I got a lot of great comments in my previous post about this subject, and I’ve seen some more articles too. What’s great is that it’s shown me there are a lot of valid reasons to play the opposite gender in WoW– more reasons than I’d even thought of before.
Maebius says that he plays the opposite gender in order to specifically avoid making just an “avatar of himself”.
Matticus says female characters let you see more of the screen.
Mirsh just recently wrote up a great article about how he’s been able to discover and express new aspects of himself through playing the opposite gender in WoW.
Anyways, I just wanted to thank everybody for their comments and responses; I’ve really discovered a new appreciation for playing the opposite gender… like I said before, it was never that I had a problem with it, so much as I was a bit mystified by how widespread it was. But it turns out there are a lot of very good reasons for it that hadn’t occurred to me.
And now I’m inspired; I want to go make a male gnome rogue, I’ve got some great character ideas floating around in my head for him… and yes, I know I’ve said before that I can’t stand playing melee classes, especially rogues, but I dunno, it seems like I’ve had an unusually high number of people recently telling me how fun rogues are, I think maybe something’s trying to tell me to give it another shot. It’s so hard for me to play other classes, because to me… WoW = hunter, for the most part. But sometimes, it’s nice to wander off and do something completely different. Hence why my mage will randomly get sudden spurts of playtime.
I have way too many blog post ideas, I should really start writing them down…
Good Luck!
My 51 rogue (yes, fifty-one), is my bank char! Got to a point where I just couldn’t stand the effort to kill mobs and missed the heals of my druid or the not taking damage of ranged classes. Heck, I tried almost everything from different talents to different weapons, but it just didn’t seem to work, so I got bored of it and offered her a position as my bank char which she promptly accepted! 🙂
But, in all honesty, (almost) all classes are fun in their own ways. The one that I’ve tried a few times, got to mid 20ies and deleted, and the one that I’m not sure I’ll try again so soon, is Shamman: they have so many totems that I was running out of space on my bars, and I run with all 5 showing at once! Plus, the totem icons are not that explicit so by the time I could find/place one that I wanted, it was already not worth it! I have the deepest simpathy for anyone who can play a shammie! Not just on auto-attack, but actually play and use all those spells and totems in the proper situations…
I used to be anti-melee until I made my draenei fury warrior…now I can’t stop playing him =P
Well, I don’t have a problem with melee. It is the playstyle I like the most. Still I had trouble playing a rogue. Tried at least twice. The best one got to 19. The problem I had the class was how they died so easily. If I could get behind the mob and use a garrote on it then the mob would die pretty fast. But if I couldn’t or an add came it would be a pretty hard fight if I survived.
The only reason I am still trying is because I like the idea of a rogue and it seems fun when my rogue guildmate plays. I also like the idea of a dwarf rogue since I never saw any beyond level 10. Not in PvE, not in battlegrounds, nowhere. So my goal is to get one to 70.
@Someone – Yes, shamans need a lot of hotkeys. But as far as totems go I try to organize them by how much I will probably use them. For example, I keep Searing Totem, Strenght of Earth, Healing Stream and Grace of Air in the same bar as my shocks and healing spells since it is the one easiest for me to use constantly. Mana Spring, Stoneskin and Windfuy I leave in a bar above. And so on with all the totems. It also helps to organize them by what they do. Like putting the resistance totems near each other.
Aside from the sexual aspect, my goal has become to have one of each kind and, if possible, spec against the mainstream:
Hunter, 70, Survival
Priest, 70, Deep Discipline, used to be Holy Smiting DPS-spec
Shaman, 4x, Enhancement (Melee)
real low:
Paladin, 2x, Retribution, possibly Protection later on
Druid, 1x, Feral, possibly Boomkin
The fun part of it is that people might shake their heads at first sight, but then you prove them wrong…
This was most fun with my priest. Alot of times when I applied for PUGs noone would believe I could heal or DPS, whatever the group needed more.
The following is a comment I left at Kestral’s Aerie in response to his assertion that males with female characters are pretending to be female.
“You apparently assume that all players relate to their characters in exactly the same way that you do. They do not.
My characters, unlike yours, are not imaginary forms of me. When I play a female character I am not pretending to be female. I do not have fantasies about being female. I am not “getting in touch with my female side”. My characters are not avatars or representations of me. They are not equivalent to children’s action figure toys. They are characters I coach, protect, operate and look after.
I find female toons more visually appealing than their male counterparts. I find their voices more pleasant and animations more pleasing than those of males. They stimulate my very male protective instincts thereby making their victories more sweet, defeats more painful while providing a heightened sense of danger. If I were gay my characters would be male.
This way of relating to a character is usually incomprehensible to those who identify with a character. You are way, way off base.”