Hey, I’m a Girl … Where’s All My Free Stuff?
A couple of weeks ago, I read an article about why guys roll female toons on games like World of Warcraft. The predominant reasons seemed to be “because if I’m going to stare at a butt all day, it might as well be a woman’s” or “because as a girl toon I get more free stuff.”
Now, I’m not sure about all this butt stuff. Normally, I am looking at the things I’m killing or staring at my minimap to make sure I don’t miss any herbs. I don’t think, “Mmm, my toon has a hot butt.” Although, my mage is looking rather sexy in her Nightsky robe.
Mainly, though, I’m baffled by the “free stuff” thing. Perhaps I’m on the wrong server, but I NEVER get free stuff. No one ever says, “Hey, you look hot in your Nightsky robe, let me give you some gold.” Nope. Never happens. All I get are people asking me, “Hey, can you spare some gold so I can buy myself something I want?” or “Hey, want to join my kickass PuG in ZF?”
Is it that only guys dressed as girls get free things? Have people actually found that playing a female toon gets them better stuff? I find that playing a female toon just makes people assume I’m a guy.
And just as a note, it’s not that I WANT free things. If someone tried to give me something, I’d probably give it back to them. I’m mainly confused by all these guys using it as a reason to play a female toon.
Anyone have thoughts on this? Anyone? Bueller?
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POSTED IN: Musings, World of Warcraft
12 opinions for Hey, I’m a Girl … Where’s All My Free Stuff?
Matt
Aug 21, 2006 at 12:41 am
I dunno. Maybe the guys aren’t as desperate on Elune as they are on others. It’s an old server, maybe they’ve all got girlfriends by now. I know I don’t run up to female characters and give them stuff. I may be more inclined to help them, but only if it’s like to kill things or give directions or..something.
Jana
Aug 21, 2006 at 8:40 am
I too, always read that guys play girls to get free stuff or they ASSUME I just get tons and tons of it because I’m a girl. Well, what I wanna know is … WHERE IS IT THEN?? Cuz if I’m getting all kinds of free stuff thrown at me for being female someone is stealing while I sleep! And why am I not on my epic mount yet either then?? Where’s all that gold beign lavished upon me?? Also … I never really understood the “staring at a female butt thing”. Because at the end of the day, regardless of the gender you decide to play …. it’s still a toon guys, its still a toon.
Kamyar
Aug 21, 2006 at 7:35 pm
I was speaking to a buddy of mine whom is in the same guild as me in Guild Wars. Come to find out, there are VERY few female Guild Wars players and most of the female toons are guys who go as females.
One guy in our guild had us all fooled. His character was a female healer and his personality was SO SIMILAR to a female personality, that I would have never known who or what he was until I asked.
Not that it matters, but I think the psychology of it all is amazing. Another point my friend made is the one that you made - a lot of guys on the Guild Wars servers go as girls to either A) Get Free Stuff or B) They um…*cough* cyber for in-game gold *end of cough*
Yes, as twisted as that may be, it happens. Some just do it for the thrill of seeing how the other person reacts when they tell them that they’re actually a guy.
angelo
Aug 22, 2006 at 3:54 pm
I have a lvl 32 female undead warlock alt and i’m kinda glad my main is a male undead lvl 60 mage. Undead females don’t have sexy butts (or do they have butts at all?) There are times I wished I made my lock an orc instead. With blood elves coming out in the expansion I was actually thinking of shelving my lock for the time being and then rerolling as a blood elf female lol.
p.s. Your mage looks hot!
WoWplayer
Aug 30, 2006 at 10:35 am
I assume it’s for the attention. Don’t female toons get more attention? The player of the male toons like the idea of having a “female” interact with them, even if they know deep-down that it’s probably a dude beyhind the keyboard. The guys who play female toons like the attention they get, or possibly just the attention they *think* they are getting. They might like thinking to themself that everyone else is noticing them…even if in reality all the male toon controllers aren’t acting/thinking any differently at all.
Another possiblity is the detachment of the controller from the toon. The player may not feel as if the toon is “them”, but rather a separate person they are controlling. Most guys (if asked) would probably rather have complete control over a female than a male. So maybe it’s a control thing?
Not sure. I’m a guy and I’ve tried it in the past, to see what it’s like. But after a few minutes you don’t even think about it anymore. Like you said, the game mechanics become more important, since I don’t roleplay at all. So to avoid akward/annoying comments and conversations, I just pick a male toon now.
Jeaulous
Aug 31, 2006 at 6:54 pm
Its guys like me who role play because they secretly want to be a girl. Its like the closets thing to having your dream a reality.
Kelly
Sep 14, 2006 at 6:45 am
Back when I played EQ (2+ years ago), I would get quite a few free items for being female. It seemed to shock people even more when they found out I actually was female (kinda creepy they were hitting on someone they thought was a guy…).
On WoW I never got anything. I think it’s just become more common for girls to play, or perhaps it’s just a more popular game that has more non-geek guys playing who actually speak to real life girls.
Forgotten
Sep 15, 2006 at 5:40 am
I’ve been in a private gaming community that hosted an online game called “MuOnline”, basically the cheap versions of Diablo2, WoW, and etc.
Anyways, From the 2 years I’ve been there, I’ve noticed that it wasn’t just a Female toon that would attract guys into doing favours, giving free stuff, etc… But rather the person controlling this character(toon). The person only had to pose as a female, along with being extremely friendly with male players, perhaps accompaning kisses every time she’d say hi, add the strong male players on her msn list, send pictures, etc, or simply post her pictures on the server’s Forum so that everyone in the community would know how she looked like.
This is what would usually make guys simply jump on that character(toon, player) and start helping, being friendly, showing off, giving free stuff to “her” in hopes of posibly meeting that person in real life, should they be in the same country? Dunno, depends on the person I guess.
I believe that its basically from this that the “girls + online games = bull$hit” talks starting roaming around alot, and maybe why the few girls that actually play online games, get bashed on all the time by most male players, because they think that the girl is actually a guy trying to get leverage on them in order to get FREE stuff.
Ryu
Dec 1, 2006 at 8:20 pm
Yeah, I know a lot of guys who play as female characters. In fact, I have a friend who even acts like he is a female on FFXI and, now, has developed somewhat of a second, feminine personality. Sadly, I have only had high-speed internet recently, so I have yet to completely indulge in the online roleplaying world. I do play RO, however, and I get a TON of free stuff for being a female! When I go through towns, I put some cuter items on my avatar, say a few lost-noob seeming comments, and guys pour on the attention. I’ve gotten 5 high-quality weapons, a ton of gear, over a million zeny, and help with mobbing in places that would be too hard for me to level in without help. Maybe WoW is really different, but, at least in RO, I have found that guys really do pour on the attention and gifts if they know you are a female.
Toonage
Jun 15, 2007 at 6:40 pm
I know more guys who play girl characters - and it isn’t for “free stuff” no one gets “free stuff” by gender. I wonder if these guys sit down to pee too. Not very masculine if you asked me, and doesn’t make them play any better coz they are prolly too busy staring at their own cleavage to kick butt in BG.
Larsen
Aug 16, 2007 at 12:31 pm
Heh.. my main is a Tauren Female Hunter.. (they are not that sexy to look at, but kind of cute.) :D I think it´s a combo of having somthing nice to look at and to be able to control a female 100%. (the total opposit of what we are use to at home.. rofl)
I started a Blood elf just for tha look of her.. allthough i have deleted her after a month. :) (think i look more on the radicals skills now.)
I have allmost only Tauren Male´s, a Shammy (lvl18) a Warrior (23) Druid (30) And the times i got handout´s it was on a Male char. (but like they say, all Hord are more freindly like the Alli.) i never got handout´s on Alli.
Bored
Apr 5, 2008 at 3:16 am
There are precious few character models. Playing a different gender is just another way of playing a character with a different look. The novelty of playing the opposite gender wears off but they still provide a whole new set of models. They just might happen to match a particular look you are aiming for.
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