Rumor Control: Shanda's anti-gender-bending MMO policy
by Kyle Orland 
{ Sep 25th 2007 at 1:27PM }
Playing a character of a different gender is a guilty pleasure for millions of MMO players worldwide. So when we started seeing stories about Chinese MMO maker Shanda banning male players from choosing female characters in their online RPG King of the World, we were intrigued. Was this another example of state-imposed restrictions on Chinese gamers? After a little digging, we're not convinced it's an actual imposition of any kind.The source of story in the English-speaking world seems to be a painfully short, two sentence "editorial summary" on Asian business site Pacific Epoch. Besides containing scant details or supporting information on Shanda's policy, the summary contains the eyebrow-raising assertion that players with female avatars would have to "prove their biological sex with a webcam." While this isn't impossible, we find it hard to believe that a publicly traded company would start encouraging its customers to send in pictures of their naughty bits for any reason. Besides being ineffective (what's to stop a player from sending in a picture of someone else?) the system seems overly complicated when a National ID card number could easily provide proof of gender (much as it already does for age confirmation in other MMOs).
Pacific Epoch cites popular Chinese MMO web site 17173 as the source of its information, and while we couldn't find the original article on their site, we did find a story about some obviously fake Halo 3 branded condoms, which 17173 presented as fact. Combine the questionable editorial judgment with the translation problems inherent in citing information from a Chinese site and you have a perfect recipe for an erroneous story to spread across the internet.
We've put in a call to Shanda's U.S. PR arm to try and get a final confirmation on this, but until we do, you can probably rest assured that male Chinese gamers can still play as women if they so choose.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Zertoss @ Sep 25th 2007 1:36PM
LOL use a webcam to prove your gender? Good one!
Personally, I like to play as female characters because their avatars are generally more pleasant to look at (and not just because of the T&A, that's just a bonus).
WiNG @ Sep 25th 2007 1:44PM
lol like this will work
SYSTEM: Mark Chang, please prove you are FEMALE
Mark: Hey sis are you still in the shower?
Lisa: Yeah why.. HEY WTF !!
Mark: Thanks!
Sean @ Sep 25th 2007 1:46PM
Halo 3 condoms: Finish the fight... all night, ribbed with three red rings for her pleasure. (Caution: %30 failure rate)
Geist @ Sep 25th 2007 2:30PM
Believe...in making her feel like a real woman.
jmf @ Oct 15th 2007 4:43PM
why isn't joystiq covering this issue:
Women own more games consoles than men
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2007/09/25/women-own-more-games-consoles-than-men
FrankTheCrank @ Sep 25th 2007 2:08PM
Hey isn't that Master Chief's dad?
Matt B (SDF ) @ Sep 25th 2007 2:45PM
LMAO
oh no you didn't1!1
BC @ Sep 25th 2007 2:31PM
"we find it hard to believe that a publicly traded company would start encouraging its customers to send in pictures of their naughty bits for any reason."? Believe it or not, but you can actually tell males from females by having a webcam pointed at their face.
zkey14 @ Sep 25th 2007 3:27PM
"prove their biological sex with a webcam."
Keywords: biological, sex
Andy S. @ Sep 25th 2007 2:38PM
There's some irony in the fact that anyone willing to buy Halo 3 branded condoms is probably never going to have an occasion to use them.
Crono (NDF - French Taunting from Holy Grail Ring) @ Sep 25th 2007 3:16PM
Except for that full height Cortana pillow they don't want to have to wash.
Tom @ Sep 25th 2007 3:30PM
I just found this article (http://www.virtualworldsnews.com/2007/07/shanda-expandin.html) 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.
Kyle Orland @ Sep 26th 2007 9:06AM
The game just entered open beta in China, according to 17173, so I think it actually exists. Doesn't change my opinion on the whole gender story though.
http://english.17173.com/content/2007-08-23/20070823100013823.shtml
Chris @ Sep 25th 2007 3:31PM
I consider my female night elf as more of a daughter then an alternate reality version of myself.
Although in that alt reality I would be smoking h-o-t.
Well slightly hotter then I am now....
ThornedVenom @ Sep 26th 2007 3:57AM
Doesn't it bother you that most dudes would wanna bang your alt reality daughter? xD
ajadoniz @ Sep 25th 2007 3:54PM
as long as the share price keeps rising.
Konchu @ Sep 25th 2007 3:56PM
It is interesting they are going to these lengths to insure people are the sex they are in real life in a game. I wonder if this is a cultural thing that we take forgranted I know many Korean games(I know this is in china) your characters sex is based on the sex you register yourself as in the account info(Ragnarok Online was this way and also Albatross 18 (AKA Pangya golf or Super Swing golf on the Wii).
Booxatron @ Sep 25th 2007 4:28PM
"Keywords: biological, sex"
Sex as in a synonym for gender....and biological just means life or physical.
You can tell a person's gender just be looking at their face. Well, most of the time.
Fullmetal Salchemist @ Sep 25th 2007 6:41PM
Biological sex does not mean the same thing as gender. Biological sex is genetic; gender is mental.
Booxatron @ Sep 25th 2007 4:30PM
Meant to reply to zkey14 up there...
GRRR need an edit button
Levi @ Sep 25th 2007 6:54PM
That is the worst Hedwig costume I have ever seen.
Psaakyrn @ Sep 25th 2007 7:28PM
FYI: Registering for a MapleSEA (Maple Story South East Asia) account in Singapore requires a valid IC, (and theoretically, I've not tried cheating the system) gender, etc. You can only make characters of your chosen gender.
Or for even more strict rules: Toontown for south east asia requires people to send in proofs of age (from parents) along with a physically signed form if they want to use chat features. (photocopy of IC, birth cert, drivers license...) (yes, I know it's kinda tricky if you happen to be non-child)
A lot of these problems would be smade simpler if there's a national ID database along with ID-encrypted devices (not IC, should probably have to be registered seperately, like a credit card). Granted the ID devices can be stolen, but that's an entirely different problem.
sheppy2.0 @ Sep 25th 2007 8:04PM
You know, I usually play a female character in MMOs as well. Mainly because most of the male models suck as. They often go a bit tooo "male" and end up looking like a sad gothic long eared version of Captain Quark. Females they rarely fuck up though.
blooh (CDF - Ass Ring) @ Sep 25th 2007 11:11PM
i play male and female chars in games
i have alt-itis and like diversity, it'd be gay if i couldn't play as chicks. i would boycott such a game
ThornedVenom @ Sep 26th 2007 4:06AM
Defend your rights: don't let the government get their hands on free voyeurism shots.
Kiryen @ Oct 1st 2007 1:29AM
The name of the game in Chinese is 霸王, which can also be translated as "tyrant" or "conqueror". Anyhow, having dug around a little bit, it seems like it all starts with this post (Chinese):
http://ac.17173.com/content/2006-07-19/1153287325.shtml
Which does contain the word "transvestite/transsexual" (人妖), the exact phrase being "2. 角色性别严重缺失，导致人妖泛滥，极其恶心，至于会不会最终导致部分玩家的性别认同障碍，汗~~~~" (2. Player genders are severely lacking,[Most classes are limited to a single gender] leading to an excess of transvestites, which is extremely disgusting, possibly even leading to the impairment of some players' gender identification[That is, their own gender, not someone else's]."
The post is well over a year old, and others have responded, one post in particular (http://ac.766.com/acxs_975/2006/06-22/3D8A0B86-06A1-7BA0-35B8-DCCA04EE5D71.shtml) comments that the OP is "self-centered", "repugnant", and "hysterical"(as in crazy, original text is 歇斯底里). Which is about one step short of comparing him to Jack Thompson.
Can't find out anything else about this story other than the fact that the developer is concerned with creating job classes first and then fleshing out the genders once they get the gameplay balance down. (http://news.17173.com/content/2007-01-30/20070130161448478,1.shtml)