Majority of women, men swap gender in MMOs

by Justin McElroy { Mar 4th 2008 at 9:20AM }

Smirk all you want at Eddie Izzard, but keep in mind that some of your closest gaming cohorts are likely e-transvestites, if they're in to MMOs. A recent study called Gender Swapping and Socialising in Cyberspace revealed that 70 percent of women and 54 percent of men swap their genders when playing online games. For men, it's reportedly a way to get special treatment from males. On the other hand, women prefer to play as men so their characters aren't so frequently distracted by handbag sales and America's Next Top Model marathons. We kid.

For our part, we play World of Warcraft as a gnome warlock who looks exactly like former presidential hopeful Dennis Kucinich. His name is "Kucinich." ... We have no idea what that says about us.

[Via MEGATONik. Thanks, Zizzy]

Tags: eddie-izzard, gender-swapping, world-of-warcraft

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

copa @ Mar 4th 2008 9:29AM

Wait a minute. You mean, in the movie... she's really a dude?

Thanks for the SPOILER ALERT, Joystiq!

Ryuukuro @ Mar 4th 2008 9:38AM

You're late, buddy! Everybody knows the secret of the Crying Game. Roger Ebert spilled it over 10 years ago!

Justin McElroy @ Mar 4th 2008 9:43AM

P.S. Rosebud is a sled.

Ten Dolla Bill @ Mar 4th 2008 9:54AM

also Bruce Willis was a ghost the entire movie, Sam Jackson was the terrorist, the aliens were deathly allergic to water, the monsters outside the village were actually people from the village and of course Paul Giamatti is the healer not the guardian.

Oh sorry, spoiler alerts!

FidliousWong (Oatmeal Defense Force) @ Mar 4th 2008 10:29AM

"P.S. Rosebud is a sled."

I don't think knowing that would solve a thing. No, it'd probably be like one of these jigsaw pieces. Another part to build the full picture...

JakubK666 @ Mar 4th 2008 10:41AM

As for Sixth Sense you really could have seen it coming.

Mr.ESC @ Mar 4th 2008 11:08AM

The cake is a lie,ops sorry.

mike @ Mar 4th 2008 11:40AM

SPOILER!!!! You forgot that darth vadar is luke sykwalkers fathers.

Scott Jon Siegel @ Mar 4th 2008 12:05PM

Snake kills bumblebee.

Heard it here first.

343 Guilty Fart @ Mar 4th 2008 12:26PM

You fail Ryuukuro, it was Gene Siskel (RIP) who spoiled it for everyone, not Ebert.

riggs @ Mar 4th 2008 9:33AM

yeah and soylent green is people.

Jerk Face @ Mar 4th 2008 9:42AM

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

StrangeBum @ Mar 4th 2008 10:37AM

And Darth Vader is Luke's dad.....

Mr.ESC @ Mar 4th 2008 11:10AM

Wait,What?!

Soylent green is people? but it is my favorite breakfast cereal,there is no effing way...yet that would explain the funny aftertaste.

Paul @ Mar 4th 2008 9:39AM

And all this time I thought women played as men, just so someone would take them seriously.

FidliousWong (Oatmeal Defense Force) @ Mar 4th 2008 12:50PM

Well, I played a male a couple times but more often than not, the male models are ugly. The female models are aethetically pleasing. That, and people just give you free shit when you're a female avatar...

But mainly they look better.

robotrock @ Mar 4th 2008 9:41AM

I play a female in WoW but not because I want any special treatment....I just figure if I'm gonna be staring at someone's butt for a few hours a week it may as well be a chick.

Phranctoast @ Mar 4th 2008 9:44AM

post of the day.

riggs @ Mar 4th 2008 10:22AM

dude id rather look at a real girl than a digitized one, but i get yall point. what really scares me are the guys who cybers while being female.

BigD145 @ Mar 4th 2008 3:16PM

Hell yes. That's my main reason. I want a character that I want to look at for hours on end. This goes for all games I play. Lesbian couples in the Sims FTW.

Easo @ Mar 4th 2008 5:50PM

In my many, many years of playing video games, I have never found myself looking at the characters butt. The tho With that said, If i create a character in a game, they will either look like me or will be an oddity of some sort (super tall dwarf, really short troll, really fast fat guy,etc)
I think that the characters you choose to play as in games does say something about you psychologically. What that is, I have no e'ffin clue.

robotrock @ Mar 4th 2008 5:55PM

Oh yeah I am in no way shape or form an RPGer. I don't refer to the toon as "me" and I don't imagine myself running around killing a bunch of stupid shit. It's a character I am controlling.

Deaddy @ Mar 4th 2008 9:44AM

Sometimes in games (but not mmos cause I don't play those) I choose a girl character, mainly because I'd rather watch the back of a hot chick for 15-20 hours than a dude. Especially if there's ass physics (has this ever been done?)

scotty @ Mar 4th 2008 9:49AM

Yup, I almost always played as a female class in MMO's. Loved arguing with idiots who think that my playing a female is some sort of subconscious way of me wanting to being a female in real life. Best response to them was what someone said earlier:

Which is gayer? Wanting to stare at a dude all day, or a chick all day?

That usually shut em up.

Shagittarius @ Mar 4th 2008 11:00AM

I use to play as females for the same reason, however I only play male characters at this point beacuse lots of guys form crushes on female characters in MMOs.

I know you think if a guy hits on you , you just tell him your a dude, but its not that easy, a guy will feel embarassed that he had a crush on you and never asked if you were a woman or not and quit playing. These may have been good gaming buddies and losing them makes the game less enjoyable. I'm sure women play men mostly to avoid unwanted crushes as well as to be taken seriously.

The way I see it you have 2 choices. Play as a man, or learn to give good e-handjobs.

Nikonov @ Mar 4th 2008 9:50AM

Women in Guild Wars have freakishly long necks, but male warriors are freakishly huge. Damned if I do, damned if I don't.

WiNG @ Mar 4th 2008 10:22AM

HINT: Which one has a bikini as an armor set?

You know what you need to do.

xGeneral DEATHx @ Mar 4th 2008 10:30AM

LOLz...best reply of the day. Hats off to you, WiNG.

Nikonov @ Mar 4th 2008 10:31AM

... Play a spellcasting class as a male? Seriously, it's unnerving playing a giraffe-woman.

Also, WTF at email links to replies never working. :(

Dahk @ Mar 4th 2008 10:39AM

Its cuz all of these weblog blogs don't dump in the '#' when putting in the URL.

I think someone should tell them. =/ quite annoying lol.

Nikonov @ Mar 4th 2008 10:48AM

That's just it, it doesn't even take me to the article at all. Just... a scrunched version of Joystiq with nothing between the links on the sides.

Joshua Earles-Bennett @ Mar 4th 2008 9:56AM

My friend plays only as women because he enjoys looking at them instead of a male character. I think he approaches it as a character that isn't him. Where as I like to think I'm the character, so if there's any customizing I always try to make the character look like me.

My friends did make fun of me for this saying they never make the characters look like themselves, which I found shocking. I thought that was the point.

StrangeBum @ Mar 4th 2008 10:46AM

I'm right there with you. I have on occasion made some female characters. But I like to be able to think of myself as being in the game.

Maybe it's that over-active imagination of mine liking to pretend I'm a lvl 37 Retro Pally instead of a lvl 5 CAD Draftsman.

Squirrel3D @ Mar 4th 2008 9:56AM

why should it matter if a guy wants to play as a girl character, or a gal wants to play as a guy character?

Who cares...just have fun with the game and enjoy yourselves. In PSU, I have 2 female characters and two male ones.

Mike @ Mar 4th 2008 10:01AM

In a RPG I always play a dude because I'm a dude. I don't fantasize about being a woman.

scotty @ Mar 4th 2008 10:22AM

That's exactly my point. If I play a female character, I'm not fantasizing about wanting to be a woman. Perhaps you just enjoy staring at a man's ass all day? Congrats!

Mike @ Mar 4th 2008 10:24AM

I don't know about you, but I don't stare at the asses while I'm playing.

Mr.ESC @ Mar 4th 2008 11:12AM

Haha lol.

1+ Mike.

Zertoss @ Mar 4th 2008 10:05AM

I play as a gal and play along with anyone wanting to cyber. The reactions I used to get when I finally revealed my penis ranged from funny to hysterical. Now it seems like everyone just expects it.

Also, female avatars just tend to look nicer than their male counterparts. Ragnarok Online is a pretty extreme example of this.

enforcerpsu @ Mar 4th 2008 10:25AM

I think dudes that play female toons by CHOICE in MMOs are scary. You're not a chick.

Zertoss @ Mar 4th 2008 10:24AM

You're not an elf, or an orc, or anything other than human either.

Mr.ESC @ Mar 4th 2008 11:14AM

He is right I'm not an Undead Warlock...I am A Nightelf Mohawk!

Crono (NDF - Knight of the Old School) @ Mar 4th 2008 11:43AM

Maybe Mr. T is good with computers and hacked the game to create a Mohawk class. Ever think of that, Mr Condecending Director!

WiNG @ Mar 4th 2008 10:28AM

In Guild Wars and similar games I've played, I have a 50/50 mix of characters. Honestly, I just invent a character, and if that character is a woman, whatever. I play as black/hispanic/nordic people, and I'm not any of those.

I play as short characters not because I "fantasize about being short." It's just for a change of pace.

I don't play Super Mario Bros. because I wish I were an overweight mustaschioed Italian plumber.

Just think about it: If you substitute "black" or "short" for "woman" in any of the ignorant posts above, you'd see how ridiculous it sounds.