I Might Sex Change My Characters

A friend of mine says that he likes to play female characters because if he is going to play a game for hours on end he would rather look at a females ass.  It makes sense.  From a male standpoint at least.

That is not the reason for my statement that I might change the sex of all my characters to females however.  I rarely even look at my character enough to notice their ass.  Unless it is my bear, bears have asses you really can't miss even if you try.

It is just the sense that people are so much nicer to, and around, female characters.  They do not need to know if you are a female for real or not.  Just the avatar needs to be female and you get treated better for the most part.

Sure, I do rarely get a rude message on my female characters asking me if I have nude pictures or asking me to dance for them so they can... you know.  I just ignore those.  Some guys are pond scum and there is nothing you can do about that.  Just ignore them and move on.  Really, why do some guys whisper someone they never spoke to with the first words out of their mouth being something like that?

When using the random dungeon system being a female is almost like having a free pass to screw up, within reason of course.  A real screw up will get crap either way but if you make a mistake here and there as a female character I noticed that people are more willing to let it go.

On my male warrior if I screw up a pull there is a 50/50 chance that someone will call me a fail tank or something not as nice with lots of words that my filter will remove for me.  If I screw up on a pull with my female druid I have never, repeat, never had anyone insult me or be rude to me.  Perhaps a joke here or there like, I don't think that went how you expected to which I would reply, no, not exactly.

Mind you, that is just for one screw up here or there.  If I keep screwing up I am sure even my bear would get her giant butt kicked to the curb.

As a female healer it is really easy to take full control of a group.  On my shaman I was in a group that had three wipes in a row in ZA and someone blamed me each time. 

I hate when people yell healer.  If you are going to call me out use my name.  Just calling healer is for quick conversation, if you are calling me out, know who I am.  I stated what happened, did not point out who's fault it really was, and said don't worry, I can heal this, it was just a blip. 

He tried to vote kick me, it failed so he left, most likely in a nerd rage, we got a new DPS, we downed the boss.  See, the thing is the tank was not getting adds on the dragon hawk guy and they kept coming right for me and eating me.  Nothing I can do, we wipe when the healer dies, heck, I stood on the tank and he still did not take the adds off me.  It is not the healers fault they died in that case, it is the tanks fault they died. 

Perhaps the people in the group noticed that and that is why they did not kick me or perhaps it was the fact I was on a female character, either way, I did not get kicked, we got a hunter who MDed the adds that all came to me to the tank and the fight was no problem on the next try.  See, hunters rule even when I am not on mine.  All fights are 100 times easier with a hunter.

Now replace my male troll shaman in the same type of situation.  No matter what I say I am a fail healer and I get kicked.  Even if I sold the tank out and said the tank did not grab the adds and they killed me and that was the problem, not my healing (which has happened on a different boss).  While it would be true, I am gone.  Kicked because I am a male healer even if it was the tanks fault.

Same goes for DPS classes as well.  I've been called out for horrible DPS on my male rogue more times then I can remember.  Apparently 9K in a normal heroic is horrible.  Sure, I can do better but it is not horrible for a normal heroic where if everyone is doing 8K all bosses are easy.

While on my other characters I have seen female avatars pulling 4K and 5K in heroics.  Seen female avatars pulling 6K in zuls.  No one ever says a word.  It is on the rarest of rare occasions someone will mention a female avatars horrible DPS.

Over all the experiences are completely different running as a male or female.

When I enter a dungeon I say hello at the start and thanks for the run at the end.  If that is all that is ever said it is fine with me.  I am not much of a talker, I would rather play.  However, it is nice to see people reply.  When on a male character when I say hello I can usually hear crickets.  On a female character if I say hello more often then not everyone will say hello back.  Wow, people become civil just because there is a female avatar around.

On a male character if there is a wipe in an all male group it always turns into an insult fest between people blaming each other.  If I am on a female character I rarely see that happen.  I've even seen people say, so what can we do different and what went wrong.  Oh my god.  People are working things out and learning from their experience.  This almost never happens on a male character in an all male group. 

On a male character I have lost a main spec role on an item I needed to someone that needed for offspec.  I mentioned I need that for my main spec and they said suck it up.  Rude for sure, but the rest of the group agreed.  Fine, I do not play that way but it seems others do.  On my shaman I lost a role on an item and someone immediately said that I had needed it for main spec.  I did not even say anything.  The others said they should give it to me.  The tank refused to go further until the person gave it to me.  He gave it to me and apologized because he did not notice I had needed it.  See, more civility.

I've been in groups with people rolling need on things they should not have because everyone else rolled greed and someone says something about it and it is always the same.  If it is a male that speaks up they usually get the suck it up comment and if it is a female that says it they say, sorry, it was a misclick we can reroll.  Amazing how the presence of even a female avatar changes the way people act isn't it?

It is not like I want a free pass, so to speak.  I do not want to get away with horrible tanking or healing or DPS.  I just want civility to me and to those around me.

As odd as it sounds, when someone insults someone else in my group I get offended.  I personally think there is no reason for rude talk and behavior just because you have the anonymity of the internet to hide behind.  Just having a female there seems to sooth the savage beast that is most teenage boys.

If spending a few dollars will limit most of the mindless dribble I have to deal with in randoms it would be money well spent.

I don't agree with people pretending to be female but there is a huge difference between pretending to be female (usually to get stuff from teenage boys or get carried in raids) and just having a female avatar.

My friend might do it because female characters have more attractive hind ends but I would do it because everyone around you seem to be more respectful on an average basis when you are on a female character.  I don't know about you, but I enjoy the game a lot more when people are not being rude to each other and insulting each other. 

From my experiences in this game, azeroth seems to be a more civil world when you run around as a female.  Perhaps others might have a different experience they know of, but for me I noticed it and it is not small, it is a huge difference.

I probably won't do it, it is a waste of money, but from now on I will only be rolling female characters when I start new.  Ignoring the rare jerk is easy.  Finding civil people in randoms is hard, if you are not a female (avatar) that is.

Like it or not being a female avatar changes the way people act around you.  That is not an opinion, that is a fact.  I will never try to pass myself off as a female, that is wrong, but I won't mind letting people think I am if it makes the game more civil for me and those around me.