Sunday, May 25, 2014

Why I play mostly male characters

     I've thought about writing this post from time to time before, not because I think it matters, or at least it really shouldn't matter, since it's my choice and at the root that's probably reason enough right there. This post by Erinys at the Harpy's Nest and this one over at Orcish Army Knife reminded me that this was a thing. And that got me thinking all over again about my own character roster. At 90 currently I have 11 characters. 10 of them are male. I'm not, though people mistake me for one from time to time in game and I generally don't bother correcting the assumption. I don't mind at all if people want to call me dude or bro. It doesn't change who I am behind the screen and I am comfortable in that. And besides, Seish is a dude and so is Tyl.
     And that's reason one. My characters are characters. They aren't me. I should certainly hope I'm not as arrogant and racist and judgmental (yay paladin puns) as Seish. I doubt I'm quite as patient and kind as Laen. My cats don't love me as much as Tyl's love him and I am not as well-adjusted to whatever horrible things life might throw at me as Tai (I also don't drink nearly as much). I'm not saying they aren't part me, I'm the one who made them after all and I'm the person behind the screen when I'm playing them. I just tend to think of them as fictional characters with their own personalities and foibles more than pure representations of myself.
     Reason two is a little closer to the core of the things in the posts I linked above. Paladins are my favorite class. Blood Elves are unabashedly my favorite race. But when I play a plate wearing warrior of the Light who is going to rush up and throw their shield in a dragon's face to make him mad I want to play a character that looks like they at least stand some chance of living through the resulting fury. And when my choice is between looking like this:
Or like this:
In the same suit of armor. I'll pick the male every single time. It's not even just the skimpy armor. I can mog around that now. (Thanks Blizz :) ) But the fact that her weapons and shields are smaller than they need to be and her animations are silly and dainty too. Can't I play a woman without having to be girly?
     Reason three is along the same vein, with the attitudes I run into in game sometimes. Not always, not as often now, even. But well, I started MMOs back in Everquest and some people were pretty unabashedly creepy to female characters. My High Elf paladin never did get as far as my Dark Elf Warrior and Wood Elf Ranger partially for that reason. The worst and most infuriating Dungeon experience I have ever had in WoW happened because someone found out I was female, but that will be a post for another time. What it comes down to is... I'm also perfectly happy if the average person I run into just assumes I'm a guy and doesn't give me any kind of sexist crap because of it.
     Reason four is the simplest of all. I just like them. I tend to have a preference for the look and animations of the male characters. Male blood elves are fun to look at! I wish there were as many male characters that were designed to be fun for women to look at as there are female characters designed for guys to ogle. But it's not always about being good looking. Male trolls have to be some of the most lovable things in Azeroth. That dance!
     But in the end what it all really boils down to is that I play male characters because I like to and because I can. The female characters don't often look like the ones in my head. Tai's twin sister would exist in game if she could look more like a bad ass and less like a dainty flower. And since nowhere in the rules does it say I have to play my own gender... well I'll just be over here, happily watching Seish cut things up with a suitably giant sword.

15 comments:

  1. That's the same way I see them, they are characters not little me's. I know I'm playing them but they still seem to develop personalities of their own. For whatever reason no one has ever pegged me for female so I've never had to deal with misogynistic assholes just the garden variety assholes of which there are many.

    OMG! That's the same armor? I had no idea, maybe because I fail so badly at plate wearers I never got far enough to find out.

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    1. I relate so much to your posts when your characters have a mind of their own because mine do that too!
      As for misogynistic jerks... Well, I honestly think that probably most WoW players are perfectly nice people and not like that at all. But the one or two I have run into really wrecked my day a bit.

      It really is the same armor. All I changed from one to the other was the gender of the preview in Mogit. :P It's not all quite as bad on females, but I notice most breastplates lose enough metal to show belly button when you put it on a female. So my mogging options get pretty limited if I want full armor.

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  2. Male blood elves are definitely fun to look at! XD
    That is a much nicer looking outfit on the guy than on the gal, for sure.
    I'm not a fan of platekini, though I have done (and will in the future do) it on occasion. The Jade set is one of those that I put up with it being platekini to wear because its color is so unique and lovely... but I always wish that I could have that exact color & shading on something that *wasn't* platekini.

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    1. XD You know the only real issue I have with other people wearing platekini is my growing irritation at seeing it over and over on female belfs. (That and the fact that some people just slap on random skimpy pieces that don't match at all and aren't very creative.) I actually kind of enjoy seeing it on races like orcs and tauren that you don't usually see in it.
      I just can't stomach putting it on my own female characters (partly because most of them would probably want to take me out back and murder me if I did.)
      The jade set is a gorgeous color. I really want to make that set up there for one of my male blood elves now! Maybe with a bit more tweaking because I just threw it together, but I've always loved the color of it and I'm really glad guys don't get short changed on the metal.

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    2. Aye, I've gotten so tired of seeing Belf and Draenei women in platekini -- and I agree that often the sets don't really seem to be all that original or creative. Some ideas -- like the T11 pally shoulders with the blue platekini top -- were pretty cool the first time I saw them, but now I've seen them so often that I just sigh and think, what another one?

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    3. That's exactly how I get to feeling about it! Seems like 75% at least of the female blood elves in plate are wearing some variation on the same thing. Draenei too, though I don't play Alliance as often so I haven't had the chance to get quite as annoyed at them. :D Tai votes very strongly that we should see more female orcs in platekinis.

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    4. Hmm, there's a mail platekini top that drops in Dire Maul. Perhaps someday I'll boost my Orc Shaman and then get it for her ;)

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  3. Both me and my husband always play females and yet most people on meeting us for the first time assume he's the female in rl. Mostly I think because he keeps his bloodthirsty ranting out of chat and just swears the keyboard whereas I'm a lot more vocal in-game. Plus when we first started playing, he was a resto druid healing my hateful warlock who liked slaughtering anything which moved.

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    1. How fun! My husband mostly plays females while I'm playing males, which makes our rl friend guildies laugh a bit. And a few times he's had people flirt with him assuming he was female which he and I both laughed at. I tank for his mage while leveling so we enjoy breaking the stereotypes too. Isn't it funny how people just make assumptions? That women will heal and not tank or play vicious bloodthirsty warlocks.

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    2. Yep and it's so silly. Wish people would understand that women and men don't just come in one flavour. In many ways, my husband and I are far more in tune with our attitudes, aggression levels and the way in which we think than I am with my female friends. Growing up, we played with similar toys, read similar books, climbed trees, fell out of trees etc albeit in separate countries.

      Someone gave my husband a golden pearl back in the day thinking he was female. Given that at the point, the best thing I'd had was a forum thread dedicated to my hatefulness in PvP, I was torn between being amused and sad.

      I actually prefer to remain a Nightelf in game although there are real pictures of me on my blog so I'm not exactly hiding.

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  4. Yep and it's so silly. Wish people would understand that women and men don't just come in one flavour. In many ways, my husband and I are far more in tune with our attitudes, aggression levels and the way in which we think than I am with my female friends. Growing up, we played with similar toys, read similar books, climbed trees, fell out of trees etc albeit in separate countries.

    Someone gave my husband a golden pearl back in the day thinking he was female. Given that at the point, the best thing I'd had was a forum thread dedicated to my hatefulness in PvP, I was torn between being amused and sad.

    I actually prefer to remain a Nightelf in game although there are real pictures of me on my blog so I'm not exactly hiding.

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  5. I really liked reading what you thought about that. What Erinys and Kamalia said was way better than what I could have said and I applaud their remarks. Tome is funny because her characters always have a life of their own! It was a good post Plaid Elf :)
    Sigh I wish your toons weren't shortened coz it makes it hell hard to find you even though I should just ask Ancient or Matty where I can locat eyou...

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    1. I'm so glad you enjoyed the post. :) I had been thinking of writing about it for a long time, and I am reasonably happy that I actually managed to get everything I wanted to say into it! (Sometimes that doesn't happen.)

      And I'm feeling much less shy than I was at first (though shortening them is habit now) so I'll make it simpler for you. Seish is Seishalan, Laen is Elaenyn, Tyl is Tyltherion and Tai is Taifeng. Alternately my battletag is PlaidElf #1103 but I know yours is usually full :)

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  6. Sorry for the lateness, I'm behind in my reading since this is the busiest time of the year at work.

    Anyway ... you basically said *exactly* why I mostly play dudes. I mean like all the same reasons and everything! It's like you got into my head and wrote what I feel, but much more eloquently than I ever could.

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    1. Thanks for commenting even if it is a bit late :) I always enjoy seeing them.

      And I'm so glad I'm not the only one with those reasons! It's awesome to find out we have so much in common in that respect. And I'm really happy that I feel like I managed to actually get everything I'd wanted to say down in that post.

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