Interestingly enough, Shanda has asked for rights to US distribution (and something with JP Morgan??). Wonder how this will fly.
www.jlmpacificepoch.com/newsstories?id=156082_0_5_0_M

I think this policy says volumes more about the policy makers than those they expect to follow it. Insecurity (in its myriad forms) can be a scary thing. How far can we be from "Excuse me, but your hair is light brown in the game, but it is clearly auburn in this satellite photo we took last week. It's off to the bin with you, mate."???

"I have yet to hear anyone say something that seemed likely to mitigate the idiocy of this age." - John Perry Barlow

Such a very good comment from Alycat... I wish I can give positive comment points for that. MMORPG games are meant to be unisex, which means it doesn't have to create gender issues as both sex can be played and all... and male and female players can play and enjoy them.

Why people don't understand that there's a big difference between men who want to be with men and men who want to be women (although there are some who fit both descriptions)?

Most gay men like being men. They also like other things that aren't appropriate to discuss but do necessitate them continuing to be men. And some if not most men who want to be women only like women and continue to be with women even if they get the op.

Nevermind the fact that we're talking about a game and not real life. Nobody would ever think that someone who rolls a troll, orc or ugly dead thing wants to be any such thing in real life.

Also, not everybody identifies with their toon as an alter ego. For some, it's not about being the character so much as it is about controlling/objectifying the character, which can have other far more dire implications regarding male attitudes toward women.

I'm not saying that some men aren't playing as a way to safely explore their feminine side without getting up close and personal with another guy's masculine side IRL (two very different activities), but as with most things in the real world, generalizations overlook all the complexities of human psychology and sociology.

As for the article, I'm surprised that nobody has contemplated what exactly one has to do to confirm their gender on webcam. Is there going to be a physical examination of the panty-dropping variety?

It sounds like a real idiotic way to stop in character begging from guys diguised as women to get help. Begging in game is the lamest form of griefing in my opinion, treat it as such and take action against the account, don't make people verify their gender to own a female character.

'We have recieved screenshots as evidence that you are a pathetic jerk, you are now no longer able to play female characters due to exploiting the generosity of others.' Or words to that effect would do the trick in my book. It also weeds out the women who try to play on their gender in games too, i don't know about you lot, but the women i know who game never play on it, and don't want to be treated different to any guy.

Guess i'm just too logical to work for a chinese games company though

I voted up, i thought it was worth reading, thanks Eurydice.

This is some major idiocy. If you're a real girl and you play King of the World, not only do you have to buy a webcam just to play as your own gender, this really DOESN'T help the problem. Male players who want to play female avatars can still do it, they just need to get their mom, sister, best friend's girlfriend or whatever "at the keyboard" in order to get through the interview.

This screws both trap/crossdresser people who want to play female avatars, roleplayers who want to have female alts, and real females who shouldn't have to be exploited just to prove that they are in fact female.

Vote up for this. People need to know about this travesty.

Altimus, a guy playing as a girl is already a transvestite.

SWI & joule, if you're a girl, borrow a friend's webcam for a day.

If you're worried about there being too few female avatars, you need to get off the computer and find a real girlfriend, or maybe even talk to a psychiatrist.

If you don't like this policy, don't play. It's that simple.

*Females who choose to play as male characters aren't a problem compared to the other way around. Women play as male characters because they want to be treated with respect and taken seriously, not flirted with. They don't run around acting stupid or trying to get free stuff like some males do when they play as female characters. I don't like double standards either, but it seems their reasoning behind this needed to be explained to some of you. Plus, males play as females far more often than females play as males, and that's based on percentage, so it's not due to the fact more males play online games than females.

So now not only do they place limitations on your players, they discriminate against certain groups of people, including real girls who simply can't afford (or don't wish to buy) a webcam? If those girls can't afford a webcam, and then say, "Fine, I'll just play a male avatar," is the game company going to ban their accounts too, even though it is the cause?

What will they do next when they "fish out" the females? Give them good items to get on their good side?

I think its ridiculous. An objective opinion might reveal that creating an MMO to serve as a dating pool is acceptable. But their approach is unfair and just preposterous.

What if your a female gamer & have no webcam?
I personly wouldn't bother with a MMO that would make me do something like that. You never know whos on the other side of that web cam & what they are doing.

I think its a good thing, i'm sick of males going about GW as females begging for money and items, and all the "rich and stupid" go shell out big cash on them(like a mystress, if you wanna see her naked, pay).

wow.... that's one of the dumberst things i've heard in a while...what it if was a transvestite and they couldn't tell. jokes on you..

Um, this is just plain retarded lol. I've never played a character of the opposite sex and neither has my husband, but why restrict people from doing it? That's just plain moronic. Games are suppose to be fun, choosing your character is one of the best parts about a game =(

Oh dear God, please don't let SOE see this...Before we know it, they'll restrict the use of Twi'lek characters for those without lekku's...

This completely destroys the concept of anonymity. Personally, I agree with Roxianna because this is too stupid to be an actual business decision.
What company in their right mind would alienate a possibly large portion of their customers for something so trivial?

Voting up a piece of content is just an opinion of the content. I voted it up this article because I thought it was interesting and thought-provoking, even though I thought the managers of the game are nuts. Basically, an up-vote means, "I think others would want to read this." A down vote means you think the article is lame or uninteresting, and others would be better served by skipping over it to the next article.

Next thing you know we'll have to submit blood, urine, and DNA...

Well... if you use your MMO as a dating service I guess it makes sense. I guess. People = strange.

I wonder why they don't require verification to play a male?

Let's hope they don't have a "neutral" gender (like AO).

How...pathetic.

This just means genuine female players will get hasstled even more.

Good.

I think you are indeed voting down the content and story. When I vote up, I do not vote up "Wow Eurydice found a good controversial article, kudos".

If this is not the way it works, there needs to some sort of guidelines and/or an option to vote the content because the content is what is important, not the person who posted it.

Either way I voted up because chinese people make me giggle with their all-over-the-map ethics.

OK, I just had to check this out a bit more. The news story is being treated as credible. It just showed up on Wired's news blogs. Thing is "King of the World" is produced by Aurora, a Chinese, and Chinese-language game company, in the PRC (mainland China).

Privacy? What's that? Worried about a market or bad publicity? This actually might be really good for them in that environment.

And there's a different culture around gender there, even *more* different than our rather smudged attitudes in the US.

So treat this as a cross-cultural window.

uh, guys, remember when you are voting this down, you're not voting down the King of the [insert here] MMO, you're voting down your opinion of Euridyce, who posted this as a news article in good faith. So if it makes you feel like zomg I can believe this is so stoopid, maybe you should thank her for taking your mind off of the real problems in your day by voting her story *up*?

Publicity stunt or not. This is one of the dumbest things I've ever heard. I can't really think of anything else to say this is so dumb.

"Maybe this announcement was a publicity stunt. I am voting it down."

I can't tell whether you mean that it might be the company who announced this as a publicity stunt, or whether you mean it was me posting this as a publicity stunt. I assure you the latter isn't the case--I posted it because I thought it was bizarre, but not to get attention for myself.

Right on the mark MrSilver... its the international MMO of sausagefest. These people can't even understand the concept of privacy, people like to keep some info anonymous.

You have got to be kidding me.

Has anyone even heard of this MMO?

There will end up being less than 1% female avatars...

Not to mention the fact that what woman would send a webcam shot of themselves just to play a female avatar.

Sounds like a giant sausage fest of a MMO.

There is a reason for choice of gaming genders... this is so not nice. It's not like you are a girl who can play with a guy character and vice versa. We can even wear clothes IRL of the opposite sex, we chose not to as it is not the norm. Bad move for the company.

Ha sounds like somebody got duped and talked dirty to a dude playing a chick .
But seriously thats the dumbest thing I've ever heard. If you pay you should be able to be a chick if you want to.

There are so many reasons why that is a stupid move for a business. What's next, Web cam interviews to make sure you are cute enough to play a hot elf? I hope that King of the World players enjoy their all male world.

Maybe this announcement was a publicity stunt. I am voting it down.

That's beyond stupid , I can't believe it's true .

hm, why would they want to gimp themselves?