I was reading this post over at NotAddicted.com which explained how a guy recieved two blue items in WoW in his mailbox after another player thought that he was a female. This has made me remember tons of times when I’ve recieved ‘gifts’ and the like just for being female.
Now, I’m not one of those feminist female gamers who feels the need to broadcast that I’m female all over everything. You’re not going to see me emblazoning Equal Gaming Opportunity propaganda, or talking about us women gamers just aren’t understood. I perfectly understand the phenomena of being the minority and totally willing to take whatever comes with that.
It is just ridiculous how different the gaming experience is depending on what gender your toon is. I’ve played male characters before (male blood elves = hot!) and its like a night and day difference. As a female character with a feminine name (yes, Cuppycake is a lame name…I’ll have to get into that in another post) you get help easier when you ask for quest assistance or directions, you get noticed when you apply to guilds faster, people stop and talk to you while you’re running around playing, and you get /tells. When playing a male character, I thought it might as well be a single player RPG! =/
Some of my experiences as a female gamer include:
*Being recruited for a high end raiding guild in WoW because they didn’t have enough women in their guild.
*Recieving 100 gold in WoW from a complete stranger
*Being asked to come to guild preform BG groups before people who were ahead of me on the waiting list
So, what sort of ‘perks’ have you experienced when you were playing a female avatar? I can’t tell you how many times I’ve recieved the /tell “Are you a female IRL?” =P
Tami Baribeau is the Associate Producer for Metaplace, Inc, currently working on Island Life. She is also the Lead Editor of feminist gaming blog The Border House, and the National Facebook Games Examiner for Examiner.com. She can be reached on Twitter or by email.
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I actually haven’t had any perks that I know of, for being female. Now, being the GUILDMASTER… yes.
The most I’ve experienced, other than the occasional question about whether I’m a female IRL is the /flirt emote or something similar when I am in PUGs. I actually refused to dance in dungeon groups for quite a while because it would invite unwanted attention.
Oh, I’ve defintely been asked whether or not I want a boyfriend however – usually when I tell them I’m 33 and too old for them, they go away.
Maybe I should be accepting more of these offers just to see what phat lewts could be bestowed upon me!
Nah… too much work.
Thanks for the link! I’ll add you to my blog shortly
Valdesta
62 Troll Hunter + many alts, Zul’jin
WoWGrrl player blog
You are completely right! In SWG for example I was never broke. It was not shocking to have men just mail you 100k credits for no reason, and a couple even took me out shopping when I was lower level and wanted one of the cute expensive outfits!
In EQ2 my hubby and I have been in guilds together and I would find myself always in a group while he would sit afk, it actually got to the point where I had to say I would only join if he could! This was the same with guilds, if I come he gets to come too! LOL. It is actually pretty crazy.
Honestly, I’ve never gotten these perks I always hear people talk about. My husband, on the other hand, receives gifts quite often and he only plays male toons. The only other difference is he is quite chatty and I am very quiet. I guess if he played a female, he’d really be raking in the dough and items!
Along these lines:
http://razorwire.warcry.com/news/view/67930-Gold-Farming-meets-Gold-Digging-Cybersexing-for-cash-in-WoW