Role Swapping in Online Games
This is an incoherent rant prompted by posts from Jeff Freeman via Raph Koster and Richard Bartle and by way of Joystiq via The Inquirer. Each of those has something to do with gender bending in massively multiplayer games, which is a frightening epidemic of at least the same proportions as the black plague. Because, you know, if you play an avatar of a different gender in a virtual world — whether you tell others your real gender or not — you probably abuse drugs. Read at least one of theirs before you read this.
I hope there is some research on “role swapping” and its impact on my drug and alcohol and child and spousal abuse, because I keep playing these heroic buff characters even though I’m overweight and sit at a computer all day in real life. It may very well induce permanent death syndrome in real life if I don’t watch out and the authorities — or the media — don’t protect me from myself.
Oh crap, I just realized that I play a rogue, or a bard, or a druid, or a necromancer, or a wizard, or a warrior, or a something else in games, of which I am none in real life either! Or maybe I am… I don’t know anymore! I can’t tell where the real world ends and the virtual world begins! Can you call the clinic for me? I don’t think I can save myself without your help!
Son of a crap! I just realized that I usually have one female avatar, and I don’t trust myself when I believe that I always let other people know that I’m a guy in real life because if my psychosis is as deep as it must be since I play MMOs, I probably DO act like a female and it DOES contribute to drug and alcohol and child and spousal abuse.
Sorry, have to call you on this one minor thing, if only because it’s one of my personal pet peeves:
You can’t compare occupation swapping with gender swapping.
In the real world, you have an occupation, and you choose it. In the virtual world, you have an occupation, and you choose it.
In the real world, you have a gender, and you don’t choose it. In the virtual world, you have a gender, and you do choose it.
I agree with everything else you said, it’s just that one little thing which I see constantly that drives me nuts.
Sure you can choose your gender in real life. At the very least, you can choose your sexual orientation (heterosexual vs. homosexual), your gender identity (what gender you identify as), or even make the full-on medical switch somewhere like Trinidad, CO.
I do see your point, of course, but I don’t see how playing a female in a game (if you are a male in real life) really has any impact on anything whatsoever. I know males who always play females because, if they have to look at the butt of a character all the time, it may as well be pretty. And they never once mislead people and act female. They retain their gender identity and sexual orientation even in the virtual world, despite the pixel representation being more female than male.
Anyway, you CAN compare occupation swapping with gender swapping if you feel like it, because you can compare anything to anything if you feel like it (whether you should or not is a different question).
I’d also challenge that a more legitimate study would investigate the impact of play(er) killers — players whose intent is griefing and preying upon others — on real life mental stability and behavior. And, that is a chosen occupation, the online equivalent of a serial killer or telemarketer.
Ryan, here’s what I just posted on Raph’s site with a few edits…
When a player who’s represented gender is one you are attracted to (how’s that for PC?) shows interest in you by talking to you or otherwise wanting to socially interact with you, it can kick in some pretty deep human/animal physiological and psychological responses. One can easily form attachments and attractions not to the avatar, but to the imagined person behind the avatar, and the natural model to use is the avatar itself.
On the other hand, to actually play someone of another gender doesn’t really kick in many deep responses. Maybe a bit of fantasy, but you don’t build attachments to this imagined avatar. You don’t wonder about the person behind the avatar - because it’s you. So as a cross-gendered player, you potentially don’t see the impact it can have
I’ve played female characters in WoW and didn’t really think about it or aim to act one way or another. I did however see how charming males would be to me. And once I even had a guild member get totally mad at me for being “false”. He just couldn’t grasp or handle the idea of someone not being who they were in real life. He got kicked out of the guild too (me being a founder).
“Sure you can choose your gender in real life. At the very least, you can choose your sexual orientation (heterosexual vs. homosexual),..”
o rly
You’re a braver man than me to go out on that particular limb….
Shh… I want to see how he replies.
I don’t believe you control your sexual orientation or gender identity any more than you control whether or not you like the taste of orange soda. And as for medical procedures, to the best of my understanding those are.. rough, at best.
“I don’t see how playing a female in a game (if you are a male in real life) really has any impact on anything whatsoever.”
Well, it says something about the kind of person you are. All choices you make in a Virtual World reflect some part of you, even if it’s only a very minor part. I guess gender has more “reflection potential” because of its real world ties, but that’s about it. The real question is, why are you so eager to discount any relevance of the choice?
“I know males who always play females because, if they have to look at the butt of a character all the time, it may as well be pretty.”
I’ve never been convinced by that argument, ever. It’s too convenient. Besides, have you ever heard of a guy having his sexuality questioned because he plays as a male character? I refuse to believe that all “masculine” cross dressers in online games are so mature that they would never dare accuse a guy of being gay because he plays as a male character.
Shit, I guess I’m gay because I played a female Blood Elf in TBC instead of a male… oh wait, I didn’t play the male BE because it looked and sounded gay. I mean, please, people need to quit overanalyzing these games. Who cares what people play and why they play them. As long as people don’t sit and preach to me about their beliefs IN A GAME, I could care less. I’m tired of all this bullshit agenda pushing.
Can’t we just play games to do what they were meant to do? Provide fun and entertainment?
So my real point is this: the gender identity matters more than anything, including in an MMO. I’m sure there are psychological reasons for people choosing a female avatar if they are males, and for choosing male avatars if they are females. More often than not, I feel like it has no bearing on a confused gender identity, and would be more for reasons like the following:
- Female avatars are prettier, and are more pleasant to look at.
- People treat female avatars nicer, whether they are roleplayed as female or not.
- Duplicitous intent: Males who intend to get preferential treatment, free stuff, etc.
- Variety: Someone’s main character may be male, but they just have an alt that is female.
Most that I know of, including when I play a female avatar, fall within those options. I’m sure there are some who play female avatars to fulfill a much deeper psychological need — for example, they may wish they were female in real life, and may have not exposed that to anyone, but in a virtual world they can act female all they want.
Is it worth further research? Absolutely. Is it fair to make the assumption that all people who have a female avatar have an interesting psychological reason for doing so? I don’t think so.
Just as making an unfounded blanket claim like “you can choose your real life gender identity” is unfair, it’s unfair to make assumptions about motivations for players playing female avatars without a significantly more in-depth investigation.
The 1st female avatar I created was in SWG. It was then 2nd toon I created (the 1st was male, of course). I made it female for 1 reason only — I planned for it to be a dancer/doctor and figured that more people would watch a female dancer than a male one.
That was it. Sole reason. When my wife watched me play a few days later, it didn’t occur to her to question my choice in the gender of the toon either — she was simply fascinated that there was a game out there where “dancer” was a wanted and needed profession, as she was a dancer from the time she was 3 years old. She actually ended up “stealing” that character from me, so I went and made another male avatar.
Life being what it was, those accounts both eventually got canceled. Later on I returned to the game and made yet another male toon — a crafter this time. He couldn’t hunt effectively, so I decided to open a 2nd account to be my “combat toon.” Since I’d been playing the game 4 or 5 months by then, I had a general feel for the population of that server, and overwhelmingly the female toons were entertainers, so much so that pretty much any female toon was always assumed to have at least the entertainer tree, if not dancer or image design as well. The assumption was *never* combat.
So this time, yeah, I made a female toon with the sole intent of breaking this “mold” that had grown up in the game. Intended to be a Teras Kasi/Ranger for max killing and harvesting capability in a solo toon. Did the TKM, but never quite made it past scout and in to ranger (darn camping xp was sooooo boring and took forever and I just didn’t have the patience . . . ). Still, I surprised a lot of people when I didn’t turn out to be that dancer they thought I was and instead would kick their butt in a duel or pvp. TKM was MEAN, I tell you — I loved it!
I eventually started playing EQ2. 1st toon — Male Ratonga. Why? It appealed to me. Several later creations/deletes (including dwarves, gnomes, cats, ogres, trolls, “aliens” (erudites), etc) later I made a female high elf fighter. Rare enough — they were always priests, maybe mages, it seemed. So I “broke the mold” to be a fighter and broke it farther by betraying to become a Shadowknight. Several later creation/deletes (both male AND female toons) more toons granted to accounts, bumping up to station pass. . . . I have a stable of toons now, male and female both. They span the archetypes too — males and females in all of them. My 2 most-played toons are. . . 1 male, 1 female.
I’ll admit that the female toons are nicer to look at, and some of my male toons are “to stereotype” (ie “big brawny fighters”) and my female toons are too (”frail healers who stand away from battle, nurturing allies”). But I still have that female high elf shadowknight (and still get comments about it becuz it’s so rare a combo).
So. . . .psychoanalyze that. Oh wait, you can’t. Because it tells you about my choices of toons in a game, where I can choose anything without consequence or regard for “norms.” But you still know nothing about ME, except for the part where I mentioned a wife, and that doesn’t tell you much about me at all, now does it?
Get over yourselves, people! Someone choosing to be “whatever” in a game doesn’t imply anything about their psychology — it’s just a choice in a game. That’s it. Totally meaningless in their lives, just a pastime. It tells you nothing except that they like to enjoy themself when passing that time.
“some of my male toons are “to stereotype” (ie “big brawny fighters”) ”
heh - like the female toons aren’t “too stereotype”? (ie, “big boobs, sexy dance animations, rediculous skimpy armor”)
I often choose female toons for the “pretty” races and male for ugly ones
I don’t get the “I am the toon” idea. I can RP them sometimes but I don’t feel like the toon. Maybe we should psychoanylyze the people that aren’t masculine enough IRL to play a female toon. It also applies to Wow… not secure enough to play a cartoon MMO.
I play females in MMO’s because I can’t be one in real life..
“I know males who always play females because, if they have to look at the butt of a character all the time, it may as well be pretty.”
Every time I hear someone use that excuse, unfortunately it makes me think of them playing the game “one handed” and of those times that I’ve wandered into an inn and found a character alone, “naked”, dancing.
Jason: I’ve heard that so many times.
I never actually played a female toon until now, and it was an accident. I made a new character one day with no intention of playing it as an actually character but somehow just kept playing it and wish I rolled a male now.
I feel silly playing the game as a female, it’s almost embarrassing. Most people assume you’re a chick, or at least treat you like one in the game. I don’t like that.
I’m a firm believer of who schmares the gender of the person behind the avatar their playing. Odd’s are they aren’t a Ogre either however, you rarely see forum rants or blogs on “Humans people should only play Human characters” which I feel would be the same arguement.
Boils down to, I’m there to be entertained by playing a game. I have no problems with grouping or chatting with other people who are there to be entertained by a game. I have even been known to meet people that I consider friends in my mmo’s. I’m not there to be hit on, or flirt with anyone. I’m not looking for a mate or a deeply meaningful relationship.
So, if I decide to make a female dwarven monk. I will be neither a girl, nor a dwarf, nor a monk and it’s not right for you to assume I’m any of those or be upset that your assumptions are wrong. And if you make a male elven ranger I will not be upset to find out that your not elf, ranger, have any skill with a bow, speak with animals or in shape.
To those people who have an issue with that: Please keep your prejudice’s, assumptions, and self-inadequacies, out of my games, or just keep them to your self and stop trying to cyber with people online (or at least save it for WildAngel6969 in the chat rooms).
The good looking derriere made more of a difference before the widespread inclusion of mounts in games. I spend more time in lotro looking at a horse’s arse than anything else
My female characters are usually crafters. They’re typically provisioners that make the food and drink for my male characters. My male characters usually shout at her, “Get in the kitchen and make me my sammich!” She usually abides by the demands. But while she’s toiling over the stove, she’s dreaming of a day when she can venture out from the incredibly deplorable conditions of her prep area. Her only hope is that it will be HER butt I want to watch running through the wilderness and down dungeon corridors. It will be HER boobs that gain her 20% more gold per sale!
Oh what? Too far? Sorry. I was trippin’ hardcore and my wife, currently tied up in the closet, keeps throwing her restrained body up against door. I have to go check on her.
I’m not even sure this warrants further analysis. The implication that there is something hidden and wrong about a player with an opposite-gender avatar is mildly offensive. Why should it be analyzed? Why should it be defended? Why does it matter? This is the 21st century for crying out loud, not 1950.
Why should it not be analyzed?
To me, I really don’t care all that much what people do… I like roleplaying, even though I traditionally stick to male human characters unless the game doesn’t support that. The only time it matters is when people try to cross fantasy to reality and ignore reality.
The Parlor.
You are a guy, you are playing a female character. My male character is flirting with your female character. I am not flirting with you.
I tend to create a character. I get an idea in my head and create it. Even if I don’t roleplay the character, I always have that core concept to pull out of if I decide to RP. On EQ2, my main is a female Ratonga monk, why? Because when I decided to play a monk, I flashed back to when I was 12 years old, and taking Karate. My sister never let me live down the fact that the first time she saw me sparring in Karate, my opponent was moping the floor with me. Said opponent was a good foot and a half smaller than I was, and much lighter, never mind she was a 3rd degree blackbelt instructor, and I was a yellow belt newbie. I wanted someone small, cute, and fast, the female part just finished the package. ( I will note that in EQ2 at least, I always point out that I’m a male player in the Bio section of the character details.)
Another character I play is a female Iksar who is actually supposed to be male. I wanted to play an Errol Flynn swashbuckler, not an Arnold Schwarzenegger one. Thus, the character uses the female model, but is supposed to be a male character. Sometimes the limitations of the program lead one to play differently.
Jason, you’re right, it shouldn’t not be analyzed either (sorry for the double-negative), but so far the tone of this thread has been
(1) the original articles stating that more people do this than you’d think (sans data), and the implication that they’re doing so to satisfy hidden, nefarious desires, and then
(2) numerous posters stating why their reasons for playing an opposite gender are ok (implying that there are nefarious reasons for playing an opposite gender, just that they don’t have these reasons).
No matter what one’s reasons are for playing an opposite gender, the act in and of itself is harmless, and therefore, so are the reasons. Actually, I would be curious to read a more thorough, statistically significant analysis (with anecdotes) of people’s reasons for playing the opposite gender, but without any condemnation. We’re getting a lot of anecdotes here, but it’s not too scientific.
Waldo
March 10th, 2008 at 00:14
“some of my male toons are “to stereotype” (ie “big brawny fighters”) ”
heh - like the female toons aren’t “too stereotype”? (ie, “big boobs, sexy dance animations, rediculous skimpy armor”)
——————————-
You’ve obviously never played EQ2. . . . no sexy dances, no skimpy armor, though I will give you that on most of the races (notable exceptions being gnomes, Kerra, Erudites, and the SOGA Halflings) have oversized breasts. The elves are proprotionately oversized though not terrobly so, but the humans, dwarves, ogres, and barbarians are simply grotesque. Hopefully the promised new models and skeletons will help to fix that.
Thermoses, I semi-disagree with you. I do agree that more people play cross-gender than most think, and that it is usually harmless. Problem is, I know that it is(was) done maliciously more often then many of the ‘its harmless’ people realize.
As for scientific analysis, if you yourself go back far enough with online games, you might recall an old joke “50% of the females you meet on a MU* are actually males…the others are Claire.” The Claire in question was working on her Psych degree at one point, and her dissertation if I recall correctly, has a section on people cross-gender playing.
Mythilt, please provide some examples of malicious cross gender MMO behavior to clarify your point.
I seriously play about 50% of my toons as either gender. I usually start with no character concept and just select options at random until something clicks as a coherent persona.
I have no confusion of my own identity and I speedily correct anyone’s false impressions of my RL gender (male). Not so much because I care, but because I don’t want them to be embarassed later.
I wouldn’t say that I don’t care what my toons look like. They all tend to end up with a specific look for themselves that I’ll try to stick with as the progress through levels… but I don’t actually care what that look is. I’ve played attractive and unattractive avatars of both genders.
My current favorite in EQ2 is a female Iksar. I’ll never look at her butt (she wears a cloak) and she has no boobs at all (being not a mammal) but she does have these head ridges that stand out when she’s fighting, like the dinosaurs that killed Nedry in Jurassic Park. No other race/gender combo in EQ2 does anything cool like that that I’ve seen. I have no idea what conclusions a researcher would draw about that decision.
Anyhow, I’d be quite surprised if I learned from a credible survey that I’m not the majority out there - a person who plays both genders nearly indiscriminently, without concealing their real one, and has no “actual concrete reason” why they do so.
I had someone kicked from a guild I was in because he pretended to be female. Even went so far as to arrange a date with one of the other guildmembers. The date never happened because someone else in the guild knew of him. It wasn’t his first attempt at meeting ingame players under pretense of being female. I don’t think he was being malicious (gay rape or something) just nuts.
Thermoses, I first started playing on MU*s, and was for a time in the 1990’s active on FurryMuck. I can’t remember names, but there was a player who used to try to get people he knew were straight into cybering with his female character, midway through he’d A) change the gender flag, and B) start taunting them with the fact they were now engaging in non-straight sex. And yes, he would imply beforehand he was a female player. This went on for a number of times before the wizards finally put a stop to it.
In a way that reminds me of the whole Bloodninja “I put on my robe and wizard hat…” prank. I can see where that would piss off the person duped, but on the other hand; that was as far as the “joke” went. Juvenile? yes. Funny? Questionable. Malicious? Well, I wouldn’t qualify it as nice behavior, but I can also think of far worse ways the perpetrator could have defrauded or humiliated other players.
While this is not at all scientific, if you look back over the posts for this thread, there are only one or two instances of malicious behavior and a lot of testimonials of neutral cross-gender playing, and a lot of casual indifference to the whole endeavor. While some jerks use cross-gender characters for griefing, there remain many other mechanisms for them to piss off community members, and there remain many other players who use cross-gender characters with no ill effect.
There are the occasional ‘bad eggs’ out there who play a female character for malicious reasons (examples have been posted already). However, they are a very tiny minority. If you log into an online game and walk around for a bit, you’ll see a LOT of female avatars. Demographic surveys show that while female gamers do exist in MMORPGs, they most certainly do not account for more than a fraction of the female avatars running around. Anyone with half a brain realizes that most female characters are played by males. I’ve played the occasional female alt, but never presented myself as a female player, and never had anyone flirt with me or anything stupid like that. At this stage of the genre, most people know that unless the female avatar explicitly states they are a female player, they’re not. Gender identity shines through more strongly than a collection of pixels shaped like a female.
There are, presumably, males who play female avatars AND present a female gender identity. On the one hand it’s deceptive, especially if they use it to milk favors from rapid teenage boys. On the other hand, it is a ROLE PLAYING game and a male playing a female character as a female, is role playing. You’re not an Orc in real life either, after all.
I don’t think males play female avatars out of any desire to be female themselves, or because of homosexual tendencies, or mental illness, or anything else. Gay men would have no reason to play female avatars. They’re MEN. Men who like men, but still men. If you have a deep seated gender identity issue where you think you should be female but you were born a man, playing a female avatar in an MMO is not going to assuage your discomfort in any way.
Honestly, the only people that worry about males playing female characters are horny teenage boys and homophobes (which frequently go together anyway). If you’re trying to cyber with some collection of polygons in an online game you have your own problems to worry about. Stop projecting :p
Alright, I’ll admit it. I’ve done this before.
It’s a video game. It really shouldn’t matter which gender I play. In WoW, I wanted to play a pally. I hate the way all of the male characters looked. So I made a female. You’re going to invest a lot of time into the character. Why not pick something that you like the look of (and no, not in the *bow chicka wow wow* way)?
Honestly though, after about two people thinking I was actually a girl, I just couldn’t play as that character anymore.