[MUD-Dev] The Price of Being Male

[Paul Schwanz]

Travis Casey wrote:
> On Monday 30 June 2003 14:33, Daniel Anderson wrote:
>> From:  Edward Castronova

>>> I suppose everyone thinks its normal and OK that being a man in
>>> a woman-suit is something that the average man is uncomfortable
>>> with. I kind of think that's a problem.

>> Why is that a problem?  Virtual worlds emulate real worlds in
>> regards to social actions.  So, according to that, one could
>> conclude "cross-dressing" (I use cross-dressing loosely here,
>> because it isn't exactly cross-dressing, but rather entirely
>> pretending to be a different sex in a virtual world.) would also
>> be shunned in a virtual world.

> On the other hand, pretending that one is a klingon, elf, knight,
> wizard, vulcan, etc. will make most people uncomfortable around
> you in the real world -- but these things are generally perfectly
> acceptable in many virtual worlds.

> So the question is: why is it more OK playing, say, Everquest, for
> me to pretend I'm a *male* elven wizard instead of a female one?

Because each player has his/her own limits on how comfortable they
feel in moving away from the norm?  For most, I imagine it will be
OK playing in a world that has magic forces at work, yet for many of
these it would be uncomfortable playing in a world without gravity.

Wasn't there speculation on this list (a few years back) that
Atriarch might have trouble drawing players who could connect to
their alien species?  Personally, I found myself more drawn to play
those species that were more humanoid in appearance.  Does that make
me a xenophobe or perhaps just not a very imaginative human?

Incidentally, Atrairch planned (plans?) to have non-gendered
characters. I personally thought this was going to be quite a
challenge to pull off, since I suspected that most players would
quickly fall into the habit of using gender-based pronouns and would
feel uncomfortable doing otherwise.  I also suspected that many
players would present themselves as a particular gender despite any
fiction to the contrary.  Despite the challenges, however, I still
think it sounds like an interesting sort of experiment.

--Phin
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