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-They dress their character in a reasonable way (I'm tired of female characters with minimal clothing. There's millions of options, use them!)
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Amen brother!
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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!
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Its funny, I'm a guy, and I have both male and female toons, and all of them (I like to think) are dressed appropriately.
I agree totally, sometimes I look around and THink rather than city of heroes it should be City of Harlots.
In fact I tried to make a casual costume for my lvl 35 scrapper (at lvl 30 I had made her 3rd outfit a black steath thing that looked horrible, but hadn't bothered to fix it for a while) you know civvies, and actually decided to go for a cheap and trashy look, instead I ended up with a Skirt and Full on sweater (Almost a Schoolgirl type look. Fairly conservative, tasteful). My girlfreind laughed at me when I told her I spent 25 mins playing with the costume, and now I can never comment on her trying on clothes herself 
About a month ago, I changed the main costume from being a mettalic top (Which covers up to the neck) to the Leather Corset...the most skin my Char shows. (Of the three costumes It is the only only one that shows cleavage, and there's a cape as well)
As for the whole gender thing.
If I see a female toon, I talk to the toon, since that is what I am seeing, not to the player. I refer to her as a she. If the player doesn't like it, then I'll adjust accordingly, but why make a female toon if you're a guy and you get bent out of shape by being called a she? In guy speak, that's like wearing a Buffalo Bills Shirt, when You're really a Cowboy's Fan, then when People say "Go Bills" you want to tell them where to go.
People call me "She" when I play a female char, and that's fine with me.
In fact once, while in PP, I teamed up with a couple (Forgot their char names). She had a female toon, and he had a male one. He was far off in Steel, so me (In my female Guise) and her were waiting for him before hunting. WELL, we started going on and on about how none of the PP stores were open and how they didn't have any good shoes (To kill time, we were going up to windows and yelling Got any shoes for sale??? As well as discussing types of shoes we'd like and stuff (Limited detail as, I may play a female character but my little Male Brain has limited capacity for fashion). The importance of buying shoes when shopping...is a trait my girl has and I incorporated into that session. Me and the Woman were having a gas, and her Husband was laughing as well, saying he thought I really was a girl, or at least "Confused".
If anyone asks, I always admit my true gender, although usually my speech is a dead give away. (Not that I'm crude, but I think I usually come across as a guy)
As for why a guy would want to play a female char....
Why not?
SOme of my character concepts just fit female (in my mind) better.
To each there own...so long as you're having fun...
If we don't agree, that doesn't mean you're less correct than I am...
Just less interesting - Dogbert
Athena Olympia 50 MA/Sr Pinnacle
Abby Zira 32 Ice/Ice Virtue
Nova Element 40 Rad/Rad Champion
Green Bee 48 Dual/WP Virtue
Radi Burns 50 Fire/Rad Champion
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-They dress their character in a reasonable way (I'm tired of female characters with minimal clothing. There's millions of options, use them!)
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Amen brother!
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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!
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Well, I am a "gamer grrl" that has all female toons, but they do not wear a lot. I get the "you must be a guy, since your toons are wearing such skimpy outfits."a lot. I just like the look really. I see no harm in showing off, when the characters can be so gorgeous, and I like to look at them too. Having a character wearing very little is not "the sign of a harlot", I do not equate nudity and beauty with promiscuity myself. Vixen was liberated from a lab, where she was grown in a tank. She has the appearance of a beautiful 20 year old woman, but is only 3 at this time in game. She never undetstood the problem people have with nudity and such, since she is naive and quite trusting. My new anthropomorphic cat is clad only in her fur, and my other toons' do not tend to wear much really. I see no harm in that. 
Btw, here are some male-invented female heroes that may not fit the preconceived notions precisely:
Agent Ferrari
Lamia
On the other hand, my current main is an 8' mutant female with maxed out muscles and a tight, minimal leather outfit. She has the hardest booty in Paragon, and it's obvoius to everyone. So it's a mixed bag.
This is a funny funny topic and it's brought up in any online game I play. My husband and I play online games as a team - you should hear our peals of laughter at our keyboards.
That being said, I do notice that when he plays a female toon he's treated much differently than when he plays a male toon. He's usually given more gifts and more respect as a female toon. If his 'girl' gets an off color comment or unwelcome pass by a 'boy' toon his 'girl' gets rescued by the chivalrous 'boys' in game. We laugh watching this effect, it's an interesting phenomena.
Also funny is when we get asked if our 'girls' are together, you know, as a couple. To which more laughter at the keyboard ensues. We'll say yes but that we're a straight married couple playing as a team. To which there's usually a lengthy pause as the asking player processes the information then comes back with something akin to "That's so cool!" And then more laughter from our side of the keyboards wondering why the long pause before the comment.
Now I very rarely play a male toon because it just makes me laugh so much I can't play effectively - I'm just too girly even in character and 'he' usually gets laughed at or hit on by just as girly male toons.
I'm sure there's a doctorate in psychology/sociology with my name on it if I ever chose to write up my and my husband's online gaming experiences with gender bending. There are some real gems in that virtual mine 
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Also funny is when we get asked if our 'girls' are together, you know, as a couple. To which more laughter at the keyboard ensues. We'll say yes but that we're a straight married couple playing as a team. To which there's usually a lengthy pause as the asking player processes the information then comes back with something akin to "That's so cool!" And then more laughter from our side of the keyboards wondering why the long pause before the comment.
Now I very rarely play a male toon because it just makes me laugh so much I can't play effectively - I'm just too girly even in character and 'he' usually gets laughed at or hit on by just as girly male toons.
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I do the same, but my fiance won't let me flirt with her in game when I have a female character in. 
I think it is cool for people to play whatever gender they feel like playing. however, the other night I saw a duo that really made me giggle. it was a male and female. The male character's name was "I Am Not A Guy" and the female character was "I Am Not A Girl". I just thought that was really amusing.
-= TANSTAAFL =-
Adar - Lvl 50 Emp/Elec/Psy Defender on Guardian (411 badges)
Itsy Bitsy Slicer - Lvl 50 Kat/Reg Scrapper on Guardian
Flying-Tiger - Lvl 32 Sonic/Energy Blaster on Guardian
I gotta say, it's discussions like this that show the general maturity level of the CoH community. A month or so ago, I was reading a discussion on this exact same topic over on the WoW boards, and there it seemed the general accepted viewpoint was "If you play a gender that isn't your own, you're [censored] and deserve to be taunted".
Thank you all for proving once again how much this community does, in fact, rock.
Oh, and to answer the original question: No, it doesn't bother me. My main character is a blue-skinned, pointy-eared alien, but I (the player) am, sadly enough, merely human.
I have yet to have anyone get angry at me over this.
Why is playing an opposite gender any different?
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Why is playing an opposite gender any different?
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I always look at it kind of like male authors writing female characters. David Weber doesn't get called a pervert for writing stories that feature the female Honor Harrington as a protagonist; I don't see why I should catch flak for playing out my own "stories" with a female protagonist.
The problem is some people's tendancy to assume that one's character in some way represents how they are in the real world....
You know, I would love to see a sitcom episode, romantic comedy movie, or perhaps a webcomic plotline where a male character and a female character meet online, become good friends, and want to meet in real life...only neither one has told the other that they're actually playing cross-gender. So they both get to worry and angst over the odd romantic attraction they feel for each other "...but I'm really a {guy|girl}, it couldn't work out..."
I'll agree with a bunch of the posters here:
1) I'll play whatever gender the toon cals for (playing an homage to a golden age heroine now)
2) I notice I get MUCH 'nicer' preference as a female toon (invites to teams, SG's etc)
3) I don't lead anyone one and as soon as someone does somthing 'physical' I'll drop a mention to them via tell of my true gender.
I saw a cartoon once, the 4 stages of being transgendered:
1) Denial Male toon: You're cute TG: I'm a guy
2) Anger Male toon: You're cute TG: screw off I'm a 300 lb guy!!
3) Acceptance:Male toon: You're cute TG: "with great beauty comes great responsiblity!"
4) Advantage: TG: "Oh pooh..I'm 200K influcence short Male Toons: "We'll help!!!"
Proud member of the Cole-a-lition.
Fighting to make every reality, a better reality.
Imparting credibility to a cross-gender character reveals the quality of an observant mind.
When I played SWG, I played a female character. This was shortly after the release of the Holocrons, and I admit, was done in part in hopes that I could rely upon the kindness of strangers to be able to get the holocrons I needed to unlock my Force-Sensitive character slot.
However, I am an RPer at heart, and used to have no problem playing female characters. Since most of my online roleplaying was done in chat rooms designated for roleplaying, the players could deal with the fact that a female their character is with is played by a male.
Spending so much time in a cantina as I did [she was a dancer], I got a lot on IC interaction in. This is where things went bad. A regular at the cantina I frequentedstarted a bit of a friendly relationship with my character. We talked, he hung out with me while I danced [he was a part-time musician, I usually listened to him play while dancing], things were fine. When his character began making more romantic-type gestures toward my character, I informed the player that I was male. Not that I minded my character being hit on, I just wanted him to know, didn't want to be accused of lying later on or something.
I got an "oh... oh that's okay..." kind of response, and he practically never talked to me again. My character lost her best friend because of my lack of [Censored]. It sucked badly, and its prevented me from getting into RPing any of the female characters that I've made on CoH, and they've all therefor hit the chopping block.
I wouldn't take that too personally, Mind.
I think I'd feel weird, even if it's what the character would do, hitting on a chick that wasn't really a chick behind the wheel. Y'no?
Its not that he stopped hitting on her that bothered me. Its that he stopped hanging out with her altogether. The guy practically ignored me for the rest of the time I played Galaxies. That's what I'm afraid will happen again. What if I start playing a female character, make a pretty good friend on here, and it happens again, this guy I teamed with a lot stops talking to me because he finds out we share the same genitals? I'm not looking forward ot that again.
If someone is only friends with you because of what they think is in your pants, then they're probably not a friend worth keeping, IMO.
I'm a guy in RL. A straight guy.
2/3 of my RP chars or so have been female.
All of my female characters wear decent amounts of clothing, except for one who has a chitinous shell. Quite a few of them have had full-body suits of armor.
My main is a formerly insane demi-goddess who stole a male body to help her get into the army and have more fun hurting people.
Yep. That being said, I find most RPers on Virtue to be very open and easy-going about the gender issue. Quite a few of the more popular and well-known characters are being played by members of the opposite sex. Many of these characters are in IC relationships.
*shrug* It's a game. Have fun and don't whine about others trying to do so, unless they intrude on your fun.
Not that anyone in this thread seems to have a problem with that.
Having Vengeance and Fallout slotted for recharge means never having to say you're sorry.
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Really to confusing for my tasts. Its like do I say he or she. I just don't know. And then you say the wrong thing and they are all like "Hey, I'm not a chick." And then I have to sheepishly say "sorry, but from my point of view you look like a woman." And then they say "Well I am a guy, and if I knew where you lived I would beat you up for calling me a girl." And then I end up sleeping with one eye open for three days before deciding that the shemale didn't know where I lived.
All in all it is safer to keep your gender.
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Anyone who does that has serious issues. By the way, you could report that person for harassment. I play almost entirely female characters. Meh, I just prefer it. I do not attach any psychology to it, I am playing a game as far as I am concerned. Both chars listed in signature are females.
Our entire SG knows I am not female, and they do not have a problem with it. Anyone I befriend knows, because I feel that the start of good friendships, even though I will never meet these people in person, depends upon honesty.
Well, that's my ramble. Happy hunting.
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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. .... 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.
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Perhaps the RL women can point out... is transgender MMOing a way to get an idea of the kind of harrassment that women put up with in the real world, or does the lack of repercussions tend to make getting obnoxiously hit on more common?
/agree with the above posters who pointed out that anyone who stopped talking to you completely when he found out your real gender wasn't someone who really wanted to be your friend.
I wonder how the "big reveal" would be affected in these circumstances by saying "I'm an old, unattractive woman" instead of "I'm a guy." Is the sudden break off a reflex action from homophobia, is it just because the person driving the hot chick toon can no longer fit into the fantasy of also being a hot chick, or something else entirely?
I don't really have any objections to in-game genderbending per-se. Heck, I have a couple of female alts myself. Although the proliferation of adult sized, thong wearing heroes with pre-pubescent pigtails is a tad disturbing. I mean what's really going on here... Is it merely adolescent male immaturity manifesting itself. Or something more prurient, like an incipient pedo problem. Who knows? Probably a bit of both. But I don't let my feathers get ruffled if I make a mistake in identifying the gender of the Player.
I'm only laughing on the outside
My smile is just skin deep
If you could see inside, I'm really crying
You might join me for a weep
My Roster
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I don't really have any objections to in-game genderbending per-se. Heck, I have a couple of female alts myself. Although the proliferation of adult sized, thong wearing heroes with pre-pubescent pigtails is a tad disturbing. I mean what's really going on here... Is it merely adolescent male immaturity manifesting itself. Or something more prurient, like an incipient pedo problem. Who knows? Probably a bit of both. But I don't let my feathers get ruffled if I make a mistake in identifying the gender of the Player.
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Because it's *totally* not possible that someone thinks that pig tails just look nice.
Or that a real girl would wear pig-tails.
Shrug. What's the deal? Girls [that is, girls my age, me being fifteen] look cute with pig tails. So do adults. So I win.
Eh, I think the two labels you used amount to the same thing. One could be a psychological term, I dunno, but it seems you are overthinking it. Let's not make "genderbending" or its practice a pejorative. Let's just have fun, play the game and make friends.
I do have male and female characters. It's about expression and wanting to do certain things within the game's scope in different ways. In the context of roleplaying, only two of those characters have I ever tried to really roleplay female in. About half my characters I make as the opposite gender, and all but those two are roleplayed pretty gender-indifferent.
However, there's still special treatment. Some guys show favoritism, others assume you're stupid and need orders. I've managed to destroy both those mindsets by showing a strong, forceful personality and resolve. For a multitude of reasons, varying per individual, the comments and special treatment tend to stop. Sometimes the objectionable behavior just stops, and sometimes I've seen the offending person just leave. I like how some guys can't stand a woman who won't take any guff. I love it when you all get tough against those guys, it makes me giggle.
Visually I don't just eyecandy out a player model, I don't cheapen it. I still like how the female characters look but prefer style more than anything.
Yes indeed real girls do look good in pigtails. REAL GIRLS!!
Neither do they tend to run around the streets in thongs. Do You? You missed the point. I have nothing against pigtails. Just adults in thongs in the streets in what is a traditionally pre-pubescent hairstyle. it is entirely appropriate for a 15 yearold girl to do so. Not a 20, 30 or 45 yearold man. Get it now?
I'm only laughing on the outside
My smile is just skin deep
If you could see inside, I'm really crying
You might join me for a weep
My Roster
I agree wholeheartedly. My female alts are as your's are as well.
I'm only laughing on the outside
My smile is just skin deep
If you could see inside, I'm really crying
You might join me for a weep
My Roster
You're right.
If ever a man were to play a female character, Bruthaman, they should play the most homely, terrifying female ever.
Definately not one they'd enjoy looking at for the five-hundred hours they have ahead of them.
(I'm a guy.) I have to confess that I am really a failed MMORPGer. I have too much fun coming up with characters and backstories to ever get a toon beyond halfway to cap. About half of my characters have been female, and they are becoming more common. It's just more fun to make a kick-@ss female hero than yet another male one. Butch is boring. Done to death.
These days I don't get hit on much as a female. I think I've been flirted with more in a male toon. (Notice the difference? "Flirting," and "hitting"...) Most people seem to realize these days that you can't assume anything about a person from their character.
However, I have at times found myself in the company of a bunch of girls, and I've had the sense that at least most have actually been girls. When the topics get very RL it's hard to know whether to "blow ones cover" or not. I usually don't, although I also don't pretend to be something IRL I'm not. It's just rather interesting. :-)