male Asura faces, or things like gender locked classes in other games.

Some folks mentioned that you need to have a connection with your characters, I suppose if you RP then it might be important, but otherwise I disagree. I do give my characters a bit of a personality, mostly to dictate what skins/outfits they use, but aside from that I can’t say I have a connection with them.

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.

That’s funny. I have characters of both genders, but my current main is female and I’ve never had anyone outwardly assume I’m female simply because my character is female. In fact, I’ve been playing MMOs for many years now and I’ve never had any issues with this.

As far as I know, playing characters of a different gender than your own in an MMO is perfectly normal and most people don’t think anything of it.

Perhaps if they’d add more options to male voice overs, I’d be more inclined to make male characters. I’d even throw more cash at more available options, but I don’t see that ever happening.

I don’t give a crud about what sex is my toon as long as it doesn’t look like a blaster… 99% of human male have blaster face in the game (1% is usually a toon looking like a bum with the rough beard) and 99% of norn males also share a blaster face – only 1 looks good and it doesn’t require anykind of facial hair…

That’s why I did choose Charr – they always look good, face nor sex doesn’t matter.

i pick whatever Race /Gender that i find the voice acting to be the most plasing to my ear and therefor to “live with” as a result all of my toons are femail asura.

Eh, doesn’t bother me in the least. I’m male and have a characters of both sexes.

On the topic of dudes hitting on you and calling you kitten when they find out you’re a dude. Please continue to have people do this. It’s their just-deserts for being annoying. Just enjoy yourself with whatever feels comfortable.

Curunen.8729:

JohnnyJHB.7360:

Ivanova (Claudia Christian) voices the female norn.

Woah, seriously?! :o That’s really cool, I had no idea.

Yes, but to this day I still wonder who gave her the directional order to make her combat noises sound (wait, I don’t think using this term is allowed on here, so let me try this instead) like sounds that you are only used to hear in the bedroom. It pretty much ruined playing my female norn for me (beside the fact that they move like jogging super models instead of warriors).

im a male and i roleplay so i play a charr.

I like playing guys but also girls. plus playing as a girl lets me stare at her butt the entire time – not quite as enjoyable when playing my guy toons.

Other players who try and hit on you then rag on you for playing a girl:
A) – honestly should have expected this since they play an MMO, and should have gotten to know who is behind the toon first

and B ) – seriously need a girlfriend, but first a self image check.

I just have to wonder why all the talk of butts … I play zoomed out and angled high to avoid motion sickness so my entire character is about one inch tall on the screen. He or she is just a marker point for where the fights and jumps are happening.

Not that I’d really find a few curved pixel lines all that exciting anyway.

It is pretty standard for men to find anything with the general female shape to be attractive. No matter how far away they appear.