Curse

lyra_song · Jun 02, 2006, 05:47 PM // 17:47

I always call people he/she based on their chars unless they correct me. .-.

Unless they are acting really noobish...then im calling them a he XD

lightblade · Jun 02, 2006, 05:55 PM // 17:55

Statistics shows 20% online gamers are female...

You just don't notice them because they kicks ass just like their male counter part

Fyre Brand · Jun 02, 2006, 06:12 PM // 18:12

Not only do females play, but my past and present guild leaders are women. They kick ass and are a couple of the best gamers I've played with. I have a feeliing they get a kick out of it when boys are surprised to find out they're women.

Inthast · Jun 02, 2006, 06:23 PM // 18:23

I am a woman who bought and started playing GW: Prophecies about a week after it came out in retail. About 1 week later, I bought a second copy and gave it to my husband as a present. Now we're in the same guild and play together lots.
That stands the assumption that women play because their men do on it's head...which is where sexist assumptions belong.

Some of my avatars are female and some are male. My guildies know who I really am, and it doesn't matter if other players do or not.

mushi · Jun 02, 2006, 06:31 PM // 18:31

I usually go He/she, solves the problem :P

Servant of Kali · Jun 02, 2006, 06:31 PM // 18:31

Quote:

I have long believed that gender only makes sense offline. Online, you are all a genderless blob of pixels.

Well that's so not true

The character is a blob of pixels, not the person playing

Anyhow, it's true GW has alot more females than usual, and someone else already posted pretty much all the reasons i had in mind, so no need for me to repeat it.

I also think that alot more girls are into cooperative play, and hardly any in competitive. I guess competitive is more of a guys thing

girls are more into snuggling than thinking of better ways to smack some team/guild/player :P

arcady · Jun 02, 2006, 06:46 PM // 18:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by lg5000

I see people as their characters, if you play a female character, I'll call you a 'her' if you play a male character, I'll call you a 'him'.

That's the best policy.

Isn't 'Gaile' at anet female? As a 3D artist I know that more people in 3D are women than men, but that is on the art end. In San Francisco and the Silicon Valley in the graphic arts women are a slight majority as well. But Programming is still male dominated, outside of web programming, which is just slightly female dominated. That all is my way of saying 'gaming' programmers might have more women than other areas of programming based on the connected skills - but that I don't know for sure.

In the game, it is polite to refer to people as they label themselves. Likewise anywhere online. The first way to get me on your bad side is to find my real name and use it somewhere I dentify myself as 'arcady'. Not that that I have anything against my real name, but it is not the handle I used here, and not the identity I have here.

If I play a male character, I expect to be referred to as a he. If I play a female character, I expect to be referred to as a she. If this bothers you, then stop trying to use GW as a dating service...

The nature of GW might be more attractive to less 'hardcore' gamers - and that might be a reason why a lot of women hesitant to get into MMOs in past are willing to use this one to see if the concept is worth it. No monthly fees means GW is a great way to find out if you like what MMO is all about.

The ability to play alone or in groups through most of the content at your leisure also helps with transition players. The visuals of the game are very appealing. It is very 'artsy' within the game. Sometimes I just stop walking and spin the mouse around for a few minutes. Other times I'll seek the high ground just to capture a view. Its probably a bit sexist to make a gender claim on that - beyond that the arts seem to attrach more women - but I think it can also attract more men who are not hardcore gamers.

The female characters in GW are not secondaries. Both the NPCs and PCs have major roles, no less than men. This I feel is a big helper for the game. So often in fantasy and science fiction done by men the women are reduced to 'candy on a stick' - use them, enjoy them, move on. In so much of fantasy the only female NPC is the barmaid, the farmer's wife, adult versions of 'Gwen' that act like the child version, and people needing rescue (Of course if you read fantasy lit done by many women, it is often just as bad in the opposite direction).

GW has major and minor female NPCs of power, like Devonna, Munne, the Xunlai, Aziure, Kasha, Artemis, etc...

GW female PCs can be beautiful and powerful. Women often complain that any woman who is attractive is sexism against women just by existing - but, just like men want to be a 'strapping heroic Conan or Aragon' when they imagine themselves a hero, women want to be both powerful and beautiful. They want to imagine themselves as an ideal. And a game that allows that is naturally going to pull them in even while they object to the very thing pulling them in. We have been trained in this culture to not see appreciation of 'Fabio' or 'George Clooney', or 'Richard Gere' as sexist, but the reverse, appreciation of a like woman, as sexist. And yet it is a universal human truth that with any such figure people of that gender want to be them, and people of the other gender want to know them.

It has never been that women do not like video games as much as men, just that the industry has refused to market to them for the past 20-odd years. GW doesn't specially market to them (and a lot of past games have failed on women because their idea of marketing to women was to theme around games girls at age 6-8 play), but it doesn't make it hard for them to get into either.

TwinRaven · Jun 02, 2006, 08:33 PM // 20:33

I'm male playing female characters...I just prefer them. Given the choice of watching a hulking over-sized warrior vs. a petite ranger running around...let's just say I'm comfortable enough in my own skin not to need the "moster truck" of the GW world. I often let it go if I'm refered to as "she" unless it gets personal. I usually role-play so getting mistaken for a female is just par for the course. I have a tendency to refer to others by name or profession...eliminates those unnecissarily embarassing converations: "Dude, I'm a dude, dude." I have a female role-playing buddy that refers to me as "sister" in game...she knows I'm male IRL, but neither of us mind the ambiguity. She belongs to an all female guild and they invited me knowing I'm male...terribly flattering...my wife (of 13 years) laughed at me and said she always knew I was the "girl" in our family...I am an art teacher, do the cooking, cleaning and laundry...but you know something? Girls dig that.

Markaedw · Jun 02, 2006, 11:39 PM // 23:39

I still get a chuckle out of when I was playing my female warrior, one of the players said that I was hot, I just had to tell him that he wouldn't say that I he say me in RL.

If 20% of the players are women, then I would say that only 10% of the female character are really female, although I am probably way off.

What I would like to see is a census to determine what percentage of men and women play GW and what percentage of each plays their gender. Just for fun, so we know what percentage of men avatars are really men and what percentage of women avatars are really women.

GW should market itself to women more, I think that this is an ideal game for women. I once interviewed a woman game writer and asked her what women wanted in games. She said that for women it was more about an emotional aspect, which I think GW does quite nicely. I think that the story part of PvE will appeal to women more than the combat part of PvP.

Disclaimer: I am guy, so what do I know?

eternal pho · Jun 03, 2006, 02:32 AM // 02:32

some of my guildies tell others that theyre female so that they can get free stuff off guys.. lmao, i wouldnt fall for that and some of them get plenty cash just from that.

Matsumi · Jun 03, 2006, 02:41 AM // 02:41

Hehe, well, my sister plays Diablo II LoD all the time, and likes it a lot. Not sure if she still plays, because I don't live with her, but she did. I've actually known quite a few female players through other games, even some of the FPS games.

Derval · Jun 03, 2006, 03:22 AM // 03:22

I'm always suspicious of girl players because in Ragnarok Online, the first MMO I ever played, guys would play as girls and then become peoples fake e-girlfriends to get money and items then transfer to their real account. :S

Blargo · Jun 04, 2006, 04:04 PM // 16:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by Derval

I'm always suspicious of girl players because in Ragnarok Online, the first MMO I ever played, guys would play as girls and then become peoples fake e-girlfriends to get money and items then transfer to their real account. :S

Yeah it's scary but people do that in MMOs. A guy in one of my classes did that...he would play only female characters because "Lonely guys give you free gold and stuff." Don't know which was more pathetic...the guys giving you free make-believe stuff because they thought you were a girl or pretending to be a girl to get aforementioned stuff.

I refer to people by their character gender even though I know that, statistically, the person playing a girl character is probably a guy.

I wasn't that surprised to find a lot of real life girls playing GW, however.

Thallandor · Jun 04, 2006, 04:15 PM // 16:15

LF some1 to bear my GW babies, will pay lots of plat. Pst Offer.

Note: this is not a serious request.