Gender in MMOs: your experiences

For this assignment, I first tried to conduct a general study of the interactive portion of the avatar/forum site Gaia Online, a young adult community with common interest in anime and manga overall. I decided to study the MMO area of the site for this assignment.

The portion that is interactive (i.e. players move through a digital area using their avatars, and can interact with others on the server) is known as “Gaia Towns”, and had only been in beta stages when I used to frequent the site (from ’05-’08 during high school); it has now become much more active and developed. However, similar themes remained: due to the common age range of members, most of the interaction veered towards hormone-fueled sexual pursuits (cybersex, flirting, “slave”ing), or hanging out with online cliques of real-life or “net” friends in small groups.

Due my having fallen behind the times in terms of Gaian life, it was a bit overwhelming to try to collect data from players in this portion of the site, but I managed to get comments from a few. I asked general questions about their experiences with gender on Gaia. Some remarked that Gaia, like real life, perpetuated different stereotypes for both genders, as well as class distinctions (based on player’s experience, tenure, possessions/wealth or social presence). However it was tough to have one-on-one interaction with players willing to be interviewed, so I decided to make a topic on the site’s forums instead.

I posted my mission and a few leading questions and ideas on the forum area meant for “extended discussion”, a sub-forum meant for more serious debates and topics. The responses were mixed: a few did not answer very seriously (as is expected from a casual site, as well as the target age group; a few instances of trolling occurred), but I also received a few good insights into player experiences of gender.

An older member shared their experience of the Towns area in her comment on my thread. Because of lag on the early stages of Towns, her female avatar’s costume items were not showing as attached to her character , and she once became stuck in position as a bare avatar and was harassed: “this male avatar came up to [me] and starts to initiate communication through the emoticons. I couldn't get anything to show up and my avatar couldn't move. He took this as a sign to continue. He then "buttraped" my avatar. […] the male avatar was [continually using the sit and stand avatar-posing feature] against my avatar [to simulate rape]. It used to be a "thing" and any unsuspecting avatar could be preyed upon.” I can attest to this experience: it happened quite often, and during my short time trying to re-examine Towns, it happened to my unisex-looking avatar as well.

She went on to say that this has now led her to be “cautious of encountering other avatars in Towns, especially males. [Now] I generally do not engage them in conversations. Furthermore, I avoid going to map areas where it is likely there will be other users”. She also mentioned that she dresses her avatar in non-revealing clothing items to avoid harassment or accosting: she might choose to display sexier outfits on her avatar while only on the forums, but “if I plan on going to Towns I will deliberately change into more covering clothes.”

She and a few other users also remarked that (through Gaia’s avatar changing options) she sometimes set her avatar’s base body to be male, and “felt less threatened. I feel I can do more”. Males were found to be more respected by members and generally left alone. However, the site’s gender majority is highly female these days, so it is odd that interactions do not show a more “majority rule”.

I did receive an interesting comment on race and religion in addition to mere sex: a user wrote “I have been harassed on Gaia because I support Islam and have dressed my avatar as a Muslim woman. Um -- I have been told to grow a thick skin because I'm a transwoman and I'm very sensitive towards transsexual topics.”

However, intelligible responses from Gaian users were few and far between, and did not (I felt) represent the usual demographic of MMORPG players, so, having no time left to play a different MMO by this point in the assignment, I posted a similar thread on a non-interactive forum I frequent (site withheld to protect member identities): this is a much more adult-oriented and older age ranged community (though the community also centers on a particular manga and anime genre, a little like Gaia) and I received a better array of input from players who had experience with MMOs and were willing to share.

One user described multi-player online games humorously: “MMORPG = Many Men Online Role Playing Girls”! MANY (mostly males) remarked that in the MMORPGs they had played (such as WoW), female avatars and known female players were actually given preferential treatment: one poster remarked that “there are a number of players who would jump on the chance of winning over their new internet girlfriend…[female avatars and players are often] given free items, money, experience, and will be treated above other player[s ] in some situations”.

Some †˜real’ males sometimes took advantage of this trend to get free loot from doting males: another user said that “on my rare female characters, sometimes I troll [lead someone on then reveal truth] new people i meet [by pretending that] i am a girl and I think others start to treat me better”.

Others sided with this notion (again, mostly male respondents, so ignorance of male privilege in and out of game world might be a factor): “It's completely true that if the players think you are female you are usually given what you could define as special treatment. I've proven this myself several times, especially with a new game. I always create females characters (I'm a male myself) out of habit. And, at least at the time, if they saw a female character, they assumed a female player, and basically became a kiss-ass giving you items and whatnot.”

This user had an interesting insight as a caveat to the norm: “[However, if players see a] scantily clad female, and come to the conclusion that the player is male now, as no female would willing dress like that, right?”

A player of an MMO beside WoW said they chose a female character avatar because females were “rumored to have faster speeds [in certain situations]”, and that “Males only get the good looking clothes out near lvl 20” while females had nicer items available to equip. They also found that they were able to “pass” as female in text chat because they believed their manner of speaking to be typically feminine.

When real-life females played male avatars, and were later somehow “found out” to be their true sex, a user commented that “people [did] generally tend to change the way they act around her”. As much as the males commenting on my topic may have been blind to their sexism (or that of others), gender treatment certainly carried over from real life into virtual life: male outranked female in player value.

It seems like these Western MMO players did not feel intimidated out of playing avatars that were not their gender (unlike how in My Life as a Night Elf Priest’s study of Chinese players, they felt they would be called sexual slurs and mocked as transsexual): “some friendly teasing has happened to me, just joking around why I make a female [avatar] and all that”.

Many remarked in a manner similar to WoW players surveyed in Life, with answers like “I play as female characters because they are visually more attractive” to look at during prolonged gameplay periods. One had this to say: “if I'm going to be staring at an ass for several hours, it'll be female, damn it”.

Others picked females due to gameplay ability: “I honestly don't like when Class/Jobs are forced into genders: […] I always wanted to use the fighter, but the only gender available [for that class] is the female”.

On the topic of female player ability versus male player ability, I posed a question about whether users would choose to form a party given the choice of two players who were equally qualified, but one male and one female. One user told me, “I would personally choose the male. It's not a matter of sexism (I don't think, anyways) but in my experience, most girls playing MMORPG's tend to have a giant ego and think themselves better than everybody (Which is honestly a somewhat understandable thing, considering half the people playing will treat them special). BUT, if I knew both of them [I posed the question of choosing equally ranked player to join group, but one was male and one female], then I would just pick whichever I knew better.”

Clearly this was a bit of a loaded question, and most of the answers ranged from “I’d pick based on personality” to “I’m not sexist, but…” rationalizations (though these were few).

In terms of leadership roles for female players, users remarked that such positions were not uncommon. One poster told me, “I am an officer in my [WoW] guild and a fellow officer is a female. She might get treated differently outside the guild, but inside she is just like one of the guys. Sort of. We are almost always on [party voice chat] and I still make perverted jokes that I normally would with guys.”

Perhaps this might have been due to the fact that this leader was “a very confident woman and [did not] act all "girly" and sensitive […] She jokes around all the time about how worthless and unmanly I am too. She also yells at idiots in our guild a lot.”

One of the more interesting responses I received came from a user much older than the others I often encountered on the site (and within the topic thread alone):

“I must say my experience has been considerably different from many I see described here, possibly (as someone else mentioned) due to age. I am in my sixties and have played MMOs since the text based MUDD days. I frequently choose a female avatar [for reasons of visual appeal]. I make no effort to hide my true gender though. I have seen very little preference given female characters. In addition to my female characters I have two daughters who are avid gamers and I have seen very little preference paid either of them. I would also say that I (and they) were fairly serious gamers, often active in guilds, and my younger daughter was quite skilled, often defeating the majority of male players in duels, etc. I have also played with quite a few women players over the years and seen very little preferential treatment, but again - my experiences have been almost entirely with older players.”

One of the few females I know on the site responded briefly with her experience in an MMO. I had asked users if, on voice chat within games, once player sex is known (or assumed due to voice tone), were players discriminated against? What kinds of slurs, if any, were used? Were words that demeaned either gender thrown around casually? She replied: “it depends on the group you're with. I've played with some groups who are exceedingly nice to girls and others who are borderline misogynistic.”

Though the answers I received were varied, many of them did reflect stereotypes and attitudes we had discussed in class. However, while player commentary on equal treatment suggests that MMO player behavior could be trending towards gender-blindness, one need recall that these answers were volunteered by players, and I could not observe the reality of gameplay and player attitudes. I assume these posts were truth, but handled them with a grain of salt.