Well, if either A: the individual in question was [censored], or B: they were RPing and thought that was also all you were doing, there's nothing 'evil' about it.
I know a guy, who's actually a pretty good friend, who when I first met I thought was a girl, not because he was playing a female character but because he refered to his boyfriend.
I've also been on the 'leading on' side of what -I- thought to be a strictly RP relationship, and the guy on the other end thought to be more... It's only happened a couple of times, and after that I got to the point that if characters get in to any more of a relationship than friends, the players knows my gender.
Trust me, it sucks to be on that side, too. Gets the person really mad at you, and not to mention.. for me atleast, it hurts the character. I'm not the sort who ever is like "never happened." .. whatever happens with my character in one place with one person, that's permanent, it's now a part of the character.
Ok, I've been thinking my sarcasm above may not have expressed my view very clearly.
I find it wildly bizarre that people would care in the slightest what the gender of the player is. But that's because I make one assumption that's second nature to veteran RPGers.
You are not your character.
Folks that are still struggling with that distinction are going to have ALL KINDS of trouble, well beyond the scope of finding player/character sex difference.
Choosing a Controller V2 | Splattrollers | Plant/Rad | Fire/Storm | Mind/Emp & Mind/Rad
Weird Controller Powers | Conf & XP/Time | Controller Damage
Being a Healer | The word Necessary | Natural Concept Characters
I play not only online games, but computer, video and even good old fashioned pen and paper role-playing. And I am female and a dm/gm. I have a good group of players that play a range of gender from non to male and female. When playing, I call the character by the gender of its toon/character, as the character is not the person. I really don't worry about whats behind the screen as it doesn't make any difference to my characters on the screen. Play what you're comfortable with. And have fun..it is a game.
I don't care to do it, but that's because deep down I've always wanted to be Superman. There's roleplaying, and then there's.. >_>
Been RPing in web-based chat rooms for several years now, though, and I still have yet to make a female character. It's partially because the times I've seen guys play females and gals play males they usually resort to bland or offensive stereotypes that turn me off to that style of play. I also don't really have much interest in playing female characters.
During time RPing, though, I've seen a lot of crazy silly stuff. The internet is a strange place.. Suffice to say that provided the player knows what they're doing and doesn't purposefully and deceitfully mislead other players I've got no problem with it.
The Paladin
Steel Canyon, Virtue
Exalted
@Paladin
Aw but thenwe have the Paladin whos aparently a hobo as every time i see him shes sleeping by positron with a tin can and a cardboard sign that read "looking for positron tf"...
Wha wrong you old goat get thrown out ofthe Holy order of knights?
"Will Exemplar for food"
AE # 67087: Journey through the Looking Glass - Save the World
LLX VirtueVerse! - Check out my crazy Toons
This is the size of group that we have balanced AVs for, 6.
-Positron 06/07/06 07:27 PM
My highest level toon is female. Most of my defenders are female and thats my favorite AT. It just seems more appropriate somehow. Stereotypes aside I can come up with a back story for a female defender more easily than a male one.
I do kind of wonder about the gender ratios in various ATs. I swear there are more male blasters and scrappers and more female defenders.
Anyway I've never really thought anything of it. If I am playing a female toon I am playing a female and expect feminine pronouns to be used. If someone uses he or him I also do not get upset, I just roll with it.
Some people have a hard time deliniating their toon's personality and sensabilities from their own and that leads to the problems mentioned, however I'd wager that the majority of gender benders don't have this problem. Just the exceptions are more memorable.
[ QUOTE ]
Aw but thenwe have the Paladin whos aparently a hobo as every time i see him shes sleeping by positron with a tin can and a cardboard sign that read "looking for positron tf"...
Wha wrong you old goat get thrown out ofthe Holy order of knights?
"Will Exemplar for food"
[/ QUOTE ]
*LOL* You've seen me, eh?
Nice ribbing. I do tend to AFK there rather than some out of the way place. I figure Paladin looks a bit like Valkyrie, so that was originally why I picked that spot. It's also a nice starting point to chase after any high level ambushes that might be running amok in the zone.
The Paladin
Steel Canyon, Virtue
Exalted
@Paladin
ya sure im sure you there to stop the high level ambushes :nods: :nods: look why dont o go down the the Holy Order im sure i can convince them to give you a dragon hide couch to sleep on in the Squires area :P
have you actually ever managed to get your positron tf?
AE # 67087: Journey through the Looking Glass - Save the World
LLX VirtueVerse! - Check out my crazy Toons
This is the size of group that we have balanced AVs for, 6.
-Positron 06/07/06 07:27 PM
I play both genders and if somebody asks me, OOCly, I tell them the truth. If the possibility that a male playing a female character or a female playing a male character is disturbing, well, that's thier problem isn't it?
I'm here for a roleplaying game anyway, not cybersex. There are a billion Mu*'s that cater to that, if that's your thing. 
Men have been playing women for a long time, and vice-versa. There is a long history of it in shakespearian times, for example. If somebody gets so upset that they start hurling insults around, I feel as if that person has some issues with thier own sexuallity.
If I showed up for an RL date, dressed as the opposite gender and purposefully trying to fool that person, then Yeah, that's wrong. But it's an online game, not real life. Honesty is the best policy. If you freak out, well, there are 179,999 other players out there somewhere.
It's kind of silly really.
How many teenage boys lusted after Lara Croft and then pretended to be her, guiding her actions, living her life? hehe. I know it's the common example, but to me it illustrates exactly how silly it is.
Just for fun.
------------
SUPERFREAK by Rick James
She's a very kinky girl
The kind you don't take home to mother
She will never let your spirits down
Once you get her off the street, ow girl
She likes the boys in the band
She says that I'm her all-time favorite
When I make my move to her room it's the right time
She's never hard to please
(Refrain)
That girl is pretty wild now
The girl's a super freak
The kind of girl you read about
In new-wave magazine
That girl is pretty kinky
The girl's a super freak
I really love to taste her
Every time we meet
She's all right, she's all right
That girl's all right with me, yeah
She's a super freak, super freak
She's super-freaky, yow
Super freak, super freak
She's a very special girl
The kind of girl you want to know
From her head down to her toenails
Down to her feet, yeah
And she'll wait for me at backstage with her girlfriends
In a limousine
Going back in Chinatown
Three's not a crowd to her, she says
Room 714, I'll be waiting
When I get there she's got incense, wine and candles
It's such a freaky scene
(Refrain)
(Bridge)
Temptations sing!
Ohhhhh
Super freak, super freak
That girl's a super freak
Ohhhhh
She's a very kinky girl
The kind you don't take home to mother
She will never let your spirits down
Once you get her off the street, ow girl
-----------------------
I have eight characters, across two servers. Of those characters, one is male, one is a robot based on a male body and personality template, one is an hermaphrodite that appears generally feminine but whose personality fluctuates slightly from masculine to feminine as hir monthly (well, 24-day, actually) cycle, and the other five are all female. I myself am male, but when I'm in-character I prefer to stay in-character.
I've been playing females for eight years now, my very first being a Maximal raven femmebot named Nightbird on the old Beast Wars Transformers MUSH. One of my female characters was apparently so convincing that a fellow player, with no prior knowledge of my IRL gender, was fully convinced I actually was a woman, despite this character being, to my mind, my most stereotypical "girl played by a guy" character.
For me, it's the challenge and the fun of being something different. I enjoy playing female or feminine characters, and if people assume I really am a woman... then it just means I'm doing a good job. 
War Cat, EarthShade, BrightShard, Chakat Streak, Chakamil Silverspot, Mindora, Diabolesse, Jasper Baen
KGBSS8: Agent Ravage, Pestilence Girl, Umbral Claw, Howlback, Dr. Glit
Young Phalanx: Necril, Blazing Witch
I do have a female character or two, but I tend to avoid them. My reasons being,
<ul type="square">[*]I'm way too much of a guy to be able to convincingly RP a girl, and [*]Breasts do wonky things to some of my favorite torso skins. [/list]
But in DAoC my main was a chick... I didn't seem to get any of the sort of handouts I keep hearing about but, again, too much of a guy to be very convincing. No dis, Steele. There aren't a whole lot of ladies as foulmouthed and bloody-minded as me.
Did get hit on by a guy once, though. He pretty clearly wanted to cyber. I would have told him off but I was too busy laughing my [censored] off.
Back in the day, when people still played EQ, I knew this kid who played a chick. Most obnoxious and irritating little 11-y.o. boy you would ever hope to meet. His in game avatar, however, was female. His stated reason was, quote, "to flirt with guys and get them to give me all kinds of stuff." Again, would have [censored] about it, but the idea of some lonesome middle-aged guy having an online relationship with this kid, who was nothing more than a troublesome gold-digger, was hilarious.
Again though, it does come back to the distinction between the player and the character. I mean, one of my characters is black, but a bigger cracker than me I dare - nay, I defy you to find on god's green earth.
[ QUOTE ]
What are your feelings of individuals gender bending (for those who do not know the term: playing a member of the opposite sex)?
[/ QUOTE ]
I think it's perfectly acceptable. If done maturely, I think it can be an excellent RP experiment, just like playing someone from a different culture than your own.
The_Cheetah's post is a great dissection of the issues.
My history: I have done pen and paper RPG's for over 25 years starting with the old blue "D&D" starter book.
This is my first online RPG. My chars are mostly male, I have two females. I have been asked, when playing a female, if I am really a girl, my answer, the one I stand by, "Does it matter?"
Its about plaing a game, and if for the moment being female is part of the game, so what?
I can understand that anyone not secure in thier own identity can have trouble with this, but having worked retail for 13 years I have seen people who have trouble operiating the automatic doors and shoping carts. It doesnt make them less of a person, they just lack certain abilites.
My point: Its a game and the "R" is about playing other roles, why confine yourself to just one gender role?
I have never played a female character in any online game, except one or two in betas to see how gear looked. But I really have no issue with people playing characters of the opposite gender as long as:
-They aren't being 'loose' (stereotypical #### being played by a guy)
-They don't freak out if I use the gender pronoun of their character and not them, especially when they don't tell me
-They dress their character in a reasonable way (I'm tired of female characters with minimal clothing. There's millions of options, use them!)
I genderbend all the time. Done it on MUSHes, done it tabletop, do it here. Why? Well, brace for babbling, I tend to go on a bit when the nostalgia train rolls into station. *sheepish*
I'm one of what guys consider to be the rarest of rare breeds - I'm a gamer chick. A geeky one, at that. Star Wars, Star Trek, Babylon 5, Firefly - love them. Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Soul Calibur - kick my boyfriend's [censored] all the time. I like movies with things that blow up, and wish I had more kung fu flicks in my video cabinet.
Now, my first MMORPG was Star Wars Galaxies, right at launch. The first character I rolled was a female human marksman, on Bria. Even after years and years of MUSHing, I suppose because I did it so much with my boyfriend right there with me, I had never experienced what I did my very first day in SWG. Well.. not since my pre-broadband days on AOL, anyway. Waiting for a shuttle, big trandoshan guy wanders up, and starts hitting on me.
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?
This happened at the next few shuttles I was stuck waiting for (different guys, thankfully - a virtual stalker would have been extremely creepy), so I nuked the poor marksman girl, and made a guy on Kettemoor instead. Never had the problem again. The first time I ever pointed out I was a girl at the keyboard was with a group of guys, RPing the formation of a shipping company, and one of them immediately said "Oh, crap, I guess I can't make dirty jokes anymore!" to which I told him a dead baby joke and all was well in the state of Theed once again. :> After a while, I eventually went back and got a female character to play with my RP buddies, and they were very good about laughing off the trandoshans at starports with me. Poor guys.
I guess it boils down to two things, for me, in terms of why I continue to play male characters. Deep down, it's always going to stem from a wish to just outright avoid the possible harassment I might be on the recieving end of if I played polygons with boobs. The poor (and sometimes downright creepy) experiences I've had in the past, both in games and in real life, will always impact my decision-making when I'm looking at a character creation screen and have to decide between male and female. If a character's concept can work just as well male as it could female, I'll probably go ahead and avoid the hassle.
I also like the male running animation a bit more.
I've never played a female character.
Ever.
Female player who *very* rarely played male characters in pen and paper RPGs, and has yet to make a male character in CoH. Is it because I don't like genderbending? Nope. It's because I'm far better at coming up with character ideas for a female character than a male one. If I come up with a male character idea for CoH, I'll roll one.
I get hit on, but it's very interesting. Only once did I get hit on by someone I didn't know, and he was preticularily disgusting. He hit my ignore list so fast I probably made his head spin. My SG mates hit on me, but strangely enough, they didn't do it until they A) knew I was IRL female, and B) knew I was engaged. It's like, ok, she's taken, so she's not going to take this seriously. Time to start joking around.
Only once have I been the least bit startled by genderbending. Met a female toon who was invited to my SG. The SG gets a teamspeak server, and I find out that the player is in fact a guy. I had no clue, honestly, I'd never thought about it. I just got used to thinking of the character as female that it was a bit of an adjustment to think of the person as male. His avatars are about a 50/50 split male and female, and I just get used to it. I still call his female characters she, and he doesn't care.
Personally I think people need to get over themselves. Unless they're being derogatory or insulting, who cares who they are IRL? I didn't come here to date. I didn't come here to cyber. Play the character as you like and react to the character as their avatar suggests.
Seems to me the only way a guy would get angry if you are a guy playign a girl, is he he had hit on you, not knowing.
If he does not know, and knows he would be uncomfortable if you are actually a guy, he shouldn't hit on you n the first place.
What is funny to me is that I think the guys are more concerned with the possibilty of flirting with another guy than the idea the person might be an 11 year old child.
Well put Tiger. I have 8 alts ranging from 6 - 49th. 2 ladies (a defender and a tanker). I made the tanker cause I love the way it wouldlook to passerbys as I am kicking some Avs [censored]. So far it has happened many times where I'll be in a pack of baddies and I'll have 3 or 4 people watching the melee. I personaly don't care how you address me but I can say the pronoun thing really hasnt come up as I am called by the character's name. I am however guilty also of having the mind set that if I have to look at an [censored] for 4 hours while playing it might as well be a woman's 
.... sorry ladies don't mean to offend anyone. My high level is a guy but Juggunara is level 23 and that is my second highest. Im on liberty so look me up. Just my 2 cents.
Crusher Creel
I only play male chars, as a rule of thumb I usually refer to everyone as a he because the majority of the coh population is male but I have been known to be wrong. But I am comfortable enough to hit on he/she toons whenever the situation calls for it, it's always good for a laugh.
It's just a game so I have fun with it
[ QUOTE ]
Okay, so it came up recently in a discussion with someone, and I'm just going to ask the community here:
What are your feelings of individuals gender bending (for those who do not know the term: playing a member of the opposite sex)?
[/ QUOTE ]
Don't care, people can play however they want. The game (to me) is for relaxation and fun. If playing a member of the opposite sex is relaxing and fun to you, then go for it. If it isn't, I wonder why you bother...but again who cares. It is, after all, your 15 bucks a month.
[ QUOTE ]
-They dress their character in a reasonable way (I'm tired of female characters with minimal clothing. There's millions of options, use them!)
[/ QUOTE ]
Amen brother!
AE # 67087: Journey through the Looking Glass - Save the World
LLX VirtueVerse! - Check out my crazy Toons
This is the size of group that we have balanced AVs for, 6.
-Positron 06/07/06 07:27 PM
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
-They dress their character in a reasonable way (I'm tired of female characters with minimal clothing. There's millions of options, use them!)
[/ QUOTE ]
Amen brother!
[/ QUOTE ]
My SG mates joke that they can tell I'm a RL female because my toons actually wear clothes! My main's primary costume is a full set of metal armor with helmet and goggles. I do have one skimpy "evening outfit" but that's for when I'm teaming with my RL husband!
Together we entered a city of strangers, we made it a city of friends, and we leave it a City of Heroes. - Sweet_Sarah
BOYCOTT NCSoft (on Facebook)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/517513781597443/
Governments have fallen to the power of social media. Gaming companies can too.
[ QUOTE ]
My SG mates joke that they can tell I'm a RL female because my toons actually wear clothes! My main's primary costume is a full set of metal armor with helmet and goggles. I do have one skimpy "evening outfit" but that's for when I'm teaming with my RL husband!
[/ QUOTE ]
All of my characters dress according to their character concept, and according to events around them. For example, my main, Mindora, started out effectively "nude": her costume and its color choices were made to show off her fur patterning. Same thing with Chakat Streak. However, when the winter event hit, it got too cold for even my furrier characters to walk around in the buff, not to mention that they were getting sick and tired of walking through the sewers with bare feet. So Streak got heavy winter pants, a hooded coat, and thick fleece-lined boots and gloves (all still colored to match hir fur pattern), while Mindora, who had just earned her second costume slot and cape, got a more "superhero" outfit: a navy blue and purple leather bodysuit, stiletto-heeled boots, and fingerless leather gloves, plus the DVD-edition cape (I rationalize the transparency by saying the cape is actually created by Mindora herself, out of pure psionic energy).
LtCmdr T'rana has a full coverage, armored "Hazard Suit" as her main costume, and when she earns her alternates, they too will be full coverage: her Paragon City Police Department SWAT uniform, her naval duty uniform, and her naval dress whites.
Rongo wears a pale blue strapless dress of the "how does it stay on?" variety, with high heels; her alternate costumes will most likely be her secret identity, Nami Mizuno, in street clothes and her old high school uniform.
Sonnette's costume is patterned on, essentially, a BDSM-style inspired by a Final Fantasy Red Mage: leather corset, bikini bottoms, leather boots (NOT stilettos for her; she's a speedster hero, and wouldn't be able to run at superspeed in stilettos!), and a duster-style hat (lamenting the lack of feather for it). It's representative of a costume she once wore in one of her movies, and liked so much that she kept it and made it her standard adventuring gear.
Nalli Midori was actually originally designed by a friend of mine, who graciously allowed me to play her in CoH; while her original character design was "catgirl in MegaMan armor," she recently got redesigned, so that her armor was inspired more by Protoman and Zero (more accurately, it was based on Prometheus from the webcomic Bob & George), except sexier and skimpier: cheesecake armor. Her CoH design is my attempt to be as faithful to her creator's design for her as possible, which basically comes out to a sports bra with armored shoulder pads, a bikini bottom, and heavy robot-like armored boots and gauntlets, plus a helmet with a visor on it.
War Cat, EarthShade, BrightShard, Chakat Streak, Chakamil Silverspot, Mindora, Diabolesse, Jasper Baen
KGBSS8: Agent Ravage, Pestilence Girl, Umbral Claw, Howlback, Dr. Glit
Young Phalanx: Necril, Blazing Witch
Wow
Great post Cheetah
And my exact feelings on it are...
It's ok, as long as you don't lead people on, or horrificilly break character (like get angry at someone calling you 'she')
The reason behind the first one? I once met this personin SWG, was a female avatar, and had a chatroom style relationship with them for months... nothing inappropriate, jut good ol' fashioned boy meets girl. Or more accurately, boy meets guy pretending to be girl. No, I didn't make assumptions, we actually talked about previous relationships, and discussed 'her' boyfriends. When the dude finally told me I totally wigged out. It's a lot like Cheetah said up there. Totally frigging messed up. There's roleplaying, and then there's just evil.