For several years, I only created and played female characters in World of Warcraft. As a woman, it was just my preference to play female characters.
When my oldest daughter started playing World of Warcraft a couple of years ago, her first character was a male troll and she proceeded to ask me, “Why don’t you ever make male characters?” So after a while of hearing that question repeatedly, I decided I’d create a male character to play.
The first male character I created was a male draenei warrior. I already had several female draenei, so I thought it was time to see how the experience of playing a male draenei differed.
I customized my male draenei’s appearance, went through the random names until I found one I liked, and then began my adventure in male character playing. I immediately enjoyed how powerful and intimidating the male draenei was. I admit, I’m a woman who’s attracted to such types of men.
What surprised me though, was the “softer” side of my male draenei. Some of his error emotes felt surprisingly patient and calm, which contrasted the fierceness of his battle style. Although male draenei are well-muscled and quite built, they move with surprising nimbleness and grace.
After playing that first male character for a while, I proceeded to make additional male characters. My daughter obviously had been right to suggest that I make male characters. As of today, I have a variety of male characters, both Alliance and Horde races.
While I still enjoy playing my female characters and probably statistically play them more often, I play my male characters quite a bit. I like the deeper voices, emotes, jokes, and flirts. I get a sense of calm when playing my male night elf druid. I feel powerful and fierce playing my male night elf and male blood elf demon hunters. I feel like a rocker dude playing my void elf warlock. I feel at peace and yet also in darkness on my male nightborne priest.
My latest male character is a lightforged draenei mage and I’ve found it interesting that his voice is different than my draenei warrior. The emotes sound like the voice actor who does Turalyon, but with the familiar draenei accent. He’s very powerful looking and intimidating for a squishy.
Have I found the social aspect of playing a male character different? A small amount, yes. While I would occasionally get whispers on my female characters, I found I got more on my male characters.
The nature of the whispers was different too. On females, it tended to be flirting or just assumptions that I was a man playing a female character. On males, it tended to be compliments such as “nice transmog” and “damn, dude!” when I took my level five draenei warrior all the way from Azuremyst Isle to Goldshire to level in Elwynn Forest.
Honestly, I enjoy playing both male and female characters, but when I’m playing a male character I feel kind of “sneaky” because I’m pretending to be something I’m not. That’s really the point of playing a game though, to be something you’re not, to do things you can’t in the real world, to experience adventures that take you outside the mundane daily routine. Plus, watching my male characters quest and fight isn’t hard on the eyes either. 😉
Srinity 
I’ve always found “playing with other-gender characters in mmo games” topic to be interesting; have read many posts on the WoW forums too, as I like to learn how people think and feel about their “avatars”. So, it’s interesting to read your opinions too.
Your explanations make sense in their own way, and I find playing with other-gender characters totally fine. But for myself, unless it is a single player game with a female character (e.g. Tomb Raider or Silent Hill), especially if it is an online mmo, where you visually interact and talk with others’ avatars too, it just doesn’t feel right to play a female character.
I don’t really remember if I ever tried a female character in an mmo, but even the thought of logging in with a female character, talking to others, emoting, laughing, running around and doing stuff with others inside a female avatar just feels something I could never do. I’ve met many male players with female characters or vice versa, which was totally ok, but even that felt kind of weird from my perspective.
I believe that’s because I estabish a strong, natural bond with my character, and he feels like an extension of me, a representation of me in the virtual world. Eom, in this case, is my reflection in Azeroth, and he is how I would like to incarnate in Azeroth, if that was a thing.
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I played female characters exclusively until my daughter made her male troll rogue and kept pestering me to make a male character. I’m very glad I did because it gave me a fresh perspective on the game.
Playing male characters also inspired me to start writing Warcraft themed fanfiction because I felt I had a better view of both genders. That may sound odd, but I’ve found playing the characters give me greater understanding of what their backgrounds are and what motivates them. Nothing better than being able to put myself in their shoes, in a manner of speaking.
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I believe I understand your points for trying/playing male characters. For example, I never really played Horde, except some short-lived tries. When I got inspiration for one of my fanfic stories which were telling about Horde characters from the perspective of an Orc main character, I felt I wouldn’t really be able to do it with Eom. So, I created an Orc character and logged in with him mostly whenever I was writing the story and visiting the places mentioned, to better know how it feels and how the world is seen through the eyes of an Orc.
In case you don’t see my other comment on your “My Journey Into Azeroth” post, I am curious to know if you have any of your fanfic stories online that I can check/read.
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