Eight respondents, or 13%, report that part of their motivation to play female characters is simply to add variety to the game, so that not everyone looks the same. They state that this is related to the relative lack of real-life female players in some games. Says Slacker, "I got tired of just seeing all the guy models in Quake2…so I thought for a little spice I’d play a girl and it kind of just stuck." Lemming comments, "I first began playing female characters in table-top RPG’s, as we had no females in our gaming group, and everyone else seemed to want to play beefy male fighters."
Four subjects, or 6%, mentioned that a reason why they play female characters is that they enjoy the sounds they make. Mike admits, "even though I’m not proud of this, I like the pain sound effects (Everquest example)" of female characters. Parakeet explains: "I like female voices, and the female characters in games generally make all kinds of cute little grunts and moans and groans. I don’t mean that in any kind of erotic manner either, it’s just that they sound nice."
Another four subjects, or 6%, reported that they play female characters because they enjoy the reactions they get from male players when they kill them. Bier Hunter exemplifies this position in his statement: "I have run across more players than I can count that get extremely upset if they are killed by a ‘girl’….and start shouting a variety of profanity. I find this very amusing that a gender-specific kill can cause such a reaction. When I find a player that is this sensitive to getting killed by a female, then I will hunt him down with my female character as much as possible. If the player can’t separate himself from his character, then he needs professional help. It’s just a game."
Lastly, four subjects, or 6%, mentioned that once they started playing female characters it just became a habit for them.
This data shows that for the 64 males who responded to this research question, there were nine categories of motivations for playing female characters. These motivations ranged far and wide, from thoughtful, to pragmatic, to sexual, and finally, to the downright cutthroat. I hope that this sheds some light on the behavior, and shows that there are more reasons for playing female characters than many have suspected.
Part II : the rest of the research results are shared. Topics covered include:
- How many of the respondents role-play their female characters versus using them simply as pawns or avatars?
- How many attempt to "pass" as female online?
- Are there any differences in how they are treated by other players when they play as female characters?
- What are the drawbacks to playing female characters?
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