Why do many males play as female characters?

a reply to: pcgamer11

Well if I have a choice that my character will be the same, with same backstory, skills, traits...etc...regardless of a gender, then I will normally choose male. But that doesn`t limit me from picking female characters if they possess traits that I want to play with. For example, back in the day when Diablo 2 was popular I would gladly pick Amazon or Assassin over Barbarian or Paladin anytime because I liked the possibilities and gameplay these characters had to offer.

As to why so many are intentionally optionally picking the opposite gender thesedays I dunno but that excuse of looking at girls butt for hours sounds pretty lame to me. I will speculate that there are three groups of people who would do this..

1. the ones who are after special privileges and treatment in mmos
2. self suppressed and self accepted ladies in a male body in RL
3. brainwashed, following a certain behavioural pattern that seems to be popular thesedays.

So if you put all these three groups together, you get your answer which, honestly, sounds about right

a reply to: pcgamer11

Anybody play Mortal Kombat X?


This is Kung Jin, he is gay. So any guy that plays this character secretly wants to be, or is gay right? Or if a chick plays as this character shes a gay dude in a female body.


This is D'Vorah, she is female and an insect, double whammy! So guys that play as this character are closet-crossdressers that ultimately desire to one day be a lady-bug? Chicks who play as this character are already lady-bugs


This is Ferra & Tor. Ferra is the tiny female and Tor is the giant male. People who play as F&T are just hermaphrodites.

For real.

Being female and playing female characters because it feels more immersive to me, I have to say I've -never- had anyone ask if I'm really a girl nor had I randoms messaging me for info or following me about. Though I did have someone blow a /kiss once. Once. Aion, WoW, SWTOR, ESO, no gender related problems.

I do have -one- male character in WoW though, and that was purely because he's a blood elf and therefore amazingly fabulous I have one male character in SWTOR, and that's simply because I wanted to romance someone I couldn't as a female. Nope, I'm not gay, but I like playing as different characters and seeing slightly different story arcs.

Same in single player games I like my first character to be female, it's more immersive for myself. But then I may try out different choices/dialogue/friendships as a male character. I paid for the game, not going to deny myself half of it because "No! I'm female! I must -only- play female!"

My partner plays as male characters mainly, but he does have a couple of females in WoW and that's mainly for appearance purposes with specific clothing. Female orc guard clone and lore-dressed blood elf mage lady. I'm prettyyyyy sure there's nothing psychological behind it.

a reply to: pcgamer11

For one, video games over sexualize females and I like looking at them. For two, I don't like looking at men like that. For three, it's all fantasy. I can be what I want to be.

I was the guy who played a female night elf in WoW (though at the time there was only one race for the class I was playing for each faction so I didn't have much choice there and I didn't want to play as a cow).
I also try to main female characters in fighting games - Cammy for example though right now I play with Bison but many other fighting games I have female mains too. Though in the case of fighting games, playing a female character usually comes with some draw backs, they tend to have less health than male characters.

PS: I've also been pushing to get a female lead in an Assassin's Creed game.

I've played both and for several different reasons:

1) In some games, playing a different gender offers different dialog or situations.

2) Style of play.

3) As others have said: in many games, female characters have a more diverse appearance to choose from.

4) Some games you have no choice, the main character that you play is female (IE "Alien Isolation" for example).

a reply to: Op3nM1nd3d

1. the ones who are after special privileges and treatment in mmos

People keep saying this in this thread and I have yet to experience anything remotely close to special treatment because I play with a female character.

MMORPGs I have played:

I have played Ultima Online, Dark Age of Camelot, Anarchy Online, Asheron's Call, World of Warcraft, Luna Online, Aion, Rift, Dungeon & Dragons Online, Ragnarok Online....

Personally I think many in this thread are just parroting that sentiment because it's the popular thing to say.

3. brainwashed, following a certain behavioural pattern that seems to be popular thesedays.

4. It's a video game and that's about having fun. For these people that means being able to play as any sex.

....I know. Way out in left field with that thought, right?

a reply to: Lucid Lunacy

Well these days I think it`s a bit obsolete to get a special treatment because everyone knows about female characters. A while ago I played Voyage century with my friends of which one was a girl and normally played female character. When we put up a bazaar to sell resources and stuff, she had always sold most of the stuff while the rest of us were really lucky to sell only half of the stuff. And rest were always giving her stuff for free and not killing her if she had wandered on an island where the rest were not welcome. So later she was our merchant and spy and everything else we needed due to special priviliges.

4. It's a video game and that's about having fun. For these people that means being able to play as any sex. ....I know. Way out in left field with that thought, right?

Yeah.....right, being able to play any sex they would like to be to get attention. And we all know which sex get more attention. That`s fun...right?

But as said, I can`t comperhend the fun part of playing opposite character without any difference in backstory, gameplay, skills, traits, options....Can you please elaborate what it is? Looking at the character`s butt for hours? I mean it`s not like looking at a real woman`s butt. So how is this fun? More like being brainwashed...first anime, now videogames, soon human looking robots.

a reply to: Op3nM1nd3d

Yeah.....right, being able to play any sex they would like to be to get attention.

So basically you just completely ignored what I just described has been my extensive experience with mmorpgs that is contrary to what you're insinuating. I've always played female characters, and I have never got special treatment, extra attention, or anything along these lines.

Whatever

Can you please elaborate what it is?

Well you just omitted absolutely everything in-game by saying "backstory, gameplay, skills, traits, options" so what could I possibly say other than "because I want to"? O_o

More like being brainwashed

How about you elaborate on the who/what/when/why/how I'm being brainwashed.

soon human looking robots.

I certainly hope so.

I need a host to upload my mind to.

a reply to: Lucid Lunacy

You are making fun of me aren`t you?

So just in case if you are not...

So basically you just completely ignored what I just described has been my extensive experience with mmorpgs that is contrary to what you're insinuating. I've always played female characters, and I have never got special treatment, extra attention, or anything along these lines.

Please read my frist paragraph where I said that playing female characters has been found out trick. So unless you have been playing as female characters before 2007/08 this is most certainly it.

Well you just omitted absolutely everything in-game by saying "backstory, gameplay, skills, traits, options" so what could I possibly say other than "because I want to"? O_o

You are talking like I hadn`t been clear enough in my original post. One more indication of mockery

How about you elaborate on the who/what/when/why/how I'm being brainwashed.

Perhaps you`re not. Perhaps you just fall in that 2nd category that you omitted from your original reply to me as if it was irrelevant to you but in truth this could be your self-denial...not that I have anything against it though

I have no preference playing one or the other. Metroid was my favorite game as a kid when I found out Samus was a girl I didn't sit in the corner and cry about it.