Why do people cross-play?

[grania]

Most of my characters in this game are designed to look like a specific member of my family and are named after said person.

 

My new Sith Assassin is patterned on my wife, so she's a girl.

 

I take pains never to identify too closely with a MMORPG player so their gender and appearance is based on other factors like character concept or as in this game emulating real or fictional people.

 

Aww. I'd be flattered if someone made their video game character to look like me.

 

I always make versions of my kids, though it's hard because my daughter has curly hair and they never have that in games.

[Jederix]

Why does this question always come up?

 

Ya know what, it doesn't matter why people do it. Don't treat this game like an online dating service and suddenly this issue disappears.

 

Remember, it's the Internet. Where men are men, women are men, and children are FBI agents.

[tigercraneninja]

I like Twi'leks, but the males are just a put off for me. Maybe it's the head-bumps. So I made a female.

Something just appeals about strong female characters

 

Aayla Secura

Darth Talon

Asajj Ventress

Sian Jiesel

 

 

All pretty awesome

 

p.s. that being said I have only once used the Flirt option (first opportunity on Coruscant) and I have no intention of starting a relationship with my male companion.

And I almost always play male characters in every other game (I guess SWTOR just makes me actually care about character story/background. go figure.)

Edited February 22, 2012 by tigercraneninja

[The_Raven_Lord]

Because the Voice Actress of the Inquisitor is so much better. Really, she sounds confident. The male is too soft spoken to be taken seriously as a power monger and megalomaniac.

 

I find this true for most of the Imperial characters. Haven't really tried out the Republic ones yet.

[MustrumRidcully]

Because I can!

[beelzebram]

Gender bending or playing a cross gender character is common in most MMOs for many reasons, Ascetics, general personality types, and the such. many people think the psychology is important but to be honest think of it as acting. up until around the mid 1800s most stage performers that were supposed to be women were actually men cast for the part.

 

I personally prefer to play female characters because it is a Mass multilayer Online Role Playing Game and the best role to play is something you are not. it challenges you to use your imagination on how your character will act and perform in situations you as a mundane behind a set of keys would normally never find yourself in.

 

for those that think playing a gender alternate character is a sign of homosexuality I would only have to say that you need to get over your own fear of your own sexuality and realize there is a world of things unknown to us, and it is not our place to judge. you wish to be known for being an individual just like anyone else. so lets not even try to imagine a world where gender bending in a MMORPG is not common, for I would hate for every character out there to become a cookie cutter cliche of the person playing them.

[Soapland]

I think it all depends on your perspective, some people see their characters as an extension of themselves, which makes it difficult for them to trans-play. Other people see their toon as a separate individual that they can use, like a puppet. I'm a guy and if for whatever reason I had to choose between a barbie or a ken doll, I'm pretty sure I'd pick Barbie. Cos Barbie is just hotter.

 

In any case it's just a game, it's all for FUN. The only situation where it might be weird is if someone were actively pretending to be the opposite gender, but then how would you know the difference anyway right? The best policy is to just treat everyone you meet in game the same way, whether you feel they are a guy or a girl.

[Aethyriel]

For those not into the lingo. Cross-playing is when somebody plays a character of the opposite gender(only counts in games where you CAN pick..No, playing metroid doesn't play you a crossplayer).

 

I've always wondered why do people do it? the most common response is "If I have to stare at an *** all day it may as well be a good looking ***", however. The camera is centered around your characters HEAD - every MMO does that, the camera is always centered around the head of your character. Why are your eyes being drawn to the *** of any character?

 

Personally I think (being male myself) that male characters just look incredibly dumb in most games, in swtor I find that to be true for every race except Zabraks that can look quite decent or Stih (but I don't like the race in general). I tried making a male but I just can't get a combinationb that doesn't look like a complete douche, Twilight character with all that weird hari choices you have or braindead muscle. Basically..if I fail to make a male character that resembles me (in any game, not just swtor) I just play a female because I always was able to create a virtual image of a woman I like the look of which is so much easier to me. I don't think I've ever succeeded creating a male character in any game except Mass Effect series and my Undead Rogue twink in WoW that I really liked the look of compared to what I could've done with the female creation options.

 

Now, besides the looks SWTOR has tons of VA, so that was also a huge factor because I like to listen when my character says something and I need the voice to be one I like. Once again, I find female VA a lot better than male ones (Empire mostly, republic.. don't know, don't care, though Trooper of course is awesome being Femshep ) for any class, except maybe BH where males get a really cool voice... but it doesn't fit to the character I'd like to see.

 

So I basically just really care how my character looks because in the end I plan to play it for a very long time (and yeah it can take me up to 1 hour creating a char) and males in this game just look incredibly dull compared to females, especially when adding voices (I really hate male SI for example).

[Kekkyoku]

I guess its down to if you are more comfortable in the company of men or women. If I was a man who liked men, i'd roll a male character. Being a man who likes women, i choose a female chatacter. Its all about being comfortable in your own sexual identity. Essentially, what i am saying, is that there is a lot of repressed sexuality out there. In reality, it doesn't matter at all!

[Wylding]

I used to play a female character on WoW. After I saw the movie Gamer....I'll never play a female character again.

[Arigo]

I honestly don't understand why it matters. People make the character they want to make for whatever reason they want to make it. I personally don't care one way or the other what those reasons are.

[Reil]

It doesn't really matter in this day and age. There isn't the stigma attached to cross playing like there used to be when the MMO genre kicked off in the mid 90's. But to answer the question, here are the reasons "I" do it.

 

First I'm a woman. Been that my whole life. Know what it's about. Why waste a great opportunity to work off some peen envy and live the other side of the coin once in a while?

 

Secondly, I grew up on a ranch working a lot of men's jobs. Did 21 years in the service in roles traditionally male. I did body building so I could perform on the level with my male counterparts. When I try to run a female character in game it simply doesn't fit. But I think it is more a physical thing than mental. It's hard to be the dainty female when in reality you are built like a brick ****-house.

 

Thirdly is aesthetics. Women ARE more visual than given credit and a well put together man is very awesome to stare at. No I'm not just looking at my character's backside, I'm enjoying all of it. More importantly I enjoy BEING that person for a few hours at a time.

[RepublicGurl]

I'm rolling a male BH because I love the VA. And when I choose dialogue and watch the scenes unfold, I feel as if I am watching a show with my character just being the main attraction.

 

I laugh at his witty comebacks, admire his professionalism, and appreciate that he isn't a cold-hearted contract killer.

 

I don't roll him because I want to be a guy or something like that (the rest of my RP characters are all female) I just wanted something different.

 

*shrugs*

 

Just like some people prefer rolling their own genders in game, some people want to do it differently. I don't read much into it either way.

Edited February 23, 2012 by RepublicGurl

[Kabjat]

here we go...this topic again.

 

I find myself sighing in exasperation every time I see it come up...mainly because it's asked with such surprising frequency. As if it really IS some big mystery to unravel.

 

Honestly...there IS no big mystery. It's a game. People play made up characters. As an adult woman who happens to be married to a man who ALSO plays this game, I primarily only roll male toons. My husband is pretty much evenly divided between male and female toons.

 

The gender of our characters does not reflect anything about us or who we are.

 

It's a cosmetic preference for me...nothing more. I don't secretly long to be a man or wish I had extra appendages or wish I could run really fast.

 

There is no deep esoteric meaning or puzzle behind the choice of the gender of my toons. I will admit to enjoying the sound of my bounty hunter's deep sexy voice. But honestly, beyond that...it's just a game and my characters do not reflect who I am as a person.

 

I seriously wonder why this question is asked so often.

[Xanvai]

I somewhat get annoyed by the whole cross-playing thing. I'm a girl, and I tank, I've been tanking for all 6 years I've played MMOs, never done anything different. I wish it was as simple as "Oh, it's a female character, obviously it's a girl, she's gonna be our tank" instead of it being WEIRD that as soon as I hop on vent they're like "OMG IT'S A GIRL TANK" and then being macked on. I don't know, I wish males would play males but that's never gonna happen. I mean, I like guys, but you don't see me rolling a male character, and even then if girls do, for some reason people think it's WEIRD that a girl is playing a guy. Really?

[Kabjat]

I stereotype like crazy, if im playing a strong tanking type class its a guy if its a more graceful caster Its a girl lol

 

I'm happy to punch a flaming hole through that stereotype for you with my STRONG MALE POWERTECH'S durasteel boot....

 

....who is controlled by me, a girl....er, woman. xD

[PooDooJedi]

I'm gay and play both male and female toons. I guess that fits but really have never thought about what it says about me. They're toons. Figments of my imagination. It's a game. Pretend. I'm not looking at it as my cross-dressing opportunity. Maybe you should do the same. Take some of the pressure off yourself.

[tehjai]

Why are we having this conversation again?

 

The only people who care about this are people who can't delineate characters from players.

 

Pro tip: for a lot of people playing this game, character and player are separate entities.

[GregMD]

In WoW I play female characters only because some of their animations are better than their male counterparts (like undead or draenei female), most of my WoW chars are male but it depends on the race. In this game I don't really see a point in rolling a female over a male.

[Meegie]

I play a male sniper class. Main reason being I prefer the voice actor for the male over the female version.

[Shiningriver]

For those not into the lingo. Cross-playing is when somebody plays a character of the opposite gender(only counts in games where you CAN pick..No, playing metroid doesn't play you a crossplayer).

 

I've always wondered why do people do it? the most common response is "If I have to stare at an *** all day it may as well be a good looking ***", however. The camera is centered around your characters HEAD - every MMO does that, the camera is always centered around the head of your character. Why are your eyes being drawn to the *** of any character?

 

I thought you were talking about people cosplaying in the opposite gender... which I find good.

[RejectedPriest]

I am a sick deluded individual who can't get women parts out of my head. I M@sterbate (apparently it's a bad word!) to lesbian **** (starts with P and rhymes with corn) regularily, can't stand if male bits come in, actually makes me angry enough to turn it off. I think about sex probably 800 times a day. Even when at work I regularily check the sunshine girl out from the local newspaper. My head always turns when a gorgeous woman walks by, and i think to myself how she would look naked.

 

Rolling female toons allows me to control the women in my life, I like to dress them up in the teeniest armor made available by the developer teams. Secretly I want to be a woman in real life but lack the funding to have the operation. I like to dress up in my mothers clothes when she's away and have tea parties with my G.I. Joe collectables.

 

If this makes me wrong, then I don't want to be right.

 

 

 

I imagine this is the response the original poster and all others who start these threads are looking for. Cmon man it's a fantasy game, be something other than a look alike of yourself.

Edited February 23, 2012 by RejectedPriest

[Laurelinde]

Oh my stars and garters...I don't mean to be rude but MMOs have been around for what, going on 20 years now, and fantasy roleplaying for longer than that; and this discussion has been done so many times that the beaten dead horse has decomposed into a mound of earth which was crafted into a golem horse which is now also dead from the beating.

 

There is not one or two single obvious 'reaons' for doing it any more or less than there are 'reasons' why some people like yellow and some people like blue and why some people like to collect ceramic pigs and some people like to go skydiving. The continual assertions that anyone 'crossplaying' is suffering from some undiagnosed mental condition or gender identity disorder is just ridiculous and frankly plays into the equally misguided notion that men and women (and any and all other genders or lack thereof with which people may associate themselves) are somehow fundamentally incapable of understanding or empathising with each other. And I say this as a woman who generally picks female avatars where possible because, well, I just like to. (Though I did/do enjoy being Luigi or Yoshi or Koopa in Mario games, or the buff blonde dude in Streets of Rage. Yes, I'm old.)

 

TL;DR: It's called 'roleplay' for a reason, and also, different people like different things. Fin.

[Kalphoenix]

I don't think it's wrong for guys to play female characters (or vise-versa), but I always found the "If I have to stare at someone's *** all day I want to stare at female *** pixels" to be a really weird, overcompensating for something kind of answer. I also find it kind of creepy. You could just say "I think the female characters look better than the male characters" and leave it at that.

 

I'll admit that most of my characters are usually the same gender as myself, but not all, it depends on the character designs and possible roleplaying choices. Maybe I just play with a more mature class of players, but I've never been harassed in voice-chat because my RL gender is different from my avatar.

 

In this game, the character designs, voice acting and romance options played a huge role in determining a few of my choices at present.

 

I don't have an issue with people playing cross-gender, they do it for all kinds of reasons, I imagine...aesthetics (character design looks better on a certain gender/equipment looks better), roleplaying, story, whatever. Because they can. Because it is a game and it doesn't matter.

 

My only peeve is with folks who play cross-gender characters and get pissed when you refer to them with terminology that reflects said gender (IE: Him, her, sir, ma'am, she, he etc), especially if we are on a roleplaying server together. I don't know why I have run into this so much throughout different mmo games. I am not a mind reader, I do not know, nor do I really care, what gender is sitting on the other side of your avatar's screen. Don't fly off the damn handle because someone refers to you (or if roleplaying, treats you) as the gender you present your avatar as. I'll admit this was more prevalent in WoW (although I've run across it at least once if not more in every game since the original EQ), and I'll consider the immaturity of the community as playing a factor there.

[Olf-chan]

I make opposite sex characters because I don't have to relate to a character to enjoy them.

I'm not a Jedi but I still enjoy playing as one. Just like I'm not a woman but I can enjoy playing as one.

Also as someone else said, in a game with this high amount of voice acting, a voice you enjoy hearing is a plus.