Guild Wars 2

I swear every other player I see is a female human. I also know this game has an overwhelming majority of its playerbase being male. I’ve tried to ask in map chat a few times why so many gentlemen play female characters but I always seem to get really defensive replies or outright attacks calling me “gay” for looking at a male character’s butt all day (what?). Maybe I just have my priorities wrong but I dont think I could actually effectively play this game by staring at the posterior of my character.

But I digress. What is the allure of female humans characters and why are there so many males playing them?

There’s a lot of people out there that prefer to fantasize about their hot avatar. People like looking at pretty things and all that.

i don’t want to look at a male while i play. Plus the males really aren’t male, more like androgynous creatures from the land of the PC world. no thanks

People are free to make the gender that they want, it’s a game afterall. It doesn’t matter what gender the person is or the character is.

I personally make, most of the times, female characters, because they looks a lot better/cuter than males.

For me, I have yet to find a game where I like the appearance of male characters. Now I do have a male charr only because I dont like the look of the female charr.

So it is basically just about looks. If they could make male characters look good, not have them look like steroid induced bodybuilders, but what a normal person would look like and have their facial choices be good then maybe I would make some, but until then it will be females.

I make basically only female characters because I find that, when the armor is not kittenty at least, it looks superior to the male version. I also tend to prefer female hair styles over males.

That being said, I have yet to make a human character. Only norn, sylvari and charr (female charr have a sleeker look, which I prefer)

I always play female characters, but I never play as a human. For me, games are an escape from reality, and I like to get as far away from reality as I can. Plus I find the image of an 80lbs twig of a Sylvari catapulting a Charr across the map with a hammer equal parts hilarious and adorable

I play both males and females, but I always feel more social as a female character.
Maybe its just some instinct role playing.

Does there need to be a reason other than that they feel like doing it? I’m a girl and I have male characters as well. Why not? I never imagine that my character is me, or some variation thereof. It’s a character with a story.

Additionally, there’s the voice acting. Dear god. I can’t play a human female, I utterly despise the personality the voice actress has given her. I created one and ditched her again after a few cutscenes. There’s nothing wrong with the voice acting per se, it just doesn’t fit what I have in mind in terms of personality. (The female Charr’s voice is awesome, on the other hand.)

First, just realize that most people like their avatar to be at least one of two things: absolute bad kitten monstrosity, or attractive/relatable.

Generally males will view males of a race as more bad kitten (for example, largest most fierce looking male charr > female charr). So when they want to make a bad kitten character, it’s more likely to be male than female. That’s why in pretty much every MMO the less humanoid races have nearly nobody playing a female.

People who mostly play humanoid races (the majority of people) are more concerned with their avatars looking attractive/relatable (regardless of whether it is male or female) than those who play monster races. Male humanoids are relatable (to males), and female humanoids are attractive. They both have their pros, so they both get chosen quite frequently.

As for why you would be seeing more human females than norn females, I don’t have a clue… I guess they can’t stand the sight of a strong norn woman

Yikes, didnt mean to upset anyone just wanted to see if I could get some real insight instead of the typical rantings I see in map chat.

I find the female humans in this game absolutely gorgeous — yet you can make ones that are more cutesy, and have “character” — so I can see how they would be very appealing to both male and female players.

I do have two female humans (girl, here), but I wound up not favoring their professions like I thought I would so I mostly play my other two characters which are male. Strangely, I do not mind this as much as I’d have thought, and have not gotten the itch to reroll my favorite profs as females.

Maybe Anet just did such a good job making the characters look good that people in general are more likely to branch out and play a character of the opposite gender, and like it? Who knows!

I got 8 characters. One of each class, 50% male, 50% female. 2 humans (male and female), 2 asura (male and female), 2 norn (male and female), 1 sylvari female and 1 charr male.

The male humans look bland and there are far too few masculine faces. Even the beards are seriously lacking. The norn look great, both males and females. Sylvari.. just as with night elves in world of warcraft, the males mostly look like crap but the females look good, mostly. Charr, well, the similarities between the sexes are not huge, and the same goes for the asura. Ah yes, and I hate the voice for the human male character. That combined with the lack of good beards is why I made my main, a guardian, norn male.

This topic pops up on the forum of every MMO ever released. Every. Single. One. Go ahead and verify it if you want. Makes me think next time I’m gonna start this thread myself just for the laughs of it.

Me: male IRL, 8 chars. 5 male, 3 female. Why: variety, and cause it’s a game, not RL. End of explanation.

Role Playing game bro.

i always rolled female toons because hey , if im going to be playing a fantasy game, id rather be looking at something asthetically pleasing , and that includes female avatars (human/humanoid ones at least)

that said, i tend to have an equal amount of M/F toons on all games, i have a human female, silvari female, and norn female, male asura and charr, when i buy another slot, ill make a male norn as my guardian

i dont fantasize about my characters but they are most of the time more astethicaly pleasing to me and their armours look better ( at least her ein GW2 the light armors on females look pretty awsome)

You know why? Because the male animations are horrible. I can’t stand the animations and stances of human male Thieves. It’s unbearable. 90% of the reason I rolled female was because of that. The other 10% is purely for RP reasons.

Brings to mind a discussion I had with a friend recently that went a little like this;

Friend: “Why have you got two female characters when you are a bloke?”

Me: “Why not?”

Friend: “It just seems odd.”

Me: “Male, female, whatever in game race – it’s all just pixels.”

Friend: “? … What do you mean … ?”

Me: “The game is not reality and the characters are little more than 3D cartoons to interact with. I just don’t see the problem.”

The discussion went on as I reminded my friend that I have five characters in total and mostly male and mostly not human (at that time).

I also asked my friend; “So how many female players use male ’toons?” and “Would you make a fuss if you knew a female that played male charaters?”. To the first question, there was a muffled “Hmpf!” and to the second a whispered “NO.”.

Shortly after, whilst at my friends home, I saw he had now made a female ’toon in another game and I kind of just smirked a little non offencive smirk!

as to the norn female issues, some classes look horrible, though i made a female norn elementalist, tall slider all the way down, find a skinny body with some sick body tatoos and they look pretty awsome, that said you feel like everyone else is a midget when you are playing a norn

I’m going to look at the kitten that I’ll make for the years to come, so it might as well be a nice one!

But I get your point. Women characters seem to be the majority in GW2, even along the story characters if we take as an example the current members of Destiny’s Edge …
I wasn’t expecting to see something like than in a non-japanese game!

I have three main characters at the moment: my main is a level 80 asura, I genuinely have no idea if it is male or female its purpose is to perform and kill shiz in pvp. Look means 0 to him/her so tiny genderless munchkin is ok.

My second is my male human, he is the strong farmer. PvE orientated and i look to gather my legendary through him. I like him to perform while looking pretty to those i encounter around me in PvE. Basic armour and a couple of nice dyes and hes currently set.

Lastly, my mesmer is my beauty, often unfortunately refereed to as the guild’s giant lezzer, i take every pride in gathering gear to make her look pretty, she will eventually hold my dawn legendary. She doesn’t get her hands dirty she gets her clones and others to do it for her :p She stands on the front of our WvW zerg shaking her 48JJ’s or whatever the hell her boobs would be, dazing and confusing oncoming enemies.

What happens when you forget to repair while doing CM :p
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h249/kindeller/gw723.jpg
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h249/kindeller/gw725.jpg

If I have to look at a butt all day long it’s going to be a female’s butt. Even if it is in a video game. That is why.

Male players like looking at females. /thread

I have toons in both genders. Why the female ones? I usually give my toons backgrounds and sometimes the background just “fits” for females. Part are genre conventions like the sexy but deadly spy or the hot sorceress depicted in almost every fantasy movie ever.

Other reasons include what you are a fan off. for example I love Buffy the vampire slayer, so I feel inclined to pick a “warrior” female toon over a male one. I suspect many people have similar reasons… even if they don’t like to admit them.

Anyway for insight here are my choices.

Norn male guardian. I felt that a guardian would be protective of others… this make, IMO, guardians a top choice for a being a cook (as preparing and sharing food is one o the primary ways of “taking care” of other people) and I associate cooks with males.

Norn Female Warrior I have a thing for the “bad—s” female fighter as I’m a fan of Whedon’s and Tarantino’s type of female characters.

Human Ele female grew up in the 80s all sorceress are hot, female and wear skimpy clothing.

Silvary ranger male this could have gone either way, but there is of course a strong influence by Chuck Norris Lord of the rings, though in this case my choice was driven byt the fact the my Silvary Thief was a female.

Silvary Thief female The female spy, sleek, sexy, mysterious and deadly too many examples in fiction and real life.

Asura Mesmer Female My mesmer is as playful deceiver… an enigma full of surprises. So I decided for a female since my grilfrends have always been a pleasant enigma full of surprises (in a good way) or perhaps beyond the male capabilities of understanding? =P

Asura Necro Male Diablo 2 pretty much cement the idea that necros are male.

Charr Engi male based purely on my made up backgrounds, I liked the idea that my engi got tricked to help my female “helpless” thief in one of her schemes and they became somewhat friends after that

I just don’t understand it. I swear, I see Charr, Norn, Asura and Sylvari all the time. But the vast majority of the player base is human in real life. Are people just in denial of their own species or something?

For me, it’s envisioning what the character is. I have some female characters, some male. My elementalist and my necro are human females, my ranger is a human male, my engineer is a male asuran. Sure, I like looking at a cute little female character, but it’s not exclusively a sexualized thing for me. I approach character creation like a writer, rather than a gamer; something this game in particular fosters in me because of its concentration on storytelling.

Schurge.5194:

I never got the whole “gay” argument. I find staring at a tight female butt way to distracting and it bumps my sex drive up to abnormal levels. Plus, I have a hard time relating to female characters, because I’m – you know – a guy.

As far as I know my male characters don’t even have butts. I’m busy looking cool bashing people’s skulls in not staring at my toon’s pixel butt.

Nope, the gay argument holds no water with me.

For some, it seems, the idea is that if a male plays a female character then a part of that male must want to be female! After all, the in game ‘toon, character, avatar or what we will call it is ’supposed’ to be a representation of oneself in the game world. This leads some to then make all sorts of assumptions about the masculinity of the male player in question.

A few years ago, I upset another friend when he suggested there was something ‘wrong’ with me for playing using a female character and I replied something on the lines of; “What? Are you telling me you are so insecure about your own masculinity that you can’t even bring yourself to use a female character?”. At first, as I said, my friend was somewhat upset – almost going into a rage! I diffused the situation with a joke or two and in turn my friend agreed that there really was no problem with a guy playing a girl character.

I suppose we all look at things differently.

Because I like looking at my human female thief in t3 cultural.

But then again, I also like looking at my sylvari male warrior in that bare-chested plate armor.

Hmmm…..

Main pg is Human Male guardian… a kind of nerdy identification complex.
Second PG Human Female Ele… why?

SHE IS HOT

I find it to be pretty hilarious, to be honest. Without sounding overly harsh, I’ve noticed that most real women tend to play attractive female characters whilst men playing female characters tend to make them very…trashy looking. I’m confident enough in my sexuality to be able to play a male character, though.

Glad to see the conversation is staying civil and constructive. Getting some very interesting feedback from both sides.

Personally I always play as a male because I am one. It’s always preference but in answer to the person who mentioned the men looking like they were on steroids: If you are sposed to ‘save the world’ your character is not going to look like your average male. He is obviously going to be buff/ripped.

GrinReaper.5082:

Personally I always play as a male because I am one. It’s always preference but in answer to the person who mentioned the men looking like they were on steroids: If you are sposed to ‘save the world’ your character is not going to look like your average male. He is obviously going to be buff/ripped.

Well, there’s buff/ripped and then there’s “freak of nature.” :9

Kerri Knight.3168:

Well, there’s buff/ripped and then there’s “freak of nature.” :9

Well I play a sylvari so he is rather skimpy.

A male friend that explained that if you have a choice, considering the camera at your back all the time, whose posterior would you want to look at as you spend all that time with a character? Some burly guy or some curvy female backside?

I am not for the burly type, but I get it.
For me, as a woman, I am a little ashamed because this time around, I haven’t created a male character as I did with GW1. I had a lot of character ideas I made that connected my characters from the first game to this one and a few I wanted to make in other races. They turned out to be female in the end.

Its easy to think if someone is going to make an avatar, they should make it look like themselves, but since we don’t have to be, some folks imagination will trump that logic.

You get those responses because that question has been asked 20 billion times over the last 15 years, and it gets old. Is it too hard to grasp that people like the models more than the male ones? It’s a game, you get to choose which one is more aesthetically pleasing, go with it.

The answer to why so many males play female humans is simple. They’re creeps! They’re….they’re….just…a buncha creepos! The only answer I can ever seem to garner from these creeps is the “butt” answer everyone else in this thread seems to get/give. That’s a creeper answer, man.

I’ve played a lot of MMOs (and other RPGs) over the years and have never made a female character. I don’t know why exactly, except that maybe in a game that relies at least partially on creating your own story or carving your own path through the world, I find it easier to identify in some way with a character of my own gender. I play all different genres of games, and I have liked a lot of games over the years with female protagonists (Tomb Raider, The Longest Journey/Dreamfall, etc). But for whatever reason, in any game that allows me to create my own character, I always make them male.

Generally always play Female in MMOs (Except SWTOR because of the heavy emphasis on RPing)because I like to have something nice to look at. As for being human well…I hate the Norn Female Voice…Charrs and Asura have extremely bland male armor and being a plant doesn’t really do it for me.

So I’m left with human. If they’d make Largos playable I’d go with that in a heartbeat though!

So I give a reasonable and polite, if somewhat forceful, reply and you think I did not read the post? Not only did I read it, I quoted it! I have also read all the other posts in this thread.

As I recognized in my own post I could, in a way, ‘see’ where the other poster was coming from. I just did not agree with the other poster is all.

Back to the OP / TS (Shredicus);

What is the allure of female human characters?: There is no solid way of telling why, seemingly, so many make a female human character. Maybe it is because new players are drawn to the human race in game as they are (assumingly) human IRL. Maybe some males make female characters out of boredom or because they don’t like to look at a male character so much. Maybe there are players that like to act out their female side so to say. This is a fantasy game so it is not unreasonable that some folk may act out harmless fantasy in the GW2 game.

Truelly, without getting an absolutely accurate ‘poll’ of all players with truthful answers as to why they play one gender or race we will never know.

Why are there so many males playing female characters? No offence meant at all but this is assumption. Nothing wrong with assuming that the player base is largely male. Nothing wrong with assuming that a large portion of male players will have at least one female ’toon (and reverse that to female players and male ’toons). Edit: I see another poster linked info statistics – thanks for that I will check it soon. The link probably backs up the assumption(S).

I hope you see that there is nothing wrong with and no malice meant by me pointing these things out. I’m not trying to be defensive and I hope you can see I am not attacking.

This started as a good thread and there are good points being made – even those that seem to conflict. Let’s keep this debate civil and continue in a reasonable, nice manner.

I have 3 male characters and 3 female characters. None of them resemble me, in fact, only one is human. In an RPG I create characters, not representations of myself. Characters I create are people in my mind and as a result they happen to be male or female. If you can’t identify with genders other than your own then it’s going to be difficult for you.
I understand completely that some people like making avatars of what they themselves wish to be. And that’s all well and good, but in most video games the gender and character is already chosen for me, I like having the ability to create.

As a female gamer, I always make and play female characters. I am a grown woman, but I do love playing dress up :} I know males and females who play each gender. To each her/his own. I guess since the female humans are the “prettiest” both genders will be attracted to them.

We are a visual species, so looks do matter to some. I never question a person’s reasons for playing either gender.

Me personally? I play everything BUT human. My mains are sylvari, Norn, and asura. I do not like the female charr look at all, which was a huge disappointment to me.

I finally made one human female, a thief. I like her very much, but I made her have character instead of Barbie beauty. She is my banker.

I See No Tomorrow.7302:

I have 3 male characters and 3 female characters. None of them resemble me, in fact, only one is human. In an RPG I create characters, not representations of myself. Characters I create are people in my mind and as a result they happen to be male or female. If you can’t identify with genders other than your own then it’s going to be difficult for you.
I understand completely that some people like making avatars of what they themselves wish to be. And that’s all well and good, but in most video games the gender and character is already chosen for me, I like having the ability to create.

Very well put!

Playing the game as male, female, human, norn, asura, charr or sylvari is not, or at least should not be, any problem.

It seems to me that the player is like to an author – after all they define the story for each character. Did JKR want to be male when she wrote in Harry or Ron? Did PTerry want to be a woman when he wrote in Nanny OGG or Mistress Wetherwax? Do I want to be a cat just because I play a Charr? Does any player want to be one with nature in real life when playing a sylvari? NO, not necessarily (well maybe the nature thing)! The one thing does not (have to) correlate with the other.

Edit cleared up a misleading line!

i blame the DoA games. but on a more on topic note i think alot of guys make girl chars because a few years ago people would just mail you or trade you items for brownie points and it just kinda stuck around.

I play female characters because I am female. And also because I put my personality into the characters. So I would be unable to play a man. As I have no idea how it is to be one.

But if I for some reason wanted to play a male, I would make him look sexy(to me). As I’m assuming most guys would do when making a character of the gender they are attracted to.

I kind of have to agree with the comment made by Garenthal.1480 saying men tend to make more trashy looking female characters.Thought I’ve noticed this with two kinds, women who want guys attention in games and most guys. I think it’s because the white blonde woman with overly tanned skin seems to still be the ‘most common’ version of what’s ‘hot’.

But each to their own.

Another reason some people make only female characters is because they used it as an advantage in a lot of other games. There are many FPS and MMOS you can use it with. A few examples are smaller models are harder to see or click on. Another example would be The female model has smaller hit boxes thus harder to shoot and so on. A lot of casual gamers do not see this advantage, but there is a lot of others who do see this and use it. I have talked to many “pro” gamers and this is the only reasons they pick a female model.

My characters in-game are not a representation of me. They’re characters. They are a variety of races, genders, and professions, and they make different choices and decisions than I would.

Playing myself is boring. I do it all day long already and it’s completely instinctual for me, as it should be. Playing someone who is nothing like me takes effort and imagination. My one character who is based on myself, created during early access, has barely seen any action.

Here’s another way of looking at it: if you were a novelist would all of your characters be the same gender as you?

ASB.4295:

There are two kinds of people: Players that identify with their characters and play as themselves or an idealized version of themselves, and players who live vicariously through their creations, which don’t have to have any personal connection to them.

People who only play as themselves have difficulty thinking from the perspective of another person. Not only do they only play as themselves because of that, but they also cannot understand why someone else wouldn’t do the same. So they think it’s appropriate to give people who have a different viewpoint tons of grief, including bizarre accusations.

You don’t see anyone going, “People who only play as themselves suck/ are sad/ lack imagination/ are jerks/ are creepy.”

As a guy I can say that I have no problem rolling both genders.
A good while back I had a friend in another MMO roll a female toon because he says he gets freebies from others i.e. loot / in-game help / ect…
So about a year ago I tried it myself..I can tell you I was shocked! It works!, maybe that’s why? or at least in part.
For me personally I have several reasons to roll a female toon. Aesthetics, story, voice acting, animations,
but the same reason goes for rolling a male toon too.
I am pretty sure when ANET was in mid-design of making GW2, they had it in mind to design a game that lets player’s imaginations run wild,
as is, which is a mechanic of fantasy game.
~Cheers