<![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters - Kotaku Comments]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters - Kotaku Comments]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> @netrage: Internet Is Serious Business.

www.internetisseriousbusiness.com

I hope this clarifies it all for you sceptics out there. =D

Captain_Seasick

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> I don't know if everywhere is the same, but in my country it's fool's day, you know when you trick people, make pranks, borrow money but not pay back, so we sometimes make fake internet rumours, and post them in English because it would look more real that way, generally speaking this pranks tend to be so obvious that none of us would take them seriously is just for the laugh of it.

So be careful and don't believe everything you see on the internet.

netrage

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> I wrote a comic about the whole transgendered affair:

[www.postmodernsideshow.com]

postmodernsideshow

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> Maybe they will get a visit from someone with an EMP cannon soon...

[xkcd.com]

sidonath

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> @onikuwagata: Just to let you know that the guy who posted an article over at Joystiq about this - he also expressed an opinion that it may be fake - replied to me today. Apparently the games in beta at the moment but that's only according to the same site this news was posted on. If the game is in beta then they're not saying much about it - you'd think it would warrant a mention on Shanda's website!

Nosignalinput

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> @Nosignalinput: Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if it's all BS cooked up. The website that is the source of the news gives very little detail.

onikuwagata

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> Trackback

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> I just found this article ([www.virtualworldsnews.com]) about Shanda acquiring Aurora Technology back in July. The article states that Aurora Technology currently operates two virtual worlds (Feng Yun Online and Legend Online) none of which are the reported King of the World. In fact, a search for King of the World brings up no conclusive evidence that the game even exists - all the results are based on this recent news. Also of note is the fact Shanda's English website makes no mention of the game whatsoever.

I think there may be a strong possibility that this news is fake.

Nosignalinput

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> Why stop there? How about no playing a level 32 Minotaur unless you are, in fact, a level 32 Minotaur.

reecord2

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> But, really.

The next move should be to verify that the players are as good looking as their avatars.

Mact

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> @IheartPOKEMON:

Erm...

So we need to protect the idiots who get off by seeing pixels representing a female compliment them?

Mact

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> In online games I almost always play as a female character. If I have to prove it, I'd just ask my sister or mother to pose for the camera.

Hmm, does this proof just require a headshot? What about more masculine womyn? doesn't this discriminate agaisnt them?

CyberSkull

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> LOL, this so reminds me of Welcome to the NHK!
It's a dumb decision from Aurora Technology and they'll soon realise that.
I'm betting the decision was made based on some of the associate's experience.

Probably one of the owners were hitting on a "maaaaann" thinking he was a woman only to discover the extra bonus later. Or something very similar to that.

Even if they were to create some system of proof of gender, freezing account was the worst decision they could ever do.

They'll realise that when they loose half their clients. Because most gamers are there exactly to escape from their own realities.

Next thing will be "proof of being thin", "proof of beauty", "proof of skin color", etc etc

Bokusatsu_Tenshi

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> Hey, they said this is a Role Playing game, not a Gender Role Playing game!

MaxSteele

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> this is fucking retarded. its a game, you should be allowed to play it however you want.

i bet a lot of the girls that actually do this will be men who put on a little makeup and a dress.

and i bet most of the girls will just choose to play as guys. its not like they REALLY love being hit on by creepy gamer nerds.

joelface

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> My guess is that a randy old man at the company was eager at the idea of hitting on female players, and was disgusted to realize he could be hitting on a guy!

There have to be cheaper ways to guarantee that the person you're harassing is female... like heading to a bar. Setting up a web-cam-shot checking service, whatever its flaws, I'm sure must be costing the company thousands of dollars even assuming sweatshop labor.

sasquatchua

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> "They probably got too many complaints about being duped out of their items by female avatars."-Hobob

Anyone dumb enough to fall for that deserves it.

Ometochtli

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> 1. If people are skeeved out by a guy playing a female character, do they also insist that the Queen in chess be called a Chamberlain? Is it really *that* weird that I might want to look at a cute girl for hours and hours on end rather than a hulking guy?

2. If RO and Maple Story are any indication, any effort to restrict gender of characters based on player gender means that female characters will be harassed more.

3. If you go assuming that people are who and what they say they are on the internet... you fail.

Neko Ewen

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> They probably got too many complaints about being duped out of their items by female avatars. I guess its the company protecting the gullible, that or some of the employees were feeling lonely one weekend.

hobob

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> @TC: wait wait, china is a communist country? then surely 'to each according to his need' should mean that anyone who wants to roleplay a female character can have one?

sadly, marx doesn't apply to pseudo-communist capitalist dictatorships :)

(note: i may be slightly abusing the spirit of that quote. :)

quen

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> So apparently role-playing is illegal in a ROLE PLAYING GAME. rofl. Whats to stop anyone from asking their gf/wife/sister to verify for them?

syp

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> Oh, and they should get Chun-Li out of Street Fighter too, because I´ts so rare to see girls playing it.

sarcasm...

lucasreis

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> @edgeblade: Nazi much?

Seriously, who the fuck cares if people want to be beef or fish online.

If you fell for it, its your own damned fault really.

Just as in real life, TRAPS are everywhere.

Witzbold

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> Can't say I blame the company for trying. Anyone who has played WoW or the like for any amount of time knows the game runs rampant w/males posing as females which to me is just irritating. I had probably 5+ characters on my main server and none of them were female.
I don't think their verification process will work very well though. Why? Because the person could just get their friend/mother/sister/etc. to be the "webcam-ee." Then you have the fact that depending on how they check this/enforce it, it could border on sexual harassment.
I'm all for them cracking down on wannabe women though.

edgeblade

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> This is the most ridiculous thing I´ve ever read concerning games ever.

I mean... if you are a good looking guy, NEVER play as a monster! Only monsters are allowed to do that! hahahahaha!

This is uber BS! I mean... I don´t play MMO´s, but in other games I always pick up the girls and big monsters (I don´t really get the "normal" guys).

They´re just damn characters. Stupid company...

lucasreis

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> Well what do you expect from a communist country. This does defeat the very meaning of the term 'role-playing'. Why should it matter if the person on the other end is really a guy or girl on whatever avatar? Is this game a hook up site? Will most of these people ever meet in real life? I mean if this were a dating service then yes I would understand, but this is a damn RPG.

TC

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> What's the point of doing this?

From what I remember, there was a study that suggested that a large majority of male gamers actually prefer playing female leads in their games. Some kinda psychological gender-reversal thing.

Mageme

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> @Ghede: Zombie/Poison Mastermind, right?

I've made a few female CoH avatars, mainly for concept and one catgirl space marine to be silly with. If I'm gonna be staring at someone's butt for hours, it's either gonna have a sweet flowing cape over it and/or be a curvy female butt.

Ah, comic book heroines. Never without curves.

Sabre_Justice: Okay, no more long name.

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> why does this scream of 'only in china'?

xbulletholes

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> @Mokai: I had to play alliance since that was the region I was used to from the beta, plus my friend wouldnt want to be horde.

If I was gonna go horde, Id be a male tauren or possibly male troll. The undead are cool too but I kept getting lost in the city lol.

Witzbold

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> I've only created one female avatar, and never played it.

CoV: Minty Vomit.

I just wanted to register the name. It arose from a conversation I had about zombies and keeping them smelling fresh.

Ghede

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> @Witzbold: I did it in wow, just becuase all of the guy models look like crap.

Agreed. Up until the appearance of Blood elves, your choices were either to be a girl or some testosterone-overloaded abomination regardless of the class picked. Caused me to do the same thing you did.

Mokai

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> Interesting. Friends often ask me why I've never made a single female character in any MMO that I've played. Hell, I even felt weird playing FFX-2. I'm Chinese and I support the Chinese government in most of its recent online gaming regulations, is there a correlation here?

Sturmfalke

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> Wow, I can't see this going down well. As a former WoW player, I used to play male avatars as well as my female avatar (I'm female), mainly because of looks (and the weird PM's I'd get from males ingame! XD). IMO, male Tauren > female Tauren.

This also seems like an elaborate ploy to get girls on webcam. Oh noes! D:

Wuffles

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> I did it in wow, just becuase all of the guy models look like crap.

I would have been a dwarf but I hate the whole snow region, and running around in ironforge made me want to smash gnomes with a hammer.

Witzbold

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> It's not government enforced people, it's a corporate thing. The only difference is that they may not have to fear the barrage of lawsuits that the same policy would attract in the US.

I'm pretty sure this company won't be in business very long either way.

Sabre_Justice: Okay, no more long name.

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> I'm a guy who plays a female character in RPGs, but I don't do it to try to get people to do me special favors or anything shady, it's just because if I'm going to be looking at this same character for the next X hours of my life, I might as well make it something nice to look at.

I'm sure glad I don't live in China. If I did I'd probably move. China's a shitty place to live.

mashuren

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> You people are reading way too much into this. They're just trying to drum up business for the sequel, Drag Queen of the World.

Vexorg

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> Hilarious. I will laugh when some ugly girl gets her female character taken away for not being pretty enough. :(

MetaKz

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> *heard
/wrist

argh

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> Lmao. I highly doubt this bush-league company is a "heavy hitter." Gender verification for game characters...that's one of the stupidest things I've ever hears.

argh

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> @ittekimasu: Actually you can get around that by just making another account. The gender thing with RO2 is just tied into to your gungho account or whatever the main service account is. Then when you play RO2 it detects that and forces you to play as that gender.

Witzbold

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> I hope they don't do the same thing for Mass Effect, if you know what I mean.
[kotaku.com]

Timsobuff74

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> @IheartPOKEMON:

When I used to play WoW a guy thought I was a girl on my rogue (female character). I just went with it and got tons of stuff. Good times. He tried to get me banned when I told him one day. Of course it was either I tell him or meet him irl like he asked...

roflcopter616

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> eh nothing new, ragnarok 2 is susposedly trying to force genders to stick to their own but not with web cams, something much more sinister or something along the lines.

ittekimasu

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> @BPMΩ:
Also, THERE ARE NO GIRLS ON THE INTERNET! NO EXCEPTIONS!

jive238

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> WOW, just put on a wig, or try to look like a girl. It's not that hard. Webcams have crappy quality anyway.

cmoody17

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> I believe there is an Internet meme that sums up this policy in two words and one acronym:

"TITS OR GTFO"

BPMο

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> @Mokai: Hey, look, us Wizards have enough to contend with without some 2-bit net-kiddy simply "proclaiming" himself a Lvl 10 Dwarven Wizard and then degrading our entire prodession with his poor grammar and speling. I say let only Wizards role play as wizards, weed out the posers who can't even conjour up a lvl 5 curse of badger baiting.

ego531

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> =D

...In other news, a Shanda Entertainment spokesperson recently announced the company's aquisition of U.S. based webportal "Amature Pussy" and promises a new larger Asian area for the site.

Consolcwby

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> How the heck are they going to enforce that? I mean that's probably going to be a lot of pictures. And It's easy to fake it as long as they mean boobs, and you don't have to strip. Tape and bags of sand.

onikuwagata

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> I'm glad they did this! US companies should support this concept.

God forbid someone would want to role-play in a role-playing game. It's just perverse!

Note the the sarcastically inhibited: this is sarcasm.

jayntampa

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> Last time I checked, China is a communist country, yes? geez...

rich8606

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> @Pyros: Exactly, all of this just sounds like it would scare actual women away from the game. Prove that you're a woman so you can go online and be harassed. And all to prevent what? Cyber cross-dressing?! Insanity.

whalleywhat

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> Even if this system worked all it would lead to is female characters being targeted by 14 and 45 year old males. What kind of female would play a game like this knowing she'd be subject to "A/L?" whispered every 2 seconds.

Also some of us don't like looking at the male avatar's ass all day... My GW account is 50% male/50% female.

Iron_Dragon_2.0

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> i think its a good things there is to much cross dresser that have pleasure playing a girl in mmorpg these days. its horrible.

difancer

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> @Pyros: Buying presents for a woman you know is one thing, giving presents to someone you'll probably never even meet on the pretense that she might be a pornolicious naughty young girl that craves for some geek meat is just plain retarded.

*sigh* you dont understand, man. back in the days of PSO, me and NightElf69 had something. dont judge me!

TheIrishNinja

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> Wow, funny stuff. So by... "prove their biological sex" do they mean... dick flashing? Cuz that would be weird. But funny.

2NinjasTapedTogether

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> I think the point that everyone's missing is that this MMO is called THE KING OF THE WORLD. How can you go wrong with a title like that?

turkeyfunk

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> I think one of them fell for a trap and they didn't like it none too well and this is their way of sparing others the shame.

jive238

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> this shit's hilarious. theyre either a) chasing off the, you know, role-playing element of their RPG, b) demanding you find a pic of a chick (any webcam shot off the internet'll do, apparently, or c) all but demanding pics of vag.

either way, good way to get your unkown game's name in the press.

TheIrishNinja

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> Sounds like someone at Shanda Entertainment is trying to find an excuse to look at webcam pictures all day.

Aviator

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> By this company's logic, why not prohibit someone with black hair from playing a character with blonde hair? Or prevent someone from making and elf character unless they are, in fact, an elf in real life? I can't see the point in this.

Mokai

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> I wonder just how many accounts google has saved.

The Amazing Exploding-Man

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> @IheartPOKEMON:
I don't see how it'd be any different here, just that the women would be even more sought after by youngsters/no lives since supposedly everytime you'd see a female char ingame, you'd assume it's a female playing, which is not the case in mmorpgs.

As for scams, if you're stupid enough to give items to someone because she happens to have boobs IRL(or pretend to), you're a freaking idiot imo. Buying presents for a woman you know is one thing, giving presents to someone you'll probably never even meet on the pretense that she might be a pornolicious naughty young girl that craves for some geek meat is just plain retarded.

These people are also terribly annoying to real girls that are just trying to play.

Pyros

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> I knew my Federal Boob Inspector shirt would come in handy!

justhesh

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> I don't know, but I think this one smells along the lines of a trap if they want more than just a pretty face. Perhaps the guy in charge is looking for a date, and is weeding out the posers from all the digital lovelies within the MMO. If that's the case, might I recommend getting a life? Regardless, I expect this to ether fail, ruin the MMO, or (in worse case) end with a nasty lawsuit.

Then again, what would I know. I've never even heard of the game until now, and have no interest in checking it out.

bugashi

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> @IheartPOKEMON:
those things happen all the time in Akihabara...

[kotaku.com]


icepick314

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> So a guy who wants to play as a girl can just snap a webcam pic of his sister/mother/friend/female realitive.

I'd really love to see them try to inforce this policy for any amount of time.

EmeraldDragon

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. It is unfortunate that a subculture which fights for free speech is still tied on gender stereotypes. I know that it does not mean anything because I do not live in China but I officially boycott that game. some one write that down and hold me to it.

jepp-fransen

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> @IheartPOKEMON: Yup the guys know exactly what to tell the other guys to get them to cough up their stuff.

AndroidKing

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> I don't play any MMOs but I do remember reading that many scams are done by female characters who are actually male wooing male players into giving them gifts of important items and in game currency.

IheartPOKEMON

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> Sounds like some big shot at Shanda got more than he bargained for with that online date.

myDingling

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> "Moooooooooom, I need you to come and smile for the webcam so I can play a girl character in this game." Hahahahaha.

If only online dating services had this level of sex-proofing. Yeesh.

DaveKap

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> Who's going to make the discriminatory call on this one? What about trans-gender and otherwise masculine...wait, here's an idea: go find a less stupid MMO.

Elly

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> Wow, if they spend that time dedicated something as trivial as that, imagine how good the rest of the game must be! I imagine there's a reason why this is the first time any of us have ever heard of their game.

futurebiblehero

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> It's not like these guys won't be able to find girls willing to cheat the system for them.

Maldron

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> So, will they be constantly checking? Because if it's just a check at character creation, someone could just get a woman to show up when they sign up and render the whole thing pointless.

Cattleprod

]]> <![CDATA[Shanda Says No to Men Role Playing Women Characters]]> Hahahaha, this is real? "Definitive proof will be required from female gamers, so Shanda is asking that they display a portion of their body that is indisputably feminine."

whalleywhat

]]>