Ok, first of all, I love this game. I love video games in general. I'm not trying to bash it, or downplay the ways in which it is less sixist than other games (for instance, heavy armor doesn't turn into a plate bikini when I put it on). Also, even though I know it's the usual response to a woman pointing out sixism in a video game, I'd really rather not get death threats, thanks.

However, my poor female Breton is very confused. You see, according to my experience as an actual woman, yes, women do occasionally flirt with me. I take it as a complement and it's cool. However, for every one woman that hits on me, hundreds of men do. I'm not a supermodel, and I spent my late teens with a shaved head. I daresay this is a fairly typical experience. My friends experience the same. Sure, sometimes guys hit on us in ways that are intimidating or creepy, other times they are respectful and charming, but in any case, they hit on us far, far more often than women do.

However, every other female NPC seems to flirt with my female character, and the only male who did was a prosttute. She does not understand what's going on. Does she look mannish? She could live without being flirted with at all, of course. She's really only interested in adventuring, anyway. But if it's going to happen at all, she would expect more men to flirt.

As for me, well, I'm not confused. As I run into yet another flirty lady (in the conspicuous absence of flirty men) I'm pulled out of my immersion and have to think about why it was designed this way. Call me cynical, but the message it sends is "whether you're playing a male or female character, I know you're actually a straight man who wants to see this, nudge nudge, wink wink" and also "in case you forgot, females are all about six. This is a female NPC, so obviously she has to act seductive". This is not specific to ESO. Most games do this, and I'm used to it. It's just that TES generally has had a better track record when it comes to sixism, so I'd hoped for better.

I can see why some women might complain if they encountered "creepy" behavior from male NPC's in a game - although that's odd considering that people routinely try to murder us on sight - but ok. Why not some discreet flirtation from males, though?

Guys, I'm not saying you can't enjoy your flirty female NPC's, just, perhaps, more of them should flirt with you when you play a male character. And yes, I get that a lot of you might not like being hit on by guys, but perhaps it would help us understand each other better if playing a female character was actually like being female.

On a related issue, I met two lisbian couples while leveling to 15 in EP, but not one gay couple. Once again, this seems to be designed to cater to straight men who think lisbians are so hawt. It could be there are gay male couples I didn't meet yet, of course. I hope so.

I know all that dialogue isn't going to change, but as a beta tester, I'm supposed to give feedback, so I'm giving feedback (yes, I used /feedback in game as well). So to sum up, what I'd rather see is either NPC's who react differently depending on the gender of the player character (with some NPC's who are still gay or lisbian, of course), or just a more even ratio of flirty male and female NPC's. In Skyrim, when you wear an amulet of Mara, everyone hits on you: that's a way to do it that isn't sixist. It's not realistic, sure, but you can just pretend that the Dragonborn is so hot that everyone is attracted to him/her!

TL:DR: If female NPC's flirt with me, so should male NPC's. Also, if there are lisbian NPC's there should be gay men as well.

I wasn't aware this was a problem in the game. This honestly makes me pretty sad. I want to flirt with lots and lots of male NPCs. Queen Barenziah is my personal hero.

Though I hear there is a flirty cad somewhere in the world that gets a lot of attention from female NPCs and gives some love to your char too.

Like random NPCs in town flirting? Im confused, only thing that closely resembled flirting was the guy in DC start island that you rescue from jail. But that npc was obviously a lecher.

Men flirt with other men in this game also by the way. Jarkan kept calling my male character "Good looking" every chance he got, so it's certainly not sixist. If anything, people in Tamriel are just friendly people; take it as a complement.

Yeah I did appreciate how Jakarn was so flirty with my burly, bald-headed orc man

But it seems there are no gender filters for dialogue in this game, unfortunately.

He was a great character. A real swashbuckling womaniser type. It made me laugh when that scorned young Elf girl burst out of the bar calling him a bastard.

Yep, men get the same treatment. My male argonian was constantly flirted with by Jarkan and a couple of other guys. I suspect they have the logic just set at "this character is flirty, that one isn't" based on their vision of what the character is.

god, why is this crap even in to begin with?

why can't games be ambiguous the way they were meant to be.

After making 4 other characters all male, I decided to make a female dark elf in the Ebonheart Pact.

There was a few instances when a particular Morag Tong female quest giver would act really flirty with me and I thought it was kind've unnecessary seeing as how in most modern TES titles, sixuality and sixual referencing isn't really used more seriously than a funny book called the lusty argonian maid. It seemed like nobody was safe from being stamped some sort of trampy, flirty female six machine as even someone was to make a sixual comment about the Goddess Almalexia!

I totally agree with the OP about gender stereotypes and how it's important not fall into this kind of "fan service."

A lot of people will challenge you because you are questioning their moral fibers as well as their right to be masculine.

We've had threads like these before. Be prepared!

Can people think of anyone other than Jarkan and this prosttute, though? So we can get an idea for numbers.

I don't think my char got to flirt with anyone, male or female, but I didn't spend a lot of time talking to NPCs.

Edit: And I guess list flirty female NPCs too.

I was pleasantly surprised with how little Queen Aryrenn flirts with the player. I would have thought most guys would love the idea of having Kate Beckinsale flirt with them.

NOT THE REAL KATE..then comes the fact that oh, she's doing it with everybody? [censored].

bunch of social inepts looking for a digtial toon to 'like' them does nobody any good.

unless it's the dating game, relationships of all kinds need to be left out of games. why? it detracts from them (devs) actually putting good things into a game and making things work

Well, they're trying to make an immersive world and some people are just flirty. I've known quite a few people in real life that flirted indiscriminately with everyone and didn't mean any of it. It was just their way.

I love being flirted with ambiguously!

I haven't run across any flirty NPCs. But maybe that's because I'd always be comparing them to Fargoth's "I have a feeling that you and I are about to become very close"

Still looking for the lusty argonian maid.

I'd agree with you, but at least here in the Elder Scrolls Online it works both ways. I don't see it as being sixist fan service; they've just sixualised the game a little, which I for one am glad about. You were right about the previous titles, to a point where it was almost embarrassing, playing a game where within the first two minutes someone had their head clean chopped off; yet we're not allowed to talk about six. Nope, that's naughty.

Because flirtations as initiation for copulation is along with murderous bloodlust and the occasionally benevolence part of human nature. I always notice the lack of it when not present but i dont even noticed till way later that she (npc) was talking about her wife.

Edit: Oh and it put a smile to my face. Because yay for love <3

Haha. Did you just call relationships bad?

I'm a male, I tried flirting with a female NPC down at the docks and got a response along the lines of "go away, your not my type"

very very true to life realism

Maybe it's the factions I played, to some extent. I see people mentioning DC quests, and that's the one faction I didn't really do much in. But yeah, it was that one Dunmer in Mournhold talking about my "date" with Almalexia that really struck me as weird and broke my immersion. There was also that one in the ruins who compared me to her dead boyfriend. Well, that and the lisbian vs. gay thing. The first lisbian couple, I went "oh, isn't that cool!" the second, I went "wait, where are the gay men?"

Violence and sixuality are definitely "mature" subjects but that doesn't mean they have to go hand in hand or should be compared as if they are equals.

I must be really oblivious, I only noticed Jakarn and the male prosttute flirting with my characters. No female at all.

I don't want this to be one of those games where I have to go bury my head in yaoi for a few hours to feel good enough to play again. We'll see at launch. I'll be taking notes.

It just seems a little inconsistent. I mean, they even have a Daedric Prince who is the lord of rauaging women; the ways in which women like Lamae, Serana and Valerica were turning into Vampires are both violent and highly sixualised. Everywhere else in Skyrim however people tiptoe around the subject like prudish nuns.