Posting my two pence here, because why not?
On the topic of the original post: I'm a female playing and roleplaying as a female character. She's femenine, a minor noble in Ishgard, and hopefully (providing that Ishgard isn't against women taking on typically male roles like the Catholic Church for example) the head of her small house.Â
I haven't really seen too much of a skew in either direction but then again I rarely visit the Quicksand since I'm rarely in Ul'dah for more than five minutes. From my trips to The Golden Saucer I've seen quite a few more female characters than male characters. Though this is to be expected as was said before females tend to prefer to play females, and there are more females in the world than males. Logically, there would be a wider female player base. I also think this says something about the franchise itself because through all of the Final Fantasy games there have been strong females -Yuna, Lightning, Fran, and Tifa to name but a few- so I think that the franchise as a whole strongly appeals to women.Â
On the topic of gender and society in Eorzea (paraphrasing because that's what it has become in the recent posts): I think that while Eorzea is a fantasy world it is heavily influenced by real world culture. There are gender roles like there are in the real world and there are not. There are fantasy constructs like Magitek and Aether, and there are not like The Holy See of Ishgard being a theocracy.
 For me, this gives the world some substance and life. In any world there are going to be preconceptions about men and women, and there will always be people who go against those preconceptions. I think that's what can make great characters. A woman rising above the laws that society has imposed upon her (ala Queen Elizabeth I), a man who doesn't want to be big and strong who want to stay at home and be a househusband (ala my uncle because I can't think of a historical figure).Â
Likewise, there are gay characters in FFXIV so we know that in Eorzea you can be gay. I've not yet come across any trans characters, but that would be quite interesting. In that sense you could have a female avatar role-playing as a trans character so would identify as male. I imagine that would skew the statistics quite a bit. Are you counting the sex of the character, or the gender identity of the character?Â
**On a side note I wonder how these characters are recieved? Is this a normal thing? Is there a stigma against being LGBT or not? Is it different in the different city-states?**
On the topic of the original post: I'm a female playing and roleplaying as a female character. She's femenine, a minor noble in Ishgard, and hopefully (providing that Ishgard isn't against women taking on typically male roles like the Catholic Church for example) the head of her small house.Â
I haven't really seen too much of a skew in either direction but then again I rarely visit the Quicksand since I'm rarely in Ul'dah for more than five minutes. From my trips to The Golden Saucer I've seen quite a few more female characters than male characters. Though this is to be expected as was said before females tend to prefer to play females, and there are more females in the world than males. Logically, there would be a wider female player base. I also think this says something about the franchise itself because through all of the Final Fantasy games there have been strong females -Yuna, Lightning, Fran, and Tifa to name but a few- so I think that the franchise as a whole strongly appeals to women.Â
On the topic of gender and society in Eorzea (paraphrasing because that's what it has become in the recent posts): I think that while Eorzea is a fantasy world it is heavily influenced by real world culture. There are gender roles like there are in the real world and there are not. There are fantasy constructs like Magitek and Aether, and there are not like The Holy See of Ishgard being a theocracy.
 For me, this gives the world some substance and life. In any world there are going to be preconceptions about men and women, and there will always be people who go against those preconceptions. I think that's what can make great characters. A woman rising above the laws that society has imposed upon her (ala Queen Elizabeth I), a man who doesn't want to be big and strong who want to stay at home and be a househusband (ala my uncle because I can't think of a historical figure).Â
Likewise, there are gay characters in FFXIV so we know that in Eorzea you can be gay. I've not yet come across any trans characters, but that would be quite interesting. In that sense you could have a female avatar role-playing as a trans character so would identify as male. I imagine that would skew the statistics quite a bit. Are you counting the sex of the character, or the gender identity of the character?Â
**On a side note I wonder how these characters are recieved? Is this a normal thing? Is there a stigma against being LGBT or not? Is it different in the different city-states?**
My characters: Seraphine Arceneaux