I get this question a lot. "Why do you play male toons you're a girl?" "Do you have penis eveny?" "Why are you out of the kitchen?" and so on. The reason behind me playing male toons is simple. I'd rather be judged on my skill first than my tits. I'm usually the quiet one on vent just doing my job and listening. Sadly however I tend to open my mouth and that's where the trouble starts. It goes from "Wow Honsue you are a great healer" to "Wow Honsue your voice is hot now make me sandwhich" if your female then you know exactly what I mean and if you are male then chances are you are 99% guilty of doing the same thing. I'm not a crazy feminist or anything but female gamers get a bad rap when it comes to MMO's and WoW in general. Have you ever had that one female in your guild that was either the guild leaders wife or an officers girlfriend? This person is generally terrible at the game.They always find their way into main raiding slots or even hardmode attempts. They always die to standing in fire, or some variation. They always have very bad dps and have no idea how to spec/gem. The worse part of it all is no one tries to help them. No one tells them nicely that they need to fix their spec, gems, enchants and rotations. When you do decided to say something to the person they get offended. Don't get me wrong here this person isn't always female its sometimes male but rarely.
Females also get a bad rap in WoW for being e-skanks. Whats an e-skank you might ask. Well these are the females who make statements like "Oh ouch my boobs hurt or "I just like got out of the shower and I'm all wet" attention whores 100%. These females generally aren't terrible at the game but they aren't good either. If you play Horde they are generally female bloodelves. If you are Alliance then female gnomes or nightelves. E-skanks always try to befriend the guild leader or officers and get what they want from the guild and move on. They rage quit over loot or for not getting a raid spot. I've come across all types of females in my wow career. The worst one was the married woman who was an e-skank and her husband played along with it. She sent the guild leader nude pictures for raid spot and gold. The word got out about her naked pictures and she ended up changing her name. She is still at it though. I'll never understand why females are this way. If someone comes to you to help you make your toon better listen or take the 5 -10 mins out of the day it takes to read up on your class. There is no need to whore yourself out over a video game to get raid spots or loot. If you are knowledgeable about your class and an overall reliable raider you'll always get a raid invite.
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| Don't I look stylish? |
Females also get a bad rap in WoW for being e-skanks. Whats an e-skank you might ask. Well these are the females who make statements like "Oh ouch my boobs hurt or "I just like got out of the shower and I'm all wet" attention whores 100%. These females generally aren't terrible at the game but they aren't good either. If you play Horde they are generally female bloodelves. If you are Alliance then female gnomes or nightelves. E-skanks always try to befriend the guild leader or officers and get what they want from the guild and move on. They rage quit over loot or for not getting a raid spot. I've come across all types of females in my wow career. The worst one was the married woman who was an e-skank and her husband played along with it. She sent the guild leader nude pictures for raid spot and gold. The word got out about her naked pictures and she ended up changing her name. She is still at it though. I'll never understand why females are this way. If someone comes to you to help you make your toon better listen or take the 5 -10 mins out of the day it takes to read up on your class. There is no need to whore yourself out over a video game to get raid spots or loot. If you are knowledgeable about your class and an overall reliable raider you'll always get a raid invite.
You're not the only one playing a male character for that reason.
ReplyDeleteAs for e-skanks, never truly meet one. The ones I've meet were actually guys.. so I came to the conclusion that most (real) females value their sexuality more
Glad to hear that! I've always thought my armor looked better on male toons away. I just recently went from being an undead male priest to a male bloodelf when I got my full t10 set. I think I look rather sharp in it. E-skanks however.. be glad you've never come across one. They are vile.
ReplyDeleteHonsue, I can be your e-skank yes? I has female bloodelf and I has boobs.
ReplyDeleteDo you only play Blood Elves?
ReplyDeleteNope, My priest used to be a troll but with the release of t10 I thought it looked a bit better on the male belf and there ya have it.
ReplyDeleteLock = Undead male
Pally= Human male
Rogue = Undead male
Mage = Troll male
Hunter - Troll Male
Second Priest = Undead Male
and so on. I most play Undead and Troll toons.
Thankfully I haven't run into this much- despite having been in four different guilds over the course of playing WoW. The Guild I run with is about 30% female IRL and the person running the Guild is female. People are judged on performance and personality and harassment based on sex or sexual identity is not tolerated, period. Some of the females in the guild run male toons to avoid sexual harassment outside the guild. Some of the males run female toons because as they say, "If I am going to spend endless hours staring at a toon's butt I'd rather be staring at something hot." Guild culture has a lot to do with how people treat each other in-game. If you are in a guild that tolerates sexism and sexual harassment consider finding another guild.
ReplyDeleteFor my part I am male and I run male toons. Never really thought about why, just seemed the thing to do.
Oddly enough I have never run into a female like that because I do not run in those circles so to speak but I have seen the type. On my server the best geared person on the entire server is a female and she was not carried in any way, shape or form. She is really just that good.
ReplyDeleteOne of my friends is a female troll warrior and people judge her on being a good tank but they always say she is a good tank for a girl which takes away something from it for her I think. So there is a bad angle to being female in game but for all the adverse things you hear about girls and e-skanks there are many advantages to being a girl and you can not deny that at all.
If I am in a dungeon on one of my male characters and say BRB I can come back to find myself kicked. If I am on a female character they will wait almost all day for me it seems. These are random people that do not know if I am male or female, they just, on average, treat you better as a female.
I see it all the time. People are just generally more civil to female characters over all when it comes to mistakes or being asked to wait for a moment. On a female tank a wipe usually means "everyone has to learn" on a male tank it usually means "fail tank sucks".
I suggest to all new players just learning the game for the first time to roll a female and then you can change later if you want to. It is easier to learn as a female and people are way more forgiving of mistakes.
Mind you that I also have never met anyone that has ever asked me for nudes or anything rude. So I have not met any of the jerk guys. The worst comment I ever got was "are you really a girl" to which I replied "should it matter" and he said "not really".
Personally I think if you are getting those messages asking for nudes and stuff then you are just running with the wrong crowd in game. As much as I hear others talk about it I have never come across it in game on either side.
Speaking from the male perspective, really not all guys are the same, and yes you did say 99% but i think it's a lot less. I've been in this guild for like 3 years now and we have about 4 girls that regularly play. And they're all very well respected and not talked upon with exaggerated sexism or anything. One of them is actually a head raid master and with whom I get along very well actually. Unfortunately, I haven't really met a lot of girls outside the guild, but whenever I run in random dungeons or w/ever I always /respect them^^
ReplyDeleteI understand wanting to be judged on skill not gender but your article doesn't really make sense.
ReplyDeleteMost female characters are played by males simply because WoW has a male dominated player base. If you made a female character, no one assumes that you are a female. The only way anyone would think of you as a female would be if you revealed that you were.
I guess you could reason that people don't entertain the possibility of a female playing a male character whereas most people think female characters are played by both males and females. I've raided for years and I have met some of the female players you have described, however, I only have experienced that in pugs with people from bad guilds. In a top tier guild females are held just as accountable for their game play as males and are treated accordingly.
Yes saying 99% is an over exaggeration, but it gets the point across. All of my experiences with different types of females has all been in top tier guilds. Just because you don't see it directly on the outside doesn't mean it's not there. I've been raiding since Vanilla and I've seen it all.
ReplyDeleteI've been disrespected by officers, guild leaders, members, over vent and in game. It's mostly in private tells, or channels. I've been offered gold for scandalous photos, hit on more times than I can count and I've heard "what are you doing out of the kitchen" at least once a day.
The problem isn't as bad as it used to be 2 years ago. The current guild I'm in females make up around 15% of the raid population. In the past I've been either the only female on the raid roster or one of the only two in the guild.
Your argument still doesn't hold up though.
ReplyDeleteA female character =\= female player. So the reason to play a male character doesn't have anything to do with wanting to be judged solely on skill.
More men than women play female characters because the number of men who play WoW greatly outnumbers the women who play WoW