Who are the gender-benders?
by Jennie Lees 
{ Mar 21st 2006 at 8:00PM }
Academic MMO weblog Terra
Nova is looking at gender-bending in cyberspace at the moment, delving into the phenomenon by asking the simple
question "Who's doing it?". While many men who play female characters use the "nice ass" line--if
they're going to be staring at a pixellated posterior all day, it might as well be a pretty one--Terra Nova tries to go
beyond this by looking at the personalities of gender-bending players.The comments on the post are also interesting, covering identity tourism, transgender and GLBT issues as well as adding several more accounts of gender-bending (or not) into the mix.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Imadogg99 @ Mar 21st 2006 9:07PM
"...indicates that 40% of MOO-ers surveyed were either currently presenting cross-gender in-game, or had gender-swapped in the past."
Haha isn't it MMO-ers? Not cows. Stupid article.
I'm not much of an MMO guy... actually I'm not an MMO guy at all. But I do like playing as Kasumi on DOA...
MetaHuman @ Mar 21st 2006 9:15PM
I know Yuji Naka's said in an interview that he mainly plays PSO with a spiky-blue-haired HUnewearl. Other than that, I don't know. :P
I guess that with the anonymity of the internet people are quick to find that they can have a whole other identity when not standing in front of the people they are talking to. When millions of people are open to that realization then a million new identities can be made. Given the limitations of human identity and 2 genders and with a choice of visual representation through avatars, many may opt to change gender as a representation of one of their aspects of personality. In the case of MMOs, millions of players have created millions of identities. Long story short, it was bound to happen among a couple million or so.
Like me just now being a punk-ass trying to sound smart. :D
jennie @ Mar 21st 2006 9:18PM
Nah, check the date of that comment - 1999. It refers to MOOs, object-oriented MUDs, the text-only precursors to visual MMOs :)
Silver @ Mar 21st 2006 9:19PM
I do it because I'm gay and when I'm a girl character, guys will hit on me and are more likely to accept me hitting on them. :D
Until they find out that is, but that could be a long long time off.
Xenozx @ Mar 21st 2006 9:33PM
There could be many many reasons for this. I personally play as girls in most games I play. I think its partly because of the whole tail thing thats being mentioned. I personally just think the chicks look cooler in games and I would rather watch a girl charactor ingame then a dude charactor. I dont find anything appealing from custom creating a dude charactor. To be honest if I had the choice from Man, Woman, Robot, I would probably go the robot route. IM about as normal as can be. IM not gay, find women very appealing, play videogames for fun, and also race my car at the track and work on it alot. I have a girlfriend who I have been with for quite a while. I just thought I would throw my experiences up. I dont pretend to be a woman in game, most of the time I will play with my name Xenozx since thats what I name all my charactors.
mikey @ Mar 21st 2006 9:34PM
whats the problem with it?
ive only played a mmo once
it was world of warcraft
i chose a female night elf
why?
because look at all the male characters
they all like a bunch of stupid brutes! stereotypes!
i wouldve played as a man if i wouldve had more options with character custimization
and besides those female night elves are smoking!
Imadogg99 @ Mar 21st 2006 9:49PM
Oh yea, like I said, I'm not a MMO-er (or MOO-er)... but what gender I choose depends on what type of game I play. In something like DOA, I choose the chicks because: 1)I like their moves, 2)They are good to look at, 3)People will think I'm gay if I only choose guys. But in a game like KOTOR, or a game of the sort, I always choose guys, the funny looking ones who look awesome doing badass stuff.
Spoon @ Mar 21st 2006 9:57PM
"I do it because I'm gay and when I'm a girl character, guys will hit on me and are more likely to accept me hitting on them. :D
Until they find out that is, but that could be a long long time off."
The Crying Game 2: Electric Boogaloo
Russell @ Mar 21st 2006 10:34PM
The T in GLBT stands for Transgender.
In case anyone was not aware. Which, apparently, someone wasn't.
Knox @ Mar 21st 2006 11:16PM
While the majority of the characters I play as, chosen or not, are male, I do occasionally play as a female avatar. Though, in most cases, it is in relation to a specific role. I plan on buying Guild Wars Factions, to expand upon my current Guild Wars account, and when I receive my copy, I plan on creating a female Assassin. Not because I love playing as females, but because I feel that a female in the role of an "Assassin" is more intrigueing than a male. In my current game, where I play as both an Elementalist and a Monk, both my avatars are male, as I feel that being a male fits better with the idea of powerful mages, and chast monks. While I am not sure as to whether or not most gamers have similar views to mine, who would be willing to suggest that they share my opinions on this to a certain degree, that each character, whether male or female, can often depend on the situation.
kwizzeh @ Mar 22nd 2006 9:46AM
Yeah, male assassins seems pretty out of loop for some people. I believe it's mostly associtated to assassins and females because of the "Femme fatal" stereotype. Beautiful as they are deadly.
I use a female avatar as my primary on GW, WOW and Silkroad, but I also have a male character as my secondary in all those games. Plus, Night Elf ass, so pretty :P
Moogle @ Mar 22nd 2006 10:31AM
My GF plays a male character on WoW. I think it's mostly because she's a bit of a misogynist and doesn't want people to think she's a stupid girl. She has played female characters, but her default preference is definitely to play male characters.
I play mostly male characters, but I started a female one really just for something different. Which of course led to the Most Awkward Conversation Evar! (tm): *Other female character hits on my female char* "Uhm, I'm a guy IRL" "Yeah, me too" "..."