Is “She” really a “She”? Female Gamers and Gender Bending in MMORPGs by Daelda
NOTE: I wrote this Article originally on October 20th. The next morning, just before I was about to publish it, I saw the Article MJ published on our Site, “The Female Character, The Male Player” which – while not identical to mine, covered much of the same ground. So I decided to hold off publishing my Article, at least for a little while. Well, the topic has popped up again on the swtor Forums, and it has been a couple weeks since his Article, so here is mine. I hope you enjoy.
One topic that I have seen come up again and again on MMO Forums is the subject of females in MMOs and “gender bending” – or playing a gender that you aren’t in real life. A male playing a female or a female playing a male. The old joke goes that GIRL stands for Guy In Real Life – and maybe that was true not that long ago, but is it true today? And does it matter if it is? Let’s start by finding out just who it is that actually plays Video Games – and more specifically, MMOs.
