Comments on: Careful, there’s a REAL girl playing!

By: Pete S

Pete S — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 17:26:39 +0000

Now I’m curious to hear Stargrace’s voice! LOL

By: Ysharros

Ysharros — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 14:51:09 +0000

Salut la Quebecoise? (I’m French, I just don’t usually bother telling people because it confuses them even further. )

By: stargrace

stargrace — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 11:01:49 +0000

@Ysharros I think that was probably part of the surprise in my group as well, I have an accent (French Canadian) who knew.

Amusing to say the least.

By: Ysharros

Ysharros — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 10:47:31 +0000

@Lader I could have said something cogent, having experienced this myself, especially since coming to the States where not only do I have a female voice, I have a female voice with an English — oh wait, British — accent. I guess neither of those is commonly heard in MMO voice channels. But Stargrace & Ang pretty much said what I would have. It’s puzzling and mildly amusing to be seen as so alien in some circles.

By: Lader

Lader — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 20:42:46 +0000

+1 for ysharros!!!

By: Ysharros

Ysharros — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 15:39:28 +0000

Don’t bother your pretty little head with it — you probably wouldn’t understand.

/flees, cackling

By: Pete S

Pete S — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 13:56:56 +0000

Ah, thanks for the additional info.

What will be interesting now is how many Friend Lists you get added to, and how often you get invites to group with them again.

By: Angela (g33kg0dd3ss)

Angela (g33kg0dd3ss) — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 13:47:46 +0000

I’ve gotten the same reactions from people — not just in-game, but on game forums as well. Because my handle in most of those places is the gender-neutral “Seagoat,” and apparently I have a fairly gender-neutral “vibe,” people always assume I’m male who plays female characters. Their tone changes when I say, “Um, NOT a guy” — and usually for the better. Harsh language gets toned down, I get apologies for things people said that I may have taken offense at…I suppose chivalry isn’t *entirely* dead, LOL. I always get a laugh out of all the backpedaling.

By: stargrace

stargrace — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 13:26:36 +0000

At first I thought I had miss-heard them, so I asked Ultann in guild (Did they SERIOUSLY just say that to me in group?) which was confirmed, they did indeed say “hot female voice” – and I burst out laughing. Hard.

I game with plenty of other female gamers, and I’ve never suddenly gasped and had an awkward silence when a male joined the conversation. It’s just.. weird.

By: Scopique

Scopique — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 13:16:44 +0000

Sounds to me like they were surprised by the fact that there was a woman in the group. Their comment “that must have been Ellithia, right? Because it was just three males talking and then all of the sudden this hot female voice spoke up” contains no allusion to the ongoing topic — they could have been talking about movies, fishing or rash cream for all we can derive from it. That they were continuing the diatribe with a dissenting MALE participant, and opened with the above comment after you jumped in, and after the period of silence, tells me that you spooked em REAL GOOD

I think Pete was closer to the truth in his “Twilight” example, though. Judging by their “choice of words”, they seemed to have a very narrow view of gender (you ceased being your avatar, and were now a “hot female voice”). Perhaps they figured that women are more apt to defend RP, which they apparently view as a “soft” play style…maybe they thought you’d /ragequit, and they’d lose their party member?

Would have been priceless to see the looks on their faces, though. Reason # 6,243,235 why I personally detest PUGs