Always the other gender.  I even went as far as deleting all of my male characters on Guild Wars and creating new female ones.

It's not that I don't like male characters.  That's why I initally made a male warrior so he can be all buff and BASH FACE.  But it's just that I really suck at roleplaying male characters, so people usually think I'm female anyway.  Also, the female characters have better looking armor, so it's a win-win situation.

My dervish is sporting a brown robe now.

What was meant by "the other gender"?
I'm a trans woman. For me the "other gender" is male. I feel no attraction for such a role. In fact, I feel a very, very strong aversion to it.

I remember reading back in the '90s about a young guy who died when his truck crashed because he fell asleep at the wheel. He hadn't been sleeping because he'd been spending all his time online in role-playing games. He went online as a female character. The news story commented that lots of RPGers played characters in an alternative gender. I remember thinking at the time well yeah of course it would only feel natural to take on a female identity. I wasn't out to myself yet back then. There were millions of such clues happening, but I managed to stay clueless for a long time.

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'm a bit of a liar. In Tekken I almost always use Ling, although every blue moon I'll use Law -- very rare. In Soul Calibur II, I use Talim.
In Virtua Fighter 4 I use Pai chan. In Dead or Alive 2, I use Lei Fang...

When I'm around my male cousins who are under fifteen, I will change up with a male character every so often...They tend to tease me when I use a female character.

I don't play many games, but my picks are usually moreso for ability, rather than catering to my identity. I've always been attracted to speed, gracefulness, stealth and agility over brute force, armor, power and strength... so I often "end up" with female characters because of it.

I'll admit though, I DID once try to make my Halo persona some pretty shade of pink once, just to add a feminine flair, but... it's... just... WRONG somehow, lol.

~Kate~

I don't generally play role-play games on the computer these days,...but..

...I remember going out to get a copy of "Leisure Suit Larry" (V3 I think) and getting very frustrated
that it took so long to get the bit where I could change sex!.. >

...and I have played (badly) the Tomb Raider series.. so I guess the answer is Yes!

Damn... am I giving away my age again?....

Chrissty

Quote from: Hypatia on July 03, 2008, 03:29:10 AM
I remember reading back in the '90s about a young guy who died when his truck crashed because he fell asleep at the wheel. He hadn't been sleeping because he'd been spending all his time online in role-playing games. He went online as a female character. The news story commented that lots of RPGers played characters in an alternative gender. I remember thinking at the time well yeah of course it would only feel natural to take on a female identity. I wasn't out to myself yet back then. There were millions of such clues happening, but I managed to stay clueless for a long time.

That's the thing... to take on a female persona in a game allows you to be yourself with none of the drawbacks that occur when trying to do it in everyday life. You are accepted as female without any questions (except for the lingering remnants of the male view that female gamers don't exist). You're pretty much taken at face value.

And you can also create the persona to be far more physically feminine and curvy than you could ever hope for with all the surgery in the world. An idealistic expression of yourself perhaps. And whilst online you can interact with others completely naturally, without having to worry about whether someone will come out with a derogatory comment.

That's pretty much one of the main reasons I've deliberately stayed away from online games, though. If I started... they would take over my life.

Although, I do suspect that some people who play games as the opposite gender to themselves, if it's not to try and be themselves... then it might be because they would simply rather spend time looking at a beautifully rendered, armour-clad Amazon running around battling dragons etc, than a buff guy. I know someone who does just that.

Quote from: Kate on July 03, 2008, 11:48:13 AM
I don't play many games, but my picks are usually moreso for ability, rather than catering to my identity. I've always been attracted to speed, gracefulness, stealth and agility over brute force, armor, power and strength... so I often "end up" with female characters because of it.

I'll admit though, I DID once try to make my Halo persona some pretty shade of pink once, just to add a feminine flair, but... it's... just... WRONG somehow, lol.

~Kate~

That's a really good point. There are still very solidly gender-defined roles and abilities in a lot of games. Female = lithe, fast, agile, not necessarily powerful and male = tank on legs, pack mule, slow, lumbering, exceptionally powerful. And as well as ability, some games have far more options and female specific items, so it can also be a case of getting the most out of the game almost requiring you to play as a female character.

Quote from: Chrissty on July 03, 2008, 12:00:58 PM
...and I have played (badly) the Tomb Raider series.. so I guess the answer is Yes!

The new Tomb Raider games (Legend and Anniversary) are awesome!

Worse than that, with extremely rare exceptions, I only buy video games that allow a female avatar. 

But I don't know how to answer the poll.  Are we talking gender now, birth gender, what?

Posted on: July 03, 2008, 03:25:11 PM

---

And also, I stay away from the online games because anyone with a female avatar is automatically assumed to be male.

Always male characters if its an MMORPG. I don't feel right playing a girl in those games, its just too weird. When I create an MMORPG character, I feel like its an alter-ego of myself, so its why I prefer to present my avatar as male.

But when it comes to fighting games and certain other games, I'm fine with female characters. I guess it has to do with creating a character vs. using a pre-existing one. Its a situational thing.

I usually make a female character, but I make them on the basis that they are usually quite powerful, whether with physical strength or magic.

For example my first character that I played on an online neverwinter nights server was a female barbarian that wore plate armor that covered her entire body (what a shock, considering in most of the more popular MMORPGs, even if it's plate it still shows skin, which I hate, but I can't do much about it.) and she fought with a great sword.

I don't mind playing female characters if I portray them as powerful, independent and full of fiery personality (if I'm role-playing them) because I like to perpetuate the ideal that women can be powerful in the same ways that men are considered powerful and after all it is a fantasy world, I can be what I like, lol.

The only game I play a lot right now is World of Warcraft, and the server I play on the most I have all female characters except for one male. Usually if I'm in a group with people not in my guild or they don't know me, they just assume I'm male since it's a pretty widely accepted fact that a lot of the female characters are actually played by males. I like the fact they assume I'm male; they don't treat me differently when they assume, and I can just go about my business, and if I mess up in a group or a raid, they wouldn't be soft on me, which is good, lol.

Edit- On second thought when I think about it, I really do like playing a male character sometimes (in WoW) and I wish I had made a few of my female characters male when I look back on it. I couldn't change any of my taurens though, I think it's cool that the male taurens get more horn options and braids but otherwise I think they look kind of goofy when they run and their combat animations aren't the greatest. Usually when I have the urge to play a male character I just go on another server and make a new character and play him for a while till I want to go back to my main server lol.

If given the choice I tend to play females more often then males in computer game and table top rpg's.

The female's look better, which may say something about the graphic artists, I'm currently playing a female assassin in Guild wars, she's wearing Kurzick armour if you want to see it the link is

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Gallery_of_female_assassin_Kurzick_armor

Compare that to the male version

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Gallery_of_male_assassin_Kurzick_armor

As I said the females look a lot better

Only hers is completely black and you wouldn't believe the cost of black dye (5 pieces of armour, each needing 1 bottle of dye @8,500 gold pieces each, 38,500 gold must be mad)

Which does present a problem, she's a member of a Lexon guild, and the Lexon and the Kurzick don't like each other. What are they gonna do kick me out?

Quote from: shazz on July 07, 2008, 08:36:44 AM
If given the choice I tend to play females more often then males in computer game and table top rpg's.

The female's look better, which may say something about the graphic artists, I'm currently playing a female assassin in Guild wars, she's wearing Kurzick armour if you want to see it the link is

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Gallery_of_female_assassin_Kurzick_armor

Compare that to the male version

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Gallery_of_male_assassin_Kurzick_armor

As I said the females look a lot better

Only hers is completely black and you wouldn't believe the cost of black dye (5 pieces of armour, each needing 1 bottle of dye @8,500 gold pieces each, 38,500 gold must be mad)

Which does present a problem, she's a member of a Lexon guild, and the Lexon and the Kurzick don't like each other. What are they gonna do kick me out?

Actually they look pretty much the same to me. I always liked that look though. I used to play GW a lot, and I think that usually they make the male and female armor sets pretty equally awesome and sometimes I was pretty envious of the male sets. I don't think the guild would kick you out just cause they're Luxon and you aren't, and it would be pretty rude if they did.

Yes I always play the female characters...unless its a game with only male characters like BF2 and then I have no choice.

gina

QuoteComputer 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?

Always, when I have the option. My brother (Mike) got a Wii recently, and it has WiiSports, for which you can create your own character. So he and I went through the family creating characters that look roughly like us, and finally it was my turn (though he held the controller-thing). He entered everything for me as anyone 'normal' would - as close as he could get to my physical appearance (i.e. female, "diminutive", long brown hair etc). Anyway, he went to bypass the 'facial hair' section, but I got him to stop and go through all the options as he'd done for the other sections, and they had this really cool moustache ... And then, when he was about to finish, I realised that 'I' was wearing a dress. Lutin does not do dresses, and the only way a female can wear pants on the Wii is if she's male. Figures . SO! My Wii-me is wearing a purple ("the ->-bleeped-<- colour?!!!!", as my accepting brother so diplomatically phrased it - though I confess that I didn't choose that colour randomly ) top and black *pants*, and has a long brunet ponytail, a moustache, and very feminine facial features. So I'm happy with it. However...

Quote....what was its effect?

It scared the bejesus out of Mike. > Now, *every* time the topic of WiiSports comes up, he says "Yes, someone really needs to *shave*." He even told our parents that my Wii character is male and has a moustache, but "transgender" obviously isn't in my family's vocabulary, 'cause no-one has any idea.  

i normally create male characters, but sometimes i create female ones.

Quote from: Phate on July 07, 2008, 06:09:22 PM

Actually they look pretty much the same to me. I always liked that look though. I used to play GW a lot, and I think that usually they make the male and female armor sets pretty equally awesome and sometimes I was pretty envious of the male sets. I don't think the guild would kick you out just cause they're Luxon and you aren't, and it would be pretty rude if they did.

My Guild wars assassin is Luxon, just prefers the Kurzick armour. This is the Luxon assassin armour


http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Gallery_of_female_assassin_Luxon_armor

I don't think it looks so good.

As for the Guild kicking meout I don't think they will because a) we short of members, and b) they not seen me wearing it, sorry her wearing it (I'd love to get into an outfit like that, but if I starved myself for the next year or so and had surgery I might just be able to squeeze in.)

Shazz

Quote from: shazz on July 10, 2008, 04:05:16 PM

Quote from: Phate on July 07, 2008, 06:09:22 PM

Actually they look pretty much the same to me. I always liked that look though. I used to play GW a lot, and I think that usually they make the male and female armor sets pretty equally awesome and sometimes I was pretty envious of the male sets. I don't think the guild would kick you out just cause they're Luxon and you aren't, and it would be pretty rude if they did.

My Guild wars assassin is Luxon, just prefers the Kurzick armour. This is the Luxon assassin armour


http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Gallery_of_female_assassin_Luxon_armor

I don't think it looks so good.

As for the Guild kicking meout I don't think they will because a) we short of members, and b) they not seen me wearing it, sorry her wearing it (I'd love to get into an outfit like that, but if I starved myself for the next year or so and had surgery I might just be able to squeeze in.)

Shazz

Well I meant that the male and female armor look the same, though you said the female looks better.

Anyways, if they kick you out because of that then they aren't worth being with anyways, in my opinion.

I play Video Games like a Religion.
On Soul Calibur I use Nightmare: A Male Demon Knight, But I made a female Charecter that uses his Style I use female charecters over Male as much as Possible, even if there is a Style that a Male Charecter uses in a fighting game I like, I make a Female charcter that uses that style. EX: Carolyn on SC3 and soon SC4 will use Nightmare's Style because Nightmare is my Favorite all time Charecter.
On Things Like Halo 3 My Elite (Which I only play as) is female. My Ninja on Tenchu Z was a Kunoichi (Female Ninja). I use Ayane, and Kasumi on DOA. I have a Female Charecter in GTA4. So on and so forth.
Now as Nightmare says
OFFER YOUR SOUL!
lol Just kidding!

Lol.

Nightmare is a very good character. In SC3 I did have a custom female Nightmare-esque character, too. I actually really liked the way SC3 did that, with the custom character creation.

I still maintain that SC3 has one of the best intro movies ever.

I'd always chose male characters. It was the beginning of my gender expression before I even really understood it.

Hey Leiandra
If you have a Xbox 360 We can play SC4 against each other (Online Play at long last) also Can't wait to see that opening movie and I agree with you about SC3's open, a perfect Fighting game opening period
my Xbox live name is Ikuro Hanogi BTW