Playing "Against Type"

In April of 2010, I wrote a post as part of a larger blogger discussion of the kind of characters we play in the games we play. In it, I mentioned my "altoholism" and my tendency to role healers and specifically females.

I'm still an altoholic, though I've branched out from healing into tanking and occasional DPS (I am spectacular at neither). Rowan, my High Elf Cleric in Rift, is a hybrid, tank/healer. More than sufficient for the duo I played with my lovely bride, Sctrz. She played Enura, a Stabbity/Splosive Rogue, purely for the DeePS. My DeePS/Healer Mage, Ochroma, was harder to manage with Sctrz' Tanky Warrior, Cerrene. In our little dungeon-running group in WoW this past year, I settled into the DPS/Off-healer/Off-tank role befitting my Draenei Enhancement Shaman, Poppyshock. I do like the versatility of hybrid classes.

Something has happened though in terms of the preponderance of females in my character stable. Looking at my SWTOR toon roster (half of which has already been introduced); of the eight characters, only two are female. There are a couple reasons for this: SWTOR has decent male avatars, for one. The other is the fact that part of the game is the companion affection system, including certain companions being romancible. For now, these certain companions are the opposite gender of your player character. While I didn't mind my avatars being female in other games, they were also non-romantic. In fact, in writing short stories and attempting to plot out longer stories, I have had great difficulty thinking of my female leads (based on in-game avatars) as having lovers. Even if I RP a female, my lovely bride almost always roles a female also, and any romance there is a lesbian romance. (An aside, it's funny RPing romance online with my RL romantic partner as she sits with me in the same room.)

Now I did role those two females (haven't introduced them on this blog yet), and I do intend to go with the romance options as they come up. I am not quite as grossed out as Syp by it; though admittedly, he may be more grossed out by Vector's connection to a hive mind than the romance itself. But for the most part, I did role males because I have a difficult time imagining myself being the female in a romantic relationship, even if I do actually like Twilight.