Playing As a Female in MMORPGs
When ever I tell my friends that I made a female character in a new MMO, my decision is often met with an awkward silence followed by bouts of laughter. Why would a young man choose to play as a woman? There must be something wrong with me, right? Well maybe there is but I feel playing as the opposite gender gives me the unique ability to see how the other half lives.
Almost all games these days take the feminist approach by giving both genders identical physical and mental qualities which reduces gender to a purely cosmetic choice. But you'd be surprised how one's game experience can be effected by even a cosmetic gender choice. MMOs are just as much a social experience as they are video games and it is within the social aspects that most of the differences between the genders express themselves.
It is generally accepted that players act much nicer to woman than they do to their masculine peers. For example, while playing World of Warcraft I've noticed that party members are quick to assign blame in the event of a wipe. Unless the party happens to be a well organized guild, this blame game is usually followed by lobbing insults at the offending player. If the priest didn't heal properly or the tank didn't maintain aggro, his intelligence or even his sexual preference may be called into question. Female characters are often exempt from this insult phrase, or at the least it isn't said out loud. The flip side of this is that females are generally viewed as less competent than their male counterparts. Perhaps this has to do with sexism or the fact that woman who do play MMORPGs tend to be more casual than their male counterparts. I can't say I'm innocent of this discrimination, given the choice of similarly geared warriors for my party, I would feel more confidant with a man taking the brunt of the monster's attacks than a woman.
I find that people are far more willingly to help a female than a male character. When ever I had a question about an item or needed help with a quest on my female character people would help me if they could. While playing a male character I could still eventually find the answers I needed but it would take noticeably longer. Many of the people I asked for assistance with either ignore me or brush me off by calling me a noob. I'm still not sure how much of this eagerness to help has to do with chivalry and how much has to do the notion that woman are helpless. As I hinted at earlier, females in MMORPGs are generally treated as less capable and in need of assistance to make it through the game. I recommend that everyone tries out a female character in their MMORPG of choice. A clever player who understands how each gender is treated can use that information to his advantage.
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