In game Gender Dysphoria

[Evienne]

Yup. I have never played a video game before as a male character. Surprisingly I've never been asked why. But especially playing RPG's like Skyrim, I imagine myself as the character playing as most probably do, so It's to hard to do it being a guy, when that's not what I imagine on the inside. And my High Elf Archmage, looks oh so good if I don't say so myself XD
I'm also an elf on WoW. I like elves, a really cool fictional race to me. Would be so cool to actually be one.

[Wynternight]

Yup. I have never played a video game before as a male character. Surprisingly I've never been asked why. But especially playing RPG's like Skyrim, I imagine myself as the character playing as most probably do, so It's to hard to do it being a guy, when that's not what I imagine on the inside. And my High Elf Archmage, looks oh so good if I don't say so myself XD
I'm also an elf on WoW. I like elves, a really cool fictional race to me. Would be so cool to actually be one.

Blood Elves for me on WoW and nothing else. OK, I do have one Space Goat (/waggle) but that's it.

[awilliams1701]

Oh I do love the draenei chicks. Especially with the Russian accent.

[Wynternight]

Oh I do love the draenei chicks. Especially with the Russian accent.

It was the accent that sold me on them, despite them being filthy Alliance.

[Evienne]

Blood Elves for me on WoW and nothing else. OK, I do have one Space Goat (/waggle) but that's it.

I only have 2 characters on WoW since I'm a little more new to it, but both are blood elves-mages.

[Felix]

I posted here earlier tonight and it seems to have disappeared. I shall repeat myself and hope it won't go through as two similar attempts to make the same comment like I often see on other sites.

I said in the past that I play both male and female characters, but I've had a massive temporary downgrade in my computing power so I've returned to old games. Two online ones display account gender in addition to character gender, and I've had trouble with other players' reactions to my display name and gender changing. The initial assumption is usually that I've been hacked, and if I can convince people that I'm the same person then they're often still uneasy and don't want to interact anymore.

In WoW, my mains are on a small server (even after merging) and it has been hard navigating when and to what extent to shake off my old identity and who to tell, and I can't control gossip. And I have certain in-game behaviors that often flag me as female, but that I don't want to change. Luckily vent/mumble balances a lot of that out for me personally.

In games where I only get one character, I usually choose male, but that still depends a lot on the available storylines and character models.

[Wynternight]

Which games display account gender so I know what to avoid??

I posted here earlier tonight and it seems to have disappeared. I shall repeat myself and hope it won't go through as two similar attempts to make the same comment like I often see on other sites.

I said in the past that I play both male and female characters, but I've had a massive temporary downgrade in my computing power so I've returned to old games. Two online ones display account gender in addition to character gender, and I've had trouble with other players' reactions to my display name and gender changing. The initial assumption is usually that I've been hacked, and if I can convince people that I'm the same person then they're often still uneasy and don't want to interact anymore.

In WoW, my mains are on a small server (even after merging) and it has been hard navigating when and to what extent to shake off my old identity and who to tell, and I can't control gossip. And I have certain in-game behaviors that often flag me as female, but that I don't want to change. Luckily vent/mumble balances a lot of that out for me personally.

In games where I only get one character, I usually choose male, but that still depends a lot on the available storylines and character models.

[Declan.]

I can't get immersed with female characters, so I pick males when possible. When there's no choice, it's not an issue, but I do feel somewhat disconnected from the experience.

[irene95x]

I would always pick the female character at a young age, but I started to worry that people around me were picking up, and opted for the male... it always felt awkward, and it got to a point where I would be making female characters and tabbing out of the game so that people didn't see.

I think that video games were important for me at a young age, as it was one of the only ways I had to express myself when it came to my gender, in an MMO, you could be whoever you like, and (usually) people wouldn't question you.

[Jen72]

As far as pen and paper (AD&D) I like to play a dwarven male.  Then came the age of mmos.
Played star wars galaxies first toon was male then made a second and it was female at which I barely played the male.  Then I moved to WoW which I started with a male dwarf then next was female o heck I had 8 toons 3 male 5 female.  Then I played star wars old republic at which I had about a 50/50 mix.  Now I have star trek online with first character is male and another that is Klingon male (Klingon females just never seemed like captains) and then 4 other toons all female.  Aswell as a female toon in Second Life which I play as saying I am Transgendered.  To be honest I didn't fully consider I may be transgender till second life made me go hey and I had then found this wonderful place.  Am I TG well open but still confused state at the moment and how far that goes is anyones guess.  Now that I look back maybe I am truly female on the inside yet male on the outside as the pattern seems like I made females more often then male:)  Sorry long post older (42 year old) gamer.

[pianoforte]

I like playing both, or either, or in-between.

In games like the Saints Row series, I tend to play male characters (and then occasionally put bras and dresses on them). Once I played a female character, but dressed very masculine and with one of the male voices. I love the level of gender-bending that's allowed in those games.

In World of Warcraft, most of the male character models look really fake and over-bulky to me, so I tend to play females because they look pretty.

Sometimes I like to play the female character (like in the Mass Effect series) simply because I want to defy defaults and norms. Other times I prefer to play male characters because it just feels more normal and natural to me.

I also tend to be more willing to identify as female in MMO spaces (with random strangers), just because I like to snap at people who claim there are no girls in WoW, or start making sexist comments in the raid finder.

[Felix]

Which games display account gender so I know what to avoid??

Again, these are the games I can run on my very low power old machine, but Kingdom of Loathing and Neopets both display account gender. KoL at some point changed so you don't have to answer certain questions, so the default gender is "unspecified," which is nice. Neither site asks questions if you change your gender, but other players do.

[Jen72]

As for WoW races yes elves are nice but no one chose Gnomes I mean they are just to cute!:)
By the way I have not played it since Mists but did a lot before including vanilla.

I chose many races 3 male 5 female horde and alliance and sorry nothing compares to gnomes or even trolls pretty funny too:)

[Felix]

As for WoW races yes elves are nice but no one chose Gnomes I mean they are just to cute!:)
By the way I have not played it since Mists but did a lot before including vanilla.

I chose many races 3 male 5 female horde and alliance and sorry nothing compares to gnomes or even trolls pretty funny too:)

My favorite characters after my elf main are a male gnome, a female orc, and a female dwarf, but I've always loved the troll models. I could main one if they could make the male shoulders or entire female bodies less stiff when they walk and run and jump. Humans are the only races I don't like to look at and don't usually make characters for. The standardization is harder to accept with models that are supposed to look like things that exist in real life.

[pianoforte]

Humans are the only races I don't like to look at and don't usually make characters for. The standardization is harder to accept with models that are supposed to look like things that exist in real life.

Interesting. I hate playing humans in any game where other options are available.

[Megan82]

I used to choose mainly female characters when I was worried about being noticed (mostly by the guys I dated or by people who might make fun of me). This made it hard for me to concentrate on the game, and when people talked about how my character looked it made  me cringe horribly.

I just recently started playing WoW (the trial version for now) and the first thing I did was pick the human male. I feel so much better in my "online" skin so to speak!

[Ashlotte]

I always picked either female characters or monsters that didn't seem to have a gender. The one exception is ACNL where I made a male character and got a feminine haircut and dressed in female clothes.

[littleredrobinhood]

I play as both, but I think I tend to play female characters more than male.. despite being male myself. lol

But honestly, most male character models aren't any more "me" than the female ones.. I mean, many male character models are made to be big, macho buff guys.

And I am neither big, macho nor buff.

I do like "cute" and "pretty" things, though, so I usually go for the gals. (I'm in the closet, anyway, so it's probably for the best)

[Blue Senpai]

Before I knew I was transgender, I always played as a male character for reasons unknown to me at the time.

[bluebirdx88]

Other >

I'll be honest, for most I do pick female... But in certain games with a rather clear image of who the main character is, I kinda rather go for originality instead of customization.... Saint's Row, and Mass Effect to name a couple... The main aspect I appreciate in games (and the reason why I love story driven FPSes like Bioshock and Half Life, as well as RPGS like Dragon Age: Origins... Not 2, I hated 2..) is storyline.. And sometimes  by going custom you can loose some of it.... I tend to leave that later for when I play about with mods and such.