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Female Toons: Are You Girls Or Guys In RL?








This toon also happens to be a RL girl.

Have you ever wondered how many of the female toons that you see in game are actually controlled by a girl player? Considering how many comments on Project Lore I’ve seen about guys trying (oftentimes without much luck) to get their girlfriends or wives to play WoW, my guess would be the percentage isn't too high.

I’ve noticed that most girl gamers, including myself, prefer to roll girl characters. That's true for RPGs, fighting games, adventure games and especially in WoW, where you really bond with your toon and stick with them for a long time. But guys? I’ve always thought that it's strange, but I've known plenty who could roll either way. Especially when it comes to the female toons that look good (generally not female orcs).

Being a Horde player and a lover of all things cute, my current character is a female blood elf (the cutest feature of all - when she runs, her ears wiggle!). And since I also am a big fan of the interactive side of WoW, I tend to team up with friends for much more than just running dungeons or raids. We'll set up a time to log on for quests, exploration, achievements, leveling professions, and generally running amuck, too. My most frequent partner in crime is another female blood elf played by none other than my husband.

So I’m always curious – when we /flirt, /hug, /kiss, /love, /lick or /em (insert provocative thing here) – how many other players out there are seriously unsure about what’s going on? For all they know, it could be two RL guys who are both cross-playing girl toons. Who would guess that it’s actually a husband and wife team just spreading the love? Maybe others don’t even think much about it. But when I see a girl toon, I‘m always wondering – is it a girl in RL, or a guy? If my girl toon /dances with them, and the RL player is a guy, do they think I’m flirting with them? Maybe we’re not meant to know who the RL person is – that adds a whole new level of mysticism to the game.

So, what’s been your experience? Do most girls really play only female toons, as I’ve noticed? How many guys out there roll either way? And do you ever wonder about toons' RL identities, or am I the only one?

Reader Comments (136)

i choose gender depending on race and class like if i am playing a BE (insert class here) i will normally pick a female because(no offense to people who do) the male blood elfs just look a little gay. now if I'm playing a NE druid rogue priest or hunter i will play female but normally i choose a male char for the DK. Not because i plan on sitting at my computer staring at them but i always try to find what looks best with the class/race i am playing now sometimes it just happens to be mostly females when it comes to NE and BEs because i once again think the male elves look like fairies half the time. Thats my 2 cents have fun

March 10, 2009 | Unregistered Commenterscruffy

i choose gender depending on race and class like if i am playing a BE (insert class here) i will normally pick a female because(no offense to people who do) the male blood elfs just look a little gay. now if I'm playing a NE druid rogue priest or hunter i will play female but normally i choose a male char for the DK. Not because i plan on sitting at my computer staring at them but i always try to find what looks best with the class/race i am playing now sometimes it just happens to be mostly females when it comes to NE and BEs because i once again think the male elves look like fairies half the time. Thats my 2 cents have fun(note i am a guy) sry if it reposts

March 10, 2009 | Unregistered Commenterscruffy

I've gone both ways with this.
I roll guys and girls, but right now I am predominately guys. I personally think its weird when guys roll BE or NE cause "theyre hot and night elves are teh s3x when they bounce."
I only have a BE chick, cause I wanted to roll a pally and BE guys are weird looking. But I love rolling anything female, especially trolls or tauren. (If you can't tell by now, I'm a Hordie). On my server(s) I never see many female troll or tauren and I think they look cool.
So whatever your reason is for cross gender rolling, I support it mostly.

March 10, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterZellez

im play a female draenei hunter( RL=boy) when i talk in skype or vent(because of my voice change) everyone thinks im a girl :( but i everyone is nice to me because they think im a girl:P

March 10, 2009 | Unregistered Commenterfedje

well the factor of female characters in WoW is fully an advertisement factor, in many cases of advertisement u will see females be able to get more attention than males (fyi i am a guy and also play a female undead mage (not my main))

March 10, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterDibullba

I personally have both male and female toons (I am a guy) my main toon is a female mage. I chose early on that if i was going to look at the same character for hours on end that i was going to have something that looked good in the armor that i was going to get....female toons look better in dresses than male toons :-)

I also have a male pally and a male DK both who look better in my opinion as tanks in plate gear.

March 10, 2009 | Unregistered Commenterpenndragonii

i am a 55 girl pally and a 63 dk also a girl and in RL i am a guy

March 10, 2009 | Unregistered Commenterrooting

i am a guy and i always felt weird about playing female toons (since i play horde the only option is really BE) female toons just arent... me i only roll BE toons or some taurens cause my friend convinced me to play horde even though most of em are ugly lol so any way i have a friend on WoW of which i met on WoW shes female in RL and has a toon thats female as well any femal toons i roll i tend to delete by lvl 6

PS: my female friend on WoW was 40 at the same time i was and hit 80 when i hit 55 and plays about the same amount of time im on which is about 2-3 hrs every other day

March 10, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterThe Darkness

My wife plays a male character.

I play a female character.

*shrug*

March 10, 2009 | Unregistered Commenterskeebop

For my first three years of playing, I refused to admit I am a girl, not just because of the weirdos who want to talk to me SPECIFICALLY because they think I am the fairer sex, but also because I've gotten some really hurtful things said (e,g, "You play WoW, you must be an ugly fat shut-in"). For all intents and purposes, we're in an internet chat room. Nothing I can say will shut you up, and I refuse to "send pics" as proof of my gender and/or aesthetic pleasantness.

Thank God for Ventrilo and voice chat— Once a group hears my voice there's no reason to even discuss the matter.

That being said, I've always rolled female toons, not only because I play on an RP realm and it just feels right, but also because the male toons are much larger and thus sometimes harder to see around in the heat of battle (tauren males, I'm looking at you).

March 10, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterAndra

Most female chars I've met are Women in RL too. I have about 3 or 4 in the guild I'm part of and they're really cool :)

March 10, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterEugen

Im male, i have no female characters, cuz thats not my gender
Simple.

I'm a woman and I have both male and female toons. My main is a human male. But both my trolls are female. I base my choice of male/female on the way they dance. Literally. I always roll male draenei cause I love the clap dance. And I rolled my human as male cause I'm not doing the stupid macarana. But then again I'm weird.

March 10, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterHalcath

I have always rolled female characters because I just can't see myself playing a male (I'm a woman IRL). The one time I actually did, I kind of got wierded out by the experience. Seeing how a Blood Elf malel ooked wearing [Bloody Loincloth of ] didn't help either. >_>

Oh, by the way... Female players FTW. :P

March 10, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterAlayea

Edit:

[...] Blood Elf male looked [...]
[...] Bloody Loincloth of (something) [...]

March 10, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterAlayea

Here's what a guy friend of mine said..

"If you're going to spend 6 hours a day playing a video game, what do you want to look at? A guy's ass or a girl's?"

March 10, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterAngel

All the female people i know play male toons :O

March 10, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterLiving Vapour

Angel's comment is a great argument why a dude would roll as a g.i.r.l

March 10, 2009 | Unregistered Commenterjurgen

Firstly, I am male IRL.

My first-ever toon for the first year and half that I have played WoW was a male, and all subsequent alts in that period of time were also male. I then transfered to another server and soon after met and made a friend, who is now my current guild leader, and joined their guild.

The guild I joined, in which I now have an 80 gnome mage as my main and an almost-80 shaman, an all-female-toon guild called Girls Gone Feral (arroooooouuu!!) *ahem* sorry >.> .... and there is a good mix of both RL female and males that play their female toons.

*kneehugs*

March 10, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterFidgitt

Most of my characters is actually females while I myself is male in real life.

Yeah its probably cus some are more prettier then others? My Horde Pally,Priest,Mage,DK are all female blood elves.

The same can probably be said about my allies which most of them is female Humans or NE aswell.

But when I first started playing female characters it was not because of the looks.

My main character which is a Horde Female Rogue and also Orc I created mainly to honor my favorite Warcraft Lore Character Garona the Half-orc.

So in other words my main character is actually a green mean killing machine which love alot and thus not because of the looks as most consider orc female pretty ugly I guess.

My horde Hunter is a Voodoo inspired Troll female

My Ally Mage is a Gnome.

My Horde Druid a Tauren female not much of options there only gender but I could on the other hand choosen a male tauren druid but picked a female there aswell.

So my chooises is not only for the looks, as I said have of other races which most consider ugly or funny looking aswell as Taurens,trolls and gnomes etc.

The question is though why do I have so many female characters then I dont know really.
As the majority of my character is indeed female but dont think I picked them all because of looks?

Maybe in my head/mind I think some classes is better suited for females then others.

For example all my warriors are males so I guess I printed into my brains the classical cliché that males are big strong etc and better suited for Warrior or Warlock class.
While female are better suited as the spellcasting/healer and hunter types or the agile and skillful rogue class,I dont know really.

March 11, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterHenkm

I play both actually. I love the Draenei +Hit bonus but the male Draenei are so broad on screen in tight quarters I rolled a female for my hunter. But as the big bear butt is a cross gender view blocker my druid is a male.

March 11, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterArdor

ok ok i admit it, im a guy playing a girl character but thats only for the +5% chance for grp invites : p

March 11, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterAlysiumX

On Antonidas (US), it's 50/50 on if it is a guy, or girl. Online friend is guy playing girl toon same with guildie where his wife also our GM plays a FNE Druid.

Been a male human warlock all meh life

March 11, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterDieoxide

I'm a female,and all my characters are female, my main is a female warrior that gets some looks when I get in a PUG. I'll admit, the male characters just aren't as cute! I also like my armor to match and I like riding my pretty horse. In my guild, there are only 4 girls! We're pretty awesome though.

March 12, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterDulica

LOL @ Dulica!! (We're guildies) So, I'm a chick, and I play only female chars. I think us girls need to take WoW by storm. Anyway, I think a good blog would be about weirdos falling in cyber "love" with us gals. I've had WoW stalkers and guys who actually profess their love, talk about visiting me...and all I ever did to deserve it was to be nice. /ignore

March 14, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterMagradon

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