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Study Claims Men Play Female Avatars to 'Win'
mytrip writes to mention a News.com article about the rationale behind male players playing female avatars in online games. The article says that, while some players are probably exploring 'gender roles, many just want free stuff. From the article: "Kathryn Wright, WomenGamers's consulting psychologist, earlier this decade found that 60 percent of male players who don female avatars, or on-screen personas, do it to gain an advantage in game play. An enthusiast with the online handle Jackpot649 nailed the zeitgeist in his response to the About.com query: 'I'm a guy, but if I gotta look at an avatar all day, I'd sooner look at a female avatar. Plus, people give you more free stuff.'"
On SA, there is a column, "Art of Warcraft." Recently, one of the editors has been posing as a female character not only to get massive amounts of gold, but also for the simple pleasure of humiliating gamers.
See Part 1 and Part 2.
I have freaks! I did something right...
i for one welcome our gender bending.... *sigh* (you can fill in the rest)
-or-
1. sign up for online game
2. assume female identity
3. ??
4. profit
-or-
in soviet russia, female avatars play games as you
-or-
well... you get picture....
Are these people crazy, flirting with/giving gifts to those with female chars? Is there some slight chance there gonna get them to take off there Armor and /sleep with them?
If you want to find rendered nudeness there's far better ways than through MMOs
Shameless plugs and inaccessible site design FTW! - www.mistletoestreetmusic.com
For many in the non-stop-gaming demographic, a female avator is the closest they'll come to having any personal influence over where, and up to what, a relatively large pair of breasts will be.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
Spin my nipple nuts and call me Sally.
eTrade SUCKS
That's what MMORPG is:
Many
Men
Online
Role
Playing
Girls
Sounds like someone's projecting.
"We returned the General to El Salvador, or maybe Guatemala, it's difficult to tell from 10,000 feet"
Nah, but the chick models in AQ2 were skinny and harder to aim at than the guy models.
M0571y H@rml355.
That's interesting. A friend of mine and his wife switch - his avatar is female and hers male. It's funny to hear her tell her hubby "Hay hon, shake your ass a little. (he does) She giggles "Isn't that cute?"
You are missing the point:
Females are mean, nasty, egocentric furies bent of World domination
The reason why girl-avatars get more stuff is because males are generous to females. The reason male-avatars do not get more stuff is because females are stingy and treat males like shit!
Online gaming has helped uncover the century-old conspiracy: females wish to exploit male generosity to climb to the top, giving little in return for our help.
What can we do about it?
Obama likes poor people so much, he wants to make more of them.
The Internet:
Where the men are men,
the women are men,
and the 16 year old girls are FBI agents.
MMORPG = Many Men Online Role-Playing Girls?
You must defeat Sheng Long to stand a chance.
You like ladies.. and cows? I've got a 60 Tauren Hunter, so I guess I like cows, too.
Not a Twitter sockpuppet... but I wish I was.
Yeah, screw Neverwinter! That "maybe you should talk to one of our male employees" line in the brothel thing was just bullshit! It's not like I was lost; freakin' close minded faux medieval sword-and-sorcery epics...
sic transit gloria mundi
Agreed (for the most part); I too am female, and my WoW-mains are also. I've always been somewhat bemused by the whole "girls get free stuff" line because, hell, I never have. Interestingly, when I'm grouping with people I don't know personally I usually find myself being referred to as 'he'; even after I correct people they often still don't believe me. I've got no idea what people think when I'm playing my male characters and I start talking about my boyfriend (or worse, partner).
Conversley, my boyfriend plays a female toon and flirts it up whenever he thinks he can get away with it. We had a few people in our raid almost in tears once because they were so confused as to his gender (people started refering to him as 's/he' and 'his/her'). He's also humilliated several of the resident server tools by playing the 'flirting bimbo' card (for loot, raid spots, gold, anything). Said tools have only later found out they've been had by talking to one of the people in our guild. Often it's me. I hear nothing breaks a gamer's spirt more than hearing, "Oh, 'her'? Yeah, 'she's' my IRL boyfriend."
Perhaps this should be a warning for all you, er, 'hopeful' male gamers out there.