Do Girls Play World of Warcraft?

YES.

This is a rant. /beginrant

I'm bored of the near-daily discussion in Trade that 99.999 percent of the female characters in WoW are actually male players. Or if they're female, they MUST be fat and/or ugly.

The people in chat who say this declare it as the gospel truth, and there's no point arguing-- they demand Facebook evidence and as is obvious from my header, I'm a private person who won't be giving out my picture to strangers on the internet.

One person suggested that the only normal-looking girls in WoW must have issues and deep-rooted problems, and they use WoW as an escape.

So... a normal female who happened to grow up playing video games as a kid, and who read a lot of fantasy as a kid, and grew up to discover a world that incorporates the two in an amazing, immersive way... that's just completely out of the equation? Why are girls who play video games thought of as somehow broken?

I'm female. I play WoW. Why?

Because it's F-U-N.

Do I have an inclination toward gaming and fantasy? Yes. I read the Narnia books in third grade, started playing The Legend of Zelda in fourth, and have loved both fantasy and video games ever since. It's just part of my personality. As for my looks, I'm a regular-looking girl and I have a happy life.

Could it be...? Is it possible that normal-looking, happy girls are playing alongside guys in World of Warcraft?

Yes. And sure, maybe more guys than girls play WoW (and video games in general), but have you noticed? There are more male-characters than female-characters in WoW. I'm not saying that guys don't play as female-characters, but just like some guys have rolled female characters, some girls roll male ones (I did, and leveled him to 34). So, it's all proportional. Anyway, there are enough pictures of females at Blizzcon to show that there are TONS of women playing WoW. It's fun, so why shouldn't we? :D

/endrant