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Sexism Alive and Well in Chinese Gaming


Submitted by thankeeka on January 9, 2007 - 10:35am. Females in Gaming News

Could it be a good idea? Yes. Could it be a bad idea? Yes. Perfect World, an MMO developer based in Beijing, is going to make a female only server for their Chinese fantasy MMORPG World 2. On one hand, it will eliminate much of the sexism that happens in MMORPGs, such as women being trashed for being a woman after they reveal the player on the other end of the computer is indeed a woman, but yet it makes one wonder how far you could stretch specific segregation servers. Yes, good idea, but if anything women and men should be working together so they share the same gaming space and are treated equally. Seems like creating specific zones is only pushing the problem to the side than facing it.

From the article:

Perfect World, an MMO developer based in Beijing, seems to think that the year is 1950. Their Chinese fantasy MMORPG World 2 is set to open a female-only server group in the near future that, as the title implies, will only allow for female players. While this will definitely cut down on the amount of e-necking that occurs in-game, these poor ladies will never get dates to the sockhop if they are segregated this way. Some of the boys might even start to think they're *gasp* squares!

Allusions to an era even before that of your parents aside, this seems like the kind of bizarrely PC gesture that goes well beyond the spirit of the movement and just ends up being offensive. Women gamers might like the idea of getting away from the creepy, sexless, juvenile male gamers, but who's to say that male gamers wouldn't also want to get away from the girls who spend their time flirting and whoring themselves out for virtual attention? Segregating gaming servers is not only bound to fail (How do they plan to authenticate this? Will they be inspecting your genitals on login?), it's the kind of idea that would draw a tremendous backlash from the ACLU and Gloria Steinem if it wasn't occurring only in Red China.

Read the full article over at destructoid.com


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