Why does it matter?

[Ayashe Ninetails]

One thing I don't think anyone's mentioned yet - there are some of us out there (*raises hand*) who don't sit and wait around for guys to send IMs. If there are a bunch of people standing around, there's a very good chance we've already passed our cams over the room a few times and decided who we want to be chatting with based on profiles or overall style or something.

I'm a rather picky one with a not-to-common type, so I don't send IMs often, but you can best believe if I spot someone who falls in my type range, I'll initiate the convo.

[Fluffy Sharkfin]

6 minutes ago, JuliaFina said:

It's always been a thing in multiplayer online games. Men will ask for help in a huge MMO and crickets. He deletes his male avatar, makes a female, gets not only help instantly, gets handed gold and weapons and whatever. If playing a female avatar in a game has some benefit, some men will "exploit" that "edge" in the game by pretending to be female themselves.

I vaguely remember back in the early days of multiplayer FPS games people would use female character models because they were not only harder to spot but also had smaller hitboxes so gave a mechanical advantage compared to the larger male character models.

[Codex Alpha]

Again; Why does it matter (OP's post)?

Now for some real game industry stats, without all the back and forths lets get some real stats.

Of course no one will care about these, and ignore it everytime facts are presented, it stands nonetheless.

Females overwhelmingly played a female main character, at 93.12%. Males preferred to play male characters, but
nowhere near the same extent: 65.73% had a male main character.

Transsexual players followed the trend of their gender identity, with male-to-females (n = 20) playing 95% female mains and female-to-males (n = 17) playing 70.59% males.

Though the numbers were small (n = 18), it is interesting that transsexual players identifying as neither
male nor female both preferred to play female mains: 100% of males and 75% of females. 68.97% of those who did
not give a gender played a female main.

World Of Warcraft Poll Paper, by Kennesaw State University

 

"In a typical core PC/console game, about 60% of the female avatars you meet are played by a male player."

Quantric Foundry

A new study found roughly one-third of male video gamers prefer to play as female characters. In contrast, only about one-tenth of female gamers prefer playing as male characters.

CBR.com

----

So yeah, god forbid some dude wants you to get on mic and talk you a bit more, instead of engaging you in your anonymous antisocial form. Just like the OP and others want to back their issues with 'toxic males in SL' with their experiences, then they should expect that those same males have a reason to request voice of those they may not think are being real.

 

Edited April 21, 2022 by entity0x

[JuliaFina]

Science! 

Edited April 21, 2022 by JuliaFina

[Freddie Venus]

Heeeey everyone. I've got a female legacy name but my Avi is male and I don't voice. 

 

🤩🤪

[Silent Mistwalker]

1 hour ago, Myntz Mysterious said:

The more I read this thread the more I feel like I'm loosing brain cells...   Some one bring back Tama. At least his trolling was entertaining... 

[Rowan Amore]

Males on female avatar exploiting other males and women pay the price by having to prove ourselves.  Anyone else see the gender at fault here?

[JuliaFina]

Hostility can exist anywhere.

Edited April 21, 2022 by JuliaFina

[Coffee Pancake]

1 minute ago, JuliaFina said:

Yes there are many advantages to playing female avatars. Just the friendliness of other avatars towards you is a big one. 

We're calling it "friendliness" now .. 

[JuliaFina]

I love every avatar.

Edited April 21, 2022 by JuliaFina

[Coffee Pancake]

2 minutes ago, JuliaFina said:

Make a male avatar and try to talk to people. You will see why they switch to female. It's a response to environment. 

Make a male avatar and hit on random women and it goes badly. 

Make a female avatar and do the same and get the benefit of the doubt .. for five extra seconds before "creep" kicks in.

Those five extra seconds don't get you anywhere and just makes the Alpha's insecure.

[JuliaFina]

I'm human in real life.

Edited April 21, 2022 by JuliaFina

[Persephone Emerald]

Just now, JuliaFina said:

Make a male avatar and try to talk to people. You will see why they switch to female. It's a response to environment. 

I have a male avatar. I don't use him much, but when I'm on as him I'm doing much the same things as I'd do as a female avatar - collecting freebies and responding to people in my groups. I've had women show an interest in him, probably because I'm friendly and helpful in any avatar, but they've never been as downright rude as some of these male avatars we're discussing here. 

Let me be clear. Most people I've encountered in SL are polite and decent. The males I've encountered tend to act a bit more horny than the females do toward my female avatar, but I don't get upset with them for that. Plenty of guys in SL can be both horny and polite.

1 minute ago, Coffee Pancake said:

Make a male avatar and hit on random women and it goes badly. 

Make a female avatar and do the same and get the benefit of the doubt .. for five extra seconds before "creep" kicks in.

Those five extra seconds don't get you anywhere and just makes the Alpha's insecure.

I don't hit on anyone in SL. It's not in my character to be the pursuer. I've had SL sex with both male and female avatars, but the other person was always the one asking if I was interested. If any of those SL women were actually guys in RL, I wouldn't know or care.  I have several friends who are male in RL but play female avatars. At least 2 of them are gay in RL. I don't know anyone who plays a different gender in order to trick people into having SL sex with their avatar. I'm sure it happens, but it doesn't affect me personally.

[Ayashe Ninetails]

1 minute ago, JuliaFina said:

It's probably just a lack of experience in such things. I would guess they have several female friends in the game who actually are males rl and they just don't know.

Nah, I think it's just that it doesn't matter to some of us either way. I have very close friends who play both male and female avatars. I play both male and female (and everything in-between). It wouldn't bother me one bit if a male avatar I sent an IM to turned out to be a woman, or the woman whose outfit I complimented was really a guy. Not a single care in the virtual world because SL isn't where I'd go if I was serious about dating. I'd hit up a real life nightclub or dating site or something.

[Rowan Amore]

14 minutes ago, JuliaFina said:

Make a male avatar and try to talk to people. You will see why they switch to female. It's a response to environment. 

I was referring to a male who.posted this...

But back in the day on many games it was common to find out men exploiting other men by dressing as female characters - so some of us want to know

 

[JuliaFina]

double thought

Edited April 21, 2022 by JuliaFina

[JuliaFina]

43 minutes ago, Fluffy Sharkfin said:

I vaguely remember back in the early days of multiplayer FPS games people would use female character models because they were not only harder to spot but also had smaller hitboxes so gave a mechanical advantage compared to the larger male character models.

One game I wanted to be as small as possible. So I made a female mythical creature and I was the smallest avatar possible. I was on a raid and the dumb programmers had this one staircase I could not climb because I was too small lol. 

[Fluffy Sharkfin]

13 minutes ago, JuliaFina said:

Yes there are many advantages to playing female avatars. Just the friendliness of other avatars towards you is a big one. 

Yeah I've witnessed the "friendliness" of others when people are dealing with someone they believe to be female.  It's true some people can be more patient and helpful, but I've also seen the end result when those same friendly people eventually try to push the friendship into something more and are rebuffed.  Once it's made clear to them that their advances aren't welcome some of them can become incredibly bitter, abusive and toxic.

12 minutes ago, JuliaFina said:

Make a male avatar and try to talk to people. You will see why they switch to female. It's a response to environment. 

Honestly I can't really disagree with you on this but would argue it depends largely on the individual. I know from experience that people can be very suspicious of others motives.  It's a shame but in a lot of cases you can hardly blame them given the sheer amount of random IM's that some people receive whenever they're in public.  Some people are just defensive and less approachable regardless of what avatar you happen to use, but if you try to engage them in conversation and don't jump straight to "hey, you're sexy, do you like to dance?" or other similarly transparent attempts to get them onto a pair of poseballs then most are pleasantly surprised and will happily talk to you for a while.

 

[Myntz Mysterious]

15 minutes ago, JuliaFina said:

It's probably just a lack of experience in such things. I would guess they have several female friends in the game who actually are males rl and they just don't know. One of my rl male friends is a sl cheerleader. Every cheerleader on that team would sware she is a rl female. He had his gf voice for him once. 

 

8 minutes ago, Ayashe Ninetails said:

Nah, I think it's just that it doesn't matter to some of us either way. I have very close friends who play both male and female avatars. I play both male and female (and everything in-between). It wouldn't bother me one bit if a male avatar I sent an IM to turned out to be a woman, or the woman whose outfit I complimented was really a guy. Not a single care in the virtual world because SL isn't where I'd go if I was serious about dating. I'd hit up a real life nightclub or dating site or something.

As Ayashe stated. I dont care...  Heck one of my oldest friends in SL is a guy that has a female avatar. In his profile her clearly states hes a male in RL.

I'm not in SL for sexy time or to attempt to build some kinda of romantic relationship...  🥴

[Katherine Heartsong]

55 minutes ago, Rowan Amore said:

Males on female avatar exploiting other males and women pay the price by having to prove ourselves.  Anyone else see the gender at fault here?

Males.

This is why I'm right up front with my RL gender behind the avatar, and don't exploit anyone in my interactions. A guy hits on this female redhead of mine learns really fast who he's actually dealing with.

I'm sorry that the behaviour of the guys running female avatars stupidly/cat-fishing causes serious issues for cis-females in SL and every online game, but that's on them individually as jerkish males, not on all of us who are doing tha and exploring a feminine aspect of ourselves.

Edited April 21, 2022 by Katherine Heartsong

[Solar Legion]

1 minute ago, Katherine Heartsong said:

Males.

This is why I'm right up front with my RL gender behind the avatar, and don't exploit anyone in my interactions. A guy hits on this female redhead of mine learns really fast who he's actually dealing with.

I'm sorry that the behaviour of the guys running female avatars stupidly/cat-fishing causes serious issues for cis-females in SL and every online game, but that's on them individually as jerkish males, not on all of us who are doing tha and exploring a feminine aspect of ourselves.

Or those of us somewhere in between and using SL as a way to be ourselves!

[Rowan Amore]

4 minutes ago, Katherine Heartsong said:

Males.

This is why I'm right up front with my RL gender behind the avatar, and don't exploit anyone in my interactions. A guy hits on this female redhead of mine learns really fast who he's actually dealing with.

I'm sorry that the behaviour of the guys running female avatars stupidly/cat-fishing causes serious issues for cis-females in SL and every online game, but that's on them individually as jerkish males, not on all of us who are doing tha and exploring a feminine aspect of ourselves.

Apologizing again since i ,of course, didn't mean all men.   In fact, its probably the minority of men that cause the majority of issues for women.  Same as in RL.

[JuliaFina]

I like IM's.

Edited April 21, 2022 by JuliaFina

[Solar Legion]

2 minutes ago, Rowan Amore said:

Apologizing again since i ,of course, didn't mean all men.   In fact, its probably the minority of men that cause the majority of issues for women.  Same as in RL.

It's those same "men" that are problematic (in a rather different way) for varied types (effeminate, gay, trans, enby/andro and such) ... They are why I walk, armed - as mentioned before.

[Fluffy Sharkfin]

2 minutes ago, JuliaFina said:

I want to be flawless and young and beautiful and not be bugged by anyone wanting something from me!

Not discounting the rest of your post but essentially this statement here is the crux of the issue.

The point is you should be allowed to have a flawless, young, beautiful avatar and not be bugged by anyone wanting something from you.  Sure you can cite human nature and our subconscious desires as reasons for some peoples behaviour but I'm just not buying that people are slaves to their desires and are simply unable to contain themselves.

It's about time that people realized that those around them don't exist simply to fulfill their personal desires (regardless of what appearances may suggest to them) and learned to show a little self-restraint.  Humans have learned to curb all sorts of instinctive urges over the centuries, why should their attitudes in this particular instance be considered so immutable?