I am bringing this subject up on this board because of the recent announcement of an MMO version of TES under development.
Other than the fact that all of Tamriel will be open for exploration in this future game, the fact that opportunities for cooperation, conflict, trade and diplomacy amongst gamers will be part of the normal experience of gaming makes the following article particularly interesting:
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/27870/?p1=blogs

Take note, Bethesda. Such research could and should influence the development of the TES MMORPG.

I am also curious to hear the reactions of fellow posters on this board. I'm sure some of you have already considered the possibilities of forming factions or guilds or other such organizations in anticipation of the release of the MMORPG. The above article link may influence how you build such an organization - for instance, a guild of "Amazons" might be so lethal as to be unstoppable.

Comments?

Well, aside from the fact that it was about MMOs, which have nothing to do with Skyrim, that really wasn't a particularly good article. The comments point out some flaws with the study. There are also a lot of factors involved that they don't seem to take into account. Gender swapping is one of them, but there's also that people often behave differently online than they do in life. I tend to think it's their true self coming to light in a space that has no real consequences, and thus no reason to follow social niceties, but that's just opinion.

Anyways, like I said, this really has nothing to do with this forum.

i didn't read the article, but isn't this requarding the upcoming mmo elder scrolls, so perhaps it does make sense to be here. I'm am most definently not getting elder scrolls online, but hey, to each their own

Thinking about forming a sub sect of the Marukhati Selective that will focus on the Buoyant Armigers.

I don't find it surprising at all. Not when it comes to MMO games, nor when it comes to gender differences overall. Men have always had roles such as being a hunter or a defender, while the tasks left to the women were more peaceful. And the male-female interactions boil down to the act of procreation and all the drives associated with it.

And I don't see why a group of "Amazons" would be unstoppable. I didn't read through the article as attentively as I could have, but I didn't see any mentions of women being superior - just that they used different tactics and strategies and had different mentalities compared to the men.

I think the article is forgetting something crucial- in the game that was studied, no-one could see anybody else's networks, thus preventing 'gangs'.

Also, I like to think I don't behave differently towards people based on their gender first and foremost, but on how well I know them and how well they treat me. I'd be more likely to trade with someone I'd 'known' in-game for a while, and that I trusted, rather than a complete stranger who may or may not have hurled an insult my way/ started a fight with me.

Only thing I know is that in games like FO3 and FONV I becoming a psychopathic Cleptomaniac that kills traveling merchants if he feels he wants all they got. Still remember meeting that traveling merchant when I first emerged from the vault in FO3. Guy had a flamethrower on his back and I murdered him for it + his caps. It was eerily satisfying to take his stuff and then roll his body into the river.

In WOW i was a hunter, another of my female friends was a hunter, her husband a healer and occasional tank, others were healers, another male friend was a healer as well, on my server id seen alot to contradict what was being said in the article, id love to know exactly how many games they tested and people they observed, its a poor example unless they give exact details, did they observe 100 people or 20,000 and from where.

Also not interested in the MMO, but an interesting article nonetheless.

Might be a good study in a game where everybody only had one character and was locked into playing an avatar that matches their gender, but otherwise pointless.

In an MMO one can't really tell if the player is male or female in the first place so that blows the study all to pieces.

In fact this very forum has been reminded a couple of times of how easily we can be fooled about gender online.

Sometimes it's even less straightforward than that, too: there are those who can't figure out their own gender either...

Yes, one can, very easily even.

You see, gender is a social convention. As such, someone's gender is the one he or she identifies himself or herself with. If someone says he's a male, that's what his gender is. If someone would prefer you refer to her as a female, that's her gender.

So if I play WoW and pretend to be a male then I am a male?



I don't think so.

No.

If you identify yourself as a male, respect demands that you are regarded and treated as a male. There is no difference where this self-identification happens, neither "in WoW" nor "in real life" nor anywhere else.


Your (biological) six is something only you and possibly your doctor has to know. Your (social) gender is what you say it is.

I think you've said it better than I could manage, but I agree that a person can choose to identify with whatever suits them in terms of gender. I think the difference between what you and Summer are saying is that it's how a person sees themselves rather than how they wish others to perceive them at any given moment. Probably.

And too many misunderstood that the character one chose is exactly what that person wanted you to perceive as he/she were.

Regardless it makes the article pretty worthless IMHO.


Or what character the person wants to roleplay. Which is quite different than what they might actually want to be in real life.

This awesome game is going to be an MMORPG? FUUUUUUUUUU...

It's not really about that in MMOs. I use both males and females, but mostly females because I prefer their customization options and appearance.

I get what you're saying, but it's not really relevant to a study on MMOs.

How is it not relevant? It may not be as relevant in some MMOs like, say, EVE or other MMOs where the player is represented mainly by a non-gendered entity (ships being traditionally given female pronouns notwithstanding), but in something like WoW, Second Life or TES: Online it is very much relevant.

Second Life in particular (an MMO / virtual world that I'm possibly going to be studying in my dissertation) is just as full of gender concepts and their resulting norms and stereotypes. SL allows a player to literally and figuratively be totally gender-fluid if they wish to be - and have that gender-fluidity instantly represented in their avatar. The social and psychological implications of this gender-fluidity is important not only to virtual worlds like SL, but even in games where gender is a set-once-per-character issue. Some take advantage of social norms and psychological impulses by playing females, as the OP's article mentions, to get further ahead in the game. Others choose one gender or another because of appearance options or (rarely) gender-based class differences.

I have little doubt that the issues surrounding gender and in-game gender will play a part in TES: Online - how exactly they play out is, however, anyone's guess at this point.

I couldn't read the whole thing. Is that article really badly-written or is it just me?

nah it's just you, the article's okay

i don't know what they are trying to say though
males and females are different?????? REALLY???? WOW I DIDNT KNOW THAT HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE
did they really need to do [censored] research to figure that out, what is common sense

edit: i mean if they actually figured out a difference that no one has paid attention to before then it would be interesting, but oh wow are women really more careful than men and do men and women treat each other differently
groundbreaking

It seems you aren't quite grasping how the scientific method works in research.

Short and sweet version:
1. Pick a research area.
2. Decide on research method / start on a brief literature review (these will play off each other).
3. Create research questions / hypotheses based on what you think might happen.
4. Do the research.
5. anolyze all the data you collected, statistics, etc.
6. Report what you found.

You can obviously say that #1, #2 or #3 was poorly thought out / designed, but trying to argue that they shouldn't have done the research because the findings were inconclusive or "common sense" is putting the cart before the horse and antithetical to basic scientific research.

Bah. Who needs scientific research and facts when we have horrible stereotypes and incorrect assumptions to push? Oh, wait, everyone who does that.