Is your character the same sex as you?

It's very hetero-normative to get all weirded out by ladies playing male avatars or men playing women. It's just a game, mang. At least character models in PS2 are fairly modest. Take a game like WoW and every male is a damn gorilla and every female used to get stuck with bizarre skimpy armor. You can't even identify with that if you wanted to.

And it'll never get old hearing female NC characters go "I think I broke it " when requesting MAX repairs.

I always make female characters if I have the choice, I don't know why, but it's actually a plus in PS2 since the female voices are easier to hear over all the battle sounds.

I'll tell you why - you're a deviant.

A horrible, twisted deviant.

Also, I strongly disagree with you and everything you represent.

My prejudice has nothing to do with you repeatedly killing me last night with a large sword.

You deviant.

You mean mister probey? <3

I hate you.

They are there, sometimes you have to look under the helmets.

Why all the armchair psychology?

There can be all kinds of imaginable reasons why someone may choose this or that gender/race in a game such as this.

I always have a female toon. Been playing like that for many years. It started out when I was playing MMORPGs... I'd always pick the smaller skinner female avatars because it helped in being able to see more while in 3rd person view. Also, When you play an avatar for hours on end... I'd rather stare at a female character more than a male one. I personally find the female form more enjoyable to look at than the male (call me crazy).

I don't roleplay my character, I don't interact with others as if I'm female, its just an avatar that I use to kill stuff. I don't care about "immersion" like some others do. It's also fun knowing that some find it annoying... so there is a little trolling going on as well. (omg, I was just killed by a female... *stupid people*)

Personally, I'm secure enough in myself not to have to project the "manly" image that you seem to think needs to be projected. Afterall, It's just a game and who cares what those you're killing really think.

The only one trying to protect his manly image is you by trying to justify why you pick a female character.

As I said, I don't care if you play as a man or a women. It doesn't change the fact that I think it's strange that you make the conscious effort to choose a female character over a male one.

You do realize that the female character models doesn't have a smaller hitbox in this game right?

I'm not trying to "justify" anything. I explained my thought process and reasons of the choice I made responding to the OPs question.

It comes down to this. I have a few logical reasons of why I think female toons are better to play. If you have a feeling that it's just "wrong"... you're entitled to that opinion... just realize that there are some people in this world that don't care.

Yeah, my main NC-toon is a dude but my VS alt is a chick because that is the only excuse to wear spandex But we have one girl in our outfit and she surprisingly plays as a female character

The best female line in the game.

If you go by SOE's player site, all VS characters are Black males... Just saying... (* I always thought it was lazy of them to do this rather than grab small snippets of the actual characters *)

Now there's two statements that baffle me. I don't know where people got the idea of calling your MMO characters "toons" but that just seems silly to me. And in the second statement just implies that you play female characters just to objectify them.

Back in the day... most avatars looked like cartoons. Not very realistic. Got shortened to toons as most things on the internet get shortened due to excess typing. So, it's a pretty "old" term I think.

As for the objectify statement....

Its one of the very minor reasons... especially in PS2 where you don't actually see your avatar, but yes in WoW, SWTOR, Galaxies, etc... I'd rather look at a female character than a male for hours on end... I'm not going to apologize for that. However, This is a game... played for enjoyment... if I don't enjoy something... i'm not going to spend time on it.

Btw, the avatar is an object. It's a construct made out of pixels. So inherently, if you choose a male avatar aren't you objectifying males? I honestly don't understand the problem here.

It's not necessarily about the character themselves but how we treat them, let me explain, do you know why there aren't a lot of female protagonists in video games? It's because some developers know that people will find a way to put a mod in the game that'll take their clothes off or whatever stupid sh*t, like in Skyrim. Also it's because Publishers try to interfere in the development process but I digress. Despite video games being around for some time now this is still a young medium where we don't even know the best way to portray females in games without making them bland or a sex symbol. I just think that we should be more respectful that's all, oh and in games women are objectified, men are idolized. There's a difference.

Yes. And I have to say, when I'm on my VS character and she asks for batteries I still laugh.

The reason you won't see many girls owning up to really being female is because most of you guys are idiots. I can't count how many times I've been told to "get back in the kitchen" or heard some supremely lame attempt at a pick up line by guys in game. The worst is when they're in my own platoon. They forget I have the power to kick them out, which results in being called b!tch quite often. If they don't resort to that they come back all humble.

Command chat is the worst. There are true idiots out there leading. One night on command some idiot asked me what I was wearing. Apparently he wasn't impressed when I said red plaid flannel shirt, Dickies, and combat boots. And he was stupid enough to believe he got a real answer to that question.

There are many girls who play this game. I get tells from them often. Most simply do not speak up.

Old habits die hard.

Like I explained.

male male.

This isn't a social/chat-related game, so... no, it's not.