A Word of Advice to the Ladies Re: Character Creation

I thought I'd pass this quick little observation from the Beta Weekends, before everyone starts making their regular recurring characters:

Back in the Betas, I had wanted to make a Ranger who was more elf-like in appearance, so I scaled her down just a tiny bit (say 5%) in height, in the character creation screen.

Bad mistake. The difference between how people interacted with that character and with my other characters was like night and day.

I'm at a loss to explain it -- unless it's some kind of power thing (i.e. my character seemed less threatening) -- but men (and some males-playing-females) got to be like velcro. I ended up stopping any adventuring with parties and would occasionally have to vacate and avoid the cities. Ultimately, she became unplayable. Don't get me wrong, many were nice about it (I had some generously offering to give me things I had wanted to trade for, invite me into their guilds, etc.), but others were practically stalking. My partner laughed about it at first, but even he got preturbed about it later. I never would have thought that such a little thing would have made such a large difference. Especially in a game where they couldn't have known for sure if I was really female (I guess there was an assumption that only a woman would design her character in this way?).

So I just thought I'd forwarn the women of this forum, in case anyone has a similar idea.

I don't understand why you had this problem, there are tons of women who play Guild Wars (Including my GF) and unless your Gaile Gray you dont seem to be stalked by the masses Ive talked to my Cassy about it and she says she has no problem at all. What sort of behaviors are you seeing?

Im 22 but ive always like playing with girls, Not because i expect some godess on the other side of the screen but because of friendlyness and manners. And woman gamers leave less in missions heh.

i made all my female characters the smallest size it would let me.

i had no problems with it.

size is no matter it is better to be small so it is easyer to hide.

Haha... i never heard that one.
Ooooh were talking about the game

I think you were just being paranoid.

Female frames are smaller then males even when both are put to the smallest. Gogo stealth killers!

Sister Mercy, I believe you. It's one of the reasons I made my gal as large as I could make her.

Ander Deathblade, unless you, too, play a petite female, that comment is just.... I'll say "unenlightened" to be kind.

Dalia

i always use a female because the view is nicer.
having said that i always go for the smallest for the simple reason there are people who still judge someone by the size of their pixels
i have just the same power as the amazon so what difference does it make?
one other thing is that a smaller character blocks a little less of the beautiful scenery as well
nice things come in small packages

Just play a male character if it bothers you. There's plenty of sad cases out there waiting to be your loyal servant and best friend you never asked for, they'll leave you cold aside if your avatar is male.

Having the guys treat you different isnt always a bad thing.

In PvP you will have a (tiny) edge over them

"Hmm kill the little girl or that big guy laughing at me"

Perhaps only 1 out of every 8 characters that I make are male, all of my female chars are below average height, and I never had this problem.

Maybe it's simply to do with the way you act(type?) in game, maybe you have an incredible knack in attracting those kind of people, perhaps it's a combination of both.

Or simply that your character is female. A lot of people do role-play to an extent, even if they aren't hardcore about it. What gender you are isn't terribly relevant, since they can't really interact with you, they can only interact with your character.

nothing hides from ctrl.....

Seriously if I ever saw something like this in game I would flame them to no end and call a body block dance a thon in tombs if I ever ran into them there with my guild.

I've always made my characters that need to avoid hits the smallest size. While my rangers and warriors were always the largest.

I always play the smallest character possible in every game. 90%+ of the time, that is a female, and I never have any such problems. Either I'm supremely lucky, you're supremely unlucky, or you're subconsciously seeking attention.

...a small character has never hidden from me. I use tab or ctrl and that avoids any form of size.

But can you see all the beautiful scenary? I always play minimum size male character (to be as faithful to my character name as I can), and there are times I think a higher character would be able to get a better view over some obstactles. Of course, I don't know if the game engine actually works that way.

When you /sit, the camera do lower.

if i am standing on a cliff or other scenic vista i think a small reduction in head hight is minimal but from my camera view a smaller character blocks a bit less

I think I know. It's one of those women who cries harassment when a lumpy male warrior starts to dance in her vicinity. LMAO, I love the warrior dance. Regularly do it when I'm in a town, or even in explorable areas. It was sad that they remove weapons and shields now though, preferred them with.

Anyway, most people find it funny and go along with it, some people I've encountered acted like total idiots, like a /dance emote in game is disrespectful or something. Most fun I had with it was me in Ascalon Armor and another bulky top-height warrior in ascalon armor going at it cheek to cheek.. hahaha, that was hilarious. YMCA all the way!