Chinese MMO Bans Males From Playing Female Characters
Posted by Jonathan on Monday, September 24th, 2007 at 3:16 pm under Computer, Gamer Life, Games Industry
Players of the Chinese MMORPG, King of the World, may have found themselves unable to log into their accounts this past weekend. The game’s publisher, Aurora Technology, has apparently frozen the accounts of all male players choosing to play as a female characters. Now, only female players can play female characters, and they’re required to prove their gender via a webcam. Females wanting to play males are still allowed though.
I’m still waiting to hear a reason for this though. The best I can think of is that they wanted people playing to be sure that the people they were talking too were really the gender they claimed they were, but then why still allow females to play male character? Seems like a pretty easy way to drive off a lot of customers though. Besides essentially getting rid of any male wanting to play as a female character (a fairly large consumer base), what about all those people who had their characters really built up at the time of the ban? Are they just out of luck and have to start over? And the webcam thing really isn’t going to deter male players from playing as females. All you’d need is a female friend willing to sit in front of a computer for a couple minutes or a penchant for cross-dressing.
Via Pacific Epoch
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September 24th, 2007 at 3:22 pm
it's about time. lol
September 24th, 2007 at 3:34 pm
They just want to see hot girls.
September 24th, 2007 at 5:45 pm
Lmao well I guess they will know if its really a girl behind the character now XD
~Death Dream~
September 24th, 2007 at 6:35 pm
I think it's only men who have a problem with other males using female characters. I don't know how many times I've been "approached" in game. I'm not here for that I just want to play.
September 24th, 2007 at 11:13 pm
@LaChandra: What?! You're telling me that women play games to just play and are not actually looking for romance?
We've all read the stories before about a couple meeting in-game and actually carrying out their relationship out of the game, but people need to understand that those cases are as rare as…well, I'm analogy well has run completely dry, so I'll just say it's rare.
September 25th, 2007 at 10:46 am
This is hilarious but oh well and to the above poster, in-game built relationships are more common then you would think both me and my best friend meet our girlfriends playing FFXI it works out better then most girls since they are into gaming and understand a gamers passion
September 25th, 2007 at 11:24 am
what a really shameful law.. Chinese ppl are getting really crazy over anything…
I guess we should fight for the right of Chinese public now …
ELiena
September 25th, 2007 at 11:29 am
I completely agree with you Mikey. I met my girlfriend a few years ago(irl lol)and got her into gaming. A girl that can understand a "need" to game definitely makes those all nighters a bit more fun. :]
HAPPY HALO 3-ING
September 25th, 2007 at 11:31 am
Oh yea, on the topic of the article, someone said it…all you have to do is have a female friend or relative sit in front of a camera for a little while. This really isn't going to fix anything, just piss a bunch of peaceful gamers off.
September 25th, 2007 at 12:12 pm
Gahah! The good thing about being a girl gamer is that people always give you things for free. I got 70k on Guild Wars once (Shush — GW isn't THAT bad, you faithful WoW players!) just because a guy found out I really was a girl IRL.
It's actually not as rare as most guys tend to perceive. Actually, my dream is to marry a gamer guy and just spend a good portion of our day… playing games. I don't even mind if it's not a multiplayer game, because I also greatly enjoy watching people play games as well, soooo yeah. Alright, I'm done with my nonsensical rant for now.
September 25th, 2007 at 12:26 pm
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September 25th, 2007 at 12:54 pm
males trying to pick girls in an online games are losers anyway
September 25th, 2007 at 1:00 pm
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September 25th, 2007 at 1:50 pm
There's only one logical explanation: one of the developers was on his alt and had a "crying game" moment when he tried cybering with someone.
September 25th, 2007 at 1:58 pm
Nah, In my opinion, it's China's totalitarian mindset and the fact that they look down upon any sort of non mainstream outlook on sexuality and desires. Some doctor somewhere must have said that males who choose to be females in game must have some sort of underlying desire to be female, which is ridiculous. Everyone knows we do it for the free shit…
September 25th, 2007 at 2:04 pm
I agree with Bink's guess. It's probably the Chinese mindset. China is a communist state therefore most businesses are heavily influenced (if not completely run) by the state. China's been concerned with it's reputation on the global front (check out what they're doing for the Beijing Olympics). Some government council or official probably said "male MMO players playing females = gay" and demanded this ban. Odd by USA standards? Sure. We're considerably more liberal. IF you ask me though, it's par for the course for China.
September 25th, 2007 at 2:06 pm
Glad to see there IS still intelligent life on the internet. :]
September 25th, 2007 at 2:44 pm
I play a female character Ayasana on Ansalonmud.com, not so much for the free stuff but to be able to feel like a woman.
September 25th, 2007 at 2:50 pm
Well that's terrific.
September 25th, 2007 at 2:57 pm
This isn't too unique. There have been a number of Korean MMOs that force you to play as your real life gender which they determine by your social security number which is required to play almost all free games in korea.
September 25th, 2007 at 3:54 pm
i'd like to point out that only this one mmo in China that I know of has set up this policy, out of the dozens of others in that country. in fact, probably the only reason this made any English news outlet is because it's a popular game made by Aurora, which was recently acquired by Shanda Interactive Entertainment, a major media company in China that works with foreign companies regularly. the site that reported this story only deals with news concerning asian business, so it was probably meant as an FYI for potential investors in Shanda. more of warning that the acquisition may not be as beneficial as once thought.
on a side note, i actually lived in china for 3 years, and from what i saw, it's not as bad as people in the U.S. make it out to be. the way they've survived for so long as a "Communist" economy is because they've gotten progressively lax on those strict policies and drifted partway towards more capitalist ideals. and as for china's views on sexuality: that's not so much due to the government as to the culture in general. the chinese aren't actively against homosexuality per se, most of them just don't even think about it even existing. it's tolerated, so long as it isn't seen out in public; and in that sense, the internet has been a boon for gay communities to build. China is a culture steeped in tradition, and it's been that way for thousands of years. a lot of people seem to think that the government somehow magically controls the whole culture of the country in some sort of Orwellian fashion, and that's just not true. its the people that control the culture. in terms of wrong-doing, mostly the government controls information coming into the country and do what they can to control what goes out, and then its mostly restricted to political news. this is mostly seen in how news stories are spun in local papers. and yes, china is concerned with their country's image, because a majority of people still seem to think the Red Army still marches through the streets and everyone carries a copy of Mao's Little Red Book (actually, i never me a single person in china who thought Mao was a good person). in fact, the chinese government followed suit with other asian countries a few years back and removed homosexuality from the official medical list of Psychological Disorders.
things have changed people. this ain't the cultural revolution no more. Mao's been dead for decades and his corpse looks like a crumbling wax dummy (seriously, i've seen it; it's weird).
September 25th, 2007 at 4:10 pm
Lol. I think it's similar on Ragnarok Online, also. You have to provide a KSSN (Korean-Social Security Number). For some reason, they're just excessively paranoid about men pretending to be women. o_o;
I used to play online games as a guy because no one would hit on me.
The one time I played as a Human female on WoW (though my primary character was a Tauren female) a guy came up to me like "Do u want to be my gf?" and I just responded "EW! Dude, no, I'm a guy!"
A good amount of my guy friends will play as women on MMORPGs because they'd "rather watch a woman's ass run around for fifty levels than a man's".
September 25th, 2007 at 4:31 pm
Well, China is in big lack of females AND they just recently banned the official view of homosexuality as a mental disorder.. and there are probably several other reasons too.
September 25th, 2007 at 6:03 pm
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September 25th, 2007 at 6:20 pm
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September 25th, 2007 at 8:08 pm
[...] recently read this article on Filefront, about how a Chinese multiplayer online game called King of the World is banning male players from [...]
September 25th, 2007 at 8:34 pm
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September 25th, 2007 at 9:29 pm
Wow…that's just mean :(.
September 25th, 2007 at 9:36 pm
'show us your tits'
(quote from the developers talking to a girl via webcam who wanted to play a female character)
September 25th, 2007 at 9:36 pm
[...] [Gaming Today] Comment on this post | [...]
September 25th, 2007 at 11:52 pm
[...] MMO Ban Males from Playing Female Characters Source –> http://news.filefront.com/chinese-mmo-bans…ale-characters/ Original Source –> Pacific Epoch - Shanda's Aurora Bans Transsexuals [...]
September 26th, 2007 at 1:28 am
It's a well known fact that China puts much more value on males than females.
Why else are so many female babies abandoned in China? Perhaps there is some mindset that there are too many females in the game?
Or maybe their government that is making that INSANE ban has stock in webcams? So, not only do you have to buy the game, but also a webcam?
September 26th, 2007 at 4:54 am
My first character in WoW was female, and I regretted it later because in real life I am male, and I felt I was somehow deceiving people, even before talking to them. This made me feel uncomfortable.
Playing characters of my own sex feels far more natural.
September 26th, 2007 at 8:15 am
[...] Men barred from playing female characters in MMO. In related news, World of Warcraft will begin requiring a death certificate before you are allowed to play undead characters. [...]
September 26th, 2007 at 8:32 am
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September 26th, 2007 at 8:33 am
Ha!
That's gonna stop a lot of female players period, as they won't want to face the indignity of proving their gender to the game admins to make a character.
Of course, MMO players without fail fail.
September 26th, 2007 at 9:57 am
"Men barred from playing female characters in MMO. In related news, World of Warcraft will begin requiring a death certificate before you are allowed to play undead characters."
That one made me laugh
September 26th, 2007 at 2:20 pm
[...] has apparently frozen the accounts of all male players choosing to play as a female characters.read more | digg story Share: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and [...]
September 27th, 2007 at 11:29 am
Omg, this is rediculous. That company needs to stop, rewind, and take a reality check. They are going to lose so many players over a stupid thing like this.
But hey, if communism works for you, don't leave.
September 27th, 2007 at 11:43 am
Their methods are insane. I think they will want a urine sample, Blood test, and a below the waist check to see if your realy a woman and not a tranvestite. Also how does that work for those SHE-Males out there?
They are mad, its kinda sexist if you ask me, its a damn game, its like any thing online chat,you dont know who your truly talking to unless u see them on cam, only an idiot would care or fall in love with a virtural characator. Woman/Man/Dog/Beast what ever a person plays its a game, who cares. This will hurt sales/suscriptions.
September 28th, 2007 at 2:28 am
[...] I really don't know the reason why they did this but according to report by Gaming Today; "Now, only female players can play female characters, and they’re required to prove their [...]
September 28th, 2007 at 8:11 am
[...] Players of the Chinese MMORPG, King of the World, may have found themselves unable to log into their accounts this past weekend. The game?s publisher, Aurora Technology, has apparently frozen the accounts of all male players choosing to play as a female characters. Now, only female players can play female characters, and they?re required to prove………… Chinese MMO Bans Males From Playing Female Characters [...]
September 30th, 2007 at 2:44 pm
I wrote a comic about the whole transgendered affair:
http://www.postmodernsideshow.com/content/view/132/31/
October 2nd, 2007 at 11:16 am
What will happen AFTER the ban takes place and guys are found playing female characters:
"Any male player caught playing a female character after the ban is imposed will be immediately sent for "corrective surgery" to change him into a Chinese girl as well as psychotherapy to ensure that the new girl wants to have sex with guys. By doing so, this will reduce the imbalance between men and women in Chinese society and reduce population pressures since men who have had sex changes to become women are unable to get pregnant."
October 4th, 2007 at 12:25 am
Thats just plain stupid. what ass thought of this?
October 6th, 2007 at 7:35 pm
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October 16th, 2007 at 11:31 am
The real weirdos are the guys that play GUY characters. Think about it. They make a male character knowing full well that they will be looking at the backside of a male for the entire time they play the game. Pervs. Might as well enjoy the scenery.
November 9th, 2007 at 9:28 am
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November 19th, 2007 at 5:11 pm
That is strange, and funny. Ha.
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