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Author Topic: Study: Men Choose Female Avatars in MMOs Because Butts  (Read 37932 times)
Sjofn
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Reply #35 on: May 15, 2014, 02:04:10 PM

It's gotten a little better at least, in that women used to only be "allowed" to be healers or support, but now a lady DPSer doesn't really surprise anyone either. You'd think tanking would be natural for women! I'm a mama bear protecting my cubs! Except the really stupid cubs that insist on standing in the fire. Fuck those cubs.

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Ratman_tf
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Reply #36 on: May 15, 2014, 02:05:55 PM

Once again proving that "because DAT ASS" is a perfectly valid answer to almost any question.

It's a better explanation than "Men are like Dr. Doom, subconsiously acting out their inner patriarchal desire to control women. MUAHAHAHAH!"



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01101010
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Reply #37 on: May 15, 2014, 02:27:07 PM

I have primarily played female characters in games because they almost always look better than their male counterparts and the armor (not underwear armor) ALWAYS looks better on females. That and deep down I always liked the female heroine.

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Reply #38 on: May 15, 2014, 02:29:50 PM

(whoops, never mind)
« Last Edit: May 15, 2014, 02:33:32 PM by Severian »
Sjofn
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Reply #39 on: May 15, 2014, 02:39:29 PM

I have primarily played female characters in games because they almost always look better than their male counterparts and the armor (not underwear armor) ALWAYS looks better on females. That and deep down I always liked the female heroine.

I hear this a lot, and ... is it because you don't like playing big bricks of meat like the male character models tend to be? Because that's usually why I don't want to play a particular dude model. I'm just curious if that's the case for people not me.

And of course, if it's a "bestial" race, usually that only applies to the men as well. Do the female models look "better" because they're more human-like?

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Reply #40 on: May 15, 2014, 02:43:00 PM

I have primarily played female characters in games because they almost always look better than their male counterparts and the armor (not underwear armor) ALWAYS looks better on females. That and deep down I always liked the female heroine.

I hear this a lot, and ... is it because you don't like playing big bricks of meat like the male character models tend to be? Because that's usually why I don't want to play a particular dude model. I'm just curious if that's the case for people not me.

And of course, if it's a "bestial" race, usually that only applies to the men as well. Do the female models look "better" because they're more human-like?

That is part of it yeah. Males tend to be way over-the-top in the bodybuilder body style. I stay away from bestial races as well just because the feral thing is not my style at all.

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Reply #41 on: May 15, 2014, 04:44:33 PM

S'why I never played a male Dranei and refused to make a male caster in WoW.  If they character model doesn't fit my vision of the class concept I'm done with it.  IMO casters should be more agile, not slabs of meat.

Female beast characters are the same way. Worgen females bother me because they look fox-like, not wolf-like. Too small and lithe. Female Tauren look proportionally cows, so they're ok.  Female Dranei look like goats, so also ok. Female Iksar and Froglocks in EQ looked perfect for females of those types. No boobs on reptiles. If WoW added lizard-people they'd have boobs and it'd bug me.


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Reply #42 on: May 15, 2014, 05:05:43 PM

I've encountered a not insubstantial number of them that once I get to know them confess that they are pre-op trnasexuals who cannot afford the surgery and/or aren't getting it because their families aren't supportive. They're using MMOs to live out what they want in their RL. The first time it happened I was like "Hmmmm..." the second time I was like "two?" by the third time I just nodded. That said, I also hang out with RPers a lot in MMOs these days, so that might partially explain it as these people are using the games to live another life.

I can attest that this was the norm in Second Life. There were a lot of female females, but in some of the communities there was a large number of pre-ops. The Dollification, Bimbofication, and Sissification communities were entirely pre-op men as far as I could tell.

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Reply #43 on: May 15, 2014, 07:25:03 PM

I would think it strange that those communities centered around men wanting to be what is arguably a negative representation of women as literal sex objects, air head (sex objects who depend on their man for everything), or weak and helpless fem (sex objects).
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Reply #44 on: May 15, 2014, 07:53:21 PM

The whole /b/ obsession with sissy stuff is basically just dudes wishing they could get sex the way they perceive women getting sex. Give out the right signals, get fucked when you need to be fucked. I'm no expert but I imagine most of that stuff has a hell of a lot less to do with dressing/acting like a woman and a lot more to do with just having someone take charge and fuck them for a change.

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rk47
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Reply #45 on: May 15, 2014, 08:27:37 PM

how come there's a huge market for sissification and feminization services/porn/erotica/fanfic/fanart, and little to none of the opposite? The answer isn't as obvious as you think.

Can't fap to that.


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Reply #46 on: May 15, 2014, 09:40:34 PM

I hear this a lot, and ... is it because you don't like playing big bricks of meat like the male character models tend to be? Because that's usually why I don't want to play a particular dude model. I'm just curious if that's the case for people not me.
That's a (pretty big) part of it for me, yeah, the males tend to be too ridiculous looking. All my male characters in TERA winded up to be high elves which avoid it, although there another part is how uncomfortable they make feel some dudes just by standing around why so serious?

For the 'beast' races I don't think I have any real gender preference, though if the ladies are also solidly built in these as opposed to 'noooo must still be fappable, just take human female body and slap wolf head on it' nonsense then I'm more likely to pick female char, just because it seems frickin' rare.
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Reply #47 on: May 15, 2014, 10:42:58 PM

Yeah if the beasty race has appropriately beasty ladies (lady taurens are about as non-beasty in relation to their dudes as I can accept), I pretty much only play the lady version, because it makes me a ~special snowflake~.

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Reply #48 on: May 16, 2014, 12:01:59 AM

You'd think tanking would be natural for women! I'm a mama bear protecting my cubs! Except the really stupid cubs that insist on standing in the fire. Fuck those cubs.

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Reply #49 on: May 16, 2014, 12:06:03 AM

Aw, thanks.  Heart

Seriously, though, fuck those cubs. Tough love!

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Reply #50 on: May 16, 2014, 01:17:24 AM

For the 'beast' races I don't think I have any real gender preference, though if the ladies are also solidly built in these as opposed to 'noooo must still be fappable, just take human female body and slap wolf head on it' nonsense then I'm more likely to pick female char, just because it seems frickin' rare.

The Female Charr body is somewhat less muscular than the male, they have different horn choices i9n char gen and a slightly different head shape. But they are not much different otherwise and move exactly the same. The voice actress is a little weak for the role I think. I know that they had at least one husky voice actress as they had her play one of the other charr voices, so why not give the role of player charr to her? I'm not dissing the voice actress, its perfectly serviceable and I'm warming to her, but they could have shelled out for a woman with a deeper voice than they cast for the animal female. *shrug*

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Reply #51 on: May 16, 2014, 01:34:23 AM

This thread is entertaining because it reads like an interesting conversation interspersed with occasional comments in an entirely different language.  awesome, for real

However, just going back to the original Slate article and thread title, it doesn't actually say that the researchers researched the reasons for male players choosing female avatars. The paper is behind a paywall and the abstract reveals little about their methods, but in the Slate article they mention interviews. So it's entirely possible that all they know about the reasons for cross-gendering are what their subjects told them, which is a very different thing from the actual processes behind those choices.

As Falconeer said, gender and gender identity are far more complex than binary male/female. People's reasons for choosing a specific gender avatar may very well not be clear even to themselves, especially in societies with such strong gender normative pressures as the ones most of us live in.

It's a shame this research doesn't give us more information about the choices because without that all we're left with are opinions and anecdotes, which aren't that informative unfortunately.

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Reply #52 on: May 16, 2014, 02:20:56 AM

Girls play games too? Really? Like this? (Naughty naughty image PG13)
« Last Edit: May 16, 2014, 09:29:41 AM by Trippy »

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Reply #53 on: May 16, 2014, 01:52:20 PM

I've encountered a not insubstantial number of them that once I get to know them confess that they are pre-op trnasexuals who cannot afford the surgery and/or aren't getting it because their families aren't supportive. They're using MMOs to live out what they want in their RL. The first time it happened I was like "Hmmmm..." the second time I was like "two?" by the third time I just nodded. That said, I also hang out with RPers a lot in MMOs these days, so that might partially explain it as these people are using the games to live another life.

I can attest that this was the norm in Second Life. There were a lot of female females, but in some of the communities there was a large number of pre-ops. The Dollification, Bimbofication, and Sissification communities were entirely pre-op men as far as I could tell.

For clarification, the areas I spent time in are NOT sexual RP focused. For example, in one of the games, it is basically a simulation of a military regiment. Yet, I've met two pre-op transexuals playing female avatars who opened up to me about it in this rp group. I think part of why they confided in me is I give off a very "I'm not here to judge you" vibe. I will say, that one of them plays a very...horny character. The other one does not and is in fact, more or less played a-sexual. Both of them go through intense periods of depression due to RL shit dealing with their families not accepting them and such.

The whole /b/ obsession with sissy stuff is basically just dudes wishing they could get sex the way they perceive women getting sex. Give out the right signals, get fucked when you need to be fucked. I'm no expert but I imagine most of that stuff has a hell of a lot less to do with dressing/acting like a woman and a lot more to do with just having someone take charge and fuck them for a change.

I don't think that's a fair judgement at all. For some it is very much a fetish just like any other fetish people have. For some it is a legitimate expression of their female sides. That said, I am talking about that community in general and not about /b/ which I assume is a 4-chan style forum?

Anyway, sorry to digress. For some reason I've made contact with a lot of TG people lately and I've found they come in many flavors and sub-groups and I find myself feeling a bit defensive of them since they seem to be quite misunderstood.

Back to our talk about female avatar butts and the men who enjoy them!

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Reply #54 on: May 16, 2014, 03:15:58 PM

I wonder if gay guys are more likely to play male characters.
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Reply #55 on: May 16, 2014, 05:19:11 PM

Aw, thanks.  Heart

Seriously, though, fuck those cubs. Tough love!
I wonder why you don't babysit Alistair...

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Reply #56 on: May 16, 2014, 05:20:43 PM

Aw, thanks.  Heart

Seriously, though, fuck those cubs. Tough love!
I wonder why you don't babysit Alistair...

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Reply #57 on: May 16, 2014, 05:22:35 PM

I wonder if gay guys are more likely to play male characters.

The ones I played with (mind you, that is a whole three dudes) played dudes, and tended towards whatever race let them be the most ~beautiful man~. I know one of them would sometimes play a lady in SWTOR just to romance a dude he super wanted to romance, but he uh. Did not appreciate his lady's butt at all.

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Reply #58 on: May 16, 2014, 05:58:32 PM

The gay dude players that I've played with have been roughly 50/50 in my recollection, whereas the lesbians have all played women I am pretty sure. Tthe sample sizes are not especially big enough to draw any conclusions.

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Reply #59 on: May 16, 2014, 08:49:41 PM

The ones I played with (mind you, that is a whole three dudes) played dudes, and tended towards whatever race let them be the most ~beautiful man~. I know one of them would sometimes play a lady in SWTOR just to romance a dude he super wanted to romance, but he uh. Did not appreciate his lady's butt at all.
I've never known a gay guy to not play a male character if given the option.

Surprisingly I haven't knowingly met enough lesbians in games to say where they fall besides my own anecdotal experience.  For me it's either female, androgynous, or non-gendered character (say a robot or non-dimorphic bestial type).

I imagine it's about both identification and attractiveness, to various degrees depending upon the person in question, but either way it means more likely to play the same way they identify.

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Reply #60 on: May 16, 2014, 10:04:52 PM

I like playing whatever is the most under represented race/gender combination, and that often ends up being the female version of certain races. I loved playing a Dwarf Female in WoW just because I was rare. When I made the hop to the Horde, I ended up having a mix at the end of the day - Orc Female, Tauren Male, Troll Male, BElf Female, BElf Male, and so on.

A big selling point for me is whether the female races can be fully clothed and not running around in plate bikinis. I could not for the life of me ever play any of the female races in Tera for that reason. Instead I played a big chunky old guy and ran around in board shorts and flip flops. SWTOR I was a Lady Trooper because femshep and full armor.

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Reply #61 on: May 17, 2014, 03:11:20 AM

I like playing whatever is the most under represented race/gender combination, and that often ends up being the female version of certain races.
Haha, yep. My main EQ character was a female erudite SK and I think I saw two others ever. Main in WoW is female undead DK and well, it might just be rarer than the erudite SK.

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Reply #62 on: May 17, 2014, 05:05:45 PM

I just looked over my past and present avatars:
WoW: 2 Tauren Males (Shaman/Warrior), 1 BE hunter (was originally a Tauren) the other 6 classes are female BE/Tauren (druid)/Panda (fuck).
GW1: 50/50 split male/female (12 avatars)
GW2: Charr female/male (warrior/Ele) and Norn female/male are (Ranger/warrior) my favourite chars but the other 10 are mostly female asura or human except for the Charr and Human Engies
WAR: I played all male dwarf
TSW: female
EvE: 8 females 1 male
Aion: female
Rift: Male

I just find the login screens more aesthetically pleasing with female or furries I guess - once I'm in the game it doesn't matter.

In GW2 I had fun dressing the different genders/races up more than any other game and enjoyed it more than most other games - gender/race didn't matter. Not a fan of plate bikinis - as a male I just enjoy female aesthetics as much as I do a well-toned Charr :D

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Reply #63 on: May 17, 2014, 05:23:49 PM

I play males almost exclusively. In WoW I had 2 male tauren, 2 undead male, 2 BE male, 2 orc males, 1 goblin male, and 1 BE female. All but one of my toons in EQ2 were male as well. I did have a few ladies in CoH, and I've got a demon male and loli female in Tera. My characters are more evenly split in POE, but that's because gender is tied to class.

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Reply #64 on: May 17, 2014, 09:46:16 PM

Lessee, in order of /played...
WOW: female draenei shaman, male orc warlock, female gnome warrior, male worgen DK, male worgen druid, female dwarf hunter, male gnome monk, 3-4 alts lost to obscurity (mostly gnomes)
COH: male (heavy) defender, male controller, female warshade, female dominator, male scrapper, eleventy billion other characters
WAR: male ironbreaker, female engineer, male runepriest, female WH
GW1: female elementalist, male warrior, female mesmer, male ritualist
GW2: male asura elementalist, female asura warrior, female charr engineer, female asura guardian, female human mesmer (GW1 character)
SWTOR: male cyborg-human vanguard, female green-human sage, male human-human operative, female red-human marauder
TSW: male
LOTRO: male human loremaster, female hobbit warden, male human captain
Rift: male dwarf cleric, female dwarf warrior
Hellgate: lol
« Last Edit: May 17, 2014, 09:50:57 PM by Zetor »

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Reply #65 on: May 17, 2014, 10:18:07 PM

I will 100% of the time pick whichever character looks the most homeless. Homeless trumps boobs.

It's why my Diablo 3 wizard runs around in starter gear, handaxe, and book transmogs and my Demon's Souls characters looked like battered, run-down ex-heroes that found the bottom of the bottle and liked it there.
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Reply #66 on: May 18, 2014, 08:37:52 AM

I will 100% of the time pick whichever character looks the most homeless. Homeless trumps boobs.

It's why my Diablo 3 wizard runs around in starter gear, handaxe, and book transmogs and my Demon's Souls characters looked like battered, run-down ex-heroes that found the bottom of the bottle and liked it there.

That's awesome.  This is why my fav character in WoW was undead and the scary faced Orc. I especially liked the one with her eyes covered.  There isn't anything homeless looking in Wildstar really.  I do like the horny one with the skeleton face (forget the name) but I've mostly played a human who looks a wee tiny bit like that crazy girl from Flight of the Concords and a very dominatrix-y looking gothy Mordesh.  Since I played exile in the beta I'll probably play Dom in release in which case I'll choose either a Mechari or the horny thing.  I still forget the name of that one.  All female.  All have butts.  All the butts look okay, I guess.  I guess I play female because I are one.  I like raggedy clothes when I can find them.  I dress rather homeless looking in rl, too, I suppose.  Or, at least, very odd.  Just about everything I own has holes, rips and tears.  Funny how that has become a bit trendy.  It's odd because I love looking at weird fashion.  I think fashion design can be an art form, especially the very avante garde and conceptual fashion.  Not to wear, or couse... like I could afford it... but to see. 

If I could get this in a game, I would be so happy!


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Reply #67 on: May 21, 2014, 11:27:58 AM

If I truly had super 100% cosmetic accessibility in some hypothetical perfect game, I'd end up as some sort of weird mix between steppe nomad and corsair captain
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Reply #68 on: May 22, 2014, 07:35:54 PM

People's reasons for choosing a specific gender avatar may very well not be clear even to themselves, especially in societies with such strong gender normative pressures as the ones most of us live in.

Can we not just write this off as soft-porn? It's ok to admit what kind of body you like to look at during your gaming session  Oh ho ho ho. Reallllly?

Usually I choose based on whatever racial ability aligns with class and then make a momentary aesthetic choice. That aesthetic choice is based mostly on the quality of the engine and the art. I played males in WoW because that engine was almost Minecraft levels of low-res. But I played females in Aion and Lineage 2 and others because the art style and rendered the female form rather well and I'm a heterosexual guy. In GW2 I went male human and then I-could-care-less/don't-remember for Asuran and Charr.
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Reply #69 on: May 23, 2014, 03:58:28 PM

I love me some butts, but I don't look at game characters in that way I think. Given the option, I will always play a male character over female. I typically like to make what most would call ugly looking characters, but not in the 'Let's see what crazy shit I can come up with using this character customization' sense. Bonus points if being fat is an option.
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