Computer games, both on and off line have given us the opportunity to create virtual characters as extensions of ourselves.  If you play or played such games did you always choose a character whose sex/gender was opposite of yours?  Or maybe only sometimes?  What was the purpose of your choice and what was its effect?

In single player games I always chose a female avatar, and to be honest can not bring myself to make a male avatar these days.

In multiplayer games, when I first started with Everquest shortly after it came out I made a male character; Characters after that tended to be my whim; I had a decent 50/50 mix but I was seriously starting to go all female at the end. (This is before I woke up by the by); The next multiplayer game I played (Horizons), I never had a male character, and I admitted to being male to almost no one.

These days when I have more of a clue... ^*shrug* Who would want to play a male char anyway?

I would choose the gender that's the same as mine, which is female.

Melissa

Whenever I have a choice, I choose a female character. It almost feels awkward to play a male character, especially in roleplaying games. The only online game I played for any length of time is WoW and I've never mentioned to anyone that I am physically male. So as it turns out, the people I play regularly with assume the opposite, which is fine by me.

Though, this isn't all that uncommon, even among 'normal heterosexual' males (half the people I know personally who play are males playing female characters). Sometimes I wonder if the popularity of gender-bending in online gaming actually represents something a little bit more meaningful that no one wants to admit?

I once read an article about the demographics of World of Warcraft that mentioned that the gender split of characters is about 65/35 male/female, but a little more than 50% of female characters were played by male players (around a quarter of male players surveyed enjoy playing a female character more than a male character!).

This kind of thing tends to be a popular but controversial topic on gaming forums, but I really wonder what a "normal guy's" real motivations for playing a female character are. The "macho" argument (and the one that is most often used when people get defensive) is to say that female characters look better or are attractive, and others apparently like duping and taking gifts from chivalrous but naive male players. But... somehow I get the feeling that it isn't the whole story.

I have never thought about the connection between the two until I read this!!!

I'll be the first to admit that I am a complete video game geek (we prefer "video game gods" actually ) and have played since before I could talk. But as much as I love video games, I never rent or buy a game that has a woman as the main character that you can't switch to male. I honestly don't think that I have ever played as a female character in a game before about 5 months ago.

I thought to myself about 5 months ago how my brother wasn't "afraid" to play with a female character, and he's very much the "manly man". I realized that I don't have anything to prove and just because I am a man I don't need to play as a male character. This wasn't so much of a conscious, well thought out tangible thought pattern at the time, but I now realize that I've actually come to the point of being able to play as female (although I still definately don't prefer it).

This is one of my favorite polls!!!!

         Tino

A female character in both, singleplayer and multiplayer games, sometimes you can't choose female character but you can named this charater with a new name and  I always use female name even if I play with male character. Maybe stupid lol but I feel better that way. I also play games from the very first beginning ... do you still remember the first ZX Spectrum? and than came Commodore 64 and so on  ...



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Michelle

The only game that I've played where I could choose the character/skin to represent me online was always a female one.  Although I don't play anymore, my favorite game used to be the Unreal series, and when online I went by the name of -={Angel}=-

I often wondered if the reason that I died so easily in the face of those huge brutes was because I was female or if it was due of a lack of skill.

-={Steph}=-

When I get the choice I do.    but actually I dont really know if this signifies anything as lots of players play am M F or Non Human as it suits them.   Games are about shooting stuff or solving puzzles.

Maybe of more significance are places like Second Life or Moove online where you can choose male or female avatars.  There I had a F av   

Rana

It's funny this is something I thought about, but forgot to put into my intro. Yes, whenever the game had a female character, I would play as the girl. Even as early as super mario 2, which put me at about 8 to 10 years old, I almost exclusively played as princess toadstool. Fighting games always gave an oportunity for choice of gender. mortal kombat i always played as Katana, recently I played a lot of Dead or Alive ultimate and Soul Calibur (of course as female characters), and as I mentioned in another area here theres the online game Second Life that lets you create a character from scratch......can you take a guess on that one? that one gave me my first chance to be female in a public setting, even if only virtual.

Usually male characters. When I play a female character, it's usually for a reason like size (the female chars are often smaller and for sneaking around, smaller is better) and I make sure everyone knows I'm male irl.

And I'm a big game geek too

Dennis

Dennis:

do you have xbox live going over there? if you do PM me your user name and we could hook up a game of Halo, Ghost Recon or something like that.

     tino

Tino:

Naw, I'm a PC gamer. And you'd wax me at an FPS! I'm old and don't have the twitch

Dennis

If the game allows me to be female, I'm always a female... I don't know why I'd be a male... might as well be as female as possible right?

QuoteMaybe of more significance are places like Second Life or Moove online ...

I love Second Life Rana, and play a lot there.  It's my sanity!
Well, not really play, it's hard to explain Second Life, it's such a different paradigm.

Jessica

I have a golf game where I can be a girl. I'm pretty darned cute, too, if I do say so myself!

I look a little like a very petite Jenny Finch (albeit, sadly, only in the game) and call myself "Amber" there.

The only game I've played is Civilization, and most of its civs have men at the head of them. But I don't choose which civ to play by the gender of its figurehead, which makes no difference to the game. I choose it by a civ's combination of attributes (scientific, industrious, agricultural, seafaring, religious, militaristic, commercial, etc.) and its unique unit, which makes a big difference in the strategy. The gender of the figurehead is incidental. If I wanted to always play women I could be Byzantium (Theodora), Egypt (Cleopatra), England (Elizabeth I), France (Joan d'Arc), Russia (Catherine the Great), or Spain (Isabella). But the game doesn't work that way. My favorite civs are the scientific ones. Although I do hate it when I play for example my favorite scientific/industrious civ, Persia, which has Xerxes as the figurehead, and the game keeps calling me "Sir." If that starts to irritate me enough, I may start playing only the women-led civs just so I can be called "Ma'am."

I always choose to be female.  WOW, Ghost Recon w/ a all female squad, Big Game Hunter.  If I can be female I am, if I can I do not play, period.  Except for Madden '07, I love football, especial the Hawks.  I would change teams if I had a bf that like football, to his team of course. 

Janet

In the world of Dungeons and Dragons, I have two main characters, one male and one female.  They are brother and sister.

AHHH another Civilization fan? I loved playing Civilization II back in the day.

Honestly it depends on the game most of the time. Like in Tekken I use Ling Xiaoyu -- not necessarily because she is female. For some reason I love her techniques of kicking ass.

Now if both genders in the game have nothing unique or special about them, then I will go with whatever I'm feeling.


EDIT: I don't play male all that often, but if the male character has something special that makes it worthwhile, then maybe. Furthermore not every game has a female character to play, although those games are becoming quite rare.

I always play as/create female characters. Always. And this has raised a fair amount of... curiosity among acquaintances. But it's got to the point now where that's my primary reason for playing games where you have to create your character (like Phantasy Star or Monster Hunter) Even sports games, which I always hated... I got one of the Tiger Woods golf games and pretty much lost myself in the character creation.

In beat 'em up's... I always use female characters, and have done ever since the days of Street Fighter II where Chun Li ruled.

For example, the characters I always use are:

Tekken Series: Nina & Anna Williams
Soul Calibur Series: Ivy primarily, but also Taki and Sophitia
Mortal Kombat Series: Nitara and Mileena
Virtua Fighter 4: Sarah Bryant
Bloody Roar 4: Uranus and Jenny
Dead Or Alive Series: Tina

I hadn't realised just how comprehensive it was until someone recently pointed it out to me. I just did it without thinking because it feels normal to automatically use female characters.