Sexist outlooks towards video games:

[Sasquatch]

I think this is mainly a non-issue, if only for the fact that the video game market is comprised mostly of males, and the idea of a fantasy world where one can pick up a controller and vacation to for a few hours a day wouldn't be realistic if the character wasn't somebody that the player could relate to. How many video game lead characters have been black or hispanic? How many have been, say, over thirty years old? How many have been a different race entirely -- like an alien when the rest of the world is humans? It's not because of any prejudice or discrimination that they're not made more often, it's because sixty-year-old black women aren't much for being gamers.

Based on your sex;

Do you tend to go for characters of your own sex?

Usually -- like I said, the entire point is finding somebody I can relate to -- but I branch out every now and then, when there's an opportunity.

Do you think characters of your opposite sex don't, or do, suit roles for particular reasons?

As you mentioned, certain sexes are more easily stereotyped into certain roles. It's not sexism or prejudice, but it definitely is stereotyping. Like a female character being more suited to be a mage, or perhaps archer or something more agile, but a male character being more suited to be a more physical fighter. That's just the way it is -- "tough women" in the real world are women who have gone through hardship and still ended up successful, whereas "tough men" are more physically tough than anything.

Have you ever noticed/ known somebody that won't play as the opposite sex? (Give examples)

I don't think so. From what I've seen, it's usually the character's abilities and skills, not their sex, that makes them more desirable. I don't think it matters to most people what sex their character is.

[Josh_R]

Do you tend to go for characters of your own sex?

Usually yes, but at times I have selectd female characters. It usually depends on the game I am playing. Oblivion for example, you can choose male or female. I go for the male character, because when I play I like to imagine myself actually in the game doing all these quest, and sword fighting. This is the same for Fallout 3 when I play it. Although I have gone through as a female just to see the alternate scenario's that occur with the Black Widow perk.

Do you think characters of your opposite sex don't, or do, suit roles for particular reasons?

I think certain sex characters suit certain roles. Tombraider for example, I couldn't imagine a guy doing that. Some games I have played in the past use only male characters, the games are set back in ancient greece, and rome. Females didn't fight in battles back then so that means only males will be seen in battle.

Have you ever noticed/ known somebody that won't play as the opposite sex? (Give examples)

I have a friend who is quite the sexist. His father raised him as one, therefore nothing he can do about it. I remember when I let him borrow Oblivion he picked a male character, but his reasons was that females were nothing but legs that needed to be spread. He said they were not fit to fight in epic battles against trolls, and other shit.

[Andromeda]

I agree with a lot of the opinions that female characters in video games are viewed disproportionately or biased due to more the fact the game development population is largely male and less to do with the fact the gaming population itself is largely male. I think that used to be the case ten years ago, but I believe that the gaming population is more diverse than most give it credit. Are there more guys than girls playing yes, but the gap isn't nearly as big as it used to be. There are a lot of reports saying that there is a very large female population in MMO, real females and not just guys playing girl characters. And apparently a recent study said that there are more hardcore female gamers on MMOs than males. So they are not just casual. Most of that isn't really addressing point.

The point is that I think a lot of problems stem from the game development population and not the gamer population. Men have their idealized or skewed view of women, just like women have their idealized or skewed view of men. I mean go look at some Shounen and Shoujo manga and seen how Shounen handles female characters and Shoujo handles male characters. Its pretty clear that neither side is fair to the other opposite gender in doing accurate portrayals. The problem is that the vast majority of game developers are male and not female. The studio I worked at there were only a handful for women working there and unfortunately a good percentage were in management positions and not creating or designing the games.

So when the gaming development population starts to balance out or we end up with some like all women studios or something I don't think women will be fairly represented in the bulk of games. Though as you pointed out there are certainly some strong female characters out there certainly. I would be interested though to see what an all female game studio would produce.

As for me and my gaming habits. I play RPGs, mostly JRPGs so there is generally not a choice given and most commonly they are all male characters. I have no problem with playing either gender. I'm typically not trying to go for immersion when I'm playing a game. I'm not trying to feel like I'm the character I'm playing so male or female makes little difference or impact on my gaming experience.

In MMOs I will pretty much always play a female character, because well I will have to admit to my own vanity. I enjoy collecting or wearing the equipment or outfits. And I tend to find that the female equipment is more appealing to my vanity I guess. It looks better on a female than a male. And usually females get more clothing options in general. FFXI provided the "wedding dress" long before there were anything close to a formal tuxedo for the guys.

I'm a female hume in FFXI and I was a Paladin as my first job. Which meant that I was tank and I did my job well and quite a lot of people were very pleased with my abilities as a tank and did not think twice that I was a female Paladin. Were there many female Paladins in FFXI? Nope, I can only think of two other immediately off the top of my head. I'd imagine like you, most people think of being a male for a tanking job, but it didn't really matter to me. My other jobs were too all support classes though, but that's not because I thought I should because I was a girl, but because I just really love support classes. I was a Black Mage though as well, but its a magic user and girls and magic users are pretty common.

And I don't think I really know of annoying that won't play a certain character because of the gender. I thinks that a pretty silly reason not to want a play a character, but that's me.

From what I've heard people are saying that Lightning from FFXIII a great strong female lead. So that makes me happy. I wish there were more like Lightning out there. Though I do wish at the same time that they would cut back on the need to sexualize them even when making them strong, fortunately its not as bad with Lightning, but they still went to give her a mini-skirt which hardly seems like something practical to be fighting in.

[Polk]

I don't play as girls because girls are icky and have cooties.

I can't take any sort of risks. I don't have the insurance to get a cootie shot this year!