World of Warcraft®

Hey guys! It's been a while eh?

Well I got a little something here that might pike your interest; I am writing an article for ECU (Edith Cowen University, it's in Perth) student magazine called GSM and the topic I'm researching is very interesting!

Namely, "Virtual Transgenderism in MMORPG's".

If you're interested in participating in my little study, poke me ingame (through messages!) or post here and we'll figure out the angles from there.

Cheers!

Transgenderism? Like playing as a character of your opposite sex, or more literal transgenderism?

I'm curious...

GARBO

That's right Yotingo, transgenderism as in playing a character of the opposite sex and the reasons why. That's what I'll be researching on for the next month!

My paladin used to be a Blood elf male (I'm female). I did that because playing a paladin as a female character always seemed to go badly, as far as I could tell. People would tell you that you're doing stuff wrong (when 90% of the time, they weren't) and that you were a n00b and such and such. Making my paladin be male, I never got that problem at all....even if I messed up or wasn't doing something right. I would get responses like "No prob dude, we all make mistakes." Of course, the n00b thing would happen every so often...but that's just WoW.

When I transferred to this server, I ended up changing my paladin to female because I honestly don't know what's going on in guys' heads half the time...how could I RP as a dude?

If you have any questions or anything, hit me up in game on this toon, or Shiningnight.

Oh dear, what did I get myself into. *laughs*

My reasons for playing any of my four male characters is simple: Because I can. Specifically, I had the character concept, and wanted to try it out. With each, I stuck with it, and... here I am.

While I've not yet played a character of the opposite gender, I might be able to throw two cents in to help with your study, by offering thoughts on a related note.

05/08/2012 10:12 AMPosted by Jhulina

I honestly don't know what's going on in guys' heads half the time...how could I RP as a dude?

That kind of sums up why I can only play male characters, actually, since I myself am male. While I've seen some individuals play characters of the opposite gender and do an AMAZING job of it (E.g., le brillant Akira, see above, as well as several, several others) I'm not confident in my ability to RP a character of the opposite gender, and so I really just haven't tried. I might, someday, if a plot arc or thread comes up that requires it. I just feel like since I don't have a frame of reference, playing a female character would be awkward, or clunky, or weird, and I wouldn't end up doing it right.