I've noticed a trend with the male players portraying females. Typically males take female behavior to the extreme. Super b*tchy, uber dominatrix, or major slutty. Before any of you snap, yes there are many males that play females in a less than sterotypical nature. I personally feel cross-gender RP is an excellent test of someone's imagination and abilities. However... it is generally those that claim to be female IRL when they are actually males that tend to play their females to such extremes.

Any males that play their females in the aforementioned behaviors care to comment why? (and I mean all of your females, not just now and then, this is for those that -always- play the slut, dominatrix or mega-b*tch).

I never realised that those sort of people were actually men...

I don't have a set gender when I RP. It might just be my perception of it, but women seem to get more respect in MUDs than men. Also, people with male characters are, from what I've seen, more prone to rulebreaking, spam, or general annoyance. And real-life women are less likely to make male characters. I know this is very, VERY sexist of me, but it's how I see things.

If I had to choose, though, my first choice would be a female character. Somehow, they just seem more graceful, more powerful, and generally just more fun.

That's funny...I know of several instances where men in the game I play have created a female character *specifically to simper and ask for money*.

You know what I think it is...I think that men are better at playing the stereotypes of women that other men expect. When these guys (and I'm not by any means saying all male gamers do this) encounter a real female, they often don't believe she's really female because she doesn't act like all the other 'females' he knows. lol....

I could not vote as I am a being from a far off planet and we are neither male nor female, we are eternal and reproduce by mere thought... We are far superior then you earthlings.

[quote= (crymerci @ Sep. 23 2002,4:28 pm)]Geesh, I hear that! Another female here...

I am male but love to see the female join the game!
most of the females that i have role played with put some much into there desc. and rp that it just rocks!

Ha! i am male and the one that stays home with the kids. So that is not always true!

Eh. I've been known to say it before. The full quote goes something like this... "There are no female MUDders. Nor are there any male MUDders. A string of text cannot have a sex."

-D

Well, I am male (although my god character switches gender on a random basis all the time) and our player-base is and always has been mostly male.

Thats not to say its all male though - but the ratio is probably something like 10 to 1. (I've never spent the time to work it out). Personally I can't say I have seen any difference in playing ability between males and females. You get emperors and newbies, deadly killing machines and joxsters of both sexes.

What I can say for sure is that we only have 1 female coder (although another expressed an interest but never had time).

T'would be an interesting poll question: if you are a MUD coder, what is your RL gender?

It used to really worry my CS lecturers that the proportion of women in their classes was actually decreasing. Certainly, in all my workplaces since, I've been almost the only, if not the only female hard-core engineer.

And let me tell you, many's the time when I've wished for a big beared biker dude alt to use at the office *grumbles*.


Maia, wondering what's up with the wandering polls

Ummm, at the risk of looking stupid, how do you answer this poll. It is a yes or no... Is the question are you female, are you male, or what?

I've recieved that remark too. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

~CoJ

The concept of a female mudders or even a female or plays video games in general, goes back about twenty years into the 80s, it all started with dungeons and dragons of course, there were VERY few as I have researched.  Most of them became writers, (Margaret Weis for example) but they were never truly gamers or mudders.  The thing about finding female gamers is you find them irl, at an arcade or at blockbuster.  Mudding is a whole different playing field, it is online, you don't know who could be or is who.  To me it matters greatly on a roleplay mud if the actual player is male or female, I can't stand males who play females, I have tried it and I abandoned the character after a few hours.  I just couldn't stand trying to figure out how to act, or see things with the character.  Because I am not female irl I can't use my ooc point of view to how she would act.  Again if you are female and mud or play video games, you are the few, the proud, you are the female gamer.

-Delerak

Gender, as a social construct, is a continuum, not a black and white distinction. Note that gender does not equal your biological sex. It is your socialization. In response to the above post, while you may not find yourself able to figure out how a character who is female acts, that is not proof that no males can figure out how to RP a female. Those whose upbringings, through family and community, are less heavily gendered into rigid roles are likely to be fairly comfortable playing a character of the opposite sex. And likely to do a good job.

Personally, I find male characters challenging and fun to play, though I rarely play them. I am more comfortable playing females, not only because I am one, but because I like the range of expression that is expected from a female (in character or IRL).

I think males who play females just think they can play a female, (and do so rather poorly, I can spot one quite easily) and those who see them are too ignorant to know how a real female would act in the given situation.