A few weeks ago, I decided to informally investigate a phenomenon I find intriguing: males who play as female characters (or who use female models, skins, or avatars) in games. This behavior can take many forms: playing Lara Croft in Tomb Raider, designing and roleplaying an elaborate female character in a fantasy role-playing game, or choosing a female model in Quake.

After some brainstorming, I devised a survey and put up a news item on our site, asking for male subjects who would be willing to answer some questions on the topic. Other gaming sites picked up my request for subjects, and to my surprise, my inbox was suddenly overflowing with responses. I quickly realized that I was receiving feedback from a preponderance of males who play as female models in first-person shooters (FPSs). In order to round out the data with males who play as female characters in other game genres, I posted to four role-playing game (RPGs) message boards (EverQuest, Ultima Online, and Asheron’s Call).

In the end, I received 33 completed surveys, and informal comments by another 31 males who wanted to add their two cents worth, either via email or through the message boards. The informal comments typically addressed why they choose to play as female characters, and in what game genres.

Clearly, this was an informal qualitative research project. I did not randomize my sample, attempt to get representative samples from all game genres, or strive for statistical significance in the data, for example. For the most part, I asked open-ended questions, as opposed to asking respondents to pick from a list of pre-decided categories. I then looked for themes in the data. Below, I share the results of what has proven to be a very interesting project.