I think this has more to do with the Chinese state of things more than anything.
In most countries women outnumber men just slightly, or are almost even. In China the ratio issomething like 10 men to every 1 woman. This, where the government is panic-struck by the mere thought of homosexuality. So it is sort of understandable from the perspective of one of the largest game companies, where a good number of Chinese men spend most of their waking moments in these games.
Is it right? No...but it does make sense.
LOL 10:1 Indeed.
The current ratio is 106 men to 100 women. Expected to rise to 112 men to 100 women in the next few years. Really .. try a quick search to confirm facts before typing trash like 10:1 lol.
Sure that dont sound alot at first .. but when you concider China's popluation of 1.3 billion that means that alot of horney men are out of luck (in the region of 400,000) that kinda smacks hard ...
I keep forgetting sarcasm and exaggeration don't carry well over the internet.
ok I read the article and about 30 comments - maybe someone said this: I think that policy would actually drive females away from MMOs, because once everyone knows the female toons are real, live, breathing women, many juvenile guys would relentlessly hound them with unwanted chatter at best, and at worst bad pick-up lines, rude sexist comments, and outright sexual harassment. I think most players are decent, but there are plenty of rude ones who would ruin it for the girls.
That really depends on what the female gamers in China are using the game for.
As I've said before, if the game is simply a game then yes this kind of behaviour could drive away female gamers due to harassment. On the other hand if MMORPGs are mainly used as social netwroking tools in China then it would have little to no impact on the female users logging in looking for a life partner or mate in that framework (No more so than Match.com asking you for your sex when signing up.) It would just assure the males there that they were infact dealing with a female (Although this could still be bypassed by fraudsters it would offer some sense of secruity for male "gamers")
People need to stop looking at this from a purly western view point and try to take onboard what online games mean outside of our own culture.
Of course I am just playing Devils advocate here since I am not Chinese and have no clue if infact MMORPGs are used this way in China, I am just advocating that people move out of thier own sandboxes and try to view the world as larger than the US of A. The writer of the article gave no information from the Chinese view point and made no effort to find out the cultural view point either. He wrote an article based on his western Bias and attempted to enflame the western audiance about those "Evil commies" with no reguard.
I have little respect for a writer who sandboxes himself in such a way and refuses to explore viewpoints outside of his own bias. If your going to write an artical about what some people (or company) is doing in another part of the world under another culture the least you can do it try to see it from thier perspective as a counter argument. He obviously got no input from Chinese gamers about his piece and put a blatent western spin on the whole piece. Thats not to say I want the writer to defend them for thier actions .. but I do at least expect the writer to have explored thier view point. Who knows maby if he'd bothered to talk to some gamers in China he would agree (or at least understand) this companys move ... we'll never know though since hes so close minded he could'ent even be bothered to try ...
I think this has more to do with the Chinese state of things more than anything.
In most countries women outnumber men just slightly, or are almost even. In China the ratio issomething like 10 men to every 1 woman. This, where the government is panic-struck by the mere thought of homosexuality. So it is sort of understandable from the perspective of one of the largest game companies, where a good number of Chinese men spend most of their waking moments in these games.
Is it right? No...but it does make sense.
LOL 10:1 Indeed.
The current ratio is 106 men to 100 women. Expected to rise to 112 men to 100 women in the next few years. Really .. try a quick search to confirm facts before typing trash like 10:1 lol.
Sure that dont sound alot at first .. but when you concider China's popluation of 1.3 billion that means that alot of horney men are out of luck (in the region of 400,000) that kinda smacks hard ...
I keep forgetting sarcasm and exaggeration don't carry well over the internet.
Indeed.
Sorry for being anal, I assumed it was sarcastic, but had I not said anything tomorrow in American schools hordes of pre-pubecent teenagers would have been spreading the word about how there were 10:1 Chinese males to females and the poor immigrant chinese kids in thier classes would have been catching hell
The internet is truth after all. Most it seems dont verify facts but take whats written as truth .. Hence some of the shit the I have to listen to day in and day out by internet guru's who could'ent tell thier arse from thier elbows if money was riding on it ...
I don't think it is any of their business what sex the player really is.
Asking the customer to prove that they are Male or Female via web-cam is crazy. Who is going to pay for the web-cam? If they require I have one, they had better be prepaired to provide one on request and the software for the bloody thing needs to be pre-configured so that all I need to do is hook up the web-cam install the software and connect to them.
Do you think that is a harsh way to feel about it? No I don't own a web-cam nor do I want one. So for I have not found a need or desire for one.
You wrote a piece on a topic that has NO IMPACT on you (There are no plans to put this system in place in thier western games as yet) and tried to hype-it up and garner outrage from an audiance (the western market) that it has no impact on. Worse still you wrote the artical with (you admit it) no refrence to the culture that it does impact or thier feelings on it. Typical media BS. Before you write articles like this you should at least do a little homework on why they are doing this, what the people actually effected by it feel, are they against it? Its is a ploy for media attention? Do they have what they feel is good reason? .. rather than getting your panties in a twist because someone somewhere is doing something that you dont understand. Try being more objective in your writing and less bias (again, we all have bias, great writers can look past thier own bias though .. you it seems cant)
This thread has more than a hundred posts. Therefore it is a successful thread.
"" Voice acting isn't an RPG element....it's just a production value." - grumpymel2
I'd think about going back to WoW if Blizzard implemented this.
Heh wtf is up with that? You quit a game because you found out the girl you were hitting on was a guy with a bigger slong than you? I play female toons often. I am a guy. Why would I want to sit and look at a guy's arse while I am trying to enjoy a game? Again, I am a guy, not a gay. Do I abuse the feminine status of my toon? No. If someone hits on me I politely tell them they might wanna be careful reaching under this skirt. Something might grab back
This has to be one of the best article subjects i've seen in awhile, made me laugh on so many levels.
Yes a lot of people preffer to play female toons, I too explore the opposite sex once making several male toons gets boring.
But a few of these people like to take that role literal, especially older men who like little boys. Preventing online predators is the only reason I can see behind this change in policy.
Though it may be a tad on the perverted side of things, since it singles out women to provide "proof" (lmao). It is still something i'd welcome in any mmog or social network i've ever been on, but providing all members are subjected to supply "proof" (lmao again). Since i'm sure we've all had an issue reguarding actual irl gender come up atleast once over the many years on the internet lol.
so how are you supposed to prove your gender in an internet environment and why would it even be relevant for a mmorpg?
ok some players find it a bit awkward when it turns out they gave a female character compliments and later on it turns out to be a guy but .... how can you ever be sure anyway just from information provided over the internet?
i have seen a miss elections on a game forum once but it can be questionable if it is really their picture instead of some pin-up model from a site. i am pretty sure there are enough men who would pose as a girl to win some prices too. ok they were required to show a screen of the game on the pictures in that forum but even then you can not really be sure that it really was a certain player. the girl next door might have been good looking for example
anyway despite of some hilarious moments (if you keep your sense of humor and do not think too much about potential "common" hidden sexism in societies) things like this have nothing to do with gaming anymore.
the only sane reason i can think off why a western company would ever adapt this kind of "gender" policy is for the free publicity because topics like this prove that it seems to work.
Ive played SGW, CoH and I currently play LOTRO. and Ive always rolled male and female characters.
I like to create back stories (rpger?) for them, and have their stories entertwined, even if I cant play them side by side.
A friend of mine in LOTRO said hes tired of looking at his male avatars butt running around middle earth all the time.
and i can understand that. but i dont play a girl avatar because i want to BE a girl, im very happy with my boy-parts. i
like the stories i create with the characters. what ever this companies idea of doing this is for, i find it odd, but hey, at least I dont have worry about it, its not a game i play..
also... people CYBER in games???? never done that. dont care to. if i want cyber isnt that what craigs list is for? LOL
Does anyone know if the position to check the web cam videos has been filled yet? I think I am eminently qualified for such a job, knocking up a CV now to send in.
This post has hit the nail on he head. The article was written from a purely WESTERN perspective and as such could be seen by people of another culture as being rather biggoted.
Who are we to tell other countries how they should conduct themselves socially...and like it or not MMO's are a Scoial Network as well as a form of entertainment. The demographics of the game in question were never mentioned. If it is young single people looking to meet others online...then assuring the target group that the "female" they meet every night is actually a "female" could be a HUGE selling point.
With such certainty, the few females actually playing the game will be hounded relentlessly - resulting in no female characters in the game at all, as female players will either play males, or leave the game entirely.
There are rules of conduct for being "hounded relentlessly". Besides, I think most males are civilized enough not to do that and if they are not they deserved to be banned.
You put too much faith in the Internet. The point is that a lot of women playing aren't looking for a date, or hoping to be spammed up by foaming, weeaboo, nerd #69883. If a female player wants you to know she is a female she'll tell you otherwise it is really none of your damn business who is behind the keyboard.
Why not? If you fill out a form for a job or questionaire or sign up to play a sport on the weekends then you are required to say what your gender is. Why should computer games be any different?
I as a game want to know who I am playing with, not personal, indepth stuff, but basic things like gender I dont see a reason for hiding.
As for women looking for dates. Where did I mention anything about that? I am just against hiding your true gender, why would you do that? If you are doing it because you are being harrased then that is the problem that should be addressed by enforcing the rules of conduct of the game.
I don't think it is any of their business what sex the player really is. Asking the customer to prove that they are Male or Female via web-cam is crazy. Who is going to pay for the web-cam? If they require I have one, they had better be prepaired to provide one on request and the software for the bloody thing needs to be pre-configured so that all I need to do is hook up the web-cam install the software and connect to them. Do you think that is a harsh way to feel about it? No I don't own a web-cam nor do I want one. So for I have not found a need or desire for one.
You are using their service, they have every right to ask you not to misrepresent your gender. If you dont like that then dont use their service.
Originally posted by Yamota Why not? If you fill out a form for a job or questionaire or sign up to play a sport on the weekends then you are required to say what your gender is. Why should computer games be any different?
I wonder how long it will be before female-only servers show up, like the sex segregation in most sports.
"" Voice acting isn't an RPG element....it's just a production value." - grumpymel2
Originally posted by Yamota Why not? If you fill out a form for a job or questionaire or sign up to play a sport on the weekends then you are required to say what your gender is. Why should computer games be any different?
I wonder how long it will be before female-only servers show up, like the sex segregation in most sports.
Not saying that is the way to go but you have sex seggregation in many video-game tournaments and some have a requirement that you have atleast one female on your team.
Believe it or not men and women are different, not better or worse, but different (general speaking). And I dont see any problem with stating what gender you are.
If you really want to play a female char and you are male I dont see an issue with that aslong as I know you are a male sitting behind the keyboard. Hiding your true gender, be it behind a computer desk or lying for a job application, I dont see any good in that.
Why would you want to do that? Beside roleplaying reasons, wich very few people do in MMORPGs, I dont see a valid reason.
I really do not understand the fuzz. As a gamer you are given a choice to play this game or not. If you like so and want to play a female character you KNOW beforehand that your have to submit to this. It's not that this game has an monopoly on the MMO market and that there is not enough to choice from.
Beside that I do understand the move. I must imagine it must be hard to compete in the Asian MMO market with all those mmo's. So you do something drastic with get's you in the news and appeal to a certain group of players (Those who dislike man playing female toons). I do not see what it's odd that a company appeals to an certain type of players at all. Every game does so and I think this is rather innovating (I disagree with it though and do not see the point!) and might get them those players into the game.
Not saying that is the way to go but you have sex seggregation in many video-game tournaments and some have a requirement that you have atleast one female on your team. I did not know that. It sort of disproves the 'girls are just as good at video games' argument, doesn't it? Just like sports.
Believe it or not men and women are different, not better or worse, but different (general speaking). Oh, some would dispute that, but of course it's true. Anyone who knows anything about evolution and gender roles understands that. If you really want to play a female char and you are male I dont see an issue with that aslong as I know you are a male sitting behind the keyboard. Hiding your true gender, be it behind a computer desk or lying for a job application, I dont see any good in that.
I don't RP as a female. In the rare case when I do RP, I always play a male character.
The great majority of the time, I think of my character as 'him' or 'her', not 'me'.
"" Voice acting isn't an RPG element....it's just a production value." - grumpymel2
So all kinds of people jumped up on Teala's back Sayin " Did you even read it?"
So i say to all of you, Did You Read It?
I'm gonna guess not, because if you had you would have seen the following sentences---
"No, I'm wrong actually, this insane policy only applies to people choosing to create a female character. Women, it appears, are free to pose as men as much as their little hearts desire."
That little gem at the end of the OP's rant is most likely what caused her reaction. Can ya see it now?
Now, while her reaction may have been a bit over sensitive, that is often how women react to things and flaming them is no way to keep them around.
I know, I know alot of you probably havent been on a date since you divorced your hand, but really it wasnt that hard to see?
If you people really want to play video games with women, i suggest you learn something about them before you go runnin off at the fingers again.
The thing is I see alot of people posting here with the mind-set of how the articles content effects the western market.
"the only sane reason i can think off why a western company would ever adapt this kind of "gender" policy is for the free publicity because topics like this prove that it seems to work. "
That was just one quote pulled at random from the above posts (Not digging at that poster in particular just using it as an example)
Thats the failing of the OPs article. It has NO bearing on the western market at this time. The company has released no press about thier intentions to do this in the western market. So as far as I can see this whole blurb is just an "OMG look at those wackey Chinese" type piece.
The OP did not set any argument as to why this should not be done in the western market, that would have actually required he get off his butt on do some *gasp* research. If he had there would be something to debate here. Instead he made a usless article about something that has no bearing on most of the posters on these forums. He (the OP) made no move to initiate discussion with the few posters here on MMORPG.com that it does impact.
I could understand the article if it was a discussion piece about the differences between the western and Chinese markets, I could understand if the piece tried to initiate some discussion about how such regulation would be greeted in our market, hell if the article had some meat to it citing reasons why this was a good / bad move in its targeted market (China) I could see a reason for the article, instead its just meaningless twaddle. He grabbed a headline and wrote an "ohh look look!" piece to garner outrage from his target audiance (you)
Broaden your outlook on life and try to understand why a game company in China would make this move. Thats not to say I agree with it (Heck it could just be a move to garner press coverage - bingo!) but I'm open minded enough to reason through it. The OP should have made some attempt to actually research and discover if this move was actually welcomed or not by its target audiance instead of acting like an outraged teenager who's mom threatened to take away his I-pod. Just a little background research and this could have been an interesting topic worth debating, Differences in culture, Chinese attitudes Vs western to such a move, instead its pretty much hate-mongering IMO.
So all kinds of people jumped up on Teala's back. Sayin " Did you even read it?" So i say to all of you, Did You Read It? I'm gonna guess not, because if you had you would have seen the following sentences--- No, I'm wrong actually, this insane policy only applies to people choosing to create a female character. Women, it appears, are free to pose as men as much as their little hearts desire.
Right, so it's men who are being discriminated against, not women. She played the victim without cause.
"" Voice acting isn't an RPG element....it's just a production value." - grumpymel2
So all kinds of people jumped up on Teala's back. Sayin " Did you even read it?" So i say to all of you, Did You Read It? I'm gonna guess not, because if you had you would have seen the following sentences--- No, I'm wrong actually, this insane policy only applies to people choosing to create a female character. Women, it appears, are free to pose as men as much as their little hearts desire.
Right, so it's men who are being discriminated against, not women. She played the victim without cause.
Its not that women were being discriminated against, its the "as much as thier little hearts desire" part that women would object to. Its written in what seems a dismissive and condescending manner. Its likely that the OP did'ent mean it as such ... but on face value thats how it could be taken which may offend. Ending the sentence "as much as they desire" would have gone over much better without the apparent snipe at women gamers.
Its not that women were being discriminated against, its the "as much as thier little hearts desire" part that women would object to. Its written in what seems a dismissive and condescending manner. Its likely that the OP did'ent mean it as such ... but on face value thats how it could be taken which may offend. Ending the sentence "as much as they desire" would have gone over much better without the apparent snipe at women gamers.
All I can say is: LOL
"" Voice acting isn't an RPG element....it's just a production value." - grumpymel2
Actually I'm surprised it didn't happen yet, that some MMORPGs allow their female gamers to play for free without a subscription fee. I mean there are lots of parties where women can go in for free or reduced entry free because having a high number of women there lures more men in.
If an MMORPG can say "50% of the gamers here are women" (because they don't have to pay) it would lure in lots and lots of testosteron-oozing youths, no matter how bad the game is.
Seriously though, the question is not if they're allowed to have such a policy or not. Of course they are allowed to. There are also parties where people who don't wear black can't get in, or who don't wear a suit, or who don't run around in leather and latex. It's the personal decision of whoever organizes the stuff on what is required to enter.
The question is rather, why the company thinks that the real gender matters that much in a video game. I mean, you play the game, you have two female and two male chars in your group. Now, reasons why their real gender could matter to you would be:
- You want to meet the other players in person. Then it's more of a dating game though rather than a normal MMORPG. Though I assume that even most dating services online don't force-check your gender. Or it's not a dating game and you're just completly desperate.
- You're very conservative and think that women have to wear dresses, give birth to children whenever they can, have to please their men and stay at home. While men need a job like woodcutter or wolf-strangler, wash not more than once a month, have a full beard and need to get drunk daily. In that case: man... Unless you live somewhere far away from civilzation or are member of a brainwashing sect, you'll have lots to complain each day. And shouldn't you then go and kill a bear with your bare hands instead of playing a game?
- You're so horny you contiuously fapfapfap to everything female you see, be it actual women, videos, photos, images or seeing their pixelated counterfeits in a game. And since you want to be a real man and not a perv you only want to do that about actual women and are scared that it could be a guy behind the character.
- You're a homophobiac. If you play as a female character, could others think you'd like to be female? Will they think you're gay? Or are you gay when you play a male character and look at his muscular pixelated handsomeness? Oh noes, people could always think you're gay no matter what you do!! You better proof your manlyness in solving this problem in simply telling everyone what gender their character should have. This should solve the problem and your worries.
Comments
LOL 10:1 Indeed.
The current ratio is 106 men to 100 women. Expected to rise to 112 men to 100 women in the next few years. Really .. try a quick search to confirm facts before typing trash like 10:1 lol.
Sure that dont sound alot at first .. but when you concider China's popluation of 1.3 billion that means that alot of horney men are out of luck (in the region of 400,000) that kinda smacks hard ...
I keep forgetting sarcasm and exaggeration don't carry well over the internet.
Mne eto nado kak zuby v zadnitse.
That really depends on what the female gamers in China are using the game for.
As I've said before, if the game is simply a game then yes this kind of behaviour could drive away female gamers due to harassment. On the other hand if MMORPGs are mainly used as social netwroking tools in China then it would have little to no impact on the female users logging in looking for a life partner or mate in that framework (No more so than Match.com asking you for your sex when signing up.) It would just assure the males there that they were infact dealing with a female (Although this could still be bypassed by fraudsters it would offer some sense of secruity for male "gamers")
People need to stop looking at this from a purly western view point and try to take onboard what online games mean outside of our own culture.
Of course I am just playing Devils advocate here since I am not Chinese and have no clue if infact MMORPGs are used this way in China, I am just advocating that people move out of thier own sandboxes and try to view the world as larger than the US of A. The writer of the article gave no information from the Chinese view point and made no effort to find out the cultural view point either. He wrote an article based on his western Bias and attempted to enflame the western audiance about those "Evil commies" with no reguard.
I have little respect for a writer who sandboxes himself in such a way and refuses to explore viewpoints outside of his own bias. If your going to write an artical about what some people (or company) is doing in another part of the world under another culture the least you can do it try to see it from thier perspective as a counter argument. He obviously got no input from Chinese gamers about his piece and put a blatent western spin on the whole piece. Thats not to say I want the writer to defend them for thier actions .. but I do at least expect the writer to have explored thier view point. Who knows maby if he'd bothered to talk to some gamers in China he would agree (or at least understand) this companys move ... we'll never know though since hes so close minded he could'ent even be bothered to try ...
LOL 10:1 Indeed.
The current ratio is 106 men to 100 women. Expected to rise to 112 men to 100 women in the next few years. Really .. try a quick search to confirm facts before typing trash like 10:1 lol.
Sure that dont sound alot at first .. but when you concider China's popluation of 1.3 billion that means that alot of horney men are out of luck (in the region of 400,000) that kinda smacks hard ...
I keep forgetting sarcasm and exaggeration don't carry well over the internet.
Indeed.
Sorry for being anal, I assumed it was sarcastic, but had I not said anything tomorrow in American schools hordes of pre-pubecent teenagers would have been spreading the word about how there were 10:1 Chinese males to females and the poor immigrant chinese kids in thier classes would have been catching hell
The internet is truth after all. Most it seems dont verify facts but take whats written as truth .. Hence some of the shit the I have to listen to day in and day out by internet guru's who could'ent tell thier arse from thier elbows if money was riding on it ...
For me gender choice in a toon is decided by how cool I think my toon can look.
In WOW for instance I choose Female for humans because the Male Human looks like a ROID HEAD RETARDS.
In Champions I made Male monster and robot heros. Female human and cyborg heros.
Many MMOs have just cooler looking Female toons, with lack luster or uninteresting Male toons.
I also will not deny that as a Male MMO player if I have to look at my toon for hours on end, looking at a female figure is slightly more desirable.
But with game developers only creating lack luster male toons it only encourages me more to create female toons.
MMOs are a game a fantasy, and you should be able to play whatever you want reguardless of gender.
Asheron's Call, Champions Online, Dark Age of Camelot, EVE Online, EverQuest, Lineage 2, Star Wars Galaxies and World of Warcraft.Waiting for SWTOR
I don't think it is any of their business what sex the player really is.
Asking the customer to prove that they are Male or Female via web-cam is crazy. Who is going to pay for the web-cam? If they require I have one, they had better be prepaired to provide one on request and the software for the bloody thing needs to be pre-configured so that all I need to do is hook up the web-cam install the software and connect to them.
Do you think that is a harsh way to feel about it? No I don't own a web-cam nor do I want one. So for I have not found a need or desire for one.
Do you wanna date my avatar?
Yeah, that avatar is hot, but the guy controlling her is 50 with a hairy beer gut.
This is a good idea--I'd like to know that's really a girl behind that hot avatar.
http://www.youtube.com/user/watchtheguild?blend=1&ob=4#p/a
Watch the latest episode of "The Guild" and other Pwnage videos from around the net--also post your own: http://PwnerTV.com
This thread has more than a hundred posts. Therefore it is a successful thread.
"" Voice acting isn't an RPG element....it's just a production value." - grumpymel2
Heh wtf is up with that? You quit a game because you found out the girl you were hitting on was a guy with a bigger slong than you? I play female toons often. I am a guy. Why would I want to sit and look at a guy's arse while I am trying to enjoy a game? Again, I am a guy, not a gay. Do I abuse the feminine status of my toon? No. If someone hits on me I politely tell them they might wanna be careful reaching under this skirt. Something might grab back
This has to be one of the best article subjects i've seen in awhile, made me laugh on so many levels.
Yes a lot of people preffer to play female toons, I too explore the opposite sex once making several male toons gets boring.
But a few of these people like to take that role literal, especially older men who like little boys. Preventing online predators is the only reason I can see behind this change in policy.
Though it may be a tad on the perverted side of things, since it singles out women to provide "proof" (lmao). It is still something i'd welcome in any mmog or social network i've ever been on, but providing all members are subjected to supply "proof" (lmao again). Since i'm sure we've all had an issue reguarding actual irl gender come up atleast once over the many years on the internet lol.
lmao what a completely meaningless policy.
so how are you supposed to prove your gender in an internet environment and why would it even be relevant for a mmorpg?
ok some players find it a bit awkward when it turns out they gave a female character compliments and later on it turns out to be a guy but .... how can you ever be sure anyway just from information provided over the internet?
i have seen a miss elections on a game forum once but it can be questionable if it is really their picture instead of some pin-up model from a site. i am pretty sure there are enough men who would pose as a girl to win some prices too. ok they were required to show a screen of the game on the pictures in that forum but even then you can not really be sure that it really was a certain player. the girl next door might have been good looking for example
anyway despite of some hilarious moments (if you keep your sense of humor and do not think too much about potential "common" hidden sexism in societies) things like this have nothing to do with gaming anymore.
the only sane reason i can think off why a western company would ever adapt this kind of "gender" policy is for the free publicity because topics like this prove that it seems to work.
Ive played SGW, CoH and I currently play LOTRO. and Ive always rolled male and female characters.
I like to create back stories (rpger?) for them, and have their stories entertwined, even if I cant play them side by side.
A friend of mine in LOTRO said hes tired of looking at his male avatars butt running around middle earth all the time.
and i can understand that. but i dont play a girl avatar because i want to BE a girl, im very happy with my boy-parts. i
like the stories i create with the characters. what ever this companies idea of doing this is for, i find it odd, but hey, at least I dont have worry about it, its not a game i play..
also... people CYBER in games???? never done that. dont care to. if i want cyber isnt that what craigs list is for? LOL
Does anyone know if the position to check the web cam videos has been filled yet? I think I am eminently qualified for such a job, knocking up a CV now to send in.
This post has hit the nail on he head. The article was written from a purely WESTERN perspective and as such could be seen by people of another culture as being rather biggoted.
Who are we to tell other countries how they should conduct themselves socially...and like it or not MMO's are a Scoial Network as well as a form of entertainment. The demographics of the game in question were never mentioned. If it is young single people looking to meet others online...then assuring the target group that the "female" they meet every night is actually a "female" could be a HUGE selling point.
With such certainty, the few females actually playing the game will be hounded relentlessly - resulting in no female characters in the game at all, as female players will either play males, or leave the game entirely.
There are rules of conduct for being "hounded relentlessly". Besides, I think most males are civilized enough not to do that and if they are not they deserved to be banned.
You put too much faith in the Internet. The point is that a lot of women playing aren't looking for a date, or hoping to be spammed up by foaming, weeaboo, nerd #69883. If a female player wants you to know she is a female she'll tell you otherwise it is really none of your damn business who is behind the keyboard.
Why not? If you fill out a form for a job or questionaire or sign up to play a sport on the weekends then you are required to say what your gender is. Why should computer games be any different?
I as a game want to know who I am playing with, not personal, indepth stuff, but basic things like gender I dont see a reason for hiding.
As for women looking for dates. Where did I mention anything about that? I am just against hiding your true gender, why would you do that? If you are doing it because you are being harrased then that is the problem that should be addressed by enforcing the rules of conduct of the game.
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You are using their service, they have every right to ask you not to misrepresent your gender. If you dont like that then dont use their service.
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I wonder how long it will be before female-only servers show up, like the sex segregation in most sports.
"" Voice acting isn't an RPG element....it's just a production value." - grumpymel2
I wonder how long it will be before female-only servers show up, like the sex segregation in most sports.
Not saying that is the way to go but you have sex seggregation in many video-game tournaments and some have a requirement that you have atleast one female on your team.
Believe it or not men and women are different, not better or worse, but different (general speaking). And I dont see any problem with stating what gender you are.
If you really want to play a female char and you are male I dont see an issue with that aslong as I know you are a male sitting behind the keyboard. Hiding your true gender, be it behind a computer desk or lying for a job application, I dont see any good in that.
Why would you want to do that? Beside roleplaying reasons, wich very few people do in MMORPGs, I dont see a valid reason.
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I really do not understand the fuzz. As a gamer you are given a choice to play this game or not. If you like so and want to play a female character you KNOW beforehand that your have to submit to this. It's not that this game has an monopoly on the MMO market and that there is not enough to choice from.
Beside that I do understand the move. I must imagine it must be hard to compete in the Asian MMO market with all those mmo's. So you do something drastic with get's you in the news and appeal to a certain group of players (Those who dislike man playing female toons). I do not see what it's odd that a company appeals to an certain type of players at all. Every game does so and I think this is rather innovating (I disagree with it though and do not see the point!) and might get them those players into the game.
I don't RP as a female. In the rare case when I do RP, I always play a male character.
The great majority of the time, I think of my character as 'him' or 'her', not 'me'.
"" Voice acting isn't an RPG element....it's just a production value." - grumpymel2
So all kinds of people jumped up on Teala's back Sayin " Did you even read it?"
So i say to all of you, Did You Read It?
I'm gonna guess not, because if you had you would have seen the following sentences---
"No, I'm wrong actually, this insane policy only applies to people choosing to create a female character. Women, it appears, are free to pose as men as much as their little hearts desire."
That little gem at the end of the OP's rant is most likely what caused her reaction. Can ya see it now?
Now, while her reaction may have been a bit over sensitive, that is often how women react to things and flaming them is no way to keep them around.
I know, I know alot of you probably havent been on a date since you divorced your hand, but really it wasnt that hard to see?
If you people really want to play video games with women, i suggest you learn something about them before you go runnin off at the fingers again.
The thing is I see alot of people posting here with the mind-set of how the articles content effects the western market.
"the only sane reason i can think off why a western company would ever adapt this kind of "gender" policy is for the free publicity because topics like this prove that it seems to work.
"
That was just one quote pulled at random from the above posts (Not digging at that poster in particular just using it as an example)
Thats the failing of the OPs article. It has NO bearing on the western market at this time. The company has released no press about thier intentions to do this in the western market. So as far as I can see this whole blurb is just an "OMG look at those wackey Chinese" type piece.
The OP did not set any argument as to why this should not be done in the western market, that would have actually required he get off his butt on do some *gasp* research. If he had there would be something to debate here. Instead he made a usless article about something that has no bearing on most of the posters on these forums. He (the OP) made no move to initiate discussion with the few posters here on MMORPG.com that it does impact.
I could understand the article if it was a discussion piece about the differences between the western and Chinese markets, I could understand if the piece tried to initiate some discussion about how such regulation would be greeted in our market, hell if the article had some meat to it citing reasons why this was a good / bad move in its targeted market (China) I could see a reason for the article, instead its just meaningless twaddle. He grabbed a headline and wrote an "ohh look look!" piece to garner outrage from his target audiance (you)
Broaden your outlook on life and try to understand why a game company in China would make this move. Thats not to say I agree with it (Heck it could just be a move to garner press coverage - bingo!) but I'm open minded enough to reason through it. The OP should have made some attempt to actually research and discover if this move was actually welcomed or not by its target audiance instead of acting like an outraged teenager who's mom threatened to take away his I-pod. Just a little background research and this could have been an interesting topic worth debating, Differences in culture, Chinese attitudes Vs western to such a move, instead its pretty much hate-mongering IMO.
Right, so it's men who are being discriminated against, not women. She played the victim without cause.
"" Voice acting isn't an RPG element....it's just a production value." - grumpymel2
Right, so it's men who are being discriminated against, not women. She played the victim without cause.
Its not that women were being discriminated against, its the "as much as thier little hearts desire" part that women would object to. Its written in what seems a dismissive and condescending manner. Its likely that the OP did'ent mean it as such ... but on face value thats how it could be taken which may offend. Ending the sentence "as much as they desire" would have gone over much better without the apparent snipe at women gamers.
All I can say is: LOL
"" Voice acting isn't an RPG element....it's just a production value." - grumpymel2
Actually I'm surprised it didn't happen yet, that some MMORPGs allow their female gamers to play for free without a subscription fee. I mean there are lots of parties where women can go in for free or reduced entry free because having a high number of women there lures more men in.
If an MMORPG can say "50% of the gamers here are women" (because they don't have to pay) it would lure in lots and lots of testosteron-oozing youths, no matter how bad the game is.
Seriously though, the question is not if they're allowed to have such a policy or not. Of course they are allowed to. There are also parties where people who don't wear black can't get in, or who don't wear a suit, or who don't run around in leather and latex. It's the personal decision of whoever organizes the stuff on what is required to enter.
The question is rather, why the company thinks that the real gender matters that much in a video game. I mean, you play the game, you have two female and two male chars in your group. Now, reasons why their real gender could matter to you would be:
- You want to meet the other players in person. Then it's more of a dating game though rather than a normal MMORPG. Though I assume that even most dating services online don't force-check your gender. Or it's not a dating game and you're just completly desperate.
- You're very conservative and think that women have to wear dresses, give birth to children whenever they can, have to please their men and stay at home. While men need a job like woodcutter or wolf-strangler, wash not more than once a month, have a full beard and need to get drunk daily. In that case: man... Unless you live somewhere far away from civilzation or are member of a brainwashing sect, you'll have lots to complain each day. And shouldn't you then go and kill a bear with your bare hands instead of playing a game?
- You're so horny you contiuously fapfapfap to everything female you see, be it actual women, videos, photos, images or seeing their pixelated counterfeits in a game. And since you want to be a real man and not a perv you only want to do that about actual women and are scared that it could be a guy behind the character.
- You're a homophobiac. If you play as a female character, could others think you'd like to be female? Will they think you're gay? Or are you gay when you play a male character and look at his muscular pixelated handsomeness? Oh noes, people could always think you're gay no matter what you do!! You better proof your manlyness in solving this problem in simply telling everyone what gender their character should have. This should solve the problem and your worries.
Let's play Fallen Earth (blind, 300 episodes)
Let's play Guild Wars 2 (blind, 45 episodes)
What? EVERY month?
"" Voice acting isn't an RPG element....it's just a production value." - grumpymel2