Being Gendered Correctly

[Takeva]

I dunno, if I'm told that I have to gamble my money away on 1/3 and 2/3 odds and I can't opt out, I'd pick the 2/3 odds.

Unless I'm betting against SE's rng. Then I already lost.

It's silly to compare gambling to calling someone he or she based on what they appear as.

You have the risk of losing your money when you gamble. You risk nothing from calling another person he/she based on the character they chose.

[Lilysparkle]

While I understand your point, even calling people she/he based on avatar is going to upset people.

Thank you for at least acknowledging that. I won't dispute what you're saying, we could be upsetting someone in many ways without realising. However, again imho, I just don't think it's silly or bad to address someone by their character's gender. We're not running around as gender neutral entities, nor are we all running around as male characters. I think it's the lesser of two evils to address someone by their character's gender, than to exclusively use one gender over the other in all situations. You cannot really be blamed for addressing someone as their character gender because that is what that person knowingly chose to play. At the end of the day, if the female miq'ote whitemage is getting upset at you calling him a "she", then maybe he could have made a male miq'ote (they look pretty cool too).

[CYoung187]

Half the time I don't have a clue what sex/race a character I meet in duties are. I see their armor/job and that is all I need to know before I carry on to doing my job. So to be honest I have probably misused a pronoun to describe someone. It wasn't done in malice, it was done in laziness. I guess I am just an ignorant sexist pig though. Don't get offended by something as simple as a pronoun used by someone who knows absolutely nothing about you. Someone can call me an worthless ***hole and I could care less. That person doesn't know me in the slightest way and his (oh crap "their") opinion means nothing.

[SchalaZeal]

But you also have if you play well most people assume girls can't play as well as guys therefore it's a guy really..

I don't know in what world this happens. Certainly not in mine.

[kidvideo]

You're insulted that someone you don't know made a 50/50 guess you the "real" gender behind your avatar? Lord...

I'm a guy & I'm offended that you're offended. Hmph.

[Versiroth]

Why should I be okay with an "honest mistake" when people in this very thread say they will make no attempt whatsoever to avoid repeating that mistake in the future.

That's a bit too deliberate to be called a mistake at this point. Your actions have results, which you have been made aware of, and if you continue the same actions you do so knowing they will continue to have those results. That's not a mistake. That's laziness at best.

A lot of us have been told for years "I'm a guy" when we refer to female characters in game as "she". So, no matter what, people can't win with this. You're never going to be right 100% regardless. I don't even think most natural girls care if they're called a "he" in game. As they shouldn't, since this is seriously a non-issue.

[alhandra]

its called playing it safe.

i assume all gamers are guys unless told otherwise

[Fawkes]

Lalafells are too androgynous for someone to be upset that someone else couldn't tell what gender they were.

[blacksheepwall]

It amazes me what some people choose to get bothered by.

[Lilysparkle]

You're never going to be right 100% regardless.

Yes, you *can* be 100% right about this.

If it's a male character use he/him, if it's a female character use she/her. If someone gets upset at you addressing their character by their gender, it's the only information you had to go on at that time. It's not unreasonable. At this point it's their issue, not yours (because you can rightly say, "Well if you wanted to be called "him" then you were within your rights to make a male character.").

And someone else mentioned "playing it safe". It's like you guys have it backwards. To me, the best way to play it safe is to actually use the character's gender (because none of us know any better). I am beginning to get genuinely surprised now that this isn't the common practice in 2014.