PlanetDreamcast | Community | Mailbag | 2/24/01

Community - Mailbag 2/24/01 - Gender Swapping With College Physics - by Mr. Domino Welcome to the PDC Mailbag. Every week we toss in a bunch of letters from our readers and do our best to dazzle you with wit and wisdom. Roughly, that translates to copying/pasting your emails and writing the first thing that comes to mind. But hey, you take what you can get. If you have something you want to contribute to the Mailbag, send it to this address! From: CryptCat Subject: Comment on Sex on The Pioneer... Dude, post some video of that gatling gun in action.... I've played through PSO once already with a HUmar, and never saw a gatling gun... I'm on my way through with a FOnewm now so I probably won't see one this time around either... Show us!! ;) ~ D. Oh, it's not anywhere near as neat looking as it sounds. The Fire Gatling is just a machine gun (think Repeater) but red and pretty powerful. It's a nice enough gun (I think it's rating is six stars), but still disappointing when you think of the name. I was hoping for something along the lines of Vulcan Raven's weapon from Metal Gear Solid. That would be neat. :^) From: Craven Subject: Sex on the Pioneer response Hey Laura, I know how you feel in this new online game concept and believe me it happens in whatever online game you play. Even adults do the samething! Believe it or not Women are just as bad too! EQ is one of the games I play and it is one of the 1st online games that came out! Now from experience in changing characters and starting a new life, here is a tip in changing characters.... 1st of all you like your fire gun, that must be hard to give up such a thing of great value, as well as all your other items. Well you dont have to! All you have to do is ask one of your good online game friends to hold the items you wish to keep, all if possible. Then change your character. Let him or her know who your new character is then you find a meeting spot. There is where all your items from your last character can be given to your NEW character. TADAAAA!!! ( Keep in mind, this is also called, "TWEEKING" and is not honored by most online gamers. :(....) Well, I hope that this helps you in the future and remember what you are getting into by being a Female character.. Drell- I'd still be missing all my experience points. You can't equip certain items until you've gained enough experience, so while I may still be able to pass weapons onto a new character, he wouldn't be able to use them for a while. Besides, I don't want to give up my girl. I like her, even with all the problems. :^) From: Brenden Mecleary Subject: Re: Sex on the Pioneer This is pretty much the case with online RPGs. In fact, I think many women play male characters just to avoid being hit on all the time. From my experience, this is a lot worse on PSO than it is on the PC titles. This is probably due to the player base being younger, and generally less familiar with the etiquette expected. Most PC gamers know about this "r u a girl irl" phenomenon already; the average person who starts playing Everquest typically knows better than to ask questions like that. Happily, I have only seen this sort of behavior in the online lobbies. To date, I haven't had any trouble after the game has started. The only time someone asked whether I was a chick or not, it turned out that the person was actually a female. (Or else, a really messed up guy.) I don't generally receive special treatment for having a female avatar - though I think someone did call me a "battle angel" once, which I thought was amusing. At my level (85), most people expect me to give them stuff. It can be irritating to meet the losers, but look at it as an opportunity. I hate kids, so I love any chance I get to make 15-year-olds unhappy. There are so many fun ways to torture these people: * You can insult them in the chat lobbies and watch other people laugh at them. (A personal favorite of mine.) * You can get them killed on the planet and swipe their stuff. * You can claim to be a chick, string them along, take them for everything they have, then tell them you lied. * You can waste their time by asking them to do impossible things and then ditching them. ("Would you please bring me an ? I think it's somewhere in the ruins. I'd REALLY appreciate it... ") Something I greatly enjoy is that my HUnewearl has a slightly uncommon name. This means that people tend to misspell it, which usually shuts their whole operation down before it gets started. In fact, if one vowel is changed, my character's name becomes a very common male name. Everyone in the lobby always gets a good laugh out of that. If someone were to give me an item just for playing a female character, I'd happily take it. Then I'd immediately jog to the shops and sell it. Unless, of course, I knew someone who wanted it. I already have all the rare items I could possibly want for myself, but I'm happy to take advantage of stupid people. Mr. Domino certainly shouldn't delete his character just because of some asshole kids. Don't get mad, get even. Brenden Mecleary (Male, thank you very much.) I do make fun of such types, although I don't think I could steal their stuff. I have avoided reviving people in the past, though, because they were just that annoying. From: Melissa Tropeano Subject: Keep the Gatling Gun! Girls love when boys give them gifts just for being cute. Interesting how you are getting harassed.....are these guys desperate or do their brains switch on to auto-chauvenist/sexist-pig/idiot when they smell a girl in the room? Especially one that they don't actually ever have to look in the face! Geez, what is going on?! In case you are wondering, I am the wife of a player in this game. Interesting dynamic. See what us chicks have to endure? (of course, the free gifts help ease the pain). Enjoy!!! Melissa Tropeano Yeah, well, guys love when guys give them gifts, too. :^) Gifts are nice. It's the pretext which is annoying. At least you know you husband is in safe hands. :^) From: rcunning Subject: Feedback for "Sex on the Pioneer" Thanks to Mr. Domino for his article on playing a female avatar. It's wonderful when male columnists are willing to help expose what happens to women when they go on-line. I'm a real-life woman who acts a bit guyish and has an encyclopedic knowledge of video games. Despite being an avid gamer, I will not play any of the current crop of on-line RPGs. I don't like role-playing men, so hiding behind a male avatar is not an option for me. But I have heard too many stories from other women about harassment on-line. I have no desire to be subjected to such treatment when I'm playing a game. It makes it virutally impossible to role-play anything but "angry female." I know there are a lot of women like me, so if men complain that there are not enough women on those games, they have only themselves to blame (and I feel bad for the nice ones who treat us like equals). Also, just to let you know, most real women resent getting "special treatment" (more help, more items, being "protected" even if you're a warrior in plate mail) from men in on-line games. It means the men think we can't take care of ourselves on our own. Every female avatar I've ever met (I used to play MUDs) who was happy to beg items off male avatars was played by a man. Thanks again for the article! -The Cranky Dragon That's a shame. Really, while the problem is there, don't take it as an overgeneralization of everyone playing on-line. The jerks are just a very vocal group and (so far) not the majority. I think I receive more attention simply because of the real female name I gave my girl. From: Christopher Fowler Subject: PSO gals OK, I'll tell the truth... I have a definite affinity for video game chicks. I go to Quake competitions and nothing makes me happier than to see some cute geek chick there on Quake 3 0wning every guy in the room. I'm in love, I want her to spend the rest of her life with me, shaggin and fraggin with me every night. BUT... I still consider her a gamer when it's all said and done, so it's all about the game to me. When I got on to PSO, being a PC gamer, I'm already accustomed to guys playing female characters most of the time, so I think nothing of that female skin. I mean, in Quake 3 I often use female skins just because, well... frankly the only male skin I like is Doom. :-) My first assumption is that there's a guy behind that girl to begin with. When I got on I saw guys constantly trying to hit on everyone using a female character, and I frankly got tired of it. I ended up hanging out on the JP servers which, if there IS sexual harassment going on, at least I can't understand it because it's all in Japanese :-P I also found out though that on their servers, a lot of the female characters REALLY ARE chicks. So now I'm running into two of my affinities in one: ASIAN GAMER CHICKS. Still, I don't sexually harass because, well, frankly they're some of the nicest gamers to work with. If they're higher level they're really cool to me at a lower level, and they're even somewhat amused by the stupid American :-P I found myself at Lvl 10 as a HUmar in the mines with a Lvl 60 force who was a chick, we got seperated from the others, and ended up back to back surrounded by enemies. She could have cleared it all out with a couple quick spells, but instead all I see is "Fight!" come up above her head. A couple minutes later we had cleared the room without a single spell used and laughed about how well it worked. She chunked me a few premium weapons with a grin and we went to find the others. It might have been a guy pretending to be a girl playing a girl, but the behavior sure didn't seem like it. Either way, I never hit on her even though she understood enough english for me to do so, just because I've found that the female players react better if you just treat them like any other player. That's my point to guys like that... you really want female gamers to dig you, just do what you both actually came there to do in the first place: PLAY THE FREAKIN GAME. You'll be amazed how much more they enjoy being around you if you're not checking out their digital ass. Chris "3-D" Fowler Yep. I remember playing with three other girls and we all killed the last boss together -- all our first time. Afterward we talked for a while and found out that I was the real boy of the group. It felt awkward for me as though I had invaded some group under false pretense by simply being the female character in a group of females, but I got over it soon enough. :^) From: Eric Matthews Subject: feedback RE:Sex On the Pioneer Fab piece. So true too-- As someone who takes role-playing seriously I too have found the stalking problem a real pain when playing female roles. I am often shocked by the number of people who are incapable of separating real life from the role-playing aspects of a game. When I play I am completely uninterested in others real lives, genders, and what their own imaginary girlfriends look like. With all the harassment going on no wonder there are so few women on-line in these environments. Though I really think computer and console games are growing up, they are apparently still in their adolescent phase- and so are too many of the gamers. Sometimes I get turned off from a game simply by the number of 13-14 year olds and the older players who act like them. e I think it's best to play with a core group of people you trust. The guild card concept is terrific for this, so that when you enjoy playing with someone who can think beyond the sixth grade, you can search for him/her and play again later. From: N8 Subject: RPGurl. Wanna cyber??? 24/m here!!! I really didn't want to include that letter, but I think it's appropriate considering the topic at hand. Still, by far most of the responses have been really intelligent. Thanks to all who contributed with your e-mails (even if it took forever to get through them :^) ).