I think it's already silly It's silly that women gamers are sort of treated as novelty, and for a lot of guys it's almost something to brag about if they know a woman gamer. This is so apparent when playing MMOs that you can't miss it. Granted, MMOs are not, in general, known for having a high degree of maturity overall among the playerbase. But, having seen what some women have to put up with if they let people know, I'm not surprised at all that a lot don't bother to and prefer to stay low-key.But why is it such a big deal if girls and women play? What difference does it make? Gaming is a hobby above all else. In a lot of cases it happens to be a social one especially with most games having an online component, but why is it so difficult for a lot of guys to not make a huge deal of finding out that a real girl is playing? Online, I tend to play female characters. Yes, yes, I know all the taboo of "Why would a guy play a girl", but there are plenty reasons besides "Omg, boobs" or similar that we get accused of. Regardless, I also tend to use a lot of smileys in everyday chat. This should come as no surprise to anyone who reads my posts on the Sins boards . Not long after Age of Conan launched, I went with a pickup group to do a dungeon. We had a tank (guy who's job it is to keep all the enemies off the rest of the team, for those who don't know MMO-speak) that kept talking about his kids. Now, I was a tank in World of Warcraft, so I tend to like talking tank-related stuff. I sent the guy a few tells to chat about tanking in AoC, and a few happy-face smileys. Next thing I know, every tell he starts sending me ends with "hon". I stopped talking to him pretty much immediately. I never said anything that could've been misinterpreted or confused, but he made the assumption - and this was not his first MMO, either, so him being clueless is out of the picture. And if I was, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have wanted to be called 'hon' all the time by a supposed married guy with kids.I guess at this point I can come out and say that I find it pretty disgusting how women gamers are commonly treated. Not always - there are mature online communities and groups, but I'm sure most can agree that maturity is a fairly rare trait online and certainly not the norm. If only women gamers were treated like normal people who happen to like games too instead of something to be awed over and worshipped - maybe, just maybe, we'd all find that there really are a lot of them who play. They just don't broadcast it because they know what it can ultimately lead to..
There isn't many reasons to play a female char other than how they look, you just want tha boobies! lol Personaly I only play female chars because they look nice, I "identify" closer with my male chars (im male) but these MMOs simply don't give you the options for a good male char.
Those options are thigh length boots, big floppy hats and bare chests. I like the kilts in AoC though...
Generaly all my male chars are big strong naivie fools who don't want to be evil and are therefore the gaurdians of righteous power... Whatever. All the female chars are 'evil'. Which is to do with look and feel, evil men are usualy just thugs and are annoying and repative but evil females are hot and sexy - and they hate you for no reason. Just like real life!
Even my good female chars want to be hot and sexy and envy the evil girls - pink armour just dosn't... fit. To me how a woman looks says more about her than what she says (subconsciously you know), I don't really pay much attention to how men choose to represent themselves visualy unless its very dark, odd or something - which is what all my male chars TRY too look like, like I say they usualy end up look stupid with yellow boots or something. So when I play a female it dosn't feel right unless she looks like she 'feels'. All the details have to be right (and I don't mean breast size - what is it with people and huge boobs?). But how did I get onto this? Now im just rambling.
Have to say though, people who say "hun" are really annoying. The gender issue is always a soruce of good entertainment in MMOs though.