Healthcare…

Yeah, she’s not the only one.

Wait…I mean…not exploitable?

Fuck it. I’ll go with J.’s comments.

Got Yaoi?

Why would this matter? Seriously. To deliver ads? As a market segment, gamers are a target market for more games, along with computers, caffeine, peripherals, more caffeine, and other things related to gaming. Beyond that, I know gamers in elementary school and gamers in the AARP. One person in my guild is a corporate lawyer, another makes minimum wage. The one critical thing we have in common is we all play the same game.

You already have the demographic category that matters: Game geek. I am more like male game geeks than I am like female non-gamers. Whether I sit or stand to pee is possibly the least useful piece of information about me.

Security? The game company presumably already has my credit card number on file, since I paid them, and my IP address in their logs. That’s entirely enough for the cops to find me. Having a picture of someone who claims they’re me is unnecessary.

And will people lie about it? Damn straight they will. I routinely lie about my age, sex, zip code, and anything else intrusive that websites demand. For one thing, it’s none of their damn business. For another, I’d prefer more interesting ads than the ones they serve if they think I’m female. I do not wear perfume (designer or fake), I would not be caught dead with a fugly overpriced handbag (that’s what pockets are for), and I have no interest in chick flicks or their TV equivalent. (now, if they’d supply a list of available ad categories that I could pick X out of, I’d at least give them a straight answer … I’ll take computer hardware, action movies, and technical books, please)

And what happens when the person playing isn’t the person paying? For example, a parent paying for a child’s account? Whose picture do you want, whose sex do you verify?

That is certainly a game I would not play, that I could not be paid to play. I play male avatars. All comments about “girls” getting free stuff and/or help aside, I am not flattered or amused by constant innuendos, almost as constant blatant passes, “funny” sexist insults, and most of all, by the fact that it is assumed that I am a casual, inexperienced, and incompetent player. I just want to be a player like any other player, and I have found that the only way to do that is to let people assume the player is what the character is: male.

A MMORPGs is not an online dating service. The only need to know “A/S/L” is if you intend to use it as one. I don’t, and I prefer not to be around people who do. Too much drama.

Now a disclaimer. I’ve not played WoW for months, and don’t have an SL account. In fact, the only multiplayer game I’m playing at the moment is YPP. This instantly disqualifies me from having an opinion that counts about MMORPGs in the eyes of most people. Also I can’t dig up any other information about this game (mainly because typing King of the World MMO into google comes up with a hundred pages about banning “kings posing as queens” [gambling911, first result on Google])

First of all, the company will have accurate demographics of thier players gender. No other MMO can boast that – to do so would violate various data protection laws that people agree to when transfering important things like credit card information.

Second, its a hoop to jump through during sign up. An interesting one at that, you have to have your photo on file to play. It might be an annoying step for most, but for some people it might just be a harrowing one. How likely are you to grief or hack a computer game if the company has your picture on file to hand over to China’s cybercrime units? Even if they don’t give those pictures over to the police, there are still things you can legally do with those pictures if you sneak them into EULAs (I personally like the idea of putting textured “Wanted” posters in game with images of those griefers…)

Third. It’s another instance of real life effecting MMO’s. Which can only give us interesting philosophical questions to ask in the future if this kind of thing becomes routine.

One thing I’m noticing though – the articles I’m reading seem to have missed out saying whether you need to send in your photo if you’re aiming to play a male character…

Granted, this is in China, so their local attitude is likely different from that of, say, America. Which is full of people who would probably say “no” to the above, forgetting about their MySpace/Facebook/XBox Live/player community du jour mugs.

Plus, it’s not as if the world isn’t full of girly-faced Asian men. I mean, there’s a whole genre about it in anime. Shudder.