[MUD-Dev] The Price of Being Male

[Travis Casey]

Tuesday, July 01, 2003, 1:43:47 PM, Paul Schwanz wrote:
> 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?

I think you may have misunderstood me; I'm specifically asking why
it's considered (by others) to be less OK for *me* to play a female.
Not why others might not want to play a female.

> 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.

In a regular open-entry game, you're likely right.  However, I think
that it could work in an entry-by-application sort of setup, such as
some MUSHes and similar games have.

--
Travis Casey
efindel at earthlink.net
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