Project Lore

I'm a gal myself. I play WoW simply because I like MMO type games and I don't think you're going to find anybody else that says otherwise. There's no difference between you guys and us girls when it comes to gaming. We play for exactly the same reasons you do. We like action, killing, and overall fun.

I've been asked a few times in game if I'm actually a girl IRL and when I say I am, the response is always the same. "Really?! Awesome!"

I considered making a male toon but quickly abandoned the idea when I decided that none of the builds looked good (that is, some armor looks extremely awkward, like shoulderpads) with the exception of the Undead and Blood Elves... yes. I like my characters to LOOK cool, thank you. < Is that just a girl thing?

Hm. But does it matter? I mean, we all like the game just the same. ;3

I am a real chick, and I play WoW. Initially it started b/c some of the guys in my husband's office started to play, and they got hubby playing, so I thought I'd give it a shot to spend some time with the hubby, then I got sucked in. LOL My hubby and I have not really played together much since my first 70 was in her 40's (we have different playstyles, he drives me insane... LOL). I use it now as a social function and am the most progressed gear-wise and experience wise of all my RL friends. Now I can't stop till I "win" WoW. And I don't have a clue when I'll win. LOL I love the game, I love the people, I love levelling and instancing and am getting into raiding. I play WoW b/c it gives me an outlet for all that "unfeminine" aggression that has been "Yes, master!"'ed out of my gender thru the previous generations.

Not only am I a woman, I'm a wife and mother of 3 boys. I started playing to spend time with my husband doing all of his trade skills. But then he wasn't leveling up fast enough for me. That's when I started my own toons.

I love: AH, solo play, defending towns that aren't always attacked, exploring, and getting my stress out on anything that will give me xp.

I hate: Dancing, especially naked dancing, demands for duels, money, guilds. Ask nice and I might say yes. Rude toons. I expect it from rouges but that's it.

WOW is my ultimate playtime. If I'm mad I kill things. If I'm Bord, I go to the AH, or fish. If I'm sad I go pvp.

But my favorite is going out with husband and boys and taking over a dungeon. A family that plays together....has a lot of fun.

Hewo.
Real Life Female here, and I love games/gaming. My cousin got me started in WoW a couple of years ago. My MMORPG life began years ago with a text based game called "Gemstone", then Everquest, FFXI, Everquest II, City of Heroes, and then World of Warcraft. Tried a bunch in between, Lineage II, RYL (imo the WORST game ever in the history of mmo's), Two Worlds, and recently Age of Conan.
Now the question being , why do I play? I guess for a variety of reasons, but my main reason is probably that it's a great stress reliever for me. To be able to come home and smack some mobs, PvP a bit just gets me to relax. I like grouping up with friends and just cool peeps to quest or dungeon action.
In these kinds of games, it is interesting to see the reaction from some guys when they realize you're an actual girl. I've been pretty lucky, I don't have 13 year old prepubescent boys hitting on me as for the most part I just play with people that I know or guildies.
I don't know about other girls in the game, but I know for myself I'm not as competitive as my male counterparts in the game. I'm more about the socialization with friends, laughing and just a plain old good time.
Turn off's? I don't get into all the math formulations as to how much this or that equals a point percentage of a fraction of attack power. In honesty it bugs me to no end when my armor doesn't "match". I don't care how drunk or high you are when you are playing WoW...I'm not impressed. People who get hella pissed over loot or a "virtual" death, ...annoy me. I guess I've always had the attitude that if you're not having fun playing a "game", then go find something else to do. At the end of the day, if you're a badass in "WoW', what are you really a badass of? Put that on your resume. ;)
I don't want special treatment in the game just because I'm a "girl". I just want to play the game, have some good times and laugh a lot. I guess pretty much just have fun with people having fun.

I'm female, I play.

I've been a gamer for a long time, I play because I like different kinds of games. *shrug*

I like WoW because it's really beautifully designed and balanced, it rewards many different playstyles and it's a world I enjoy being immersed in.

I'd change some of the self-loathing, hateful emotes on some of the female characters, like the dwarves. I'd also like the option for FULL pvp, not just horde vs alliance.

My mother plays too, she's 80.

My fiance started playing and I had to figure out what sort of thing could suck him in for such long periods of time. I rolled a character when he was at work and he came home to me addicted to my lvl 4 druid. We're both casual players. I've been around since a year before BC and am still lvl 55. I enjoy pvp a lot and we both roll a few 29 twinks. I started playing so that I could spend time with him in game but just like the poster above, we both developed our own play styles and sort of do our own thing. (Although, I have decided to finally put effort into lvling and am expecting him to help :-D )

I'm a girl who plays the game. I don't PvP really, I raid. Hardcore. I raided with the best of them through all of Sunwell, spent many 18+ hour days killing stuff. It's approaching the year mark of farming Illidan. That's what I find fun in the game. I didn't start playing because of a boyfriend. I don't currently have a boyfriend.

Do I get hit on? Yeah, of course. I am not quiet about the fact that I'm a girl, but I'm not the type to needlessly draw attention to myself. I don't post my picture on our guild forums, however, I have met about 15-20 people in my guild at various times IRL.

I'm a pretty laid back and very sarcastic individual. I honestly think a lot of girls in this game are really uptight and need to relax more. The ignore function exists for a reason, and GMs are there for harassment that extends beyond the ignore function. Guys are going to be jerks IRL and in game, there's no use complaining about it rather than taking action against it, if it bothers you. It's not worth pretending to be a dude just so you won't be hit on, really.

I don't really know what else to say, I don't really take gender into an account in WoW any more than I do in any other aspect of my life. It's pretty irrelevant.

I'm a lady and I play WoW.

I play for a lot of reasons. One, I like elves and I like the "cartoony" feel of the game. I like that your system doesn't have to be completely massive, even though I've made mine massive for better graphics.

I like getting out my frustrations in game either by random killing sprees through a certain forest, or PvPing till I can't PvP no more.

I play with my boyfriend who compliments my character no matter what class we play.

I've been hit on more times than I can count. One of my suggestions to men is to not get "attached" when a lady asks to buy an enchant, or a run to IF. Treat her like you would a guy, save them from having to lie and SAY they're a guy so that they don't have to be embarrassed later when you assume they're available because they're a chick and start hitting on them.

Also, if I say i'm a girl, or you hear i'm a girl, your first response better not be, "OMG! you're a GIRL?!?!" and after finding out this tid bit of info, you better not start treating me better or worse. I don't want favors, and I don't want you telling treating me like crap either.

Last but not least, my character is made up of pixels. If you see a lady night elf, then ask if she's a lady irl and she says yes, stop right there. I think, for some unknown reason, men seem to think characters = us RL? Sure we might try and match it up, but come on, seriously, no one is going to look like that.

I'm a female player, have been playing since around Nov/Dec of 2007. I'm in an almost-entirely female guild on Scarlet Crusade, and I just barely hit my first 70 with my Tauren hunter. ^^

As for playing toons of the opposite sex, I agree with you totally! It's a fantasy game. While most of my toons are female, including my main, I do play a belf paladin boy and a nelf druid. However, I should point out that I am into RP more than I am, say, farming and raiding. No, not ERP, so don't even ask. :P Me not that kind of nerd.

I would say my biggest annoyance regarding female toons in the game is that of their own design; anyone else ever notice that when the nelf, human, dwarf, and undead (ew) girls run, their chests *flop*? Come on, Azeroth. We have dragons, time travel, giant green men, but we can't find an underwire bra in sight? :\

I've never been met with much prejudice in vent or in group. I have encountered a fair share of people who claimed to be girls who tried their hardest to use sexuality to get l33t loots before I put my foot down, though. I try to be as fair as I can to all people of the game, regardless of location, sex, class, or gender.

Unless you're a gold farmer or Alliance, then I'm gonna blow you away. =D

Anyway, I like: BGs (when I'm winning), RP, cruising through the AH for a good RP outfit for my kids, the lore of the game, Thrall (so bad-ass, he multi-classes! :O!), grinding for rep, collecting mounts, casual raids, exploring for the sake of exploring.

I dislike: dancing, random naked toons, standing on mailboxes, the combination of the first three, outrageous AH prices, guild princesses, people who scream "OMG U IDIOTS, YYYYY" in BGs, having to kill a bazillion ogres for that damned talbuk, and the fact that I only get about 26 FPS at best. :X

TL;DR: FOR THE HOOOOOOOORDE! >D

Our guild has several female members. I'd venture to guess that half our group is female. We have many RL couples. And, some of the females in those couples have friends who've started playing. My wife plays.

I can recall times they've been spoken to inappropriately. Mainly back when we were all in a much larger raiding guild. As a leader at the time I had to deal with it. That kind of crap is never fun. When it became an issue we either removed the offender after speaking with him, or that individual apologized and cleaned up his act.

I can recall a time or two that I made a joke in-game that wasn't received well by by a female present. However, I immediately apologized upon learning I offended someone. And, it certainly made me think twice about the jokes I told in the future.

I'm female, and an officer in an all-female players horde guild. We have young players, middle-aged, older ones, from all over the place, and we kick ass.

Flirtation isn't much of an issue, as far as I can tell, we just play the game like boys do. The only difference afaik is that we are all a lot more polite in raids, don't fight over loot, don't raid while drunk, etc. ;)

Hi, I am a woman, and I play WoW :)

I'm 27 years old, have an 8 year-old child, and I am currently on long term sick leave from work, hence I have a lot of time to play. I'm single, but I do play a lot with my flatmate, who got me into the game in the first place.

I don't get hit on much, and if it does happen, I laugh it off. 90% of the people I play with know I'm a girl and are totally comfortable with it. The other 10% don't know I'm a girl, or don't care.

I have 5 70s (rogue, shaman, hunter, priest and mage). All except the priest are full on pew pew spec. I like big numbers. I love owning the boys in BGs. I have downed Illidan and Archimonde, and I fight dirty in arena. I play the auction house, I boost my friends, and I regularly troll my realm forum. The only thing I lack is the e-peen :)

I haven't found a single aspect of this game that I dislike yet. I love the social aspect, I love raiding, I love PvP, I actively enjoy levelling and I adore the artwork and lore. I haven't ever really gotten into RP, since I play on a PvE server, but I doubt it would bother me. It's all good!

My boyfriend got me into WoW, but I grew up playing various video games, as my dad had a hobby of building computers. I'm familiar with the original Warcraft games.

I think a mistake some people may make is thinking that girls play this game for different reasons than guys. For me, it's fun, I have a great guild of friends, I like the strategies involved with raiding and killing 25-man bosses, and I like making my character the best that she can be. Most guys I'm sure play for similar reasons. I think that WoW is a massive game so it has a lot of appeal for people to do whatever they want. I love leveling my professions and being entirely self-sufficient. I love playing my druid tank and being a girl behind a stereotypically "non-girly" big bear butt. I like seeing big numbers and beating other people on meters when I play my DPS classes. There may be some things that may appeal to girls more than guys, such as cute non-combat pets or mounts. It's an added bonus to be good at what you do and surprise guys who don't necessarily expect girls to be good players.

I used to get hit on more often at my old guild, by the guild leader no less. It was really annoying and immature being asked to take off all your character's armor and do a /dance before receiving loot from bosses. Ever since I switched to a more mature guild, I have not felt like I've been hit on (in a non-joking context) once. I'm very good friends with a lot of the people in the guild, plus my boyfriend is in the guild too. There are at least five more core girl raiders who are all kick ass at their jobs, and get the same amount of respect as other guys in the guild. I think some girls may be more flirty than the rest, and they probably get back what they dish out.

Outside of the guild, people just assume that I'm not a girl. All of my toons are girl characters and I think most people just assume that it's a guy playing a girl toon (which is more often than not the case). So, I don't get hit on randomly because I don't really flaunt my gender. People may be able to tell from the way I type. I've only been invited to a pug vent once, and while at first I was a little anxious about speaking and exposing my gender, once I got tired of typing everything out and spoke up the other 4 guys were very nice. I think now if I were in a situation where someone out of guild was hitting on me inappropriately, I would leave the group and just /ignore them. I don't really have the patience to put up with that kind of stuff.

So far I've had a very good WoW experience and I would not change very much about the game. I must admit though that I was very lucky to find a mature and awesome guild to call home, and that makes a significant difference.

Mother, wife, gamer. Yeah, that's me. I play mostly with my husband, as a duo. We each have a couple of solo alts though. I play, it sounds like, for many of the same reasons you do. I love the kill, the loot, the new toys. I especially love making riches in the AH, and I am quite good at it now. (found my grooooove...)

I play a little differently though, so I can't really speak to the flirting or disbelief angles. We only play together, or solo. No, read that again. Only. We don't join guilds that put demands on our time as a couple; we don't group with anyone else and create that social network. The only rare times we tend to interact at all with the community at large is when we need a shield spike attached, or a glowy 'chanted on a weapon.

We came from EQ, where we were both guilded (differet guilds) and had separate friends. It took too much away from us and the family. Now, it is a get in, kill masses, tradeskill, AH, get out.

But yes, I am a woman, and I do play.

(For the Horde!!)

I'm definitely female and play Warcraft. In fact, I got my husband back into it when we met. I happily admit I am completely addicted too :D Almost all my characters are female, which can be amusing - the amount of people who seem to think that I must look like my BElf (but not my Tauren, Troll or Orc!)
I love: Making new characters, Levelling characters, Questing, Strategy of fighting and instance runs, Social aspect (I am GM of a social guild), Being Horde, Battlegrounds
I hate: Bad manners, People who demand duels - especially when they are level ??!, Ninja invites, Gold beggars in capitals, People who can't communicate or follow a leader, Ganking
I've recently joined an RP realm too, and it's fun light relief from my main server :)

I'm a 43 year old woman and I play WoW. I've been a gamer since my parents got a Pong set for our TV in the 70s. I met my husband on a MUD in the 90s; we've been married 12 years and have two gaming children. (Our daughter prefers RPGs and plays WoW with me, and our son plays nothing but Sonic the Hedgehog right now.)

I've been playing WoW since December of 2004. I finally talked my husband into playing with me sometime in 2005. We play separately most of the time, but we do have a few characters that we enjoy leveling together.

Why do I play games? I play for the same reason I read books - escape from the real world! In WoW, I enjoy leveling, completing quests, killing mobs, crafting, creating RP personas, hanging out with friends, etc. Hey, the same reasons lots of men play, what do you know.

I don't think we can say "women play for these reasons" any more than we can say "men play for these reasons". We're all individuals and we all enjoy different aspects of the game.

If I've ever been hit on in WoW, it was so inconsequential that I don't even remember it. Do most people know I'm a woman? The people I regularly play with certainly do - many of them are women too. Others don't know and have never asked. I don't think I've been asked if I'm "really a girl" since the first days of UO, back in 1997.

I know a lot of women who have been hit on, or who report that people are surprised when they meet a "real girl", but for some reason, it just doesn't happen to me. Maybe it's because I play female dwarves, and they don't get hit on like the "prettier" races do? Or I give off some motherly housewifely vibe? I don't know. Or maybe, just maybe, it's because there are so many women gamers that it's really not a big deal anymore.

I'm female and play WOW. It's the first game I've played since hard time logged on Miss PacMan in the 80s. Some of my guy friends at work were playing and I thought it'd be an interesting cultural experiment...you know, until it turned me into a raving gamer crackhead.

My main is 70 priest and I BG with her a lot. Was terrified of PVP - it's bad enough the game wants to kill me, now other people do?! - but I find it a huge stress relief. That, a glass of wine, grouping with some RL friends...that's a pretty fun evening for me.

Up til this weekend I have never ever encountered diff treatment b/c I'm a chick. (Is it cuz I'm undead?) For the first time I joined a BG pre-made, hopped on Vent, said hello...and then there was total silence. Someone literally said "OMG, it's a GIRL." There was a little ribald banter, a couple of the ruder guys got shut down pretty hard - much to their more polite friends' amusement - and we moved on. I can only wish they'd've given me gold or loot. Maybe next time. ;)

I'm a 30 year old single woman, no kids, and I play WoW.

I got started because of a guy, but not in the way you'd think. After my last relationship ended, a good friend of mine handed me her WoW discs, and a 10-day trial code, and sent me home to install.

I've been playing computer games for years, mostly games where either you build stuff (anything Tycoon, SimCity, etc and so forth) or games where you get to run around killing things with a big axe. However, I stayed away from MMORPGs because I didn't think I'd like playing with other people.

I cannot believe how wrong I was.

Now, I have four active toons that I'm leveling, I'm an officer in a great guild Alliance-side, which includes a ton of IRL friends as well as people I have met in game. I probably spend enough time playing that it's like having a second full-time job.

My guildmates all know I'm female (and honestly? How do you hide something as basic as GENDER from someone if you're actually talking to the people behind the toons? I don't get it), and everyone is completely fine with that. In fact, the one time we had a recruit start to hassle me with "OMG RU HOTZZZ?" about 6 people started in on him because really? Why does that matter, right? It was just nice that i didn't have to be the one to say it.

So far my experiences with the people in game have been overwhelmingly positive. I don't know if I'm lucky, or if it helps a whole bunch that I'm hard to offend, but I'm having a great time so far.

World of Warcraft, for me, started off as something to do when City of Heroes/Villains got boring. CoH got me into MMORPGs, but the lack of end game content, and the idea of leveling yet another character to 50 as being the only thing to do got old about 14 months in. My first character in WoW was a Druid, and I got her to 60, then to 70, and started raiding as a Feral Tank and healer for some fights, all the way through Illidan & Archimonde. I now play a T6 raiding PVE Restoration Shaman currently through Felmyst, raiding 25 - 35 hours a week.

My reasons for still playing WoW are few, I play to raid, I play to level new characters to learn their class mechanics, and I play to socialize with the friends I've made in my 3 years playing.

WoW, for me, offers a lot of fun challenges in various group sizes, and there's always something to do. I play to experience the exhilaration when my guild has killed a new boss in Sunwell, I play to wipe for hours, days, weeks prior to killing that boss. The appeal of this game, for me, is raiding. If it wasn't for end-game content, this game would have fallen flat for me just like CoH did.

I generally feel that most women serious about this game play for the same reasons men do, our gaming experience is just from a very different perspective. Whether or not we want the attention, we get it. My guild pays no mind to the fact that I'm female, but previous guilds, and pick up groups especially, found it to be amazing that a real live GIRL plays this game. I'm just like everyone else, I want to excel at the things I enjoy, and the only problem with being female, is sometimes it's hard to get honesty in regards to performance. I don't want to be coddled, if I suck at healing, I would rather be told than be oblivious.. and most people (read: males) think that girls can't handle being told they suck at something. We can.

Raiding appeals to me because regardless of gender, if you can't play, we won't win. Male or female, if you can't do your job at the same level as the other 24 people in the raid, you have to step up your game. I enjoy the demands of high end raiding, and I enjoy that this game so thoroughly challenges me that I will never be done learning how to better myself as a player.

Female here. Long-time gamer, from 2E D&D. I've always played video games, mainly the RPG type. Wow was just a natural route to take when Diablo 2 got boring after five years (and a level 90-something toon that had finished Hell difficulty three times without ever getting her entire M'avina's Battle Hymn set.

Yes, I play a night elf hunter, but I'm not a moron at the class. I've also leveled a prot warrior to 70 to learn tanking mechanics and am working on a priest to learn healing mechanics. I'm one of those players that loves to learn the game mechanics to be a better group player. I'm in a Black Temple raiding guild (8/9). All my toons are female. I play with my spouse, but I don't play because of him.

Why do I play? For fun, for enjoyment, to read a story, go on an adventure, and collect loots. I like grouping and learning an instance. I like meeting up with 24 other people and overcoming almost insurmountable odds.

I like dressing up in tarty outfits, but ultimately it's more important to me to play my characters to the best of their ability.

I get respect because of how I play. No one has ever taken a potshot at me for my gender. I don't get extra loot because of it, nor would I accept it. I have developed friendships with both men and women. I enjoy the game for the social aspects as well as for the game itself.

I am woman, here me wow!

I'm a lady and I play World of Warcraft! And I don't really get it why people keep seeing us, female players, as exceptions. If you see the number of comments here, and if you would know how many, wives, mums, girls play, there is only one conclusion: We like WoW just as much as guys do. Maybe for different reasons, maybe not.

I personally really like RP, because I'm in a super friendly guild and we have RP events all the time, which is very amusing and casual! And now that we have quite a few level 70's, we've made a few trips to Karazhan, but we got kicked out again... We'll keep on trying, but I'm afraid it might take a while before we see the tail of Nightbane.

I don't know if RP servers are more mature than other servers (since I never played on any other server) but I've never really had any problems, nor advantages, for being a girl. Most people don't even seem to care when they hear female voices... Unless we have one of our singing nights...

Like Super I have a level 70 priest, and I'm still terrified of PVP. Maybe I'll get into it some day, but for now I'll just skip around and pick flowers to make the most delicious potions and elixirs! (Yes, I love my professions!)

I am a level 70 Tauren raiding tree on a pvp server. I enjoy killing big stuff, healing main tanks (and rogues) and wearing pretty dresses. I even like to fish.

I've been hit on more times than I can count. Its especially funny the first time I speak in vent, and I can't count to five before I get a whisper. I don't pug much any more. ;)

I enjoy the social aspect of the game as much as the questlines, lore, PVP, raiding.

All my chars are girls except my new shaman. Healing wave animation on a boy tauren is so win.

Most of the women I play with are smart, funny, can play their classes really well and I enjoy their company. Heck, 5 out of the 6 women in my guild is SMOKIN' hot IRL too.

I used to think it was pretty silly when men would play female chars. I used to get asked all the time if I was 'a girl irl?!?' because my Druid is female. I never got why it mattered.

In the two plus years I've been playing, I've made some friends made quite a few enemies, and learned to take everything in stride, weather it be raiding, pvp, or the social aspect of the game.

I'm a woman. I play WoW. I'm also sort of surprised that 'girls play video games' is still a strange idea in this culture. I think we've reached the point where it shouldn't surprise anyone that a given girl will want to do and can be good at any given 'guy' activity. (Wouldn't it be nice if one day we as a culture could be as comfortable with the opposite? Ladies wear pants, why is it exactly that men don't wear skirts?)

I got into playing WoW because my boyfriend started, but it was really because I got to preview the game that way as opposed to playing in order to spend more time together or anything like that. We do play together sometimes, but most of the time we are off doing our own thing, and just help each other out with group quests or instances, just like anyone else in the guild.

I'm not a big into PvP, but that mostly has to do with still learning the game. WoW is really my first 'video game', so how PvP works is still a bit of a foreign language to me. I'll probably get into it soon though...I'm starting to get an itch to kill something that will really fight back. :D

Why I like to play.... I dunno, it's fun? I assume that's why most people play. I like smacking the crap out of funny-looking monsters, I really like getting new weaponry for my pally, (mmm. Two handed sword....) I like the aesthetics of the game, and I like winning a fight, especially when I thought I was SO going to die.

I have all female toons, but that's more of an aesthetic choice than anything else. (If I ever roll an orc or a troll though, it'll probably be male. The females of those races look weird to me.)

I've actually never gotten any special treatment/obnoxiousness for being a girl, or playing a girl toon. The only time I get extra stuff is when it's particularly useful to my toon because of her class or how she's speced. (I'm mystified by stories of women flirting for loot, or even just being given extra loot. How does that even work? 'Heehee, if you give me that thing you just spent hours and hours getting, I'll give you a big virtual kiss!' I just don't get it... also, ew.) I've also never had a problem with someone in game, but that probably has something to do with my impatience with poor sentence structure, and my flat out refusal to say more than 'No thanks.' to people who are rude. It's a big virtual world. I don't see any point in putting up with people that raise my blood pressure.

I'm a 34 year old woman who plays and loves WOW.

I've always been a gamer; I'm lucky enough to be of the generation that "grew up" with the computer gaming industry. Heck, I even wrote some of my own (very basic) games back when I was in my teens. At 18 I was into MUDs and Doom. Later came my Final Fantasy addiction. These days, and many games later, GTA games and WOW are my current favorites.

I have 5 70s, and am a total altaholic - I have 3 more on their way to 70 - I plan on getting them there before Wrath comes out. I love raiding, and my main is a tank, and my main alt is a healer. I loathe PVP, but end up doing it anyway - and I don't suck ;)

I've never been hit on by a guildmate; and as the only guilds I've belonged to have been of the "mature" type anyway, being male or female has never been a big deal. Random players on the other hand - far too many times. The most annoying thing though is when some guy finds out you're female, and their behaviour to you totally changes. The sudden willingness to give you things and do favours for you is as bad as the asking for pics or IM or whatever crap.

I've also noticed, that wheras a group that thinks I'm male will say I'm good and want to add me to their flist for future groups, the groups that find out I'm female seem to think I can't play - and start telling me how to do my job!

"Ladies wear pants, why is it exactly that men don’t wear skirts?"

Actually, Scotland =P