You and Your Characters: Gender and Sexuality

[chrisdojo]

I usually play Male. My friend once told me (when I played WoW for a little bit) that being a female, players would randomly give you gold. I think I fell for his joke... no one gave me random gold, and he was probably laughing inside

 

[Lwaxy]

About 50/50, kind of depends how the rest of the group is composed.

As a GM, I encourage players to try different things, including genders, because otherwise for at least 2 of them their PCs would end up all alike.

 

[Bagpuss]

I usually play Male. My friend once told me (when I played WoW for a little bit) that being a female, players would randomly give you gold. I think I fell for his joke... no one gave me random gold, and he was probably laughing inside

Nope that happens. Certainly in the early days of MMO's it was very common. I played a female character in Everquest and I constantly kept getting given stuff from strangers.

________________________________________

Back to the thread... I'm male, I would say I play about 55% male, 40% female, 5% other. Sexuality wise I would say I play about 60% straight, 35% it never comes up, 5% other.

When I do play a female (or non-straight) character sometimes that can be as insignificant as filling in the hair colour box on a character sheet, much as playing a male character in most setting your gender rarely comes up. Other times it can form a big part of the character, it's most memorable when it forms a big part of the character.

 

[airwalkrr]

Minor correction here. The term "sex" refers to one's method of procreation, i. e. what type of genitals you were born with. The term "gender" is more of a social construct that delineates whether one is considered masculine or feminine according to a society's social norms. The term "sexuality" refers to the sexual company one keeps e. g. homosexual, bisexual, or heterosexual. So your poll is really just asking which sex you choose to play.

As to the question, I usually DM and my NPCs tend to have a male slant. However I do mix things up a bit and create female NPCs about a third of the time. When I am a player, my PCs are almost exclusively male. I cannot begin to comprehend the female psyche so I usually do not try. When I do, I tend to play masculine females. I occasionally will play an effeminate or gay male, but that depends upon my idea for the character.

 

[Fox Lee]

Minor correction here. The term "sex" refers to one's method of procreation, i. e. what type of genitals you were born with. The term "gender" is more of a social construct that delineates whether one is considered masculine or feminine according to a society's social norms. The term "sexuality" refers to the sexual company one keeps e. g. homosexual, bisexual, or heterosexual. So your poll is really just asking which sex you choose to play.

While I do probably mean sex when I ask whether people are/play male or female, I made a point of not stating that explicitly - if a person hears the terms and thinks about gender more than sex, they are more than welcome to answer accordingly. I tried to leave that open, since I know there's more to it than that, and because the question does concern gender and sexuality as well (as mentioned in the first post).

I don't know that I would agree that gender "delineates whether one is considered masculine or feminine according to a society's social norms"; I think it's more about what you either choose to identify as, or feel that you fit with by nature. Like, I am ultimately more masculine than feminine by societal standards, but I'm not male in any sense of the word.

 

[Maese Mateo]

I'm a guy, but I play whatever gender I feel fits my character.

 

[geradarys]

When I play RPG games I imagine myself there, so it's natural for me to create or choose a male character as close to my looks as possible.

 

[Zaltys]

Male. I play about 60% male, 40% female. Come to think about it, I've never played a genderless character...should try that someday.

As for sexuality? Rarely comes up in the games, but it's an interesting challenge to play something you're not used to. So sometimes I let the dice decide. Most of my characters have been straight, but were a few exceptions. Including one druid who, er, really liked animals. But as I said, those things rarely come up in the game. Fortunately.

 

[Dog Moon]

For me it all depends on my character idea. Sometimes it fits a guy better sometimes a girl. If it could be either then it all depends on my mood.

 

[Miss_Korya]

Female. Play Females, and sexuality is fluid but it doesn't actually come up in games though.