Susan's Place Transgender Resources

I always perfer playing female characters, especially when she's in a role or profession that's dominated by men, but in some games like WoW, Dragon Age, Mass Effect or Saints Row, most of the characters have an equal ratio of gender, which, is less interesting. I still perfer female charaters, but I'm not against playing male ones as well. In Dragon Age: Origins, exactly half my characters were female, and half were male. Same with Mass Effect 2, although in Mass Effect 1, which I haven't played in years, I played 2 male characters and 1 female character. But in Saints Row 2, I've 4 characters, one is from my first playthrough, one is my main one, one I stopped playing halfway through, and 1 is for online multiplayer. All are female except for that one I didn't finish. On WoW, if I still played, I think atleast some of my characters would be male, but before I began questioning my gender, the gender ratio of my toons was half. My characters in Fable 3 are also have the same ratio, a good guy, an evil girl, an evil guy, and a good girl.

I read that some people see their character as a virtual personification of themselves, and have issues playing a character of the opposite sex, while others don't make that connection and are comfortable playing characters of both sexes.

I'm just wondering if anyone is comfortable playing a character that isn't the gender they identify with, especially in an MMO or other online multiplayers where you present your character to other people, and they naturally see you in that gender. I read the WoW boards before and some people were very uptight about it, while others didn't mind, and others didn't mind but they had a problem with doing it themselves. But what about transsexuals? ;D In the real world we go through a lot of trouble to present ourselves in the gender that's different than the one that society expects us to, but what about the virtual world?

Unfortunately it's near impossible to play (and I mean really play) an MMO these days as female character and be instantly recognized as a female player. I play World of Warcraft and my main character is a female character. It's long been known that just because the avatar is a female that doesn't mean the player is.

Most of the guilds in that game require a voice over IP program for communications and many will want to do an interview over the voice chat system. Unless your near to perfect in voice (the quality of VOIP programs are somewhat decent) the chances of passing as a woman are slim (mostly because everyone has a 5th grade mentality on MMO's and something like this is fuel for their troll fires).

There are guilds in the game that are comprised of players of the LGBT community, but a lot of them don't fully support the T side of LGBT. Not only that, as mentioned earlier most of the players in MMO's have a 5th grade mentality and most of them know which guilds are comprised of LGBT players and they aren't shy about their comments in public channels. Once you have that guild name below your characters name (which everyone in the game can see) you're just a walking target for the trolls.

As for myself, there are times while in World of Warcraft where I'll get caught off guard. Most of the no player characters in the game will interact with the players via scripted text. This text is designed to be able to associate appropriate pronouns for the avatars of the players and if I'm 'in the zone' of what I'm doing my brain will associate the conversation happening with me (the player) not with my avatar. There have also been a few occasions where some unsuspecting player will bless me with the kindness of using female pronouns when referring to either myself or my avatar (and of course, I wont correct them if it happens but I wont lead them on either).

I can't say I prefer to play female characters. I do take a lot of static sometimes for having a female character and sometimes it's difficult to uphold a manly attitude about why I play a female character with people who don't know I wished I was a woman in real life. Gaming with people, both strangers and guild members is stressful enough (funny, gaming is supposed to be a form of entertainment) with out adding something like this to the mix. My voice isn't nearly ready to pass as feminine so I play the game as a male person irl. If I was to tone down what kind of activities I do in the game (currently I'm a tank healer and raid leader) to the point of not needing a voice chat program then I might be able to pull off playing as a woman in real life (such as my cat chews on microphone cords so I stopped buying them or my kids keep on breaking my microphones so I stopped buying them).

ugh. I could go on for hours about this subject (needs to get a life outside of WoW).

Yep every game always female, I especially like the ones such as fallout where you can adjust the features to make them more representative of how you percieve yourself.

In WOW i play a female mage, and the thought came at the beginining whether to say I was really a female, I couldn't do it. Mainly as I was in a high end guild, and required vent all the time, it really annoyed me!

I generally go 50/50. For instance, in Dragon Age, I have two female characters and two male characters, and the same in Mass Effect. I like to see the different dialogue for different genders, and the different romances available, etc. I've never played an MMO (no money to do so, although I've always wanted to try WOW), but I think I would probably play mostly males on there, but maybe a few females. I think I would get bored looking at just one character forever, and I would want variety with my seperate characters.

If I have a chose I always play a female.  A few games are male only.  Most of them are first person shooters.  WWII games is a good example.

Coming from my feminist perspective, I always played female characters, especially in WoW or DA:O! But when I realized my trans identity, I have switched to male characters in DA:O, mainly because it is nice to see a representation of how I want to look, and how I perceive myself. I have also chosen to be Elven most of the time, too. It brings a greater connection because the Elven males are smaller than the Human males; and much more like my transman self! Of course, I also have 3 different 'Liam' characters, but that's mainly vanity on my part! ^_^;;

I play female characters more out of practicality than desire.  I choose female characters even when the male counterparts have better looking models.  Since most people in the online gaming scene perceive me as being a girl, I found it awkward to play male characters.

Even in offline multiplayer, I often create female characters.  I really only create male characters if they have better models or voice-acting.

Or sometimes in the older games have unfair atribute advantages, such as strength and the women have none.  Ahh, the good old D&D games, how amazingly sexist yet fun to play!

When I was young, I always, always played male characters. I don't think I rolled a female character from the time I started gaming (~1994) until about 2006. That included, in games like Diablo, refusing to play classes that were female-only.

Then, in the military, I started gaming with people who knew me IRL. In the military, where questions would be asked. And so I rolled a female character in FFXI. Then when I started playing WoW with my spouse, I rolled all female characters there too, basically for the same reason - didn't want to deal with questions.

Then I hit max level, started doing endgame stuff and really getting attached to my characters, and I just couldn't take it anymore. So I sex changed all of my characters. Thank you Blizzard for the sex changes. If it weren't for that, I think I would have rerolled.

I have always played male characters if I got the choice. Before I had accepted my transsexualism or even realised I was gonna transition, people used to ask me why I always played male characters, and I answered something along the lines of "I want to be able to relate and feel involved with the game, and I just can't relate to female characters". This still holds true.
People just shrugged and somehow chalked it up to just not wanting to play a sexualized female (as those characters often are), but that really wasn't an issue for me.

What I play the most is WoW, and we use voice chat for raiding so they all know me as a female with all male characters, I wonder what they'll say when I get on T and my voice starts to change..

Quote from: kyril on February 26, 2011, 07:33:46 PM
Then I hit max level, started doing endgame stuff and really getting attached to my characters, and I just couldn't take it anymore. So I sex changed all of my characters. Thank you Blizzard for the sex changes. If it weren't for that, I think I would have rerolled.

I had a similar problem in Guild Wars.  I had all female characters except for a male warrior, because I really liked the male warrior armor skins.  I got him to max level, but not to max equipment.  But since most people in online games perceive me as a girl anyway, it just seemed very strange playing a male character, even though he was fun.  I ended up deleting him and retraining a female warrior to max level.

Fortunately, in Guild Wars it only takes a matter of days to reach max level.

I remember playing Super Mario Bros. 2 when I was little.
I always played as Princess Toadstool / Peach -- I gravitated towards her because she was the only girl of the four playable characters.

Now whenever I play Super Smash Bros., I almost always play as either her or Zelda.
Any time I'm given the option in any game, I default to being a girl. Male characters just don't appeal to me.


...I've been playing Final Fantasy Tactics lately, and all but one of my highly-developed characters is female.
(I just felt like I needed a token male in my party.)

Quote from: Arctic Kat on February 27, 2011, 12:50:49 AM
Now whenever I play Super Smash Bros., I almost always play as either her or Zelda.

My friends hate my Samus.  I abuse missile cancelling and flamethrower hitbox ranges.  My friends don't understand hit priorities, so they always run into my attacks thinking that they will land the hit instead of me.

I hardly play any other characters except for her and Falco.  Zelda is cool, but I don't like her playstyle.

I don't like Samus. :-\ Controlling her is too clunky. But I love Sheik  ;D even though she got fricken weak in SSBB, and Metaknight but not as much.

Before SSBM my character was always Kirby. :laugh:

Quote from: ~RoadToTrista~ on February 27, 2011, 01:22:15 AM
I don't like Samus. :-\ Controlling her is too clunky.

That's because her moves are slow, and you have to have the proper timing.  If you don't know how to anticipate your opponent, someone like Fox will tear through Samus something serious.

Also, Samus falls really SLOW which is great in some maps, but a pain in others.

Quote from: VeryGnawtyZelda is cool, but I don't like her playstyle.

I play as Zelda when I'm lethargic. :P She moves slow but her strong attacks can catch you off guard. Her style is a nice complement to my personality, I guess... (That being said, I'm also good with Snake.)
I love Samus, but am not really good with her.

Quote from: Arctic Kat on February 27, 2011, 03:21:39 AM
I love Samus, but am not really good with her.

It took me a lot of practice to get used to Samus.  Other than her running speed (which is pretty darn fast) she moves really slow.  She is also prone to getting juggled due to her slow falling speed.  But she has a lot of extremely deceptive attacks.  She has good priority values, a few moves with some wicked knockback, some hitboxes which are difficult to avoid (the flamethrower in particular), and multiple projectile attacks.  Also, bomb jumping and morph ball tricks can play some serious mindgames on impatient opponents.  Aggressive people will almost always run into a morph bomb, not realizing that the small damage will add up if you keep bomb jumping around them.

She also has "infinite wall jump" and a grappling beam which can grab onto vertical surfaces.  Those can easily prevent falls which other characters can't recover from.

I've never played Brawl, so I don't know if they rebalanced her character.  My friends are convinced that the priorities on her low attacks are broken.  They are also constantly telling me that her reverse air kick has way too much knockback.  But since the only other character I use frequently is Falco (who has similar air kicks) I never really noticed.

I generally play female, although rarely I'll play male even if a female character is available (Left 4 Dead 2, for example). If at all possible, though, I will play female.

If a game is male only, chances are I'll pass it up, but there are exceptions (Such as The Witcher, Bulletstorm & Dawn of War 2), but I try to play female as often as possible. My WoW characters were female, my CO characters are female, I always play as a female in RPGs that allow me to (Fallout series, Mass Effect, etc) and even if I can't, I do often pretend I am a female behind it all - Especially in games with no protagonist (Strategy games, mainly).

Quote from: LightBulbs on March 02, 2011, 12:52:27 PM
Where do you find these games with female character choices? Ive played like 60 titles since 2008 (when I got a PC) and from those maybe 1 or 2 let you choose female.

Divinity 2, Drakensang, Heroes of Might & Magic 5 (Well, as your default hero), Mass Effect 1 + 2, Fallout 3 + New Vegas, GTA IV Multiplayer, a good number of adventure games, Civilization IV + V (Leaders) and a bunch of others.

Quote from: Lairiana on March 02, 2011, 01:28:39 PM
Divinity 2, Drakensang, Heroes of Might & Magic 5 (Well, as your default hero), Mass Effect 1 + 2, Fallout 3 + New Vegas, GTA IV Multiplayer, a good number of adventure games, Civilization IV + V (Leaders) and a bunch of others.

Also essentially any RPG or MMORPG. Everquest/EQII, FFXI, WoW, Neverwinter Nights, Oblivion, Dragon Age, and so on and so forth.

Quote from: kyril on March 02, 2011, 02:36:07 PM
Also essentially any RPG or MMORPG. Everquest/EQII, FFXI, WoW, Neverwinter Nights, Oblivion, Dragon Age, and so on and so forth.

Pretty much, kyril.

I played female characters for the longest time until one of my irl friends told me that was perverted of me. Then i stopped for a while. Then i switched to mudding ((no graphics, lines of text, kinda odd)) and used a male character and everyone would insist on calling me a she because of the way i talked/typed? I still don't get it, but it made me happy anyways. After I found out what transsexual meant, i gradually shifted back into female characters. I change games absurdly often though, and i haven't really played for like a year or so.

For some strange reason in MMO's, combat characters are usually male, and my crafting characters are usually female, though I do have exceptions this is usually the case, and I am not sure why.

Mainly in combat scenarios you have to group with other players and when I am playing a female character there is a chance that you may get hit on, which I guess isn't such a big deal for me anymore since I have developed my confidence in general. Despite this everyone in the community knows I'm a girl so they will call me she and her even though I'm playing a male character, which I don't really care since I have a habit of referring to my characters in 3rd person, but usually only when I play male characters.

For example, when I need an enhancement (on a male character) I'll say can you buff my char please? If I am playing a female I'll say can you buff me please? It's odd but I don't consciously do it.

I always plays as my own gender. I don't know why I wouldn't, especially when I get more control over appearance online than in the physical world. Yeah sometimes you get people who get funny if you say you really are female, or they guess or are told. Sometimes you get hit on, sometimes they insist you get on TS or want to see a picture, but in my experience they get over that fast. One time I was the only female in a 200 member EVE corp, and at first I got all that but they came to respect me as one of them when they saw that I was as good as anyone else and better than many.

I play as whichever I like more, depending on the game. It often doesn't matter in single player games since I'll just obscure their face anyway. In multiplayer games, always male.

Quote from: ~RoadToTrista~ on February 26, 2011, 01:20:58 AM
I always perfer playing female characters, especially when she's in a role or profession that's dominated by men, but in some games like WoW, Dragon Age, Mass Effect or Saints Row, most of the characters have an equal ratio of gender, which, is less interesting. I still perfer female charaters, but I'm not against playing male ones as well. In Dragon Age: Origins, exactly half my characters were female, and half were male. Same with Mass Effect 2, although in Mass Effect 1, which I haven't played in years, I played 2 male characters and 1 female character. But in Saints Row 2, I've 4 characters, one is from my first playthrough, one is my main one, one I stopped playing halfway through, and 1 is for online multiplayer. All are female except for that one I didn't finish. On WoW, if I still played, I think atleast some of my characters would be male, but before I began questioning my gender, the gender ratio of my toons was half. My characters in Fable 3 are also have the same ratio, a good guy, an evil girl, an evil guy, and a good girl.

I read that some people see their character as a virtual personification of themselves, and have issues playing a character of the opposite sex, while others don't make that connection and are comfortable playing characters of both sexes.

I'm just wondering if anyone is comfortable playing a character that isn't the gender they identify with, especially in an MMO or other online multiplayers where you present your character to other people, and they naturally see you in that gender. I read the WoW boards before and some people were very uptight about it, while others didn't mind, and others didn't mind but they had a problem with doing it themselves. But what about transsexuals? ;D In the real world we go through a lot of trouble to present ourselves in the gender that's different than the one that society expects us to, but what about the virtual world?

i've always felt like it was just right for me to play video games as the female character. one game i really like, tomb raider. it's an action filled adventure game. she's a strong, independent, brave, and resourceful woman. lots of traits that are against the stereotypical female.

When playing a game like WoW, where men commonly play female characters, I'm okay with sometimes playing a female. But playing a game like Halo or Fallout where people generally play as their own gender, I play men.
It became evident to me that people expect me to play female characters, so I no longer play them.

Really I  have never played my natural gender in any game. If I have ANY opprtunity to play the correct gendered character for me, I will always play female, and she will always kick arse, like females should! x

Right now I have three female characters and two male characters.  On Harvest Moon I only chose a female so that I would be able to marry a man, in my LARP I play a female because I wasn't out when I started the campaign and the same for one of my D&D games.  Since coming out I make male characters but I still play my old female characters.  It depends on the game.

For the past couple of years, I usually always play a female character when given the choice, before that I only occasionally made a female character. In some games there are differences in how npcs treat you based on gender and I'll sometimes make a male character to see that. Otherwise, now that I've accepted myself as a female entity I want my characters to reflect that. Even my Xbox live avatar is female. Although she does look a little androgynous.

Constantly. Admittedly, I only play two or three games (Most of them annoy the hell out of me, thanks to living with two sometimes rabid gamers) but the ones I do play on any kind of regular basis (Sims, Fallout 3, Left4Dead) I will always, always play a male character. Usually, if it's a customizable game, I go so far as to make a "mini me" basically. I've got a sim on the new Sims3 my girlfriend bought for me that looks eerily accurate if I'd been born biomale. It makes me kind of sad but watching him run around doing ->-bleeped-<- I'd do also makes me oddly happy.
As for Left4Dead, I just always play Bill. Because Bill is a goddamn badass.

Quote from: LightBulbs on March 16, 2011, 01:08:57 PM
Fav game is The Witcher, Geralt is pretty awesome, probably wouldnt be as good if you could design your own char on that as itll change the atmosphere too much.

Without wanting to digress from the topic too much; The Witcher would not work if you could make your own character. It - Like the books, movie and TV series - is about Geralt, and it's his story. Changing from that would change everything, especially when one considers that before The Witcher, Geralt was not really known to most (If not all) of the English-speaking world.

Well, back in my teens, when first introduced to the NES, being a boy in body, though somehow a confused girl in mind though not yet understanding why, I always enjoyed picking and using female characters, didn't know why at the time, but do now when I reflect back on those fond memories (all my gaming memories are good ones :) ) I know that it was because subconciously I was playing the role that I felt closer to in gender. It didn't really matter than a character was male or female really, afterall if a game is good its fun regardless, but if given a choice of multiple characters to chose from, I never hesitated to chose to play as the female character first, and usually for the most part whenever I replayed that game (such as Super Mario Bros 2), and if the only character in the game was female (as in the case of Metroid or The Guardian Legend) I was in my comfort zone completely, I wasn't the hero of the story this time, or in some cases when I pretended I was the princess or other damsel in distress that the hero had to rescue (if he succeeded then I was saved, if not then the bad guys had their ways with me), I got to be the girl, and one that could kick butt at that too.

In Super Mario Bros 2, who'd I use, the Princess, not just a damsel in distress anymore (my brother, as with most other boys tended to always pick any of the other three, only going for the Princess once they realized her coolness with her awesome hovering capabilities), and actually when Super Mario Bros 3 came out, I was for a time very upset with the change of gameplay back to the original formula and not being able to use the Princess anymore, that they reduced her to captive again (of coarse many years later I learn that SMB2 wasn't really a Mario game to begin with, but that's something else altogether). I remember how giddy I was when my suspicions of Samus in Metroid being female (based on her artwork), and not a guy or robot like my brother thought, were correct when it was revealed at the end of the game, I was so psyched, no guy could stand a chance against this girl, I loved it! The Guardian Legend, not only attracted me to buy it because it looked like a cool game, but also because again, usable female character, heroine of the story, and probably one of the most powerful NES characters at that. Castlevania III, for a while there Syfa was my favorite partner to take along (though once I got over being her just because she's a girl, Grant proved to be more fun to use). Obviously first fighter choice in Street Fighter II, Chun Li, used her for the longest time before trying out any of the male fighters (though Ken is my favorite). I guess that once I got over the whole I wanna be the girl character thing for whatever game it be that I was playing, if there were other choices I tended to move on to those that were to most comfortable to use gameplay wise, regardless of their gender.

I suppose I'm not as crazy about this kind of thing as I was when I was going through my gender identity crisis in my earlier years, my thing is now, I know who I am, also, I don't go overboard in using the imagination that I had during my teens to act out or become the character in the game, I just play 'em now, mostly just to beat them, or rebeat them better, I guess my gaming fun is more competitive now that I don't take the time to immerse myself within their worlds and characters, also, I think once I got on hormones and started feeling more feminine I don't think I needed to have to relate to that side of me through video game characters anymore.

I also used to choose the princess in SMB2. That was always my favorite of the series.

I've been RPing in MMOs since 2003 and I've always chosen a female character to represent myself. It's always felt right to me. I tend to choose female in single player games as well when given the choice.

ive always used female avatars and charcters as long as i can remember , it always felt more fun and right .. i know silly.

This reminds me of a scene from "the guild" where the protagonists question an effeminate male player (who has the username 'Valkyrie') about their character choices...

"You have two female characters?"
"yes. I like girls. I like looking at them while i play.  Is there something wrong with that?"

Ive always gravitated to female players, and this excuse works wonderfully. =)  maybe less so when i got a female character in Halo though...since all you see is bulky space armor

I always play as male characters. But I haven't played vid games in years.

Usually play as a male character but they usually end up being very slim  as I don't really like the musclebound gorilla look
Though I have found myself playing some female characters from time to time for fun lol

Quote from: FullMoon19 on March 13, 2011, 07:01:47 PM
i've always felt like it was just right for me to play video games as the female character. one game i really like, tomb raider. it's an action filled adventure game. she's a strong, independent, brave, and resourceful woman. lots of traits that are against the stereotypical female.

Like Samus Aran? LOL

how often... i don't play video games all that often, but when i do it's usually a male character. except for when i wanna play a female character. i've a female assassin and priest in rappelz, they're both really cute. haven't played any video games for far too long though, my parents seems to think it's not fitting for their oldest daughter to waste time on it, and since i can't stand being bothered by anyone i stopped playing just so they would shut up about it

Quote from: yuan0621 on August 22, 2011, 10:01:00 PM
This reminds me of a scene from "the guild" where the protagonists question an effeminate male player (who has the username 'Valkyrie') about their character choices...

"You have two female characters?"
"yes. I like girls. I like looking at them while i play.  Is there something wrong with that?"

Ive always gravitated to female players, and this excuse works wonderfully. =)  maybe less so when i got a female character in Halo though...since all you see is bulky space armor

Have you seen the new episode where Zaboo's Master Sergeants take off their gloves to do some texting and they both have perfectly manicured nails?

I've always played female characters, even in pen&paper RPGS.

I have used that exact same excuse to justify picking female characters ever since I saw that episode of The Guild. It works so well haha

Well since I have discovered this warlock time vampire of a company called Bioware, I have definately enjoyed the benefits of FFS, years of Hormones and the best genetics money could buy...

And that was before the games even started.

For those that this just soared clearly over their cranium like the Normandy over Illos, I do apologize.

Mass Effect 1 and Dragon Age to some extent but Mass Effect 2 for sure are my colossal audio/visual interactive vices. I am actually on my 6th playthrough of ME2 (damn your oily hides Bioware for pushing back ME3 till next spring) right now and for the first time I am trying out a male Sheperd. Is it an obvious subconscious choice that I have chose to play him renegade and NOT fix the facial scars?.....

Hmmm....

Quote from: Jaded1 on October 30, 2011, 11:58:41 PM
Well since I have discovered this warlock time vampire of a company called Bioware, I have definately enjoyed the benefits of FFS, years of Hormones and the best genetics money could buy...

Such wizards they are :)

Most of the times I play female, except when I have some really interesting idea for a character - which usually doesn't work.

All the time...  ;D

As long as the option was available, I have been playing with female characters.   My only real shock was when I first played Everquest and a guy proposed to me... got scared and deleted my character and started a new one.

Hugs
Zaria

I play my characters about half and half. I don't typically identify the character as my representative in the game but rather a fictional character of my creation that I control. Therefore I like to mix it up and make characters that are good/evil, man/woman, human/other, etc. It helps to keep things fresh rather than always playing a female hero type.

Almost always played as male characters in MMOs and such. I like to inject myself in the characters. Played a female troll in WoW for a while. Was in a guild in Ragnarok Online, and people thought I was a 13 year old boy even on vent.  Guess I don't talk very ladylike. :laugh: I think I detached my mind from my body by being a basement dweller for most of my high school/college years so I didn't think about gender identity until recently. As long as I could imagine being a boy, I was happy.

In most games I used to make both a male and a female character.
The female one was for me to play the game with, the male one was for when friends got over and wanted to play. I was afraid that them seeing my female game characters would give away this "horrible secret" I kept. Silly, I know.

I usually make male characters.  If my character is female then she has masculine traits like facial hair.  In Saints Row 2 I made a male character with a female voice.

Well, I got some games for Christmas...  Let's see...

In King of Fighters XIII, I've been playing as King, Mature, & Ash.  So, that's two women who wear more masculine clothes and a man who is often mistaken for a woman.

In Marvel Vs. Capcom 3, I've gravitated toward Chun Li (who I always played in Street Fighter), Amaterasu, & Phoenix Wright.  So, a Chinese girl, the Shinto Sun Goddess (who is a wolf), and a male lawyer.

I don't know how this reflects on my video gaming gender choices, but I do know that there's something seriously wrong with the Google search results for Ash Crimson yaoi.  The thing being wrong that there is none.

(https://www.susans.org/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.wikia.com%2Fsnk%2Fimages%2Fb%2Fbc%2FAsh-kofXIII.jpg&hash=57d6c26f1e47622cdecd54b743c6cad111ff11bd)

amiright?

I think Grand Theft Auto should have a female or fire hazard gay male in the next game. Since those games are fairly realistic, she should be played by Queen Latifah or Michelle Rodriquez...you know...one of the taco truck ->-bleeped-<-s in Hollywood.

The only games worth playing are ones where you can run over people and gun up an entire city block. I only play GTA because I can't do that crap in real life without consequences.

That and games that involve gay men.

Seems about 3/4 of my characters are male. My main character on World of Warcraft for several years was a female gnome warlock because I thought the female gnomes were so adorable and the males were hideous.

I was thrilled when the blood elves came out because there were finally male characters that didn't look like they were on steroids. I saw them in beta and they looked great but apparently they got complaints from guys who thought they were too gay and they beefed them up some before release but at least not to the point of the roided out look. Now my main character is a blood elf warlock. I started over so I could play a belf.

Most of the time.