Have you ever pretended to be the opposite sex in World of Warcraft?

[Putin-Chan]

No, I'm not a loser.

[Azadina]

I've never pretended to be a female in real life. However, over the course of my gaming career in both videogames and tabletop, I've roleplayed a few female characters. But that's different than actually telling people that you are, in real life, a woman when you're actually a man(and vice versa). I'm sure many people around the mental and emotional age of a teenager won't understand the difference, but when I am playing a game where my character is female, I don't magically pretend that *I* am female also.

On unrelated note, one thing I've noticed is that for some reason, many people have hard time in distinguishing between the person behind the screen, and the ingame character. It's annoyance in roleplay, if people focus on the person behind the screen, instead of the character ingame. If the character is male, he should be referred to as "he", and female character as "she", regardless of who is behind the screen playing it.

[3DTyrant]

I have no reason to pretend to be a woman. The furthest I've gone is make and play a female character.

[Azadina]

Well 99% of people aren't trying to actually roleplay, so I doubt they really care about such rules.

And yet they play mmorpg like wow

I mean, there's supposed to be a reason why it's not just "mmo"

[Lex Icon]

no. do i look like some kind of digital tranny to you?

seriously. no i'm not into roleplaying and when i create my chars they mostly reflect me rather than some sexual fantasy.
i learned quite early you just have to ignore other players appearances if you want to immerse yourself in a game since it's going to be 90% female humans in bikinis in every game you play that involves other people.

[Fencers]

No, but many assumed I was a dude because I only play tanks in MMORPGs.

[Dartz1979]

I find it more appealing to see my character as female.. even though im male in real life but hey im not the only person who feels that way.

[Dhrizzle]

No, but many assumed I was a dude because I only play tanks in MMORPGs.

That can't be right, women play healers.

[Rustedsaint]

Never pretended to be female but I have both male and female Alts of various races.

[FlatBootyJudy]

Yes, and I have even flirted with men for free stuff! lol!

[Lochton]

No, haven't done so ever. I created a female character once, the only one. Still have her. 1 female character out of 144 characters.

[ThrashMetalFtw]

Mostly played female chars when I was Alliance. Their animations and looks are simply superior to their male counterparts. For Horde it's reversed though. Most of their males are far superior to the females, Belves being the exception.

Never pretended to be female IRL, and never once met anybody who thought I was female because I was playing female chars.

Male here; does rolling a female character count as pretending to be the opposite sex? I don't see it as such, I just want some of my characters to be different from each other. I think it'd be boring if all my characters were male, as if they were a reflection of my real life self.

No, character gender has nothing to do with it.

[Dr Assbandit]

I tend to see avatars in any games I play as an extension of myself and I'm not a chick so no ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

[ranzino]

No, but many assumed I was a dude because I only play tanks in MMORPGs.

well, what is your tank, genderwise ? in WoW a gnome/goblin is the same tank as a tauren, so not even the race matters much.

And nothing is more badass than a female gnome tank with pigtails, kicking and slahing at an enemy, which is huge as a skyscraper...and she wins.

[Halicia]

I've let newer guildmembers assume that I was female before based solely off a "feminine" character name for a female character.

It helps speed up the gkicks by creating a lightening rod for the misogyny. Nothings triggers people with gender/race issues (young and old alike) than to be told what to do by someone they perceive as "inferior".

[Thrif]

Uh, sort of but not really intentionally?

The thing is that the guild I was in for the longest time had this weird habit to roll female alts and name them female irl names, stemming from this one core member who had one as his main. So I got a few of those myself, and apparently it's a very female thing to do, because while playing my alt I'm definitely getting treated better by a certain percentage of the playerbase, which I assume stems from their assumption that I'm a female.

I've never lied or spurred anyone on or anything like that though.

So yeah I have a few alts I play more or less frequently named things such as "Olivia," and people do assume things from it, but I've never actually pretended to be a female.

[PhantasmagoriaX]

Nope, I have played a female since day one (I am a female), One guy I used to know before I even started playing WoW, he always..ALWAYS played a chick and pretended he was a chick. He had a white board of all his "online boyfriends" to keep track of them lol

[SirCowdog]

Guild Wars 2.

I swear, every single armor piece in the game was designed for the human female model. Everything looks great on them and shit on everything else.

Not even in terms of "looking attractive" or anything, I mean in terms of proportions, clipping, positioning and so on.

Everyone in GW2 is freakin beautiful! Seriously attractive people in the character creator, but without going full porn-star like Blade & Soul. xD

For the record, I play an asura female in that game.

Related story: at the end of every dungeon I run I type "gj guys" in chat before I leave. I had someone pst me recently to say "And girls!" Sure, girls did well too. /shrug

"Guys", when used in the plural like that, has almost ALWAYS been a gender neutral term in recent history. Anyone who needs to clarify probably has some kind of agenda, or is compensating or misunderstanding.

On unrelated note, one thing I've noticed is that for some reason, many people have hard time in distinguishing between the person behind the screen, and the ingame character. It's annoyance in roleplay, if people focus on the person behind the screen, instead of the character ingame. If the character is male, he should be referred to as "he", and female character as "she", regardless of who is behind the screen playing it.

AFAIK these are people who are relatively new to online gaming, or simply don't understand the concept of roleplaying. They believe that their character is an extension of themselves. A digital representation of their own personality. There's nothing specifically wrong with playing that way. But it IS somewhat ignorant to assume that it's how everyone interacts with the game.

no. do i look like some kind of digital tranny to you?

seriously. no i'm not into roleplaying and when i create my chars they mostly reflect me rather than some sexual fantasy.
i learned quite early you just have to ignore other players appearances if you want to immerse yourself in a game since it's going to be 90% female humans in bikinis in every game you play that involves other people.

That's a pretty narrow point of view. Not everyone is living out some kind of "digital tranny" fantasy. When I make a female character in a game it's not much different from enjoying a strong female lead in a book or movie. The only real difference is that I have a hand in how the story progresses, since games are interactive media instead of passive.

An example: The Tomb Raider games(especially the recent, more realistic ones). You take on the "role" of playing Lara Croft. I suppose it's possible that someone could pretend that THEY are actually Lara Croft, but that's not how most people would approach the game; any more than someone would pretend they're actually Wonder Woman while watching that movie.

Another example is the Mass Effect games, where you can choose to be good or evil. Does deciding to be a real bag of dicks in that game reflect how you yourself act in real life, even if you're playing the same gender as your character? Does choosing to be an a-hole in the game make you an a-hole in real life?

The point being that there are a LOT of different psychological approaches to playing a game where the character isn't the same as your own. Not all of which are founded in roleplaying or pretending that your character is part of you.

EDIT: @Lex Icon I realize I jumped to a wrong conclusion here. You were replying to the original question, and the context of that you post makes more sense. Sorry! I left my post as-is, for the sake of discussion, however. Just pretend it's directed at the thread in general instead of you specifically.

[Deleted]

Voted no but I really wanna play a male orc or undead... meh.

[Dug]

I do have some female characters but I've never pretended to be a woman. I think an unwritten rule in WoW is to just assume everybody is a dude until stated otherwise.

Except for female tauren. In my experience they're usually women lol