In Which An Avatar Is Stolen, And A Girl Is On The Internet

[Chakravanti]

I knew a guy who did that, but he claimed it was because he liked the way the female sprites looked compared to the male ones. His words, "If I'm going to be playing a game with this same character for a while, they should at least be pleasing to look at."
It was a ploy. He turned out to be a closet gay.

End tangent.

I'm the only one I've known to say very closely to that exact same thing. I am, however, not gay, transgender, CD or any such thing. I think the games I've said that in are limited to H&H, shadowbane, Runscape and GatheringRO.

I also happen to get a kick out of the way players react to the wide array of of misperceptions that crop up from doing so. I do not, however, ever, claim to be female IRL. I have no desire to misrepresent myself. That's not to say I don't exploit the assumptions of people who have no real business thinking about such things let alone making assumptions about them. I do not, however, actively mislead other players out of some absurd psychological complex that feels the need to explore or express gender issues via a video game identity.

Role playing is about being something other than what you are. I do this in P&P games as well sometimes because it is a mental exercise in empathy for me (something I lack intuitively). Eventually I started playing video games and decided to do it when i started with runescape and it pissed so many people off to such an extraordinary degree through no effort exerted into active trolling, that just decided to keep doing it.

[DatOneGuy]

I actually hear that often in MMOs.
"If I'm going to stare at a character's ass all day, it might as well be a female's"

[bluebarilicious]

I actually hear that often in MMOs.
"If I'm going to stare at a character's ass all day, it might as well be a female's"

That was rampant in Warhammer online, as was running around naked which, if I remember correctly, was its own achievement. However, the little avatars in this game are SO small, I don't see what kind of satisfaction it would give to play a female or male if you are or aren't one. I made a guy character under this same account that I'd intended to make into a hunter... and was bored to death. I played him twice and never again. But really, when you put on all the armor, even if its low level leather stuff, you can't tell who's female or not. I'm more than happy to prove over and over that I am a woman in reality, and it doesn't -really- bother me that any of you are skeptical. If I had the history in the game you do, I probably would be too. It actually gives me a lil giggle that there's so much fuss about it.

I'm not political. I don't want any kind of power. I was happy feeding my cows and farming my land and building things. I was so goddamned excited that my cow gave birth and I finally had milk to make cheese and butter with, ffs. All of the materials I ever asked for were low level scraps so that I could enhance my cooking. I even built a little house outside my palisade and filled it with a few of each crop, including pepper, clothes, seed bags, higher level bone saws, etc. so any newer newbs than me would have stuff to start with. I'd like to be part of a community that I can just do those simple things and not have to worry about being killed. That's all.

[Repercussionist]

Is the fact that someone behind whichever gender avatar they choose is not really that gender really a problem? I know girls who like video games, and I know guys who don't. When someone comes into a game I'm playing claiming to be female, I usually don't pay it any attention. (I don't mean that disrespectfully.) It's just that when it comes down to it, it is still just a person sitting at a computer playing a game. I'll paraphrase Chak a little, the rp in rpg is there for a reason. The games are designed to let you live out whatever desire you want.

Btw, my previous post may have came across as bashing that idea, but I wasn't. I just thought it humorous pertaining to that particular situation. I'll admit that I've done it as well, just without the being gay part. Of course, when hormonal boys offered to give me stuff, I didn't deny it... Of course they never asked if I was really female either.

[Repercussionist]

Edit: Sounded a little... sketchy.

[Jackard]

did we really need ten pages of this

[Thijssnl]

did we really need ten pages of this

It'd say lock it, what is it about anymore? Meh

[sabinati]

did we really need ten pages of this

yes

[bluebarilicious]

did we really need ten pages of this

Isn't this in the category of general discussion and socializing? I kinda thought that's what was going on. This thread is the only reason I've made any friends here, so I'm pretty content with showing my tits to the occasional mod and reading long winded debates on the gamers' version of the battle of the sexes. Good times have been had all around, and had this handful of hearthlings not responded I would have left the game after losing a month's worth of 8 hour nights' work being lost in literally 3 seconds. Now I have some motivation to make a new character and give the hours I spend here every day since I started to some appreciative group who needs a chef/farmer/work horse. I almost typed hoar. Work hoar.

[Handofevil]

Hey. My town needs a cook/farmer also. Our only female left recently.