"GIRL" = "Guy In Real Life"?

[quarrel]

Not in China.

From here:

A subsidiary of Chinese MMOG powerhouse Shanda Interactive Entertainment, Aurora froze the accounts of all male players who chose to play as females in the game. The company stated that only female players may play as females, although it did not comment on female players who wish to play as men. To enforce this policy, Aurora now requires any gamer who selects a female character to provide proof of gender via a webcam.

Comments

[ladyperegrine.livejournal.com]

I'm...a little curious about just how they are going to expect females to prove their gender via webcam, given that there are guys who look like girls irl and vice versa. Also, it seems like as long as a guy has a female friend to help him out, he's all set - she could even do the webcam from her machine, and play 'her' character from 'his' machine later. (Unless they have to provide 'proof' with each log-in?)

It's probably a little evil that I'm thinking 'employment opportunity' here, isn't it? :-) Of course, I don't know that I'm up for relocation to China...

[stormydragon.livejournal.com]

This is actually liekly to make a lot of female players switch to male characters as well. If people know all female avatars are females RL, they're going to end up getting constantly harrassed.

[quarrel.livejournal.com]

I honestly believe it's more a matter of the company scrambling for a way to demonstrate compliance with the wacky internet laws the Chinese government comes up with.

[ladyperegrine.livejournal.com]

That makes sense. I still think it'd be fun to circumvent those laws...but then, if I were Chinese, I'd probably think differently (and be more aware of possible repercussions.)