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Change your gender? Blizz says no
Character customization is on its way into Azeroth-- when Wrath of the Lich King comes around (whenever that is), we'll be able to change the way our characters look more than ever. But Blizzard still isn't interested in letting us change the most major functions of our characters-- Vaneras over on the EU forums makes it pretty clear that gender changes are never going to happen.Gender changes are still a subject that inspires a little taboo in real-life, but actually, in World of Warcraft, it's something that a lot of players might want. Plus, while it's obvious that Blizzard wouldn't want people changing race or class (since there are actual abilities that go with both of those choices), there is no difference in the game between male and female, save for the cosmetic look. Sure, the story behind it would be a hard workaround (I'll let you imagine how that might play out, or, more likely, not), but allowing gender changes wouldn't upset the game, and would let those who feel they've made the wrong choice, err, "fix" things.The fact is, however, that just like race and class, the gender you chose when you rolled a character have probably determined that character's existence. While changing the character's gender is just a cosmetic thing in terms of code, it's not in terms of identity, and that's what Blizzard has a problem with. The idea of a role playing game like WoW is that you choose a role to play. And if you have the option to change that role at a moment's notice, what's the point of asking you to choose in the first place?
Super Mario Sisters was almost a reality
In some deeply weird alternative universe, perhaps one in which Japanese people actually bought Microsoft consoles and England's footballers weren't quite so irredeemably rubbish, we might never have experienced Super Mario Bros. as we know it. Instead, we could have been playing Super Mario Sisters.Alas, Nintendo of America never did follow through on a trademark application it filed in February, 1990 for a game called "SUPER MARIO SISTERS." The application was abandoned almost two years later, depriving us all of an estrogen-fuelled version of the world's favorite platformer.Go past the break for a grab of the application.
Guild divas: There can only be one
Yes, we're stepping once again into the steaming hot gumbo of WoW gender relations -- this time with the delightfully spicy flavor of the Guild Relations forum. Altaan is a female player and the GM of a casual raiding guild with about 80 players. She describes herself as a laid-back leader who lets the raid leaders take over the instances while maintaining a fun environment for her guild members. However, she's recently had problems with a few female members, and is wondering whether to kick them out or let them stay. "They undercut my authority in subtle, almost underhanded ways that I'm having a hard time pinpointing to my male officers, who love the fact that there are women in the guild ... especially ones who will flirt with them," Altaan writes. "One of these women recently asked the men to attempt to procure my picture, purportedly because she is concerned with being the "hottest girl in the guild." The other has announced several times that the Raid Leaders "belong" to her and she is only allowing me to "borrow" them. Both women routinely use guild chat and Ventrilo to stake claims on the male players ("this is my paladin"; "my druid"; etc.)" I've seen this phenomenon a few times in my WoW history, and it's recently been popularized on AFK Gamer. A small minority of female WoW players do not play well with others. They generally tend to mention their gender at any opportunity and flirt casually with anyone in a position of power. The label of girl gamer is important to them, as it makes them seem like a rare breed in a male-dominated virtual world -- the "guild diva." When another female comes along -- especially one who's an officer or guild leader and not flirty -- they feel that their territory is being threatened and lash out. Altaan understands this, but is unsure of how to proceed. If she keeps the players, they will continue being nuisances and hindering her raids by flirting with the raid leaders and taking spots from better players. If she kicks them, she may be seen as catty herself, and she may lose one of her raid leaders. There's a debate on the forum, but most people seem to think that she should kick them for challenging her authority and being drama queens. What do you think Altaan should do? Female officers and GMs, have you had any problems with divas in your guild? Is this about gender at all, or merely a more subtle display of power struggles?
Women who love to play men who love women
Don't let the flippancy of my title fool you; this is a serious request. It's a well-known MMO-ism that a great many female avatars are driven by males. Why? The reasons are varied, but the most often-heard one is 'I'd rather look at a hot chick than a dude'. Well, if you've ever wondered if the reverse is true as well, now's your chance to find out!Metaverse development company (or 'MDC' for short, a term that refers to a real life company whose focus is virtual worlds) Metaversatility is asking real life females who play as males in Second Life to share their experiences and reasons for the purpose of a public discussion on identity and cross-gender avatars. If interested, please contact Haver Cole ( haver@metaversatility.com) or Adri Saarinen (adri@metaversatility.com). I'm more than a little curious about this myself; can't wait to see how this develops!
Men more likely to steal, lie about casual games
A Reuters report yesterday took an interesting angle on the conclusions of the Casual Games Association's recently released 2007 study. While others commented on the casual space's size and growth, Reuters decided to focus on how men are lying, stealing bastards when it comes to casual games. According to the CGA report, while men are just as likely as women to play casual games, the fairer sex is much more likely to pay for these games (women make up 74% of paying players). What accounts for the difference? According to Retuers, men are "more determined to find a free version or try to thwart anti-piracy protections on games." Or, y'know, they could be playing the copies their wives bought. We hope that's it, because finding a crack for a $20 game of Peggle is just sad.But that's not all -- the Reuters report also reveals that men are more likely to hide their secret casual gaming shame. "The hardcore gamer who is playing 'Halo' with his buddies isn't going to brag that he just beat the next level of 'Zuma'." CGA Managing Director Jessica Tams told Reuters. And if they won't cop to playing Zuma, what are the chances they'll admit to an undying love for Flower Shop: Big City Break? Not large.Well it's time for the healing to begin. Men, use the comment thread below to come out of the casual gaming closet and announce to the world your proclivity for matching gems and dashing between diners. We won't judge you ... much.
Poll: More men play women than women play men
Perhaps brought on by the news that a Chinese MMO wants to reveal gender bending gamers, Cary posted a pretty interesting poll over on the WoW LJ, asking readers what their gender is and what sex they play as on their main character. The general consensus seems to be that most people play as their own gender, but overwhelmingly, more women play as their own gender than men. The poll itself seems a little off to me, as it's really pointless to compare the percentages given, but by crunching the numbers a bit (and please remember how bad at math I am), I get that 40% of men who answered play the game as women, while only 11% of women who answered play the game as men. Here's more data on this, that we've covered before.Very interesting. We've touched on the reasons for gender bending in game a few times before, and there are all kinds of reasons why people play as characters of the opposite sex, from staring at an attractive behind to garnering more money and attention (or less attention) from other players, to roleplaying a character.But really, none of that matters too much-- it's just a game, and for whatever reason, people are welcome to play it as they please. A better question might be how you refer to the gender of other players. I've gotten in trouble a few times here by referring to players on the forums (including CMs, way back when I started) as one gender when it turns out they're actually another, so eventually I just decided to call it how I see it: if someone plays a female character I call them "her," and a male character gets called "him." For people playing a different gender, sure, it might come off a little strange. But it comes with the territory, I guess, of pretending to be someone else for a while.
Chinese MMO puts the kibosh on 'dem "less feminine" female characters
The illustrious and oft-misunderstood cheese connoisseur Turpster of WoW Radio made a comment in the WoW Insider podcast last weekend to the effect that everybody in World of Warcraft is a guy, which was especially amusing because Elizabeth Harper was on the show with me. Warcry's Razorwire posted an article this morning that just about made my eyes pop out of my freakin' head on this very subject. To make a long story short, as one of my friend's often says, a Chinese MMO has banned the account of every male player in the game who played a female character. Yes Virginia, they made every player in the game verify with a webcam. While not a foolproof system (especially if you have a female family member or friend who can be bought for the right price) it obviously netted them results. Since the first day I played World of Warcraft I've heard adult players like myself tell me how much extra they'd be willing to pay to play on a server where age of majority is verified somehow. This kind of verification though, seems to me to be just a little bit over-the-top. At the same time though, I can see where certain segments of the gaming population would be jumping-up-and-down excited about it. What do you think about gender verification? Please keep it clean and respectful. I have the prototype for that paladin ranged weapon BRK talked about yesterday and I'm not afraid to use it.
Mass Effect allows lesbian alien sex, men remain vanilla
A British Board of Film Classification description page reveals some potential sexual prejudice in Mass Effect, although it's not the type you might expect. According to the description, players using a female character can initiate a sex scene "between her and male human or a female humanoid alien." Male characters, on the other hand, can only initiate sex "between him and a human woman or a humanoid female alien." If we're reading that right, it means the game allows for alien lesbian sex, but not any type of male-on-male sex. Furthermore, all non-alien sex has to be heterosexual.The same-sex love issue is by now well-tread territory for BioWare -- most fans know by now that Juhani from Knights of the Old Republic is a lesbian and Jade Empire allowed same-sex romance for both genders. So why should it be different in Mass Effect? Does BioWare think that their audience will clamor for girl-on-alien-girl action while recoiling from man-on-man love? And why is lesbian sex only OK if it involves another species? Is this some sort of compromise to avoid a Bully-style controversy?We'll have to wait until the final version of Mass Effect to see if the BBFC description is accurate, but as it stands now this odd double standard makes us wonder if the game will be a step forward or back for sexual politics.[Via ProG, GayGamer]
BBFC publishes research on gamer demographics, perception
The British Board of Film Classification published today research that they have conducted concerning video games. The report covers a wide aspect of gaming culture. Highlights include: Age: "Although children are beginning to start playing games at a younger age, the overall age of players is getting older. Younger games players are influenced to play particular games by peer pressure and word of mouth, but negative press coverage for a game will significantly increase its take up." Gender: "There is a sharp divide between male and female games players in their taste in games and how long they spend playing. Female games players tend to prefer 'strategic life simulation' games like The Sims and puzzle games and spend less time playing than their male counterparts; male players favour first 'person shooters' [sic] and sports games and are much more likely to become deeply absorbed in the play." Benefits of gaming: "People play games to escape from every day life and to escape to a world of adventure without risk which is under the control of the gamer, unlike the real world. Games provide a sense of achievement and are active, unlike television and films which are passive. However, games are better at developing action than building character and as such gamers tend to care less about the storyline than making progress in the game. Gamers claim that playing games is mentally stimulating and that playing develops hand eye coordination."
Xerox wants to extract demographic information from web surfers
The age of Big Brother everywhere is certainly upon us, and while we've seen (or at least heard of) tracking devices being implanted in the most unusual of places, it looks like Xerox is hoping to join the devilish fray. In an attempt to craft a demographic extractor to garner marketing dollars galore, a recently filed patent application spells out a system that utilizes software (and potentially hardware) to map users to "centroid vectors" which would determine a person's age, sex, and other "private" information simply based on their website visits. Interestingly, test cases are reportedly showing a respectable "75-percent accuracy rate" so long as a "sufficient number of pages were visited." Still, we can't imagine any tracing technology would be lawfully allowed behind the backs of law-abiding citizens (right?), but considering that even your TiVo has the potential to sell your soul to lucrative ad agencies, we wouldn't put it past 'em.[Via ArsTechnica]
Playing Dirty: Lady, get off the road
Every other week, Bonnie Ruberg contributes Playing Dirty, a column on sex and gender in video games: Men say women are bad drivers. This confuses me greatly. As a woman behind the wheel -- with the token grumpy driver's licence photo to prove I take my on-road duties seriously -- I can't help but raise the issue. Aren't women supposed to be the cautious ones, the ones who look three times before turning, who insist you wear your seatbelt, even down the block? And men, aren't they supposed to zoom down the highway to show off the punch of their motors? I mean, just think about the racing games we design for guys: breaking speed limits, injuring other vehicles, even crashing. They've got "awful driver" written all over them. I admit, I have a personal beef with this "women are bad drivers" thing. I'm one of those really daring people who never goes more than five miles over the speed limit. My friend's father, on the other hand, is a "zoom down the highway" type, complete with sporty convertible. Somehow it always ends up he's circling the supermarket, searching for a parking spot, when an SUV lumbers in and blocks the way. He shouts, "Come on, lady!" From where we're sitting, he has no way of telling whether that's a man or woman. It might as well be a yeti. Gritting my teeth, I wonder: If women are such awful drivers, how come it's men who go crazy behind the virtual wheel? How come racing games are "men's" games?
New Daedalus data: girls heal and play elves, kids play Horde
This has been the common wisdom, or at least a stereotype, for quite some time, but apparently female players really are more likely to prefer healing than male players are. The Daedalus Project, one of my favorite sites about MMOs, has published some new results. The site focuses on sociological research about MMOs and MMO players, and among other things, the new results look at the gender and age breakdowns of how MMO players would respond to various hypothetical questions.There were four questions asked, although one of them is only slightly applicable to WoW. For nice charts (as seen above) and full data, see the site, but I'll summarize the interesting points here, question-by-question. Note that it's possible that this data, being an aggregate of players of different MMOs, does not represent WoW well. I doubt it, however; given WoW's market dominance, most of the respondents probably are WoW players. Edit: note that in my summaries below, I'm merely point out trends, not causes. I'm not trying to say (for instance) that girls heal because they're girls; there are many other factors at play here.
Breakfast Topic: Gender in WoW
We've written about gender before, and it's an interesting topic that confronts one more frequently and more dramatically in WoW than it does in other parts of life. Azeroth is a sociologist's dream in several ways; I'm not even a sociology buff and I'd love to see some data on player vs. character demographics.Do you play primarily your own gender or the opposite gender from your own, or do you play both genders pretty equally? Personally, I'm male, but I mostly play female characters. My other two RL friends who play WoW are male and female, but they both play mainly female characters as well. Furthermore, why do you play the gender(s) you do, and do you find that you get treated differently depending on what gender character you are playing?
Healing is for the women
Garthar put something out there on the forums that I just couldn't pass up. Healing, he suggests, is for the women. He claims that he's found most women that play the game play healers-- he says most druids and priests he plays with are women. Note that he's not saying that all women play healers necessarily (although that's a conclusion you could take from him), but he's actually saying that all healers are played by women.I'm here to tell you that's not true. I play a resto shaman who heals like a madman (and a shadow priest, although I'm not sure if that counts or not), and while there are some female gamers who play priests and druids in my guilds, the majority of priests are actually guys. In fact, I've played with a surprising (to me) number of women warriors. There's nothing an old-school gamer like me loves hearing more than a female player complaining because the guild is pressuring her to spec out of fury and start tanking. Just more proof that videogaming is a girl thing, too.Sexism aside (of course there are exceptions to every rule), Garthar can't be right, can he? There's no way only women play healers. Is healing as a class more feminine somehow then smashing things over the head with a large weapon? And where do the other classes fall in here? I know a few women that play mages (and play them well), but I have to admit that most of the rogues I know are played by guys. Does our gender have any say at all in what classes we choose to play?
New info on Pokemon Diamond/Pearl [Update 1]
Recent scans from the Japanese magazine Coro Coro have revealed a few new game details on the mysterious Pokemon: Diamond and Pokemon: Pearl. Among the translated information is the return of the day/night system, with four distinct periods (dawn, day, dusk, and night) that will affect Pokemon behavior and appearance. In addition, male and female characters will now look different in-game; one of the genders might be larger, be missing certain features, or have different skin patterns. The traditional Pokedex will also be upgraded to include more than twenty features, including time management, type charts, monitoring of Pokemon in the breeding center, and more.The Pokemon games have no confirmed release date in North America, but it shouldn't be too long before the market drops ten gajillion dollars on this tried-and-true franchise.[Thanks Nushio, you tip-crazy fiend you][Update 1: clarified unknown N. American release date]
Oblivion's gender bias: the official word
If you haven't heard enough about the ladies of Oblivion recently, this tidbit is an interesting look at gender and gaming. While the female characters manage to score bonus points on the "lack of scantily clad armour" scale, it seems that there are some inherent gender-based stat advantages under certain circumstances.Gamers with Jobs have spoken to Bethesda about the perceived gender bias, and it seems that the differences are subtle, designed so that players have more choice when it comes to gameplay. While it may seem a little old-fashioned for male Redguards to have a higher strength, while females have a higher personality, the balance is all in the name of game diversity. For anyone wishing to experience the game free of any gender concerns, there's already a mod which equalises stats irrespective of gender.[Thanks, SickNic]
Who are the gender-benders?
Academic MMO weblog Terra Nova is looking at gender-bending in cyberspace at the moment, delving into the phenomenon by asking the simple question "Who's doing it?". While many men who play female characters use the "nice ass" line--if they're going to be staring at a pixellated posterior all day, it might as well be a pretty one--Terra Nova tries to go beyond this by looking at the personalities of gender-bending players.The comments on the post are also interesting, covering identity tourism, transgender and GLBT issues as well as adding several more accounts of gender-bending (or not) into the mix.
