Chinese MMO bans in-game gender-bending
Ken sez, "In China, the massively multiplayer online game King of the World has banned all accounts of men who play female characters, and is requiring players to validate their gender via webcam in order to play females. (I wonder if women can play male characters w/o validation). Aurora Technology, the maker of the game, apparently stipulates in the Terms of Service that only female gamers can play female characters in the game."
Shanda (Nasdaq: SNDA) subsidiary Aurora Technology has frozen game accounts of male players who chose to play female in-game characters in its in-house developed MMORPG King of the World, reports 17173. Aurora stipulates that onl1y female gamers can play female characters in the game, and it requires gamers who chose female characters to prove their biological sex with a webcam, according to the report.Link (Thanks, Ken!)
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You know, having played some of the other MMOs where they restrict character gender to player gender (like Ragnarok Online and Maple Story), (1) people fake it anyway, and (2) the end result is that female characters get harassed that much more because people are reasonably sure there's a girl at the other end.
Why it would be considered a problem is beyond me. To me it's like a guy playing chess insisting that the queen be called a chancellor or some such.
I play female characters all the time.
If I have to stare at a butt for hundreds of hours/levels, it better be nice to look at.
"it requires gamers who chose female characters to prove their biological sex with a webcam"
Sounds like they were hoping to make girls take naughty videos of themselves!
This is hillarious .. imagine .. some chinese dude using his sis' make up and clothing for webcam validation ... and exactly how .. do they have so show up naked? Why not just use the sister ... new niche for chinese girls 'I make female mmo account for you' ...
Also .. the game should be called the King / queen of the world :)
It's just an excuse for the geeks running the show to get girls naked on webcam. I can see it now...
"Ma'am, I can't tell if you are a man with breast implants and a wig or if you are female. If you want to create a character you will need to drop your pants and cough."
I'll bet they'd tell you it's to discourage immorality.
Yet another sad footnote in China's epic battle against personal freedom...
I just hope they make sure that humans play only humans too.
There's nothing worse than chatting up some sexy elf chick only to find out she's actually human in real life.
eew
"...requiring players to validate their gender via webcam."
I'm a little afraid of what this might entail.
Seems that someone in the Chinese Bureau of Social Ethics wanted to play "King of the World" with some sexy on-line avitar but instead ended up playing "The Crying Game."
I'm with Dillinger69. I was rolling with a Gnome and a Draenei last night in WoW, and I'm fairly certain they were really human poseurs.
I just hope they don't find out that I sometimes play a priest even though I'm really an atheist.
"Why not just use the sister"
I think the terms "sister" and "brother" have little meaning in a country where 1 child per couple is law. Also due to this law, there are more men than women in China. Which would make a guaranteed female in game all the more worthy of undue attention.
But yes, easy to fake, and all the more tempting for trannies.
I created a webcomic about the transgendered subject:
http://postmodernsideshow.com/content/view/132/31/