Just kidding. Don’t want anybody throwing their waxy earbuds at me. I was referring to a new study published in the journal Cyberpsychology and Behaviour – did you know such an academic journal existed? — that says a majority of MMORPG players swap genders when they play.

Well, they don’t, like, you know “swap” out parts or anything, they just create characters of the opposite sex, for apparent strategic reasons. (That’s what they say anyway, but you know there’s more than one of the 119 respondents with something frilly and secret in his closet.)

From the wording in the Guardian, you might assume all 54% of the men who said they cross-avatared were closet-cases:

“Fifty four percent of men said that they had portrayed a female character online; a move they said allowed them to flirt with other players and explore a different side of their personality.”

Hmmm. I don’t think they meant it that way. Other reports say it might also be a strategic move: If another player thinks they’re dealing with a girl, they treat the character differently.

Therefore, I think TomM’s description, albeit more juvenile, is more accurate:

In the words of one male participant quoted in the study, “Nerd + Boob = Loot.”

I don’t know if somebody really said that, but it’s funny nonetheless.

Bobbie Johnson, the author of the Guardian article above, also commented on his blog, saying the professor told him that online gamblers often pretend to be women to hustle other players – just like mechanics and women, gamblers assume women don’t know when hold’em or fold’em.

Women, like in real life, do it for other reasons. In fact, kind of the opposite reason: they feel other players take them more seriously and that their avatar is less likely to get its leg humped. 68% of the women surveyed said they switched gender online.

Just a reminder: You never know who, exactly, you’re talking to online.

A fifth respondents were introverted pasties, preferring online conversation to offline conversation, so long as it didn’t interfere with their George Lucas stalking. Men who played MMORPG were less likely to swap genders but were far more likely to find it easier to converse online.

That may be because they’re not actually conversing with women a good portion of the time. The women are ripping them off by pretending to be that dude they hate. That’s okay because bar girls are kind of scary; everybody know what it’s like to get played for drinks.

Well, maybe not these guys.

All of the above was good-natured teasing. Please don’t hack my bank account. (You’ll be pretty disappointed if you do, anyway.)

Tags: News //