NGL if I see someone using a female model to represent a male or vise versa it is an instant red-flag for me, based on past experiences. If that makes me a bigot I’ll swallow that black pill.
MAYBE there is the occasional, genuinely pure good intentions individual who does it but I have to admit I have never (0/0) come across such an individual.
I understand it can be frustrating for a lot of people to accept that the sexual dimorphism in WoW is very distinct- In some cases like humans, gnomes and ESPECIALLY Vulpera (I still to this date have 100% no clue whether the vulpera I interact with is a male or a female) the differences could be theoreticlaly made so small you could have more nuanced appearances lorewise too…
But there is 100% no way you could make a male tauren look anything like a female one. Their physiology is just completely different. Same with trolls. And pandaren. And Really most other races- And I think that is cool. Many people say the high sexual dimorphism upsets/annoys them, I personally really like it. Just like in many animal species the males look different from females in terms of size or physiology.
Honestly the vast majority of people I’ve come across who use a male/female model to represent the other gender (talking in terms of cis binary ones anyway, for trans/NB characters then of course, use whichever model you feel best represents your character!) haven’t really been doing anything untoward with it.
They seem to just be using the model as they feel it represents the appearance of a muscular cis woman or slim/androgynous cis man and while I find that to be more jarring than using the Blizz-intended models, I have very little experience of this being used as some sort of ERP thing. It happens and I’ve seen a few characters like that, but I don’t think it’s any reason to be a red flag. It is very, very obvious if someone is using it for ERP or not, imo.
best aspect about vulpera, ngl. Love that female vulpera are not forced to run around with massive mammaries or that males aren’t small mountains of muscle and testosterone
Agree with this. The difference between gender-explorative roleplay and the fetishised appropriation of transgender lives and experiences to help incels get off is usually obvious like… immediately.
I’m going to question the binary dimorphism, though. I think it’s a bit of a stretch to call it an interesting part of the game when really in every race it exists to bring some degree of sex appeal to draw in the hungry gamers. The Draenei are obviously the most egregious example of this - it was never done for interesting lore reasons, but if that deep sex-binary is what you love and enjoy, I say throw yourself into it.
The assumption that those who don’t like playing within that rulebook are perverts is bad though.
I personally HATE the exaggerated sexual dimorphism in this game, its really jarring to me.
I feel like being able to customize our character models in a meaningful way would solve most of these problems, but until that happens I think people should just use whatever models they want honestly.
Some games (though as far as I’m aware, not any MMOs) do a pretty good job of this with just allowing you to make whatever character you want without locking them to a specific sex, though they tend to fall short of allowing you to make a proper NB character and choose neither.
