In this survey question, respondents were asked, "Tell me a bit about your experiences when you do play as female, in terms of how other players respond to you. For example, do you tend to be treated better or worse than when you play as a male character, and do you notice a difference between genres? For example, when you play a female in FPS's are you treated differently than when you play a female in RPG's? All 33 subjects responded; the answers are divided according to game genre.
In Role-Playing Games:
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- 45% (16 subjects) reported that female characters are treated BETTER than male characters in RPGs. In general, subjects spoke about getting preferential treatment across the board when they play as female characters: you are treated more courteously and politely, you get killed less, female players like to chat with you, male players give you goodies like armor and spells, and try and "save" you from monsters, even if you’re more powerful than they are.
One respondent wrote, "…people give you things, and I’m talking about really nice and valuable things. I have been given in-game objects that sell for $50-$100 on EBay. Also, the male characters will die to keep her from getting killed sometimes. They seem to be friendlier, too, in many cases….even though she isn’t flirtatious."
Bruce, talking about his female character Joyce in an online RPG, writes: "in another mining incident, an evil character popped into a mine Joyce was working, chatted with her briefly, and then mentioned that although normally he killed people who came into this mine, he would leave her alone because she was polite, female, and cute. (She was perfectly happy to leave things at this, although she could probably have killed him if it came down to a fight.)"
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- 21% (7 subjects) reported that there is NO DIFFERENCE in how they are treated when they play female vs. male characters in RPGs. Black Rabbit: "I notice no difference in how my characters are treated most times. Regardless of online genre. Characters are characters and if my female characters get hit on by guys (and sometimes girls) so too do my male characters by both genders."
- 9% (3 subjects) reported that female characters are treated BOTH BETTER AND WORSE than male characters in RPGs. Cold Fire explains, "some treat you like a fragile vase some treat you like a bitch." Dennis F. Heffernan writes, "On the one hand you will find many people… will go out of their way to help you. On the other hand you will find many people… who will make a variety of tasteless comments and/or emote acts of sexual harassment."
- 3%, or 1 subject, reported that female characters are treated WORSE than males, due to sexual harassment, sexual propositions, insults, etc.
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