Guild Wars 2

I am gonna guess that 97% of the gw2 community is male. Now, let’s talk about the most common races for each class.

warrior : human female

guardian : human female

rev : human female

theif : human female

engineer : human female

ranger : human female

mes : human female

ele : human female

necro : human female

And then there’s me, all of my characters are Sylvari (female). Edit: I’m female irl.

Most likely. A lot of guys do play female characters for a number of reasons. I remember asking my friend why do you play female characters when you have the choice to play them. He said I don’t want to stare at a male characters A**. I was like that makes since.

As for me I don’t like playing female characters because I’m not a female. That’s my reason. I do have one female character but hardly ever play it.

I am gonna guess that 97% of the gw2 community is male.

Perhaps not: 2009
Although the percentage of male players may have been greater in the past, currently only 60% of MMO players are male and this percentage continues to shrink as more and more females are starting to play MMOs.

As to sex of characters. I have 10 level 80s and 3 I’m leveling to 80. Of those 2 are male.

This doesn’t make sense to me because from what you’ve posted I’d see human females more than any other and that’s not the case.
I’m also female who plays female characters and there are quite a few females in my guild. Actually the leader of the guild is female. I think there are more females playing than the numbers show.

My guild, not all in GW2 as we’re from SWTOR – has 10 active females. More in past. Now, that’s also Star Wars; but recruiting here had 2 females join. It’s a big misnomer no females play MMOs these days. Now – most females I know like to play male chars. And their female chars aren’t 97% naked.

I like both sexes. I have Female Asura, Human, Sylvari – Male Norn, Charr – w/ a deleted male Sylvari and Asura. Sorry boys…

I’d venture esp a game like GW2 where it’s not all combat, there’s a good % of real females playing. I don’t know about 60/40 but definitely close, males will still dominate but not 97%. Which was an exaggerated number anyways I’m guessing.

male charr blood legion warrior ftw \m/_

Even if you are actually female no one believes it when you say so, not even other females.

Personally, I believe there are way more females playing GW2 than the 3% figure listed by the OP, but I also believe that male players account for atleast 70% of the population.

As for why so many men play female toons, well, I too asked my Fiance this, and the answer was the same as Evga got.

personally i’ve only one ch female. a sylvari. why? “This rose has thorns and here they are!” ^^ love this shout

I am female and all my characters are females except one. The male is a Asura created to resemble my little male chihuahua : )

I have to say…out of approximately 50 Guild Wars characters, only 1 is male.

But, I’m afraid it’s not because I want to look at their behinds. I just feel odd playing a male character. I think some players identify with their gender; perhaps, more than one would guess.

I have specific problems with the way the males look for 3 of the races.

Sylvari males, I love the way they look but there’s something strange about the way they run. Their back seems abnormally stiff which makes their legs move in a strange up/down run. They have a “poker inside the char” running animation. Once I saw it I couldn’t I unsee it.

I’ve made then deleted human males several times. They look “off” in some manner that I haven’t been able to pinpoint. They also look too young. I want an older, rugged, more beat up look. Not the metrosexual, barely 20 year old look that most of them have. They also look odd when running.

Norn males: they just don’t do anything for me so I don’t have any.

So with my choices so restricted because I dislike the ways so many males look in this game that leaves females as a predominant choice for me. Not, as the OP seems to be suggesting, because of my sex or because of human female meta.

Only male characters I have are a charr and depending on math, two or nine sylvari. Charr mostly because I was curious about the voice and then I never played that one, sylvari because pretty.

Then the girls happened and the sylvari retired. :’D

Yeah, male really only works for Charr imo. But, that’s just my opinion.

I have 20-30 toons, all are female except, 1 male Charr, 1 male sylvari, 1 male Human thats modeled after Louis from Interview with a Vampire, because..well, he’s beautiful, and 2 male Norn. The norn are storage characters, because male norn just look strange on any class, the others I play from time to time.

5 female and 2 male characters here. The main reason for this disproportion is partly due to my language settings; I play in French, so I’ve got FR VAs hollering in my ear. I absolutely -adore- the human male voice, charmed by the male sylvari, but I loathe the male voice for your norn. Voice acting is wonderful, but it’s not gruff and his voice is more fitting for a human or sylvari, not a norn. But I digress. I would definitely play a male norn if the VA was more appropriate (or I can just play in English, but my ear candy from the human male!).
Plus one female character is a joke character so she doesn’t count.
And, well, female outfits are just more pleasing and varied compared to their male counterparts.

The more serious reason for me not having many male characters is that I like putting thought into characters I create. For males I haven’t fleshed them out yet, so I’m putting off making new male characters until then.

Just my two cents.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

I am gonna guess that 97% of the gw2 community is male.

Perhaps not: 2009
Although the percentage of male players may have been greater in the past, currently only 60% of MMO players are male and this percentage continues to shrink as more and more females are starting to play MMOs.

As to sex of characters. I have 10 level 80s and 3 I’m leveling to 80. Of those 2 are male.

Why do people just inherently believe statistics that go against not only their own common experience but that of everyone they know? Look at everyone you know who is a gamer, are half of them female? No? Not even close? Me neither, neither is that true for anyone I have ever asked or anyone I know who has asked the same question.

Statistics are like theater, what everyone expects, doesn’t sell.

Conncept.7638:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

I am gonna guess that 97% of the gw2 community is male.

Perhaps not: 2009
Although the percentage of male players may have been greater in the past, currently only 60% of MMO players are male and this percentage continues to shrink as more and more females are starting to play MMOs.

As to sex of characters. I have 10 level 80s and 3 I’m leveling to 80. Of those 2 are male.

Why do people just inherently believe statistics that go against not only their own common experience but that of everyone they know? Look at everyone you know who is a gamer, are half of them female? No? Not even close? Me neither, neither is that true for anyone I have ever asked or anyone I know who has asked the same question.

Statistics are like theater, what everyone expects, doesn’t sell.

/shrug.

I’m female. And there are several females that have self reported on this thread.

Why do you not believe there are a lot of females? Do you think you can tell gender by the display name or the way they type their letters in map chat?

Just a flesh wound.3589:

I am gonna guess that 97% of the gw2 community is male.

Perhaps not: 2009
Although the percentage of male players may have been greater in the past, currently only 60% of MMO players are male and this percentage continues to shrink as more and more females are starting to play MMOs.

As to sex of characters. I have 10 level 80s and 3 I’m leveling to 80. Of those 2 are male.

That statistic is from 2009 and it does not really reflect the GW playerbase. I’d say female players are more close to 10 – 15%, but that is just my opinion, just as 3% is duster’s. There are too many female characters and they all can’t be played by females.

Personally I’m playing with male characters only, since I am a man. Only games I have played with female characters are the Fallout series and Fable 3, they are singleplayer games and it gives some variety to try something else. GW2 on the other hand is an online MMO, I don’t want to pretend to be a woman and I tend to bring some certain realism into it.

I understand that some players wants some “eye candy” while they are playing the game, but it kind of irritates me how some dudes makes their characters look like a sex doll.

In my guilds when we get on voice chat it’s clear at least half of us are women. We do communicate out of game, we even meet RL when we can, and yeah, I don’t see any statistical male dominance.

Not that it matters. Play the character that fits the story best for you. Accept that the other players around you are doing the same. Authors don’t only write their own gender (ok, good authors don’t), so why should people using game characters to experience a world be limited to those that match their flesh and blood selves?

I mean, I’m a frail, out of shape, skinny woman. Does that mean I don’t get to play a handsome, charming, super-agile, super-dextrous male thief? (Oh, he has flaws too. But he’ll never admit them).

There are too many female characters and they all can’t be played by females.
Do you think women preferably play men then? I suspect that women tend to play female characters more than male, from my experience of seeing what my female friends play and what I prefer to play, at least in this game.

That statistic is from 2009 and it does not really reflect the GW playerbase
It’s about male/female ratios in MMOs and I think it would reflect the gw playerbase. A casual, come and go, cosmetic based game. That’s just the type of MMO for a female to try as her first MMO, or her second.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

There are too many female characters and they all can’t be played by females.
Do you think women preferably play men then? I suspect that women tend to play female characters more than male, from my experience of seeing what my female friends play and what I prefer to play, at least in this game.

That statistic is from 2009 and it does not really reflect the GW playerbase
It’s about male/female ratios in MMOs and I think it would reflect the gw playerbase. A casual, come and go, cosmetic based game. That’s just the type of MMO for a female to try as her first MMO, or her second.

No, I don’t think that women prefer male characters. Remember that 40% is the percentage of the gaming population in EverQuest, not GW2. edit

I don’t know your gaming experience, but it’s really common for males to play as female characters.

demitel.1340:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

There are too many female characters and they all can’t be played by females.
Do you think women preferably play men then? I suspect that women tend to play female characters more than male, from my experience of seeing what my female friends play and what I prefer to play, at least in this game.

That statistic is from 2009 and it does not really reflect the GW playerbase
It’s about male/female ratios in MMOs and I think it would reflect the gw playerbase. A casual, come and go, cosmetic based game. That’s just the type of MMO for a female to try as her first MMO, or her second.

No, I don’t think that women prefer male characters. Remember that 40% is the percentage of the gaming population, not any specific game.

I don’t know your gaming experience, but it’s really common for males to play as female characters.

That quote said 40% of MMOs, not the gaming population.

And I never said guys don’t play female chars. If you would actually read what I said I said that from my experience females also prefer female chars. Which means you can’t tell player gender % from looking at char gender, not if both sexes prefer female chars. So saying that There are too many female characters and they all can’t be played by females. is wrong. They are played by both male and female.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

That quote said 40% of MMOs, not the gaming population.

And I never said guys don’t play female chars. If you would actually read what I said I said that from my experience females also prefer female chars. Which means you can’t tell player gender % from looking at char gender, not if both sexes prefer female chars. So saying that There are too many female characters and they all can’t be played by females. is wrong.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7796482.stm

This is the source for that blog.

“The study looked at gender differences in more than 2,400 gamers playing EverQuest II.”

That is relatively small amount of players and it’s unreliable, this kind of research should have more variety of games. I’m surprised that they didn’t choose some random korean MMO with overly cute, anime female characters with cat ears and fox tail, lol.

Conncept.7638:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

I am gonna guess that 97% of the gw2 community is male.

Perhaps not: 2009
Although the percentage of male players may have been greater in the past, currently only 60% of MMO players are male and this percentage continues to shrink as more and more females are starting to play MMOs.

As to sex of characters. I have 10 level 80s and 3 I’m leveling to 80. Of those 2 are male.

Why do people just inherently believe statistics that go against not only their own common experience but that of everyone they know? Look at everyone you know who is a gamer, are half of them female? No? Not even close? Me neither, neither is that true for anyone I have ever asked or anyone I know who has asked the same question.

Statistics are like theater, what everyone expects, doesn’t sell.

Of the four people I generally play online games with, only one is male. Of the four guilds I currently belong to, only one is led by a male (and no related parallels between those sets). Glad you asked me .

demitel.1340:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

That quote said 40% of MMOs, not the gaming population.

And I never said guys don’t play female chars. If you would actually read what I said I said that from my experience females also prefer female chars. Which means you can’t tell player gender % from looking at char gender, not if both sexes prefer female chars. So saying that There are too many female characters and they all can’t be played by females. is wrong.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7796482.stm

This is the source for that blog.

_"The study looked at gender differences in more than 2,400 gamers playing EverQuest II." _

That is relatively small amount of players and it’s unreliable, this kind of research should have more variety of games. I’m surprised that they didn’t choose some random korean MMO with overly cute anime female characters with cat ears and fox tail, lol.

One thing I do know, being female, is that guys undercount the number of females playing. We don’t announce ourselves as being female. We just play the game and type in chat. There’s lots of times I’ve talked in chat and given advice or help. At the end the person says, ‘thanks dude’ or ‘appreciate the help man’. You know what I say to that?

I say, ty. ur welcome.

I do not say, ’I’m a girl’ or, ‘its dudette.’ And none of the female friends I know say, ’I’m a girl’, in chat either. So all these guys that think they’ve spoken to another guy when they’ve spoken to any of us females, they keep on thinking it and so they undercount the number of girls that play.

There’s more of us than you think because we don’t go around announcing we are female

Just a flesh wound.3589:

There’s more of us than you think because we don’t go around announcing we are female

And you don’t have to. We all are people who are playing the game.

demitel.1340:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

There’s more of us than you think because we don’t go around announcing we are female

And you don’t have to. We all are people who are playing the game.

That’s true. But then guys use these undercounts of females to declare that not many females play. Women have learned from other MMOs not to speak on voice chat because guys start harassing them. They’ve learned not to tell guys they are female for the same reason (‘go to the kitchen and make me a sammich’ jokes get old fast too). I don’t know the % but the fact that this thread has 7 self announced females out of 17 posters and the rest either male or unknown suggests that that females aren’t that rare.

Conncept.7638:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

I am gonna guess that 97% of the gw2 community is male.

Perhaps not: 2009
Although the percentage of male players may have been greater in the past, currently only 60% of MMO players are male and this percentage continues to shrink as more and more females are starting to play MMOs.

As to sex of characters. I have 10 level 80s and 3 I’m leveling to 80. Of those 2 are male.

Why do people just inherently believe statistics that go against not only their own common experience but that of everyone they know? Look at everyone you know who is a gamer, are half of them female? No? Not even close? Me neither, neither is that true for anyone I have ever asked or anyone I know who has asked the same question.

Statistics are like theater, what everyone expects, doesn’t sell.

I think of the core group I play with and come to 6/14 female. I might be forgetting one or two people, but that figure seems accurate enough to my experience.

What I’m curious about is why women almost exclusively play female characters while for male MMO players it’s more 50/50.

I’m a dude, I have 11 characters:

1. Human male dragonhunter.
2. Sylvari male druid.
3. Sylvari male reaper.
4. Human male reaper.
5. Human male berserker.
6. Human male herald.
7. Human female daredevil.
8. Human female tempest.
9. Norn female dragonhunter.
10. Norn female berserker.
11. Human female chronomancer.

As you can see, 6 males, 5 females.

Yet, all my female friends (except for 1) exclusively play female characters and refuse to play male characters.

Why is that?

As a guy in real life, I actually prefer to make male characters over female in MMOs. That’s because I see my characters as a representation of myself in game and so I like to be represented as the gender I actually am (though I do make females when I want to emulate a specific character idea).

That being said, I do understand why a lot of guys like to play as female characters in game, however, I find it sad that some use the excuse “I don’t want to stare at a guy’s a** all day”, etc, to justify it. It seems rather immature to me, and almost gives off the impression that guys in particular are so sexually insecure that they feel the need to project the idea that they can’t stand to look at a male figure without feeling disgusted, as if others would somehow doubt their sexuality if they did not do so.

For me personally, however, I feel that being attracted to females doesn’t mean you have to play as one any more than being attracted to females in real life means you must get a sex change to become one. There’s nothing wrong with being comfortable being a guy and it’s sometimes nice to role play as such in a game, especially when you do meet girls who are also (shock and horror) attracted to guys and find it odd when their boyfriend or husband irl is playing as a girl (lesbian relationships ftw?).

In the end though, people must just play what they like and not feel the need to come up with excuses for it. Lol.

I have 12 Chars and only 5 are female and only one is human female. But then again that’s what I like: diversity.

There are the big issues concerning the looks and styles of certain armor types and problems with many of the races. Just one example:
My favorite race are the Charr. Yet, I have such a hard time to find or mix-and-match any armor to my liking which isn’t male heavy armor. Light armor is all right and medium armor is quite terrible on Charr (in my opinion of course).

There is also a whole other aspect to this topic.
Many females seem to stick to female mostly while males tend to create characters of both genders (I am part of that group, both genders, more male than female) and quite often even prefer to play as females.
Don’t think this is hard to explain. We seem to forget that it is young women who are being seen as the personification of beauty in our society. One of the reasons why both genders do prefer to play such a character or simply spend most of their time looking at them. Those are also characters who are being given a lot of attention by other players no matter who actually plays behind the screen.
The current age of many of the male players does also play a big role of course. They will be drawn to something that fits their sexual preferences as most are at ‘that’ age (16-30) obviously.
Beauty and sexual attraction can be much more powerful and more desirable than cuteness or coolness of some character. This may not apply to everyone but the game doesn’t really give you a hard decision as it is so much easier to dress up a human female character in a sexy light or medium armor than to find cool looking medium or light armor for males if you aren’t into trench coats and skirts.

My charr (including my main and first character) are all male, simply because I dislike how the female charr look and move. Sylvari and norn on the other hand are all female, because I don’t enjoy playing their male counterparts. My asura (the majority of my 28 characters ) are mostly female, but a few, including my very first asura (2nd character I created in this game after the first charr) are male. Oh, and I do have one human female, that one was a mistake (looong story) that I certainly won’t repeat again.

For statistics: female, online gamer since the early 90s (MUDs back then), but only ever started playing mostly female characters in the last 5 or so years when female gamers became the norm rather than the odd one out. Before that, playing male characters made for a much more relaxed gaming atmosphere .

Other GW2-gaming family members: both of my daughters. The 13-year-old is a die-hard asura player and exclusively plays wvw. She’s just recently started commanding public squads, and seems to do so pretty successfully . The 10-year-old plays mostly charr with the odd asura inbetween, and prefers jumping puzzles to any other in-game activity. No human female on either of their accounts .

Just a flesh wound.3589:

That’s true. But then guys use these undercounts of females to declare that not many females play. Women have learned from other MMOs not to speak on voice chat because guys start harassing them. They’ve learned not to tell guys they are female for the same reason (‘go to the kitchen and make me a sammich’ jokes get old fast too). I don’t know the % but the fact that this thread has 7 self announced females out of 17 posters and the rest either male or unknown suggests that that females aren’t that rare.

It is definitely more than the stated 3%. Based on my experiences in GW2 I would say that at least 25% are female, might be more. I think ppl assume that girls don’t play that much games and while they might not play as much as guys, they certainly play more than the guys think.

I was positively surprised when I started raiding and in every raid group there was always one girl on team speak, and only about half of the ppl actually talk on ts. So if out of 5 ppl there is one female that would mean that 1/5=20% are female. And when we factor in the possibility that girls might not be comfortable to speak on voice chat we get even higher numbers.

But on the “because guys start harassing them” (if they speak in voice chat and let others know they are girls) I would say that I have not encountered such thing, not in GW2 at least. The community seems pretty mature, kind and welcoming towards everyone.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

demitel.1340:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

That quote said 40% of MMOs, not the gaming population.

And I never said guys don’t play female chars. If you would actually read what I said I said that from my experience females also prefer female chars. Which means you can’t tell player gender % from looking at char gender, not if both sexes prefer female chars. So saying that There are too many female characters and they all can’t be played by females. is wrong.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7796482.stm

This is the source for that blog.

_"The study looked at gender differences in more than 2,400 gamers playing EverQuest II." _

That is relatively small amount of players and it’s unreliable, this kind of research should have more variety of games. I’m surprised that they didn’t choose some random korean MMO with overly cute anime female characters with cat ears and fox tail, lol.

One thing I do know, being female, is that guys undercount the number of females playing. We don’t announce ourselves as being female. We just play the game and type in chat. There’s lots of times I’ve talked in chat and given advice or help. At the end the person says, ‘thanks dude’ or ‘appreciate the help man’. You know what I say to that?

I say, ty. ur welcome.

I do not say, ’I’m a girl’ or, ‘its dudette.’ And none of the female friends I know say, ’I’m a girl’, in chat either. So all these guys that think they’ve spoken to another guy when they’ve spoken to any of us females, they keep on thinking it and so they undercount the number of girls that play.

There’s more of us than you think because we don’t go around announcing we are female

Here’s a funny thing relating to this. Many posters (I’m assuming they are male, but who knows) respond to me with ‘Dude’ or ‘Man’ or ‘Sir’, assuming the poster (me) is male. When I respond with ‘Dudette’ or ‘Girl’, or ‘Madam’, they truly get their pants in a twist. I wonder why it’s acceptable to assume one is male, but not that one is female?

I don’t think the female population of gamers is as small as some believe. Just a quick Google of ‘ratio of male/female MMO gamers’ will bring up several enlightening articles.

Good luck.

Food for thought.

I have 1 human, it’s male, and a warrior. My only female is charr.

5 males, 5 females. 1 robot. My main is a girl asura engie. I like her voice.

I play sylvari and asura, but am neither of those.

I’m male, and play a mix. I’d have to count, but am pretty sure I have more human females than males. My main is male. Only one charr, since their bounding run makes me seasick. Three norn, since I don’t care for the huge character models (two of those assigned a farming spot). Mostly human and asura.

The difference between finding good looking female armor and male is frustrating to me. Even most outfits look much better on a female.

I too would vote for more character creation options than the “eighteen year old meta.”

My main and all my alts are male, and not a single one is human except my key runner (and he gets deleted/remade weekly). And, I’m a guy.

~EW

Here’s what I have.

3 male sylvari.
1 female sylvari.
1 male norn.
1 female asura.
1 male asura.
2 male charr.
1 male human.

Tenrai Senshi.2017:

As a guy in real life, I actually prefer to make male characters over female in MMOs. That’s because I see my characters as a representation of myself in game and so I like to be represented as the gender I actually am (though I do make females when I want to emulate a specific character idea).

That being said, I do understand why a lot of guys like to play as female characters in game, however, I find it sad that some use the excuse “I don’t want to stare at a guy’s a** all day”, etc, to justify it. It seems rather immature to me, and almost gives off the impression that guys in particular are so sexually insecure that they feel the need to project the idea that they can’t stand to look at a male figure without feeling disgusted, as if others would somehow doubt their sexuality if they did not do so.

For me personally, however, I feel that being attracted to females doesn’t mean you have to play as one any more than being attracted to females in real life means you must get a sex change to become one. There’s nothing wrong with being comfortable being a guy and it’s sometimes nice to role play as such in a game, especially when you do meet girls who are also (shock and horror) attracted to guys and find it odd when their boyfriend or husband irl is playing as a girl (lesbian relationships ftw?).

In the end though, people must just play what they like and not feel the need to come up with excuses for it. Lol.

I agree that the overused and now cliché line “If I’m going to be staring at someones a** for hours on end, it might as well be a woman’s” is a pretty lame excuse. We all know that if you stare at your character’s butt the whole time you’re playing, you’re not going to be doing very well =P

Having said that however, I do think that in most cases, it really does come down to attraction. Guys find women attractive so they make female characters because they’re attracted to them. Although I’ve noticed that the more “Alpha male” types tend to lean more towards creating male characters, that’s just an observation I’ve made on the people within my social circle, so obviously that’s not going to be true in every situation.

Also Anet seem to put more effort into female customization options which is annoying if you want to make male characters. My Asura (male btw) demands more options! >:(

Zerina – Necromancer – Female asura.
Myndee – Memser – Female asura.
Jaxxi – Engineer – Female asura.
Rissa – Revenant – Female asura.
Feyyt – Theif – Male asura.
Thorsimund – Warrior – Male charr.
Aeslin – Elementalist – Female Sylvari.
Aurion/Alastrine – Ranger – Female/Male human. (this one is my key farmer so the sex changes depending on my mood each Saturday morning)

So much for the Human Female meta op is referring to.

All my characters are male because I’m too manly to play with virtual barbies /flex

HazyDaisy.4107:

Even if you are actually female no one believes it when you say so, not even other females.

I wonder ~ do the RL females dress their human female chars differently than the RL males or do they run around with T3 racial/duelist/stripper armor too? Maybe that helps determine it a little if there’s a difference? ;o

But I have a hetero male friend who plays female characters in MMOs for the sole reason that he likes to pretend to be a female because it gets him help and free stuff easier. .-.

Male here and I don’t exactly fit your stereotype:

Mains:
Male Sylvari Necro
Male Charr Guardian
Male Asura Mesmer
Male Human Ranger

Alts:
Male Human Elementalist
Female Norn Ranger
Male Human Warrior
Male Sylvari Revenant
Male Norn Theif
Male Charr Engi

I have other playable characters I rarely play
3 Male Humans
1 Female Human
2 Male Sylvari
1 Male Asura

So all in all I have all male characters except 2. Out of the 18 toons only 7 are human.

Doggie.3184:

All my characters are male because I’m too manly to play with virtual barbies /flex

HazyDaisy.4107:

Even if you are actually female no one believes it when you say so, not even other females.

I wonder ~ do the RL females dress their human female chars differently than the RL males or do they run around with T3 racial/duelist/stripper armor too? Maybe that helps determine it a little if there’s a difference? ;o

But I have a hetero male friend who plays female characters in MMOs for the sole reason that he likes to pretend to be a female because it gets him help and free stuff easier. .-.

Do people really still fall for the “guy pretending to be girl in MMO to get free stuff” trick? I thought that’s why everyone just assumes every other player to be a guy in online games, because of the amount of guys that play female characters and pretend to be girls.

Human female warrior
Human male elementalist
Human male warrior
Sylvari female elementalist
Sylvari male revenant
Norn female hunter
Norn male mesmer
Asura female guardian
Asura male thief
Asura male necromancer
Charr male engineer

11 chars, 1 human female, thats less than 10%

I’m female and have 5 female characters, 4 male. Only 1 human, and only so she could be descended from my GW1 characters.

I’ve never liked the idea of my characters being me. I wouldn’t kill someone, so they can’t be me. Instead I start from why I’m making them and try to imagine what kind of person they are. I’ll get a sense of what they look like, what race, age, and their gender too. Not in the character creator of course, mostly while I’m walking to work, by the time I hit ‘create’ I already know roughly what I’m going to do.

My husband almost always makes female characters. When I’ve asked him why his answers range from the usual “well if I have to look at them for hours…” to saying a male hero is over-done and a female one is more interesting. Or once “…I’m playing Tomb Raider!?” I admit I was being awkward then.

He also says female characters get better clothing. In real life too apparently, he once told me men spend so much less time buying shoes because your options are ‘brown or black, with laces or without laces’. The exception is Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, because Evie Frye does not have a folding top hat.

Conncept.7638:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

I am gonna guess that 97% of the gw2 community is male.

Perhaps not: 2009
Although the percentage of male players may have been greater in the past, currently only 60% of MMO players are male and this percentage continues to shrink as more and more females are starting to play MMOs.

Why do people just inherently believe statistics that go against not only their own common experience but that of everyone they know? Look at everyone you know who is a gamer, are half of them female? No? Not even close? Me neither, neither is that true for anyone I have ever asked or anyone I know who has asked the same question.

Statistics are like theater, what everyone expects, doesn’t sell.

Surely statistics based on actual research – even 7 years ago in a different game – are better than the OPs guess?

I’ve certainly met far more than 3% female players. If the OP was right I’d be lucky to have met any other women, but I’d say at least 1/4 of every guild I’ve been in is female. It’s the same when I’ve been at a convention – lots of women, and lots of them getting seriously into the games, not just tagging along with their partners or acting like a first-timer having a go because it’s there.

As Just A Flesh Wound said if we were that rare there shouldn’t be so many of us in this thread. And that’s just the ones who have admitted to it, supposedly a lot of women won’t ever admit to being female online.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

/shrug.

I’m female. And there are several females that have self reported on this thread.

Why do you not believe there are a lot of females? Do you think you can tell gender by the display name or the way they type their letters in map chat?

Until I read that I thought you were male. I don’t know why but that’s just the voice I imagined when I read your posts. I also don’t know why but I feel kind of guilty about that, so…sorry?

I guess that proves the point though – even I will tend to assume people are male until proven otherwise. Although I first met my husband on an internet forum and until he added me on MSN (yeah, that long ago) I thought he was female. But then he thought I was male.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

One thing I do know, being female, is that guys undercount the number of females playing. We don’t announce ourselves as being female. We just play the game and type in chat. There’s lots of times I’ve talked in chat and given advice or help. At the end the person says, ‘thanks dude’ or ‘appreciate the help man’. You know what I say to that?

I say, ty. ur welcome.

I do not say, ’I’m a girl’ or, ‘its dudette.’ And none of the female friends I know say, ’I’m a girl’, in chat either. So all these guys that think they’ve spoken to another guy when they’ve spoken to any of us females, they keep on thinking it and so they undercount the number of girls that play.

There’s more of us than you think because we don’t go around announcing we are female

I did once correct someone who said “thanks bro”. He responded with “thanks lady-bro”, which lead to a lot of joke comments from other people on the map about “if only there was a word for a female brother…” That was a really fun conversation.

You’re right though, most of the time I don’t bother because it doesn’t matter, and as a result a lot of people probably assume I’m male. I don’t hide it exactly, if it comes up in conversation I’ll mention it (or I say something that ‘gives it away’ like “I was talking to my husband the other day…”).

Zynt.5769:

Doggie.3184:

All my characters are male because I’m too manly to play with virtual barbies /flex

HazyDaisy.4107:

Even if you are actually female no one believes it when you say so, not even other females.

I wonder ~ do the RL females dress their human female chars differently than the RL males or do they run around with T3 racial/duelist/stripper armor too? Maybe that helps determine it a little if there’s a difference? ;o

But I have a hetero male friend who plays female characters in MMOs for the sole reason that he likes to pretend to be a female because it gets him help and free stuff easier. .-.

Do people really still fall for the “guy pretending to be girl in MMO to get free stuff” trick? I thought that’s why everyone just assumes every other player to be a guy in online games, because of the amount of guys that play female characters and pretend to be girls.

How I dress my character varies a lot, based on the character. My sylvari elementalist doesn’t really “get” clothes, she wears them because she has to but has gone for a very skimpy look (snapdragon top and winged or feathered skirts – the ones open all the way to the top). Whereas I swear my ranger is glaring at me if I so much as preview the Viper’s mini skirt on her and I just can’t imagine her actually wearing it.

I would say the same is true for my male characters but even finding something with bare arms is difficult (oddly enough easier with heavy armour) and you can forget about shorts so male characters in something truly skimpy isn’t really an option.

I’m not sure about the free stuff thing. The only time I know someone’s given me something just because I was playing a female character was back when I first started playing Guild Wars 1 (in 2006) and someone gave me a Red Iris Flower…then proceeded to follow me around every time I was in town until I figured out how to switch districts and didn’t see him (he made sure I knew he was male in real life) again.

People have given me free things at other times, but there was always some context to it (like my guild thinking I’m crazy for getting down to under 1 silver in my wallet and sending me 5s ‘for waypoints’) and I’m fairly certain they would have done the same regardless of the character I was playing at the time. In general I don’t think people treat me differently when I’m playing a male or female character.

But then I also don’t think I’m very good at making attractive female characters. I usually don’t try, but even when I’ve gone out of my way to make one I think is ‘conventionally attractive’ I don’t seem to get any reaction.

I used to only play women. I couldn’t figure out the male psyche to RP well no matter what I did. All the advice about writing character first, gender second was something I could intellectually understand but my male characters were caricatures. Then I made the first version of Donari, a blood elf swashbuckler rogue, it clicked, and now …

Humans — male thief, guardian, mesmer, ele; female necro, warrior, engineer, and female mesmer made to be male thief’s sister (she is not icly a mesmer, I just wanted light armor for clothing, but she is my fractals main). The engie is my newest alt, I wanted a leveling project and someone who could wear sandals.

Sylvari — male warrior, mesmer; female guardian, necro.

Norn — male engie; female ranger, necro, rev — necro was made to match my beta reaper, rev to use up the 80 boost and get norn T3 heavy. My norns were gender balanced until those two.

Asura — male necro, female mesmer

Charr — male rev, female ele

Total: male 9, female 11.

Of these, only the male ’vari warrior, female norn ranger, and female norn rev have zero back story or RP schticks. The rest have at least origins if not copious in-game RP to develop their personae.

Zynt.5769:

Doggie.3184:

All my characters are male because I’m too manly to play with virtual barbies /flex

HazyDaisy.4107:

Even if you are actually female no one believes it when you say so, not even other females.

I wonder ~ do the RL females dress their human female chars differently than the RL males or do they run around with T3 racial/duelist/stripper armor too? Maybe that helps determine it a little if there’s a difference? ;o

But I have a hetero male friend who plays female characters in MMOs for the sole reason that he likes to pretend to be a female because it gets him help and free stuff easier. .-.

Do people really still fall for the “guy pretending to be girl in MMO to get free stuff” trick? I thought that’s why everyone just assumes every other player to be a guy in online games, because of the amount of guys that play female characters and pretend to be girls.

Going by his experiences yes, yes they do. He has a lot more success in WoW though it seems. They are more needy there I guess. :P