Study Claims Men Play Female Avatars to 'Win' 266
mytrip writes to mention a News.com article about the rationale behind male players playing female avatars in online games. The article says that, while some players are probably exploring 'gender roles, many just want free stuff. From the article: "Kathryn Wright, WomenGamers's consulting psychologist, earlier this decade found that 60 percent of male players who don female avatars, or on-screen personas, do it to gain an advantage in game play. An enthusiast with the online handle Jackpot649 nailed the zeitgeist in his response to the About.com query: 'I'm a guy, but if I gotta look at an avatar all day, I'd sooner look at a female avatar. Plus, people give you more free stuff.'"
U need a study? (Score:3, Insightful)
Its been going on in Chat for ages.
Men like to look at female avtars. Whats new?
Re:U need a study? (Score:3, Insightful)
Why?
1. The visuals factor, which has already been discussed. I'd rather look at a chick's butt than a guy's.
2. Even single-player RPGs usually give an advantage to female characters. Everything's a little easier, and there are a few more things you can do, in, say, Fallout II, if you play as a woman. Rarely can you NOT do something that a guy can do (i.e. sleep with a woman, though the guys, notably, can almost never sleep with other guys) and often you can do things that the guys can't.
This is why I treat all players in the game as men (Score:4, Insightful)
My Credo - I play games to have fun, not to meet girls. Doesn't mean I'll never meet a girl in game, I just don't *try* to meet any girls in game. Put another way, I just try to treat everyone equally - all with respect, and trying to be the best teammate I can if I team with them, and I form friendships without caring the gender of the person. I suppose in the process of that, some of the people I become friends with will be female, and some male.
The reason I mention this is, from time to time you see 'articles' on the internet about people who've met wives/husbands through an online game. While I'm sure this has happened occasionally, these 'articles' seem to be more marketting vehicles for the game in question than anything else. Someone who goes into the game trying to find a girlfriend (girls looking for guys would probably have a reasonable level of success finding guys - but maybe not guys they would really like, I dunno) is probably going to open themselves up to foolishness like giving gifts to impress a girl that is really a guy.
The Internet is for Camwhores (Score:3, Insightful)
You could almost say this is a step towards equality though it's inequality in exploiting uncomfortable (if true) gender stereotypes.
I guess the only question left is whether women playing men are more likely to give stuff to female characters.
That's basically it (Score:4, Insightful)
but if I gotta look at an avatar all day, I'd sooner look at a female avatar.
That's the beginning and end of it for me. I don't consider myself to be the characters I play. I'm more of a puppeteer pulling the strings.
I feel like... (Score:2, Insightful)
Besides, who the hell cares?
It's a stupid stupid stupid thing to "research" in my oppinion.
Feel free to tell me I'm wrong.
126 Battle Mage - Asheron's Call - Male
99 Ranger - NexusTK - Male
60 Rogue - World of Warcraft - Female
50 Shaman - DAOC - Female
Me - Male
suggested tag: 'noshit' (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:I feel like... (Score:3, Insightful)
Nice to know you're so shallow.
The only women I personally know who play or have played MMORPGs are very much the "sup, wanna hunt" type. Those I met via the MMORPG who I know to be female are as good-or-better on average than the men.
Women can and do roleplay, be it tabletop or PC, on a level just as good as the men. They tend to be a bit weaker (in gross average) in some other departments of the game, but no more than a guy who's just a moron. (You know, the kind who presumes he knows how the game works, and anyone who disagrees is either a noob or a chick.)
On the other hand (Score:5, Insightful)
Female players have been known to play male characters to avoid being hit on. Who wants to be hit on in a game while in the middle of a battle?
Re:Sounds like (Score:1, Insightful)
1) All those big warnings at the top about NPOV? They conceal the fact that the concept of "autogynephilia" is possibly the most debated idea/issue in the transsexual community, and has some pretty good evidence against it.
2) It's an issue in just the transsexual community. Despite what it might sound like, this tempest-in-a-teacup is about transsexuality, and is not about general male gender issues, and trying to apply it there will only be troublesome at best and most likely useless. Please do some reading on transsexuality (it's an issue you definitely need to read the actual literature on) before trying to blanketly apply any part of it outside of it, as the two are quite different.
Re:complete fabrication (Score:3, Insightful)
A dude trying to pass as a lady to get free karma.
Or, in another reality (Score:3, Insightful)
This is World of Warcraft we're talking about. The home of the ugliest male characters in any computer game since the Sinclair ZX80 port of Dig Dug. Why do people have to trot out the old "Durrr... it's because people give girls stuff!" argument when all they have to do is look at the character creation screen to see why many people choose female characters?
Re:This is why I treat all players in the game as (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:SomethingAwful's experiments (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Sounds like (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Don't forget closet transsexuals (Score:1, Insightful)
Will it be an easy road? No, but it will definitely be easier than living your life with such an eternal conflict.
Very much to the point, you'd be surprised at how accepting females are of transsexual women, even when they don't pass well.
Also, while I was blessed with a reasonably female body type, my face is still very much masculine, so much so that despite a very good female presentation from neck down, people still often insist on calling me "Sir", and using the male pronouns.
As long as you avoid the hardcore christians who tell you what you're doing is wrong, and continue to insist that you're a man, you should be fine.
I've been going since July 3rd full-time female, longer for outside of work (and longer in the sense that for a week or so, I was wearing all female everything, just a male shirt to cover up my breast forms), this is before I've even started hormones. Of course, my life was essentially at an end when I made my choice anyways, so it's not hard for me to "suck it up" and "have the balls" to do what I'm doing: living my life as a female despite not having had the opportunity to do anything to feminize my body yet.
Re:Don't forget closet transsexuals (Score:2, Insightful)
I've gone through a "progression" myself (nothing has really changed, I was transsexual my whole life. Just the lies/reasons I told myself and others have progressed.) First I made a female character because, "if I'm going to stare at a butt for a long time, I may as well stare at a cute butt," then it was "I do it for the items, and the preferencial treatment." Of course, all that flies out the window when you fall in love with a guy as a girl, and are left totally heartbroken that you aren't actually female.
Although, one should never underestimate the ability of a person to deny that they're transsexual. It took me well over 2 years, and my life being a complete mess *after* that particular relationship before I could even admit to myself that it was someting serious. And that was only after yet another failed relationship. By that time the story was "it's just something that I enjoy doing, and this is who I am online, but in real life, I'm a definite man, and I would only act as a female as a fetish."
Now, of course, after having to confront these issues openlyand directly in my real life, my life has turned around, the chronic depression seemed to evaporate, and my interpersonal skills blosomed literally overnight. (Not just "I wasn't so nice, and now I'm nice" but a full "I thought I might be an arrogant, rude, spiteful, confrontational autist, but now I'm a happy, friendly, helpful social queen.") The reason I play a female in game is because "That's what I am, and as I get the opportunities to do so in real life, I will take them to become more female."
I would very deeply like to see people be more understanding of transsexuals in these video games. Stop calling us "creepy" or "freaks", just because we want to present as a female. We're generally not doing it to humiliate you (note: if someone is being exageratingly female like the SA articles above, they *are* probably looking to make you look like an idiot), or make you feel uncomfortable. Often times, just like it was for me, the only way I could truely express myself. I ended up spending all my free time playing WoW as a female, and neglecting my job, my apartment, my kittens, and even my own body because I had to be female.
As for the situation online. If you're lying to people about your gender and inventing stuff just to make it more believable, you're likely just doing it "to win." Although, if you're very much interested in not being dishonest to people about anything but your gender, and get offended if someone "in the know" is making stuff up trying to help you out, then you're very likely in the transsexual side.
Re:Don't forget closet transsexuals (Score:3, Insightful)
As a side note, I'm gonna say that my understanding of 'transgendered' is different from 'transexual' in that the former is a much broader term while the latter has (to me, anyway) connotations of desiring body modification. So some of the parent posters seem to fall under my understanding of transgendered, even if they don't fall under transsexual. Although I'm also all about the importance of self-labeling, so if any of the parents disagree for their personal label they are, of course, welcome to claim or reject any title they like.
-Trillian
Duh (Score:3, Insightful)
pox this, Maureen Dowd (Score:3, Insightful)
He's not an attorney like you.
Wishing a pox on someone over some split hairs is more of a sign of a deranged mind than anything he said.