Cross Player: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}{{Needs Image}}

A '''Cross Player''' is a person in either real life or a show whose online avatar or video-game/RPG character is of the opposite sex.

This is obviously not the same as a real-life [[Cross DresserCrossdresser]], and also should be distinguished from [[Cross-Dressing Voices]].

A crossplayer usually ''isn't'' deceptive about their sex--manysex—many are quite up-front about their real life sex, and simply prefer avatars of the opposing sex [[Third -Person Seductress|for aesthetic reasons]] (the most oft-repeated defense of crossplay is "If I have to look at an ass all day, I'd prefer a nice one") or the sake of [[The Roleplayer|RP]], or just to see the [[Breast Plate|female]] [[Impossibly Cool Clothes|armor models]].

Whatever the reason, crossplayers are pretty common in modern [[MMORPGMassively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game|MMORPGsMMORPG]]s, and very few people see it as a big deal. It's also worth noting that crossplayers aren't exclusively men playing women; occasionally women play as male characters, the biggest reason is to be treated as [[One of the Boys]].

Contrast with the [[GIRL]], when a cross player ''is'' actively pretending to be one of the other sex. See also [[There Are No Girls on the Internet]], for the (mostly) discredited phenomenon of users assuming everyone online was male. Though if you wish to use voice chat (often required for high end contents), you cannot hide your sex, no problem for most of us at least.

The term is also sometimes used to describe someone who plays a character of the opposite sex in a [[Tabletop RPG]].

[[Do Not Confuse With]] [[Cosplay|Cosplayer]]er (although cosplayers themselves do usually use the term to describe someone cosplaying [[Crosscast Role|a character of the opposite sex]]).

* Pretty much the entire point of [https://web.archive.org/web/20131102202218/http://beta.mangafox.com/manga/1_2_prince/ 1/2 Prince]; after getting teased about getting everything for free because she's a girl, the protagonist decides to play [[Bishonen|a boy.]]

** Shinbo Alsoalso crossplays and his Avatar looks like his cram school teacher

== [[ComicsComic Books]] ==

* ''[[Runaways]]'' opens with Alex Wilder playing an MMORPG as several other people, playing as more famous Marvel characters ([[Captain America (comics)]], [[Daredevil]], [[Incredible Hulk]], [[X-Men|White Queen]], and [[Fantastic Four (Comic Book)|Invisible Woman]]). [[Chekhov's Gun|We don't learn this for a long time,]] but White Queen and Invisible Woman are both played by a guy and Daredevil is a woman. Oddly enough, when Alex reveals he's a teenager, none of the other people believe him.

* In ''[[The Gamers]]|The Gamers: Dorkness Rising]]'', Gary plays the sorceress Luster. He's pretty much the antithesis of [[The Roleplayer]], though, so during the [[Deep-Immersion Gaming]] segments Luster is alternately played by a woman and a crossdressing man depending on whether Gary has recently been reminded of his character's sex.

* In ''[[Half Prince]]'', this is the main source of conflict. It's usually impossible to play as the opposite sex but the main character was the first to log in and was granted a wish for that. She wanted to be a guy.

== [[Live -Action TV]] ==

* One of the best visual gags in ''[[How I Met Your Mother]]'' involves a scene showing ''[[WoWWorld of Warcraft]]''. {{spoiler|Ted met Blah-Blah online while playing [[''WoW]]'' and the scene cuts to two characters conversing. The hulking draenei vindicator saying "we should meet up sometime..." was the girl. Ted was the one playing the scantily-clad female human clothie.}}

** The "Let's Meet Offline" extra attached to the ''tasogare no udewa densetsu'' anime has {{spoiler|Hotaru}} as a Cross Player. This is definitely not the case in the manga and the rest of the franchise, and is one of the reasons that the ''[[Portmanteau Series Nickname|udeden]]'' anime is the first major of the [[SeriesMedia Franchise]] not considered canon. (There are others)

* In ''[[Left 4 Dead]]'' and its sequel, at least one person will be assigned Zoey/ Rochelle, most likely at random if they are joining a game in progress. A lady joining in has a 75% chance of falling under this trope.

* An update to ''[[EveEVE Online]]'' has actually made it somewhat harder to ID crossplayers (but aided anyone who's a [[GIRL]]) thanks to the introduction of "voice fonts" for the in-game voice chat (TS, Vent, and other voice chat users are out of luck). Even if they don't really work, they should make it harder to tell if it's a guy using a female voice font, or a girl using a female voice font.

** The Devs from ''[[EveEVE Online]]'' once published some statistics drawn from their account records indicating that both player sexes played characters of either sex equally on average, leading to roughly even character sex distribution. Since the playerbase is still predominately male, the chance that a male character is played by a guy is still quite a bit higher than a female character being played by a girl.

** ''[[Second Life]]'' reccentlyrecently{{when}} added a similar feature.

* {{spoiler|Shiro}} in ''[[RE: Alistair]]''.

* In ''[[Vindictus]]'' the character classes are canonically single individuals, and so they're gender-locked. Anyone playing a DPSer ''will'' be a guy, and anyone playing a [[Red Mage|mage]] or tank ''will'' be a girl, (Lann, Evie and Fiona, respectively), regardless of real-life gender. Also, when the [[Archer]] and [[Mighty Glacier]] (Kai and Karok) are released, both of them will be guys.

* In Fallout3''[[Fallout 3]]'' and ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]'', it's better to play as a girl because, while both sexes get a perk that gives increased damage and unique conversation choices towards the opposite sex, men make the bulk of the game's human enemies. In fact, the evil Talon Company have ONE''one'' female member, and all Enclave members are male, so good guys are much better being good...girls.

** In ''[[Fallout: New Vegas|Fallout: New Vegas ]]'' this is less necessary as one can choose the perk to apply against the same sex.

*** Some players now did it on purpose when siding against Caesar's Legion.

* Tedd of ''[[El Goonish Shive]]'' uses a female chatroom avatar; unsurprising, considering his penchant for [[Gender Bender|Gender Benders]]s.

* Dave, one of the secondary characters in ''[[Real Life Comics]]'', is at one point chided about his preference for playing female MMO characters. He responds that he would much rather spend an MMORPG's requisite hours looking at the [[Third -Person Seductress|back half of a female avatar]] than a male one.

* aA 2004 arc of ''[[PvP (webcomic)|Pv PPvP]]'' had Francis Ottoman playing a catgirl character for many of the same reasons as Dave, above. Ironically, one of his co-workers started to hit on Francis's character before stopping himself, as he already knew it was a [[Gender Bender]] character.

* Both [[Cloudcuckoolander|Jim]] and [[Action Girl|Annie]] in ''[[Darths and Droids]]'' provide examples of this trope, playing Padme and Anakin, respectively in the game versions of the 2ndsecond and 3rdthirrd movies of ''[[Star Wars]]''. Unsurprisingly, [[Hilarity Ensues]] quite often. Ben's little sister Sally tends to play male characters (she takes over whoever the GM needs her to for a given scene) and Pete plays R2D2, whose "gender" is really a matter of pronouns.

* Tycho in ''[[Penny Arcade]]'' is famous for only playing as women in [[Role -Playing Game|Role Playing Games]]s.

* ''[[Equestria Chronicles]]'' naturally has this becuase, well, it's based off a ''girl's'' show and most of the players are ''guys.''

* Youtube [[Let's Play|Let's Player]]er [[Naka Teleeli]] is known for playing female characters most of the time when he's given a choice in the games that he plays.

* Kyle is seen playing as a female human in the ''[[South Park]]'' episode "Make Love, Not [[Warcraft]]".

* Just pick ANY''any'' MMORPG. Even much more if the game dodoes not have [[Purely Aesthetic Gender]] since you will have to play as that sex for a particular class, but even if they do, it is still extremely common. In fact, in later games (such as [[World of Warcraft]], [[Warhammer Online]], etc.), most players will assume the new person they meet is a male behind the PC unless you can convince them you are not (either via voice chat or otherwise).

** It's common enough that MMORPG has been humorously Backronymed to "Many Men Online, Role-Playing Girls".

** AAs noted in the main text, a common explanation is "If you're gonna spend hours watching someone's ass while they're running around, you might as well make it an ass you ''want'' to stare at for hours."

** A new trend in the genre is tying the player characters more closely to the storyline by having them be ''specific individuals'' with pre-written backgrounds and [[Canon]] personalities. Naturally, this locks their gender as well.

* Quite common on ''[http://forum.gateworld.net/forumdisplay.php?f=49 Stargate: Aftermath]''. Most of usparticipants play multiple characters and a lot have characters of both sexes. Particularly glaring example is SG-6, a team of three men and one woman. All-- all played by women.

* According to [[Word of God]], ''[[Penny Arcade]]''{{'}}s Jerry Holkins, like his cartoon alter ego "Tycho" (see above), prefers to play female characters in [[Role -Playing Game|Role Playing Games]]s.

* [[Nico Nico Douga]] musician Tissue-Hime often dresses up as [[Haruhi Suzumiya|Yuki Nagato]]..... to the point where people actually refuse to believe that he's a guy, not a girl.

[[Category:Cross Player{{PAGENAME}}]]