Saturday, October 2, 2010
Why oh why
Why can't I go to bed, even though it's 2:26 a.m. as of right now? Why do I have to stay up watching webisodes of "The Guild," which I had forgotten about until tonight and then noticed that, like, seven episodes had been posted since last viewing? Le sigh.
How to act like an actual girl in MMOs
So, I would say it's a fairly common phenomenon for male MMOers to play female characters. After all, I am dating one such male. I'd say from experience* that roughly half all characters prancing about MMOs are females, yet that would be disproportionate to the number of IRL female gamers.
I would also say that it's not uncommon for these dudes playing chicks to exploit other gaming dudes playing as dudes to get free stuff. Maybe it's not common--I don't know--but it's far from unheard of.
Here is my question: How do they do it? I am an actual female! Yet not once has anyone ever given me anything free ever. (Other than the boyfriend, who is obligated to. And he's a girl. Well, you know what I mean.) Why is it that these dudes are better at being chicks than I am? Or are they?
My primary hypothesis for this phenomenon is that dudes know what other dudes want to hear, because it's what they would want to hear. So they know exactly what to say to manipulate other dudes into giving their sexy avatars free stuff.
But here's where this gets freaky. If dudes are the ones--to a large extent--playing the female characters, and if those dudes are manipulating other dudes into thinking they are actual girls in order to get free stuff and telling them what they want to hear, the manipulated gamers are witnessing what they think is actual female behavior. Therefore, they think that female gamers act/talk/chat a certain way. But this action is based on male fantasy and not on real, actual female behavior. If that which I have hypothesized is true, then these dude-chicks are not better at being a girl than I am, they are merely better at being a male fantasy than I am.
Which is a wee bit disturbing in and of itself.
I'd really like to know how much of perceived female gaming behavior is based on this sort of interaction.
I'd also like to know how these dudes do it, since evidently I'm clueless. I could seriously use some free loot.
I'd love some more opinions from those more knowledgeable/opinionated than I am!
*The only MMO I play is Guild Wars, since I'm too cheap to pay subscription fees. And MMOs kind of scare me.
Things I would buy if...
1. ...I had an extra $2000.
And smaller boobs.
2. ...I had an extra $200.
And lived in a place where it wasn't going to be absolutely freezing on Halloween.
3. Had someone to play chess with. Or was any good at chess.
That is the freaking Nike of Samothrace!!! It is my very favorite sculpture. And on that same theme...
4. Had a yard or awesome garden area.
5. Was a snazzier dresser.
Alas, I am but a poor grad student with little to no money to spare. That shall not prevent me from window shopping (browser shopping?) to my heart's content!
Also, all the sites listed are AMAZING and have loads of cool stuff. You should totes check it out. Totes.
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