Cross Playing Revisited: A Public Questionaire

Ever since I posted one of my more recent articles on playing a character of the opposite gender, I got to thinking about how most people feel about it currently. I've had little issue with people giving me guff about playing a male character as of late, all that namely came from Latu's server, and I've really only had curious questions from other girl gamers as to why I rolled a male avatar.

It is in this that I wanted to do a general consensus as to what people think about others playing characters not only of an opposite sex, but of a sexual orientation that is different than their own.

Here are the places I have questioned:

Blog Azeroth, the Thorium Brotherhood Downtime Forums, World of Warcraft @ LJ, and WoW_Ladies @ LJ.

(Feel free to peruse each of the links above for all the wonderful comments that were offered to me in light of this follow-up post. Thanks again, everyone!)

I stayed away from the official forums because I'm...certain you all could guess how well that would have went. However, after a day passed, I received many comments on this subject and all of them gave me great insight into what a handful of the WoW population feels about this matter. Granted this is a small polling in the grand scheme of things and not very anonymous, but thankfully most readers who answered appeared to be quite genuine on the matter.

Here are the results...

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Generally, most people responded that they do not care what gender a person plays as long as:

a) That their characters do not embrace and portray negative stereotypes (or stereotypes in general, really).
b) That their characters are not created for the sole purpose of cyber sex.
c) That the person behind the characters does not claim that they are actually a guy/girl in real life when they are not.

Here are some quotes on the matter:

"i think it's a liberating experience. you can choose not to tell the other party your real gender and that gives the RPer in question a sense of peace. men who play female characters are as welcome to me as women who play men. i, myself, like to RP men; it gives me a chance to peek into the male brain and lifestyle. it might be the same for men." - From WoW_Ladies @ LJ

"There should at all times exist a firm divide between OOC and IC. To that end, your character's gender and orientation ICly (if you RP) are only relevant as they relate to canon - and Blizz has remained fairly mum on the subject of orientation in canon. I've got a visual hang-up on the male characters, so I don't enjoy playing them, but as an RPer, I think I should be allowed to play whatever I damn well please (as long as it remains plausible within the setting)." - From Worldofwarcraft @ LJ

However, there were a few people that did mention that they were bothered by the thought of some types of gender swapping.

"The most common reason I hear for guys playing the other sex is "if I'm going to stare at an ass for hours on end I want it to be an ass I enjoy looking at." They subsequently make their characters as hot as they possibly can and frequently dress them up in scanty outfits whenever possible. This leads me to the conclusion that, at some point, there is a faint possibility that they have fapped while looking at their character. THESE ARE THINGS I DO NOT WANT TO KNOW. I understand that, statistically speaking, one of my characters has been in the vicinity of another character who was being controlled by a player that was only playing with one hand but I do whatever I can to keep myself in the 'fap free bubble'." - From Worldofwarcraft @ LJ

"I don't like it. A) Because I still find it creepy (had some bad experience as a kid with a guy pretending to be a girl in a chat) and B) Because I have yet to seen it done well. Seriously, normally you can tell after a minute of RP what gender is behind the screen and often the character is so full of stereotypes that it squashes any attempt at real roleplay. If someone does it for a laugh, that is a different matter, but I find that often the novelty value runs out really fast and you're left with a character you can't roleplay seriously with. I should also point out that I don't mind it at all, if it is a transsexual who is playing whatever gender her would like to become physically." - From WoW_Ladies @ LJ

Out of the given responses, very few people voiced their distaste for the idea of gender swapping unless they had a bad personal experience regarding it. Which is, of course, not surprising... I myself have dealt with a person who had everyone believe he was a girl for about a year (staying off of Ventrilo and everything) until finally admitting he was not. It wasn't very fun to deal with, let me tell you...

When the subject of playing characters of a sexual orientation that is different than your own was mentioned, the general consensus of most of the commentators was much of the criteria listed a few paragraphs above this one.

"Whatever floats your boat. I'm bi IRL myself, and my RP characters run the gamut from absolutely completely straight (Rayen, Amria), absolutely lesbian (Mirembe), to Everything That Moves And Isn't Dead (Meadhbh), and everything in between. What I do have a problem with is a man pretending to be a lesbian woman just for the singular purpose of getting lesbian cybersex and don't plan to actually roleplay with them or do anything other than...well...use them as masturbatory objects. But then, I have a problem with anyone who thinks cybersex is the sole element of good RP and don't try to develop their characters otherwise." - From TBDF

"I've met plenty of men who can roleplay women very well - and they are invariably roleplaying a person who is also female. Not someone who is a freakish and strange alien who they could never hope to understand. I've met plenty of men who roleplay women shockingly badly because they absolutely must signify femaleness with stereotypes at every opportunity (giggling, pretending incompetence and so forth). When the latter intersects with someone trying to get sexual thrills ('Yes, I'm a lesbian, and oh no, my halter top broke and I'm NAKED who wants to lick off the icecream?') it's not even weird to me any more. I just roll my eyes and understand they've never had a date.

Same is vice versa, for women roleplaying men. I feel similarly about straight people roleplaying queer folk, and vice versa. None of it hits my 'you are disturbed/stupid/annoying' button until I run across some gigantic stereotype ten feet tall. No one wants their whole life to be reduced to a stereotype that often demeans them." - From WoW_Ladies @ LJ

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Overall, at least in forums and blogs that are not swimming with trolls (IE: the WoW Official Forums), people seem to be more than accepting for anyone's choice of character provided it is played in a believable manner.

Also, on a sidenote, there is an interesting link (Thanks for the site reminder, Illynilly) for further reading: The Daedalus Project. While it is a little old, it still has many articles relevant to this topic, complete with charts and graphs.

Once again, to all the awesome people that helped contribute to this, I thank you! Continue reading 'Cross Playing Revisited: A Public Questionaire'

The Cardinal Sins of Roleplaying: Erotic Roleplay

Ah... the topic every roleplay blogger dreads to discuss (myself included). This has been sitting on the virtual backburner for me for about a year now... Erotic Roleplay, or ERP, is generally very commonplace within the roleplaying scene, however it is quite often ridiculed by other RPers or many try to pretend that it doesn't happen. Because of this three-letter acronym, roleplayers have been given an extremely bad reputation in the the World of Warcraft (and beyond) because the non-RPers tends to paint us all as a bunch of horny, mouth-breathing, cheetoh powder-encrusted lowlifes. This is, of course, vastly untrue (though there are always the extreme exceptions) and it is over-hyped thanks to incidents like Abhorrent Taboo and the Deeprun Tram (The latter was proven to be staged, but it didn't really matter much since the impression was made. The picture to the right is from the aforementioned tram "encounter", by the way).

Though I do understand why ERP happens. Just like in any story, whether it be in a novel, video game, movie, and what not... Love scenes happen. Plus, sex is a part of the natural way of things in real life, so we naturally do what we know in stories of various kinds. I am far from telling people to never engage in ERP if that is their wish... However, I WILL say this:

Have respect for your fellow WoW players and keep it private.

• THOU SHALT NOT publicly emote your sex-capades in /say or /emote. No one wants to be forced to see your kink. Ever. And you will likely be griefed and ridiculed by others around you. You can also be reported for abusing the channels.
• THOU SHALT keep any sensual interludes within private channels, whispers, party chat, or even raid chat. This also includes foreplay and other actions beyond a PG-13 setting.
• THOU SHALT NOT get it on in the middle of the AH/Bank/Main Square or any other obviously public area while buck naked.
• THOU SHALT try to maintain the integrity of the roleplay server and its inhabitants.

And here's two rather big ones from a IC-standpoint.

• THOU SHALT keep in-character feelings separate from out-of-character ones. Just because someone else's character loves yours does not mean that their player loves you.
• THOU SHALT NOT let ERP be the constant focal point of any character interaction with another.

There is no faster way to make an amazing story of love against all odds go sour than the two "commandments" above... Doubly so for the last one. Just think about it from the perspective of reading a brand-new novel, fresh from the bookstore...

Your two characters go on amazing adventures together. There is action, drama, humor, occasional awkward moments of budding romance, and so much more. This book is great! Then it comes to the moment of when your characters' relationship goes past the point of no return... Eyes lock, trembling lips meet, and the two consummate their love oh-so-passionately.

Then, out of the blue, this amazing novel you were reading moments ago, becomes some stale and emotionless porn fest that would even make the most poorly-written Harlequin romance novel weep tears of blood. That will be what will happen to your characters and their story if you do not put a leash on their libido.

If your characters must get it on like rabbits, fade to black or space those times out. Keep things interesting and do something else, ya know? Having your characters' only interactions be sexually based will get absolutely boring and it will most likely ruin all the character plot you have worked for. There is more to relationships, fictitious or not, than sex. Continue reading 'The Cardinal Sins of Roleplaying: Erotic Roleplay'

Cross Playing: The Tribulations of RPing the Opposite Gender

Hello. My name is Moonbiter and I am a girl gamer. Ever since I was a wee lil' Moonnibbler and I was introduced to the Nintendo Entertainment System, I've been hooked on gaming. World of Warcraft is my first MMORPG and while I still consider myself to be very much a console gamer, I have been playing WoW since January 2005. My very first foray into WoW RP was somewhere back in Summer of 2006 when I rolled a character on Argent Dawn. The rest is history...

I am also the player of not only one, but five, male WoW characters. This might seem odd to some readers because why oh why would a girl ever want to ever play as a guy? Well... why not?

Being I like to roleplay (or at the very least I create backstories for my characters), the story I come up with dictates what race, gender, and class I feel suits the character. Take my death knight, and current main, Kiryl, for example... He is kind of an "old country" guy at heart, despite his current role as a Forsaken interrogator, and I honestly have a hard time ever picturing him as a female. Kiryl is, no matter what, a male character. My muse has spoken and she isn't all that keen on changing her mind.

A Space Goat Was Born

My first seriously played male toon was Latu, a Draenei shaman that was created the moment I installed the Burning Crusade. First of all, when TBC was nearing its release date, everyone I knew was going to make a female Draenei. In a combination of daring to be different and my love for the male Draenei model (I love their /dance and /silly), I vowed to make my shaman a guy. Secondly, I never really had a main character that was a guy. Sure I had a level 20-something Forsaken rogue and a level 30 Troll shaman that were men... But I never stuck with them. Latu, on the other hand, I leveled to up to cap--twice.

The guild I was with, at the time, was a rather free-spirited one, so the idea of a girl playing a guy character wasn't a big deal to them at all. However, when they eventually jumped ship and went to WAR during a hiatus of mine, I found myself in need of a new guild... So I transferred Latu over to another realm and joined up with friend's RP guild.

I remember having to explain myself many times to people (namely guild mates who have obviously heard me over Ventrilo) on why Latu is not a female. Even though there is a pretty good amount of females that play WoW around, many of which I have known to have at least ONE male toon in their character list, it is still treated as such an anomaly by most I encounter. The reactions varied from a guildmate joking that I was "denying the world more breasts" by playing a guy to having my sexuality questioned. Why, I even had fellow female guildmates who were boggled by the idea and I got a lot of half-joking flak for playing a guy--And it only increased when my secondary character was a male Human warlock (again, the character concept I had in mind did not seem like it would be suitable to a female).

There also was a time when a guildmate invited me to an instance run and the initial convo went like this (writing styles preserved)...

Warrior: hey guys, this is my guildy, Latu. hes a girl irl. lol
Party Member #2: Cool
Party Member #3: sup
Me: Um... Haha. Hi?

It just sorta boggled my mind that this guy felt the need to instantly announce (I wish I was kidding. It really was the first thing said when I joined group.) the fact that I am indeed a female player. Though I will admit... when certain people did find out that I was indeed a girl in real life, it was pretty funny to see their reactions. Even so, I still find it odd that it's strange to begin with.

Why Is Playing the Opposite Gender Such a Big Deal?

There seems to be a double standard of playing a character that isn't your gender in real life. It's perfectly normal for guys to play as female avatars, but girls playing as male toons generally brings up a lot of confusion. There are many reasons as to why men play as females, the two most popular that I've seen are "I don't want to stare at a dude's ass all the time" and "I like the attention and special treatment I get". Plus, as the popular internet meme goes, "There are no girls on the internet".

The last statement above is, of course, not true at all. However, in the gaming world, it is still traditionally "a man's domain" in the eyes of many. Though with new generations, the girl gamer isn't at all the oddity it used to be when I was back in high school. I've been on various RP realms and the reception of being a female who plays a guy character ranges from it being commonplace to others finding it incredibly strange. I remember one former guildmate used to joke with me by suggesting that I make Latu into a girl shortly after character re-customization was unveiled. I didn't mind it at first...until he started mentioning it nearly every time I saw him in-game. The same person also told me that he couldn't take women who roleplayed male characters seriously... He found it "too weird" and he apparently had difficulty reconciling the fact that "this dude was really a chick".

Virtual Life Lessons

It's not always hard for women roleplaying a man, though... I've had many guys tell me their horror stories of playing a female toon. Sure, they liked being treated a little nicer, given stuff, and what not (That's another post for another day, I'd imagine). Then the stalkers start showing up... Those sorts of people that won't take a hint despite the other saying "Dude, I'm a guy, IRL" and simply found that they were "playing hard to get". Though I heard more of those recounts in the earlier days of WoW, not so much anymore (But on the flipside, I've heard plenty of girls harassing guys to have their RP characters get in each other's pants as of late...). However, I'm rather certain that these sorts of goings-on still take place.

Other girl gamers who played a male toon, namely for a "social experiment", were rather shocked at how differently they were treated. Cussed out for small mistakes, talking to them impersonally, general aloofness, etc... Not all that surprising since most people assume the character played is the person's gender IRL. Though I honestly just assume everyone's a guy until proven otherwise...

In Summation

It's just a game and we are simply players out to have fun... People shouldn't be given grief for their character's gender, no matter if they are man or woman, if that is what they want to roleplay (or not).

Though roleplaying is just that--It's acting out a story. While some people do live vicariously through their characters, most simply want to tell a tale and see what unfolds for them. If a man wants to roleplay a demure and meek woman, then more power to him. If a woman wants to play as some muscular orcish guy? Go right ahead. Roleplay servers are our canvas and other people shouldn't tell you what paint to use. Continue reading 'Cross Playing: The Tribulations of RPing the Opposite Gender'