| The goal of this survey was to explore why some male gamers choose to play female characters in games, and to look at some collateral behaviors and beliefs. I wanted to explore the issue in an informal manner, cull out some main themes, and spark some discussion. Certainly, with such a small sample size, I cannot claim that the results I report here are representative of the gaming population as a whole. What I have noticed, however, is that in our discussion forum and on Slashdot.com, several hundred male gamers have responded to the article results posted in Part I—and they almost all report that they play female characters in games for at least one of the same reasons I report here. I truly haven’t read many other reasons for the behavior not reported here. That lends validity to the idea that the reasons I report on why many males play female characters are in fact common reasons, and not simply idiosyncratic to the 64 respondents here. However, the percentages reported in my research might vary from the general population: i.e. the numbers of males who play females for reasons x, y, and z in my data might be different from the number of males who endorse those reasons in the gaming population at large. In particular, I would suspect that the percentage of males who play female characters in order to gain some advantage in the game, in order to win, is even higher than the 60% reported here. Part I of this article deals with the question of why some males play female characters in games. Part II explores behaviors that tend to go along with playing female characters, and delves deeper into the respondents’ experience of playing female characters. |
To Roleplay or not to Roleplay?
I asked subjects whether they tend to roleplay their female characters, and step inside their shoes in the game, or instead view them as pawns or avatars. The responses to this survey question were very dependent on the type of game played by the respondent. Not surprisingly, most subjects who reported that they roleplay their female characters play RPGs. Similarly, most subjects who said that they view their female characters as pawns play action or fighting games. That makes sense: role-playing has very little place in a first-person shooter.
However, there were a few exceptions to this pattern. For example, some respondents reported that while they do play female characters in RPGs, they never role-play those characters. These gamers tend to enjoy the gameplay advantages that playing as female affords them, but have no interest in roleplaying per se. Others roleplay in RPG’s when it suits them, for example when they come across strangers in the game, but not while playing with close friends. Again, the motivation here is to enjoy the benefits of being perceived as female in-game, not the challenge of roleplaying a female in any depth.
- 42% (14 subjects) roleplay their female characters. Cold Fire explains: "I always try to play the character to the best of my abilities, so when I play my female dark elf warrior, I try to ‘be’ that character and act the way I think she would act." Similarly, DavPilky writes, "with RPG’s it feels at times like I –am- my character, to the point that I’m vaguely unaware that I’m at a computer."
- 33% (11 subjects) sometimes roleplay their female characters, and sometimes they view them as simple pawns, depending on (a) the game genre-- "In RPG’s I play the character as they appear, be it male or female, human or non. In deathmatch [FPS] comments are usually short and simple, like good game, and ‘nice kill!’, so there’s no real roleplaying there" (Cruciform). Or (b) their playing partners or their mood-- Dino: "I will role-play a female sometimes, and at other times just be me (which can look strange when I start talking about my girlfriend)."
- 24% (8 subjects) view their female characters as pawns or avatars only, and never role-play, no matter what the game genre. Again, a few males in this category do play RPG’s but do not role-play as female.
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