Ryan MacMillan

Today in our brand new feature “Seriously, that’s an issue for you? Ummm, OK, well, I’ll be over here being, y’know, normal” Timothy Burke over at Terranova has a thoughtful discussion of reports that a Chinese MMOG has suspended the accounts of players whose avatars (and those readers of a genteel disposition may wish to turn away now) were not the same sex as the player!

Like Burke, I suspected this was an “only in China” moment, but, reading through the comments section I stumbled upon (or StumbledUpon, if you must) this:

I think all action games should feature men characters. As a guy, i never create or play female character. It just doesn’t feel right.”

Seriously, you’re spending your spare time pretending to fight dragons whilst wearing imaginary chain mail and it’s the being a woman bit that doesn’t feel right? Which was why it was so nice to then read:

I’m steadfastly opposed to this sort of, frankly, idiocy, because I know it’s going to harm a lot of people who already seriously marginalized by society, and because frankly, here in the West at least, we’ve already “gotten over it”. No-one playing WoW, for example, can genuinely be surprised that many of the female avatars are played by men.

Hurrah for sensible people online (even gamers). There was some concern in the comments on Burke’s story that people could feel “fooled” by transsexual avatars. Interestingly, this was something that Tad Williams explored in his (frankly precognitive) Sci-Fi series, Otherland, wherein a terminally ill boy, Orlando, became best friends with someone named Fredericks in an online FRPG - only for Frederics to turn out to be - da dad daaaaah - a girl, much to his anger. Orlando’s point is that Frederics has lied to him, to which she points that, he - a boy who cannot leave his own bed - has been playing a muscle bound super strong barbarian warrior for years. It’s not deceit, it’s fantasy.

It was interesting to read some of the comments which suggested that female avatars were often treated more kindly than male ones, especially in male-dominated MMOGs - and equally interesting to read comments from female gamers who had frequently felt that they had to “cross” and become male characters in order to be taken seriously. (Such was certainly Frederic’s argument in Otherland) It reminds me of my first tentative steps into the world on online interaction… I am, as my many (ahem) admirers will know - a total geek for US politics. About 5 years ago I got heavily involved in an American political discussion forum. At first, I properly identified myself (male, white, European) and got into some enjoyable debates. I started to realise, however, that I wasn’t being taken seriously on some of the issues because, well, I just wasn’t American. So - in a fit of pique - a registered the totally fictional username “Kate Fansler”, identifying myself as a female American from San Francisco. I carried on writing the precise same opinions, but found myself getting alot more kudos for what I was saying. Partly it was that there were precious few other “women” on the forum (a problem with most political blogs, message boards etc.), so there was novelty value - but it was also about being “legitimate” as an American. Now this, I would say, was deceit: we were talking about real world issues, and grounding our opinions in our own experiences. In my - or rather Kate Fansler’s case - these were entirely fictional, which was unfair on the other board members. Even the idiot Republicans. I’ll put my hands up to a clear-cut case of unethical digital transsexuality; but the guys and gals doing it in WoW? Not so much

(nb: and quite what it said about the other forum members that they didn’t knowKate Fansler is uncler…)