Using opposite gender avatars

[anticlimatic]

One of two obvious reasons.

1) They're some shade of gay and see their avatars as an extension of themselves.
2) They're no shade of gay and enjoy looking at a particular person of the opposite sex as often as they like to login.

 

[ceecee]

I once was accused of being a male member for having an aggressively feminine avatar... and I'm a woman

You must have been some shade of gay at the time.

 

[Thursday]

Using my animas as avatars is pretty cool.

 

[Forever]

I find it amusing when a person uses an opposite gender avatar then gets pissed when people assume they are the gender of the avatar.

Luckily for me, I <3 it

 

[Coriolis]

I don't consider at all how my avatars will be received by others. I choose avatars that resonate with me in some way, that I feel are expressing some part of myself. They also must be aesthetically appealing. I find very few female avatars that meet these criteria, especially the first. Sometimes I use avatars that are either abstract or do not include people, like the one I have now. On rare occasion I choose an avatar to reflect an event, as when I used Gavroche from Les Miserables after the terrorist attack in Paris some months ago.

I find it amusing when a person uses an opposite gender avatar then gets pissed when people assume they are the gender of the avatar.

Well, I at least never care one way or the other. For most purposes, I find it irrelevant.

 

[Cellmold]

Whatever is significant to me at the time.

That's basically it and like all disclaimers it is prone to change with new information as it arises.

 

[ChocolateMoose123]

My bike is a man. See the tires? It's how you tell.

 

[gromit]

I picked mine because it is funny

 

[SpankyMcFly]

Why is it that some people choose to do this?

I came across gender bending first hand back in the late 90s early 2000's playing a MMORPG called Ever Quest. This is about the time I got into psychology more seriously, as in actually picking up a book outside of school One of the first organizational psychologists to get into the field was Nick Yee. Who actually posted here several months ago!!! Anyways here is the project he started that I followed while I spent a couple years way too deep into EQ. An excerpt:

"Men are 3-5 times more likely than women to gender-bend in MMORPGs. The demographic that is most likely to gender-bend are men over the age of 25. We know that 85% of MMORPG players are male, so if you do the math, at any given moment, half of all female avatars are actually being played by men.

There are many compelling explanations for why men gender-bend so much more often than women. The most pragmatic reason is that female avatars are treated better and more likely to receive gifts and help from other players (who are mostly men). In other words, men gain a functional advantage when they gender-bend whereas women lose that advantage."

Gender-Bending in MMORPGs

http://www.typologycentral.com/forums/members/25722.html

http://www.typologycentral.com/foru...er-motivation-profile.html?highlight=nick+yee

 

[SpankyMcFly]

It's kind of funny because I tend to avoid too much "F-like female" avatars (like fairies and similar) even if occasionally I like them because -- along with any disparity between avatar and identity -- I feel I won't be taken as seriously.

Fairies are 'gay'. Unless it's an evil Dryad who has very sharp claws/talons, some spikes going on, a little bit of blood and definitely that 'demony' brow thing going on, or maybe a smirking seductress.

 

[Gone]

There are many compelling explanations for why men gender-bend so much more often than women. The most pragmatic reason is that female avatars are treated better and more likely to receive gifts and help from other players (who are mostly men). In other words, men gain a functional advantage when they gender-bend whereas women lose that advantage."

Yup that's true.
I mostly played male characters in MMORPGs though, since I wanted to actually play and enjoy the game and not being hit on all the time
Also the armour usually looks more efficient.

 

[Forever]

Yup that's true.
I mostly played male characters in MMORPGs though, since I wanted to actually play and enjoy the game and not being hit on all the time
Also the armour usually looks more efficient.

The armor yes, the overly sexualized armor actually just ruins the imagination of playing because it seems like I'm just like a model rather than being out there fighting. Like there are some armor where the women has a hole in the plate of the chest just to show cleavage. I'm like can this get any more inefficient?

My my main characters are male and I usually can get attention enough as it is. I met a lesbian on an mmo once and we became really good friends until she found her partner. And then she didn't care to talk to me as much lol

 

[Totenkindly]

Fairies are 'gay'. Unless it's an evil Dryad who has very sharp claws/talons, some spikes going on, a little bit of blood and definitely that 'demony' brow thing going on, or maybe a smirking seductress.

My fairies by nature have to be flesheaters.

I think it's the inherent contradiction of it that messes with people's heads that appeals to me.

[Well, maybe not that extreme... but SOMETHING off the path.]

 

[Typh0n]

I have had one female avatar, and that was dollface from the video game Twisted Metal. All my other avatars are exclusively male, because I'm virile like that. I don't feel like explaining why, though, as my reasons are rather personal.

 

[cosmic royal]

Why not? I use male characters as avatars because I relate to them more so than most females. (Even if they're utter douches in more ways than one.)

 

[Peter Pan]

Hey maybe it's like one of those things where people get so stressed out about one sort of thing so then they get on here and do completely the opposite cuz like I mean if I was all super tough and manly in person and it was like always hard to try and keep doing that then maybe I would get on here and like be not so manly macho and stuff so like mayyyyyybe some people on here try super hard to be like how people see boys and girls in person and so it's tough and stuff so then like on here they feel a bit more freedom and like they don't have to try so hard and so they just like let go and let their other parts show through like how when you see that guy that was that news anchor in that town I used to live in that caught flashing people a few years back because he said it felt liberating and stuff hahaha

 

[cosmic royal]

I find it amusing when a person uses an opposite gender avatar then gets pissed when people assume they are the gender of the avatar.

People have thought I was a guy by my avatar, but I always laugh about it. Why get offended over something so petty? It should be expected.

 

[Gone]

 

[Norrsken]

Because.. I mean, just look at him?
<----------------

Jake Gyllenhaal is

 

[Yama]

Girls have better character designs because they can do stuff with their hair. Boy hair is boring and dumb and there's only so many ways you can wear it. Also girls are just better in general.