[Joker]

Every once in a while, a story breaks out of some part of the world that reminds me how happy I am to live in the United States.

As of a month ago, a Chinese MMO company has started banning accounts of male players that play female characters in their game. Only a few news sites outside of China have picked up on the ruling.

Aurora Technology, a subsidiary of MMO giant Shanda that publishes many MMOs in China, including AION, Dungeons & Dragons Online, and Company of Heroes Online, started requiring players of their MMO King of the World, to start proving their gender via webcam. The rule, which was first announced in late September, seems to apply only to male players playing female characters and not the reverse.

There was no further explanation of the ruling, although the headline on the Pacific Epoch site says it is an attempt to rein in transsexuals in games.

In a more recent take on men playing women in video games, the author makes some broad generalizations, including that men like watching their lithe female avatars from behind, or that "a man would want to play a female character is often evidence enough for many in the online community to label someone a homosexual."

http://www.gamepolitics.com/2009/10/...gender-benders

[Jex]

Lol that's funny. Though I always thought it was weird to play as a female if your a male. get females playing as males as you get hit on for some odd reason lol. The inventor of Tetris plays as a female.

[elevating]

That makes absolutely no sense your playing an imaginary character as it is.

[Ferrik]

Originally Posted by Jex

Lol that's funny. Though I always thought it was weird to play as a female if your a male. get females playing as males as you get hit on for some odd reason lol. The inventor of Tetris plays as a female.

Not at all. Most males that I've talked to are of the opinion that if they're going to spend thousands of hours staring at a backside, it might as well be a hot chick's.

[ganglandceo]

agrees with ferrik. That is why I play a male character.

[Koogle]

Last time I check an MMO was a friggin game, not a dating website!

Who gives a flying duck what character someone wants to use in game.

China setting the precedent for maximum retardation and authoritarianism.

[Jex]

Originally Posted by Ferrik

Not at all. Most males that I've talked to are of the opinion that if they're going to spend thousands of hours staring at a backside, it might as well be a hot chick's.

A few polygons and never got me all hot and bothered. :P Well maybe not never lol.

[NATO_chrisjm]

I actually find that kind of offensive.

People should be able to play whatever they want in a game with ROLE PLAYING elements.

But hey I live in the UK.

[Dx...]

Well i know of a transsexual player in one game, he likes to use a womans name a lot but that isn't the part where i would agree with China.

I would have to ask, what other things that go on from these players that China is mad enough to ban over??

A guy pretending to be a woman and having a sexual convo. in the public chat lobby and putting hard core gay pron on his web site link trying to get young kids to click on it... etc... that's just some of the things this person does, i would imagen China is no different. So maybe they have a better reason than what they stated.

[DigitalDemigod]

Originally Posted by Ferrik

Not at all. Most males that I've talked to are of the opinion that if they're going to spend thousands of hours staring at a backside, it might as well be a hot chick's.

EXACTLY. I got made fun of by my friends for so long because I played a female in WoW (well with multiple characters, I had a mix of male and female, but my main was female). Some of them were even saying I was gay... kuz that makes sense... I turned it around on them by pointing out that they were the ones staring at a burly man's ass for 8 hours at a time, not me.

It's a game. It's imaginary. So what if you play as a girl if you're male? It doesn't mean a damn thing.