Chinese MMO bans players from playing opposite gender

[Alareth]

http://www.destructoid.com/chinese-mmorpg-bans-males-who-play-as-females-46273.phtml

That is some forward and modern thinking :boxedin:

[Ryokan]

Lol?

[Bikewer]

I heard that on NPR the other day. Particularly odd. I checked out Second Life a while back, looking over things for about a week. I wondered just how many of the "female" inhabitants were, in fact, girls.....

[Giggywig]

I heard that on NPR the other day. Particularly odd. I checked out Second Life a while back, looking over things for about a week. I wondered just how many of the "female" inhabitants were, in fact, girls.....

A few years ago I joined an MMORPG which was in beta at the time. I chose a female character because I figured if I was going to be watching the nearly naked character running around killing the same 4 bugs for hours while getting to the next level, it better be nice to look at. Several times i had guys wanting me to group with them, and once a conversation with a guy about how some people dare to play the opposite gender. That amused me more than the game itself, so I quit in under a week.

[ponderingturtle]

Now is a man playing a female to male transsexual through the use of magic playing the opposite gender or not? Sure it was not an MMORPG but I do wonder if I can say I have not played across gender or not.

[slingblade]

[pretty much off-topic, but still kind of on]

I can't tell you how many times on WoW guy toons (who knows what gender is behind the toon, right?) walk up to my toon and tell me "You're pretty."

Um.

I always reply, "I'm pixels, moron."

They don't usually respond or say anything else....

[/whatever]

[Ryokan]

The only MMO I've played is City of Heroes. I like to play a lot of different characters, and often I start a new character that I later scrap. Some of my characters were mutants, although I'm not a mutant. Likewise, some of my characters were female, although I'm not female.

I've also played a lot of Neverwinter Nights online, and about half my characters there were female. A lot of the characters were also elves, dwarves and halflings, and I'm neither of those either.

[Aoidoi]

I always reply, "I'm pixels, moron."

They don't usually respond or say anything else....
"Nice Pixels, baby."

For the record, I never "hit on" female chars in MMOs at least partially due to the whole "it's probably a 14 year old boy playing that hot elf" mentality. If they could actually enforce same gender chars then it seems like that obstacle would be completely out of the way, and now harassment could be directed towards the actual females instead of the virtual ones. Which seems like such an improvement.

Not that I hit on anyone online, I don't trust the lot of you not to be serial killers and/or figments of my imagination.

[Safe-Keeper]

I was a girl in Galaxies. As a matter of fact, I'm always a girl. If people think they can learn as much as a tiny thing about you by looking at an avatar, that's their problem. I'm not doing it to cause people to think I'm a girl.

Not that I hit on anyone online, I don't trust the lot of you not to be serial killers and/or figments of my imagination.I always turn down friendship or 'let's get to know each others better' requests online. I know it seems extremely cold, but I have absolutely no way of knowing what I'm walking into.

[Ian Osborne]

I've also played a lot of Neverwinter Nights online, and about half my characters there were female. A lot of the characters were also elves, dwarves and halflings, and I'm neither of those either.

Precisely. I've no time for people who misrepresent themselves in chat rooms and on IM, but a role-playing game is exactly that - role play. Why is pretending to be female a bad thing, when pretending to be a barbarian berserker with a +3 loincloth and biceps the size of Belgium is not?

[Cello Man]

I'll usually pick a female avatar if the option is presented. After all, graphics are getting better everyday, and I like it when certain portions of the character...well...behave (i.e. bounce) in a physically realistic manner.

I'm a guy. Sue me.

[skeptifem]

Lol?

this is the correct reaction

[Puppycow]

Gee, that's smart.
I just saw this funny sign in the thread over there and I had to pass it along to you folks over here:

http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/7922/pervaf0.jpg
Translation:
Beware of molesters
Dangerous people are appearing

[Ryokan]

Gee, that's smart.
I just saw this funny sign in the thread over there and I had to pass it along to you folks over here:

http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/7922/pervaf0.jpg
Translation:
Beware of molesters
Dangerous people are appearing

That sign is a common sight on the Tokyo subway.

[Wolfman]

LOL

When ya' live in China, stuff like this doesn't even register as strange. There are numerous internet bars that have posted rules stating that people playing online games are not allowed to play certain types of characters, or even engage in certain types of campaigns.

Consider it this way -- in the West, there is still a raging debate over the question of whether or not violent videogames make people more violent in real life. Well, in China, things like homosexuality are still considered "immoral" and "unnatural". So, added to the question of whether violent games make people violent, is the question of whether playing characters of the opposite gender could make you gay.

Rather ridiculous from our point of view, maybe...but then back home, I remember certain religious leaders saying that the Teletubbies could make kids gay.

[Puppycow]

That sign is a common sight on the Tokyo subway.

For some reason I hadn't seen that particular one yet.

Does anyone know if this problem is only peculiar to Japan?

Many train operators are now providing "Women-only cars" during rush hours.

[This Guy]

I've been an Asheron's Call player for a few years now (started playing maybe a year after it started). Early on I let my daughter create a character. Since she became less interested in the game, and more interested in guys (much to my displeasure;)), I've turned her character into one of my top two characters, only second in level to my main character. I did it because the character's attributes fit themselves well to performing three of the crafting skills , and she now has the maximum skill levels for those three skills.

Those that know me in the game know by her name that it's me (that was my only input on the character's creation, to keep it in line with my naming convention) , and a guy. It's fun when I run across a new player that tries to hit on me.

Generally, when I meet a female character I don't know, I assume it's a guy. And as someone else mentioned above, I also avoid "getting to know better" anyone in the game. I have enough problems dealing with real people, in real life. I go to the game to escape those hassles ;)

One thing I've noticed in the game is that people seem more willing to help the female characters than they are the male ones. I've wondered how many guys use that tactic as a way to get more help in the game.

The MMORPG world is an interesting place. I know there have been a few studies done on different aspects of it, and I suspect there will be many more.

[Lonewulf]

I would be nowhere if I didn't make so many friends on chat rooms, messageboards, and yes, MMORPGs. Though to be fair, I'm a trusting sort, and have had that trust betrayed once or twice by individuals. But eh, I usually bounce back.

As to the OP: LOL is the correct response. Those silly people.

[This Guy]

I would be nowhere if I didn't make so many friends on chat rooms, messageboards, and yes, MMORPGs. Though to be fair, I'm a trusting sort, and have had that trust betrayed once or twice by individuals. But eh, I usually bounce back.

As to the OP: LOL is the correct response. Those silly people.

I've met several good friends on the internet. Even in the game I mentioned.

My suspicion is that SOME (certainly not all!) females get attracted to the male game characters in on-line games though. I had at least a couple female chars (yes, they might have been males IRL) that seemed to want to "get to know me" based solely on the fact that my char helped them in some way. I play the game much like I live, in that I try to help others when I can. That has helped me meet many people in the game. Most of them where just short "relationships". Once we completed the task at hand, we rarely, if ever spoke in game again. But some appeared to want to get too friendly for me. I had to tell two people (one I know was female, the other I'm fairly certain was) that I wasn't interested in more than a friendly game experience with them. And that, for me was hard to do, without sounding rude or insulting. One was married at the time, and I knew her husband in game also. And she knew I knew him, we ran around as a group quite often, again, in game.

The MMORPG world, in my experience, is much like a soap opera at times ;)

It's an interesting world, and I'm still trying to figure out all the implications of people's actions there :)

[Lonewulf]

Yeah, you have to be careful on der interweb.

[Beerina]

I always play female chars. I'd rather run around for hours behind something female than something male.

Moreover, in every game except City of Heroes (scrapper class), the melee classes are all wimps compared to the ranged/caster classes. I find it ludicrous to whip up a giant, beefy dude, give him plate mail armor and a huge sword, and he has a tough time fighting an armorless gnoll 1/3 his size face-to-face.

Balancing of the game, perhaps, but "tough guys" are a joke in all these games.