Can You Tell A Girl Player From A Male One?
A lot of articles have spawned on the Internet over the years about female avatars generally being males. In my experience this is sometimes true, but not always.
Some people would say “what does it matter?” And I would agree. It doesn’t really. I do find some people actually care, though.
The other day I was reading an article somewhere (I think WoW Insider) about a guy freaking out because male avatars were in-game flirting with him and he’s a guy IRL. And therefore these guys were all gay (well he used more colorful terminology) and he was grossed out, and ZOMG.
Of course…. he was playing a female avatar at the time.
All ridiculousness of that aside, because my brain hurts just thinking about it, do you care if the person at the other end of the avatar is a male or female? And do you try to determine what they are? Or do you usually not care?
Also, does your behavior/attitude toward a certain player change if they turn out to be female after all?
I don’t usually care to know one way or the other, unless I’ve been playing with them for a while and I’m curious to know the player behind the toon. And sometimes, I don’t even have to ask, because it’s rather obvious that they’re male.
Female gamers are not quite as obvious, I think. I’ve never really thought “That HAS to be a girl.”
The other day my friend got an excellent deal on Mithril through the trusty trade channel in WoW, and said something about thinking the person trading her was a fellow gamer girl. And I replied, “It’s probably a guy.”
But she insisted it was a girl because she was “respectful and used proper spelling and punctuation and just gives off a girl-y vibe.”
I figured it was just a guy who was respectful and used proper spelling and punctuation.
But I IMed said person and asked them in a polite, friendly way if they were male or female in real life, because I was interested in the male to female ratio of WoW players. I got the reply: Female.
So I guess my friend was right. But I know a few male players with great spelling, punctuation and who are always nice. So, I wonder if there really is a girl-y vibe vs. boy-ish vibe that can be instantly recognized as pertaining to the appropriate sex.
Can you usually tell? And do you care?
7 opinions for Can You Tell A Girl Player From A Male One?
amber
Nov 7, 2006 at 8:01 am
When Teresa and I used to play Ultima Online, Teresa had a guy character. She met another person on the game who also happened to be a guy. Now, her buddy always assumed that she was a he IRL, so he treated her JUST LIKE A GUY.
He talked about sleeping with girls and cheating on his wife and all this stuff. After about 2 months of playing with this guy, Teresa finally told him that she was really a girl IRL and he TOTALLY changed. He still wanted to be friends with her, but now when they went out hunting together, he would always try to protect her from dying… something he didn’t ever do in the past.
Funny story… I think. Or not. I’m amused easily.
Jade Reporting » Blog Archive » Voting Day Edition
Nov 7, 2006 at 3:53 pm
[…] Can You Tell A Girl Player From A Male One? What Is A Gamer? […]
Karine
Nov 8, 2006 at 12:35 am
That’s a great point. I think my behavior definitely changes depending on whether I’m dealing with a male or female. Not in the game so much - any help I may offer will be linked to whether I care for the person, and the amount of time I have available - but in the amount of personal details that I might share. I’m much more reticent to share any aspects of my personal life with guys.
Erin
Nov 9, 2006 at 4:58 am
I don’t particularly care, nor do I make any effort to find out. If they can do their bit in a team setting, that’s all that really counts.
That being said, if I do happen to find out that a co-player is female, there’s a pretty radical shift in the way I look at their toon, their behaviour, and also in the way that I behave towards them. I’m eons nicer. Heh.
John
Nov 9, 2006 at 8:14 pm
Actually, girl gamers tend to bring a different dynamic into the game. Sometimes they’re the grind junkies just like the guys, but anecdotally speaking, I have found that girls tend to role-play more and are more likely to create an atmosphere of fun. Even if I don’t know they are girls at first, I usually find out they are through play.
Does it matter in the long run? Yes, because men are only one half of our species, and to think of a game that only has one half of the whole of our species in it makes for a dull game IMHO.
angelo
Nov 10, 2006 at 3:28 pm
One of my good friends in my wow server plays a female tauren druid and for months I really thought he a was a girl and so did many other people. He never acted like a male gamer usually would and even had a sort of “motherly” attitude as a guild officer in one of my former guilds. I got the shock to find out she was a he. When we’d ask him to log into our team speak he’d give this excuse that he doesn’t have a microphone so we never got to hear his voice. I suspect he didn’t want anyone to find out he’s a guy. lol
Rowan
Nov 11, 2006 at 12:26 pm
Great post… and I like your site!
Funny story - my son’s girlfriend and I were playing Guild Wars the first day I was introduced to it, and we got involved in a “naked pool dance party”. There was this one guy who kept parading around bragging about the size of his “equipment” and wanting to know if he was “hotter” than the other characters… I’m 37 years old, and figured he was just a pervy kid, so I ignored him, but my game buddy decided to tell him she was a guy. He freaked out, and started screaming fag, etc, and wanted no more to do with either of us.
While that doesn’t really apply to gaming… it does apply to the fact that it’s hard to distinguish male from female. Personally, I think teenage boys would be more apt to do what my friend and I did (naked pool party, rather than a 37 year old and her son’s 19 year old girlfriend.
I’m rambling, but the point is, I can rarely tell, and generally, I don’t bother asking. I don’t think about it. In game, if you’re a girl, you’re a girl, and if you’re a guy, you’re a guy. It’s called role playing. I have noticed, however, that girl characters do get more attention/help/items donated. It’s good to be female, sometimes, at least in the gaming world.
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