Based purely on anecdotal evidence, I’ve noticed that male players are willing to play as female character more often in _Monsterhearts_than in other games. I wonder why that is? Has anyone else noticed a similar trend? Thoughts?
This could be because:
1) It’s more OK for males to play a game about sex when they’re playing as a female character. I’ve had male players say this straight out. “If I’m gonna play a game about sex, then I’m gonna play as a chick.”
2) Similar to number one, it’s more OK for males to explore emotions, especially in regards to romantic relationships, if they play as a female character.
3) Monsterhearts emulates supernatural romance and other “female-targeted” media (Gossip Girl, Pretty Litle Liars, etc.). The protagonists in this type of media are frequently female, and so having a large number of female PCs in the game is simply emulating that media.
Just thoughts off the top of my head.
I honestly don’t know. I’ve noticed some guys who play female quite a bit in Monsterhearts, but due to not often getting to play non-MH stuff with them I really don’t know if that’s atypical for them. If it is, I think it has more to do with our gaming being online. So even if the voices are still male, at least the pictures they use as avatars for the game are female(ie not their real faces). I can see that making it a lot easier for some guys to play females when they otherwise wouldn’t.
In general, I almost always play male(I can think of 1 exception in the past few years, and that was due to picking from pregens). And in Monsterhearts, I always play male. I kind of get 2 and 3, but if I was told 1 and didn’t know enough about the person already to know they didn’t mean something stupid(and likely offensive) about it, that would be enough for me to give a pass on playing with them.
Interesting. I’ve played both online and in person, and in both cases players have pictures of their characters. We’ve found it helps people get more into character when they have an image representing both themselves, and the characters they are interacting with. I even go so far as to provide images/photos for NPCs.
I don’t do that for IRL games, but I’m lazy like that. I’ll spend a few hours setting up an online game table, though, for a game of Monsterhearts I’m excited about. ^^;
My group found it easier to deal with the sexual nature of the game if we could stare at a photo of the character, rather than at the player. 😛
I’ve never played Monsterhearts face to face, but I’d still be too lazy to do that even if I did.
I’m guessing that you have no problem locking eyes with your friend and narrating how your PC is leaning in way too close to their PC, so that they can see all the way down your shirt, which is intentionally not buttoned up high enough, to the new bra you just bought at Victoria’s Secret.
I did that so often the other players requested that I bring pics of my characters so they could look at that instead of me. 😛
Monsterhearts quantifies a lot of soft power (flirting, showing someone up, exchanging social capital). These things can get real messy in the context of, say, a Dungeon World game. A simple “Why are you flirting with the bar keep?” can easily turn into an OOC discussion of sex in gaming, flirting in society, someone’s last trip to the club…
In Monsterhearts, the people who will play it with you are open to the idea of flirty characters using looks to get what they want. Even if it’s feral, it’s a lot safer (you get to choose your skin and your approaches!)
That’s a good point, Adam Goldberg. Of course now I’m wondering if there’s any correlation between those people who are open to playing flirty characters, and my personal experience of guys playing female PCs more often in Monsterhearts games.
I would say 3 was the most likely of your options. However I wonder how of the men you’ve seen play women then actually have their character seek out romantic relationships with male characters. Or does the greater proportion still prefer to pursue romance with female characters?
This is really great, Christopher Stone-Bush! I think all three of your points are great ones.
I’d add to point 1:
I feel like there’s a strong message in the media that a woman’s body is the playing field for sex. I mean that, in a hetero movie pairing, the emphasis is on how sexy the lady’s body is, and how sexily the dude is acting upon her, like kissing on her or what have you. So, in the way of something being “sexy genre,” I think there’s an (extremely unfortunate, god damn it) ability to see “playing a lady” as on-genre.
And i’d add to point 3:
I think there’s some sneaky light homophobia here perhaps, wherein a game about sexy teens, if there ain’t SOMEONE without a dick, well shit, we’re all just dick-havers then and like come on, we don’t want to be putting dicks in dick-haver’s mouths or whatever.
The flip side of this is just preference, wherein if the player is hetero, maybe they’re turned on more by hetero pairings & thus want to play a character who’s going to make that situation more likely in the fiction. “Oh, all dick-havers? Ha! Not me, not this time!”
Good question, Richard Williams. I can’t answer it for anyone other than myself though, as it’s not something I’ve sat down and talked about with the guys who played female characters.
Of the games I’ve been a part of, I can only recall one guy playing as a female PC who tried for a long-term relationship with a male character; myself. But that was entirely mechanics driven, rather than my character being attracted to the other character. It was me saying “Ooh, look at the interaction between the Ghoul and the Hollow’s Sex Move!” and then spending like four sessions trying to get the Ghoul (a male PC being played by another guy) to sleep with me.
I have yet to see a player of any gender have their character start a relationship simply because their PC was attracted to that character.However, as this is a game and these characters and relationships are not real, I don’t think I’ll ever see someone start a relationship in-game without having an ulterior motive. Having ulterior motives for relationships is also a common trope of the genre, so I don’t think you can (or even should) try to avoid it.
Interesting additions, Jackson Tegu. I hadn’t thought about it until you brought it up, but I can see the “girls are sexy because of what they are, guys are sexy because of what they do” message. I wonder if guys choosing to play as a female character are indicating that it’s OK for “sexy things” to happen to their PC. This is of course not always the case, but I wonder if by playing a female PC, a male player is indicating it’s OK to be romantically pursued, as opposed to being the one doing the pursuing.
Your addition to point 3 is a good one, too. I usually play as a female character regardless of game, because, as you put it, I don’t want the entire party to be dick-havers. Things are boring, in my opinion, when all the PCs are the same gender.
There’s definitely some truth to the preference you mentioned though. As a cis heterosexual guy, it is much easier for me to “get into things” if there is a female character involved, even if I am the one playing as her. I’ve tried playing as a homosexual male PC once (not in a game of Monsterhearts) and it was really difficult. I think that was because I (the player) am not attracted to men, and had a hard time playing as a character who was. That being said, I’ve played in a Vampire game where feeding = sex for my character, and had no problem feeding from guys. Though the people I did feed from (regardless of gender) had to be pretty, and for guys that often meant they had to be somewhat feminine or at least androgynous. Interesting.
Think about the types of players who are more likely to play Monsterhearts.
Mostly, they’re not going to be the sort of players who are afraid to experiment and prefer to stay within the lines. More likely, they’re looking to push lines or discovering where lines are for their characters. That in itself will lead players more willing to experiment with the gender of their characters.
So much of Monsterhearts is about exploring and finding vivid experiences. People write long reviews about how they discovered their character had traumas and it shook them or how they were safely exploring their own fears or had an experience that made them understand something about people that they never would have understood without that character. People don’t play Monsterhearts for “more of the same”.
Also, switching genders can also make things a little less personal. I’ve played Monsterhearts as both genders, but I prefer male. If my female character is in a steamy scene, I feel more exposed than when my male character is in a steamy scene. If something (especially sexually) skeevy happens to her, it’s not a ‘safe’ sort of uncomfortable. There’s that extra element of distance that is freeing for me. I wouldn’t be surprised if guys felt similarly. Especially if they’re otherwise playing outside their comfort zone.