Do You Play Games As Your Opposite Sex?

[Guest Nate64567]

I always play as a female character when I can, I just feel more comfortable that way. I've been doing it that way for quite a while.

[Guest Metal]

I was always too afraid to play female characters while growing up because I didn't want people to ask about it...

[Guest RainbowGoth98]

I love RPing as a gay guy in Skyrim LOL! I always marry the cutest guys but most of the time I only play as Female.

[Guest Luuceee]

Ive always played as female whenever i had the choice. People have stopped asking why now its just common knowlegde that i play female characters. I do get annoyed on Playstation home though when i get people coming over hitting on me all the time, sending messages saying im hot and stuff haha. I just block them everytime lol.

Lucy x

[Guest Edu]

It all began in summer in 2001. I was about to join a HeroQuest campaign and, when I had to create my character, for some reason I felt compelled to play a female (as of today, the reason is rather obvious, but then it wasn't). I said, as an excuse, that the group was missing a lot of fun potential by not having any female characters in it.

After some months, my female elf warrior had become a staple in our campaigns, and nobody needed to ask what I'd be playing on the next campaign. Sadly, this only lasted for a couple of years; eventually the group split apart due to scheduling incompatibilities, and for a while I didn't get much chance to roleplay

Fast-forward to early 2007: after trying for a long while, one of my friends convinced me to try out WoW. I rolled several characters, both male and female, trying out many of the classes in the game. After a short while, my rogue and mage (both female) were getting close to the level cap, while all others had become banking mules.

During late 2008, some friends and me were getting tired of the neverending politics and soccer spam in the game chat, and decided to start anew on a different server. I didn't even bother making any male characters there; and currently have a level 85 rogue and a mage, death knight, and priest that are getting near the cap. It just feels so natural to play as a female.

I don't play too many games, but the pattern quite repeats itself:

When I started playing Starcraft 2's campaign, after starting the colonist missions, I knew I had to get the Dr. Hanson portrait (the same I'm using as my profile picture on this site). It took me over a week of insane grinding to earn the achievements and unlock the portrait, but it was worth it

And then, a couple of months ago, Diablo 3 finally came out. I knew I was going to play a female wizard the very first time I saw her in the teaser videos and trailers. I also have a twink DH, which is obviously female as well.

It's been a bit of an evolution: in the beginning, playing as a female felt good, although I couldn't tell why. Once I acknowledged my gender identity, I understood why if felt that way. Now, those games are outlets where I'm free to be myself.

Curiously, over the last few weeks, I have been quite more myself IRL, and I have been playing a lot less. I wonder if the relation between these facts is causal or casual.

Regards,

Ethain

[Guest lostflower]

Once upon a time I never played with a female character

All my characters ended up being in MMORPG's faceless(either by model design or the addition of headgear) individuals with spiky hair named Zero, Null, 0000 or Rei

But now I personalize them and make them look as close to an idealised and version of female me as possible, and am much happier playing

[Guest AshSkittles]

For me I go with whoever has the better design. like for pokemon I go for the girl a lot.

[Guest Kid A]

Yay! Another SC2 Player!

[Guest Heather C E]

I do when I can. Persona 3 Portable's female character is very fun.

[Guest ErinJade]

I've played as both, depending on how they look and whatnot. I've done WoW; all the characters are so charming that I had to have one of each (other than Undead Male; I can't bring myself to do that for some reason). My main characters or RP characters are generally female though. Same with other games; Runes of Magic, Perfect World International, (soon) Guild Wars 2, (soon) Mists of Pandaria (I will have a panda. I quit wow and told myself that the only way they'd get me to come back was a Pandaria expansion and a hand-to-hand monk class and good lord did they ever do just that).

In fighting games I tend to gravitate towards females (read: Chun Li, Sakura, Xiaoyu, Jam), but I'll still play as, say, Ryu or Jin or Sol or what have you.

RPGs, if they ask for a character to basically become my avatar, and there's no real difference otherwise, I'll basically pick the female choice (Pokémon, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates and Echoes of Time, and Dragon Quest 3 and 9, for example). If it makes a difference I'll weigh the pros and cons but I'll be biased towards the female I notice. It was a hard decision, for example, in Harvest Moon and Rune Factory 2, b/c it would affect who I could eventually marry.

I like games where you're gender neutral though, b/c you don't have to think about it really. Games like Zork, for an obvious example, where you're even called genderless (you play as AFGNCAAP, which is a hard to pronounce name and an acronym for Ageless Faceless Gender Neutral Culturally Ambiguous Adventure Person.)

Games like WoW and Runes of Magic, and non-online games like Dragon Quest 9, Final Fantasy: The Four Heroes of Light, and the previously mentioned Crystal Chronicles games, are also fun to play dressup with. =

I hear that the female version lead in Mass Effect was the better version, for voice acting and all, just as a thing to add. I haven't actually played it and my friend who has it has been playing since 1 with a male character, so I have no real frame of reference.

And though it might be obvious, my Mii on my 3DS is female, as is my XBox avatar thingie.

I think it's more of a 'what feels right' thing more than a 'consciously trying out this other body' sort of thing. I feel a lot more natural playing as my female gnome mage in WoW than my bulky male Tauren druid (though he gets some love too).

I cannot wait to have a female Asura engineer (or whatever that profession is) in Guild Wars 2.

[Guest Alison Mendez]

It depends on a number of factors. I'm still in the closet about who I am so if I know I'm playing a game with people I know IRL I'll play same gender. But generally I play opposite gender.

It also depends on the game and character models/animations/voice acting. When I used to play WoW I NEVER played male characters, even when RL friends played with me. The reason why is because the male avatars looked and sounded stupid. It's clearly obvious that the art developers for that game did not put nearly as much effort into male characters as female characters.

Generally though I prefer to play female characters. With the exception of the Bayonetta game, I really don't like playing slutty or overly sexualized female avatars. Attractiveness sure, but modesty still preferred.

[Guest Apany]

Now when I play an online game I always choose a female character if I can. In the past it was pretty much the same but I did some male alt, they were all erased or turned into a profession mule. One day (long time ago) a friend begged me to play a male character in EQ2, so I did. I chose the least worst male and it turn out to be a cat guy (don't remember the race name). I stopped playing that game after the free month, but it wasn't because I was playing a male. After that, all my main character were female. I played a female undead/goblin priest around six years before I quited WoW, everyone knew me as Apany and called me by that name. I always prefer that name over my real one.

In a single player game I prefer to play a female character but if the game is good I will still play it even if I can't choose a girl (ex: Half-Life). In a rpg my first playground will always be a female who thinks like me. After that, if I really like the game I will do another playground as a male to see the story from another perspective. That character will be a jerk and evil if it's possible. After that all other playground will be female.

[Guest DanD]

usually a guy unless there wasnt any choice.

[Guest Alex F]

Ya I games like saints row and I guess mass effect but not very much, but I try to play with the games character in the other gender but there is always the fear of someone walking in and thinking I'm wierd and stuff like that but then I say to myself who the heck cares anymore (when the truth is in my mind everybody does care) so I ignore myself and do it anyway and it feels great, it feels normal.

But then someone walks in and it gets REALLY awkward and what makes it even more awkward is when my big brother says so why are you playing as a girl (he actually knew exactly why because he heard when I came out to my dad) but anyway when he asks me I say "um uh well um it uh has a different storyline and uh... ya" kind of nervously and he kind of buys it but not really and then my little brother comes in and he asks the same thing and I give him the same answer and, being as innocent as he is says, "wierd" in a kind of suspicios long tone and then my sister comes in but doesnt say anything because I think she understands me a little more(She also knows im transgendered) and knows that I probably don't want to hear that but she does comment on the dress I'm wearing (in the game) and that kind of makes me feel good and then I think "why is everybody coming to watch me when I'm playing as a girl character a mean no one watches me when I'm playing as a guy character"!!!

But anyway I now play as the opposite sex in the games I play almost every chance I get and it's fine with everybody else and if not, who cares.

[Guest Dani-Z]

Growing up I played a lot of video games. When I was able to I would choose to play as a female character or enter a female name when asked to do so, most of the time the name was Juno, the Roman Goddess.

Back then it felt awkward for me to me to play as a male character and I was not sure why, but now that I am older I figured out why that was.

[Guest DreamersGuilt]

I always have a male and female character. If I can't have them simultaneously I always chose male first. The first games I ever played were pokemon and harvest moon always male it fits the game. My male characters always end up getting a lot more play time though.

[Guest Edu]

then I think "why is everybody coming to watch me when I'm playing as a girl character a mean no one watches me when I'm playing as a guy character"!!!

For the same reason the falling toast always lands on the butter side: Murphy's Law.

[Guest Captain Canada]

No I prefer to pick the gender that I am which is female

[Guest Captain Canada]

But for while I didn't know why, I just wanted a female character when I was playing saints row 2 in 09.

But now it's clear why, I'm a woman in a mans body

[Guest barton]

Generally I prefer playing as male, my main play throughs are always male. But I'll sometimes play a girl on alternate play throughs, times were I'll consciously play differently.

For example, my main game in Skyrim (fantasy rpg) I'm generally a male wood elf thief. But if the mood takes me, I'll start up a game were I'll be a giant Amazonian-esque mage. Or make the character as small as I can and equip her with the biggest weapon I can find. Sometimes I'll just play as a girl simply because their armor designs are less bulky.

[Guest Chloe518]

I play as female in any game that gives me the option. If the game only has a male character I don't really mind, but if given the choice I always go for the girl. I play mass effect as fem shep, and all my mmo characters are female, such as star trek online and dc universe online. My DCU character even got married It was awesome Since I haven't come out yet to anybody, it does get a bit difficult explaining to my brother when he asks why I play as a girl. But he usually is fine with whatever explanation I give him.

[Guest Ashy]

I do it all the time :3

In Skyrim, Mass Effect, Sims 3, WoW, everywhere... I enjoy it a lot more. ^.^

<3's

Ashy

[Guest Luna_Luv2942]

When I was younger I always played as male characters. Even in Pokemon I wanted only male Pokemon; I think I was over compensating back then plus in some games like Monster Hunter I thought the male characters had cooler equipment. I play all female characters now which actually doesn't feel different but feels better than before.

[Guest iHeartHondas]

I try to play female characters as much as I can in every video game I play. Hell, I spent 5 months looking for free online games that allowed me to play as a girl. About 75% of them do.

However though, I don't mind playing male characters in games that only allow me to play as male characters (Battlefield, Call of Duty, Need For Speed, Forza, etc).

What'd I'd like to see is more character customization in the future, girls can run around shooting people in the face too, as well as drive a fast race car through the twists and turns of Laguna Seca (hell there's a movie dedicated to girls racing).

[Guest]

I always play as a girl, it's the only way I can win! Giggle. Jody