Guy gamers who play girl characters

[Akirakogami]

because they're cute.

[Raenryong]

I think you live in an alternate universe. What a pile of misinformation.

You've substantiated your argument equally as well as every other feminist who has ever tried to argue it. Which is to say, not at all.

What on earth does 'creep shaming' mean? If someone is acting like a creep then yeah, they should be ashamed of it (though for the record, I don't think that making an attractive-looking MMO character counts as creepy, no matter what parts of its anatomy you plan to stare at). Personally, I know several women who identify as both feminists and gamers, and not one of them behaves in the manner you describe, so I don't know where you're getting your "information" from. You sound like one of those MRAs.

"Creep shaming" is when you attempt to call someone a creep to shut them down, out of context. As you say, there is such a thing as being creepy - but it's not the same as having an interest in women or liking the female form, which is how it is commonly used these days.

And that is because most feminists are very reasonable. However, a good number crusade against things like these and poison the name of feminism enough that I would strongly recommend anyone with equality in mind should identify as an egalitarian, as I do.

[Gethyn]

I have a thing about preferring to play mage classes as males, and more physical classes as females. So I have characters of both genders and level them up in different things.

[Lollerblades]

Woman look better in everything. So I'd assume that's why.

[SirSaber]

The only male race I would play would be Bangaa.
But we don't have Bangaa's so female Miqo'te because they're cute.

[Viore]

be...becouse i like big butts and i cannot lie,
u other brothers cant deny,
that when a girl walks in with an itty bitty waist,
and a round thing in your face....
>_>
<_<
sry...got carried away...

[kiotsukete]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I'm not on forums much (see: post count) and it took some time to read through each post. Also, I just went through a world transfer this weekend so apparently Lodestone is slow in updating my profile.

Maybe I should just let this thread die, since some seem to have taken offense just by me asking the question. But I wanted to say that I did read what everyone wrote, and I appreciate the enlightening dialogue. At least for those of you who bothered to give reasoned responses to an honest question, rather than read things into the question that weren't there.

I assumed [wrongly, apparently] that most people relate to their character the way I relate to my character, as a personal means of playing out a fantasy to be/do things I can't be/do IRL. Of course I don't fight dragons, craft rare armor, ride giant chickens, shoot fireballs, save the world IRL. But in video games, I can pretend to do all those fantastical things and more - and that's what makes RPG's fun for me. Essentially as an elaborate means of playing make believe.

So in my OP, I wanted to understand why - in a game that lets you choose your character's gender - anyone would want to choose to make believe that they were a girl if they were really a guy, or vice versa. Clearly, this thread shows that not everyone approaches RPG's this way. So now I understand better that different people have different reasons, some really deep and others not so deep.

Btw, I'm happily married so my OP wasn't because I fell in love with a girl character who turned out to be a guy Although some people get really invested in their characters and I wouldn't be surprised if such a thing sometimes happens.

So another question, then: In a game that's based on social interaction between people who may only know you by your character, if you play an opposite gender character than you are IRL, how do you handle the...misunderstandings that can result? Or is that not really a problem for you?

This thread kinda makes me want to use my Fantasia to try living online life as a girl just to see what it would be like . Although my wife might think me [even] weird[er] .

[Buklohn]

Because I can. Plus I'm not going to stare at a guys butt everyday.

This like every gamers excuse to why they play as a female avatar...

[Dijana]

Guys who play female characters: I want to play what Im attracted to!
Girls who play female characters: I want to play what I feel like I am (aka a girl)
Girls who play male characters: Roleplaying or doesnt want to deal with people hitting on them.


That's not all encompassing of course, there could be loads of reasons why people play what they do. Most of my male friends play females, I realised doing coil the other day that even though of the 8 of us, only two of us were women irl, there was only one male character in the group. I've got nothing against anyone who plays the opposite gender, I occasionally played male characters in mmos in the past (but it got awkward when girls who thought I was a man irl started crushing on me rather than the actual men), but it does feel weird to me when most of the characters around me are female...especially miqo'te..and you know they're actually all men. Im curious because I feel like years ago this wasnt really a thing which is why I don't believe that whole 'If I have to stare at a character's butt all day it should be a good butt' (ignoring that if you're zoomed in that far to actually notice the character's butt while fighting stuff and are paying attention to it rather than everything else you're probably not playing the right game).

I thought maybe its just the sort of games I play now, but I go back to games years ago that I remember were mostly male characters and I see now that 4/5 men I meet are on female characters. As for female playing male..of all the people I've met online and befriended in the last 5 years there's only been one woman playing a male character.

[Numer]

because girls are sexy to look at