T'would be an interesting poll question: if you are a MUD coder, what is your RL gender?

It used to really worry my CS lecturers that the proportion of women in their classes was actually decreasing. Certainly, in all my workplaces since, I've been almost the only, if not the only female hard-core engineer.

And let me tell you, many's the time when I've wished for a big beared biker dude alt to use at the office *grumbles*.


Maia, wondering what's up with the wandering polls

Ummm, at the risk of looking stupid, how do you answer this poll. It is a yes or no... Is the question are you female, are you male, or what?

I've recieved that remark too. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

~CoJ

The concept of a female mudders or even a female or plays video games in general, goes back about twenty years into the 80s, it all started with dungeons and dragons of course, there were VERY few as I have researched.  Most of them became writers, (Margaret Weis for example) but they were never truly gamers or mudders.  The thing about finding female gamers is you find them irl, at an arcade or at blockbuster.  Mudding is a whole different playing field, it is online, you don't know who could be or is who.  To me it matters greatly on a roleplay mud if the actual player is male or female, I can't stand males who play females, I have tried it and I abandoned the character after a few hours.  I just couldn't stand trying to figure out how to act, or see things with the character.  Because I am not female irl I can't use my ooc point of view to how she would act.  Again if you are female and mud or play video games, you are the few, the proud, you are the female gamer.

-Delerak

Gender, as a social construct, is a continuum, not a black and white distinction. Note that gender does not equal your biological sex. It is your socialization. In response to the above post, while you may not find yourself able to figure out how a character who is female acts, that is not proof that no males can figure out how to RP a female. Those whose upbringings, through family and community, are less heavily gendered into rigid roles are likely to be fairly comfortable playing a character of the opposite sex. And likely to do a good job.

Personally, I find male characters challenging and fun to play, though I rarely play them. I am more comfortable playing females, not only because I am one, but because I like the range of expression that is expected from a female (in character or IRL).

I think males who play females just think they can play a female, (and do so rather poorly, I can spot one quite easily) and those who see them are too ignorant to know how a real female would act in the given situation.

I find it rather disturbing. I take roleplay very seriously, do you think I would go into an acting class and act out a very imitate scene with another male acting the female part? ####-****ing-no. I find it no different, the person on the other end is the one playing the role, I think they should stick to at least what they have known their entire lives-- their own gender. It's nice to try for experimentation sake, of course being an avid roleplayer you want to experience everything involved with it, which includes crossing the gender line, same with acting, robin williams in Mrs. Doubtfire, Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie, --it IS a challenge for actors, but as you will notice, those are both comedies, the whole basis of a male playing a female role is typically and commonly comedic, if you do see a male playing a female in movies it will nearly ALWAYS be comedic, because that's just what it is, hilarious. It isn't something to be taken seriously, which is why I won't when I find out the person on the other end is actually male. Just my opinion about it, thanks.

You should check out 'The Crying Game'... excellent movie. I notice that no one really seems to have a problem with women play male characters (which I do for many reasons... one of which is to avoid the immediate 800 tells from men wanting to be my characters boyfried) Being a theater major, I can tell you the gender line is a difficult one to cross. We have put on countless productions where men have had to have intimate scenes with other men (Cloud 9 as an example) and we had a female Hamlet who had to do intimate scenes with a female Ophelia. Heck, one of the men in Cloud 9 was the boyfriend of Hamlet. I think the biggest difference between acting and online gaming is that online gaming is textual. They are just words flying across the screen. It just takes a little more forward-thinking and open-mindedness to get past issues with such things.

I guess, I'm just not comfortable knowing the person on the other end isn't the same gender. It's a sham in a way, and makes me feel like they are doing it just for attention. It is different when females play males because like 95% of the population of mudders and gamers in general are male, it's like, "Ohhh, woman, teach us about this strange and wonderful species" when you see one, especially in a RPI mud. Heh-heh.

So, it's okay for a woman to play a man, but if a man plays a woman, there is something fundementally wrong? Attitudes like that scream of homophobia, prejudice, bigotry. One of the lovely things about text interactions is that we do not know the physical traits of the people on the other side of the text. Race, gender, sexual orientation, physical attractiveness, age, and other factors which help us catagorize people IRL have so much less meaning. I imagine there is an element of scariness for those who are most comfortable with judgements and catagorizations, but I hope many can move beyond that uncertainty with the situation and embrace it for what it is - a chance to meet, enjoy, and roleplay with people of backgrounds that you would never get to know in your daily life.