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You ever perform as a different gender online?
- Thread starter julia crawford
- Start date
I once played the female character on WoW in the past but never went advantage on others cuz that's what the losers do.
I never use female customization options on games nor female avatars (obviously female ones anyway: It's entirely possible some androgynous avis I've used were female and that wouldn't bother me). Sole exception that I know of was I had an inkling girl avi for a few months on pojo but I was engrained enough in the community that everyone knew I was a guy already.
Yeah, I've pretended to be male or just not ever corrected the assumption that I was male when I was younger on the internet, because I had far too many bad experiences of being stalked/harrassed/have sexual comments thrown at me if I acted (or dressed my avatar) explicitly female. I didn't actually enjoy doing it, but, I enjoyed not dealing with the consequences of presenting female more.
I generally like to have a female character in MMOs. They tend to have more personality with emotes and I like the sense that since my character is the worlds "champion" or "Warrior of Light", that she's the main character to the story. Female leads are great. Mass Effect is a good example of that :D
I used to kinda troll a chatroom as a character called Sasha Gray, using a selfie by Sasha Grey. Dumb and childish as hell but I thought it was hilarious at the time.
sometimes I would pretend to be a girl in some games because you get treated way nicer or guys just give you things
Oh if you mean choosing to play as a Female Avatar in games then yeah, Male Character Creator Options tend to suck ass.
Spending a decade on the early internet going "hahah, they all think I'm a guy, guess I might as well play along!" really helped me figure some shit out.
No, it makes me uncomfortable (unless a video game narrative has you play as a female character, then I have no issues). If it's by choice I always consciously choose a male character in a video game.
I passionately believe whatever character you play as in an MMO video game is a reflection of yourself. That's my philosophy and I'm sure it clashes with what others want out of their MMO characters.
I passionately believe whatever character you play as in an MMO video game is a reflection of yourself. That's my philosophy and I'm sure it clashes with what others want out of their MMO characters.
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Most of the VR streamers are anime girl avatars. I have to believe a big part of that is b/c there are a lot of horny young guys who like looking at anime girls and that's where the money is. Look at Project Melody for example.
Exploiting thirsty dudes in online games? I've done it numerous times.
Nah I'm just a dude who always plays as a dude. I am ridiculously boring in MMOs too. I'm that dude who likes to hit things up close with a big HP pool while you revive me every time I die until I kill the thing with my big sword.
With that said, I respect what everyone presents as online in any capacity.
With that said, I respect what everyone presents as online in any capacity.
I never had those experiences of being harassed but I did lurk forums until I felt ready to start posting. I'm glad I didn't see anyone being outright rude about it, but whenever a user corrected a "actually, it's she not he", there'd be some sort of reaction. Like "lol no girls on the Internet" or follow up questions. I didn't consider it malicious, but it did feel like an additional cost to being a girl on the Internet. To me at least, some of the girls that did identify themselves seemed ok with or enjoyed the attention. On some level I did think to myself "they're doing it for attention, not me though I'm not like the other girls." Edgy teenager mentality, heh.
I don't consider it performing as another gender but people did assume I was a guy (because video game forums) and I just never corrected them. The furthest I'd go was to edit my posts beforehand if I thought there was something that would overtly identify me as female, which in retrospect might be going kinda far but it was reflexive at that point. I didn't want the scrutiny, I just wanted to talk about games.
Uhhhh??? Yea!
It's fun messin with guys and pretending that im a girl. All hitting on me and shit.
"Professor.... rawwrrrr... are you a girl? I need some compan... ohh i mean one more for the heist"
And then I proceed to kill them until they leave the severs. MUHAHAH!
Also, my friends who are WOW players even told me that some guys legit use female characters just to get free stuff and it works hahaha.
It's fun messin with guys and pretending that im a girl. All hitting on me and shit.
"Professor.... rawwrrrr... are you a girl? I need some compan... ohh i mean one more for the heist"
And then I proceed to kill them until they leave the severs. MUHAHAH!
Also, my friends who are WOW players even told me that some guys legit use female characters just to get free stuff and it works hahaha.
I'm gender questioning so this is a very hard question to answer. I've basically never not been honest about the fact that I'm questioning, but sometimes I'll emphasize the fact that I'm still male presenting and sometimes I'll emphasize the fact that I'm pretty sure I'd like to go on HRT depending on context. And before questioning I never presented as anything other than male.
I pretty much gave up and used male sounding usernames for most online interactions for awhile. Got so fucking tired of the abuse and sexist bullshit whenever I had a feminine name or used voice chat in certain circles.
I thought I was just "performing" as a woman online for 10+ years.
then I realized I was "performing" as a man for my whole life.
So uh... so it goes.
then I realized I was "performing" as a man for my whole life.
So uh... so it goes.
Its true though, and I don't mean sexually. In Destiny 2, I wish I could change my Titan from a male to female, the armor looks 10x better on the female model. The same is true for a slew of RPGS, including MMO's. Not talking about sexualized armor.
It pretty much fell into my laps that people think im female.
In online games I pretty much always use female characters. (its more interesting)
My real name sounds very feminine to western audiences.
All my Avatars have been pretty much female.
So im always mistaken for a woman, I dont care and just play my game.
Extra funny cuz im a 6'2 black man with a voice deep as fuck.
I actually spent nearly a year in a female only apartment because the university just assumed I was female based on my name.
Weird times.
In online games I pretty much always use female characters. (its more interesting)
My real name sounds very feminine to western audiences.
All my Avatars have been pretty much female.
So im always mistaken for a woman, I dont care and just play my game.
Extra funny cuz im a 6'2 black man with a voice deep as fuck.
I actually spent nearly a year in a female only apartment because the university just assumed I was female based on my name.
Weird times.
I've never posed as a female in a deceitful manner or pretended in actual dialog.
I just played one in games because dude bro with gun got so boring combined with aesthetics
I just played one in games because dude bro with gun got so boring combined with aesthetics
While I was in voice chat in a game I was still young enough for my voice to be high pitch so I pretended to be a girl for shits and giggles. This fooled everyone and a lot of them stuck around the lobby solely because of me. I never did it again after that.
No. The closest I've done is not bother correcting people assuming I was male. Despite having used a female name and avatar forever. 🤷♀️
Also, counterpoint to all the cis guys here who said they liked pretending to be girls to "troll thirsty guys" and how funny that was: being a girl or woman online and thinking you finally met another girl and think "oh cool I'm not the only woman around", only to realize it was just a guy trolling all along, kind of sucked. It happened many, many times.
Also, counterpoint to all the cis guys here who said they liked pretending to be girls to "troll thirsty guys" and how funny that was: being a girl or woman online and thinking you finally met another girl and think "oh cool I'm not the only woman around", only to realize it was just a guy trolling all along, kind of sucked. It happened many, many times.
Not for any reasons beyond wanting to use an opposite gender avatar, though I can't say for certain whether I ever chose one because it felt more appropriate/"right"
Whenever I have tried to express my true gender (female) on the Internet, historically people were really weird about it, especially back in the mid-2000s when people were really creepy around "confirmed women" while I was playing World of Warcraft.
I've often pretended to be male for that very reason just so I wouldn't be harassed. For example, my main on WOW was a male night elf druid, and my secondary was a male human mage. It made raids pretty much impossible though. Because anytime I'd join people were like "Holy shit you're actually a girl!?" and then I'd get an uncomfortable amount of attention. People were thirsty as fuck.
Nowadays people seem to be a lot more used to women in enthusiast circles, so it's much easier to just act normal. The pronoun feature here has helped with that. Back in the NeoGAF days I still definitely had multiple creeps professing their love to me over PMs. Yes that really happened lmao
I've often pretended to be male for that very reason just so I wouldn't be harassed. For example, my main on WOW was a male night elf druid, and my secondary was a male human mage. It made raids pretty much impossible though. Because anytime I'd join people were like "Holy shit you're actually a girl!?" and then I'd get an uncomfortable amount of attention. People were thirsty as fuck.
Nowadays people seem to be a lot more used to women in enthusiast circles, so it's much easier to just act normal. The pronoun feature here has helped with that. Back in the NeoGAF days I still definitely had multiple creeps professing their love to me over PMs. Yes that really happened lmao
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I can't remember ever doing this. I know I expressed parts of myself online (my sensitivity) when I was younger that I didn't used to feel safe about and I think I'm more open about now, but I might be a little in denial there.
Lol I made up this entire different character on a forum once when I was like twelve that I chatted to people with. Not something I have done since then tho.
Plus as some has mentioned in this thread, it's not always pleasant to be a girl on the Internet. I often prefer a genderless anonymity online.
Plus as some has mentioned in this thread, it's not always pleasant to be a girl on the Internet. I often prefer a genderless anonymity online.
OP
OP
In that respect yes, i agree, i'm just afraid of arguments that veer into playing as a girl because "girls are nice to look at".
This was a huge issue in Phantasy Star Universe. Haven't played enough PSO2 to know if it's like that on that game, but you could assume that a majority of the female avatars, especially the really short "cute"
Ones were men preying on both genders. It's kind of why I just always present as my assigned gender in games. I'm super friendly and don't want anyone to feel "deceived" that I'm a straight white dude.
I never try to present as male, but I also don't tend to identify myself as a woman unless it's relevant. I never correct people when they assume I'm a man. I rarely use voice chat, but there is no hiding there, and often guys are often very "wow it's a girl playing Xbox!" I have however received more mockery for my accent (Australian) than my gender, possibly because some people still are so unused to women playing games that they assume that I am a British teenage boy 🤦♀️
I can say right now that while in *some* cases that is true, the western vtuber community has a massive segment of it that is doing so because they are trans or non-gender conforming.
Its as easy as a few clicks to suddenly look in a way that matches how you feel, no hrt required.
Never. I've been tempted to do it and I probably could have benefited not getting into certain bad situations online if I performed as a man, but I always felt weirdly obligated to present myself as a woman online. Sometimes I wondered if this had anything to do with my gender identity [as a cis woman] but every time I thought about it I was like ''nah I'm stuck with being a woman even if I don't like a lot of things about it so let's go''. I guess it had something to do with pride too: If I did something well in that context I wouldn't want that attributed to a guy even if I was the one behind ''that guy'' [this probably had something to do with the fact that the majority of the spaces where I interacted under an alias involved writing, so].
I started a second profile on RDR Online as a female avatar ( my main is male) because I wanted the option to play as one or the other as well as specializing in different roles to make both profiles unique. One night my buddy and I encountered a hacker (rather, they were stalking us), showing off their amazing hacker skills and offered gold bars in exchange for my assumed Insta profile and my number.