June 2003

• Damage and Stuff (Math and Code) Ben Chambers
• MMO Launch issues ruining potential segments of the market. Derek Licciardi
• • MMO Launch issues ruining potential segments of the market. Mike Shaver
  • • MMO Launch issues ruining potential segments of the market. Mike Shaver
  • MMO Launch issues ruining potential segments of the market. Daniel Anderson
  • • MMO Launch issues ruining potential segments of the market. Matt Mihaly
    • MMO Launch issues ruining potential segments of the market. Luca Girardo
    • MMO Launch issues ruining potential segments of themarket. Ron Gabbard
  • MMO Launch issues ruining potential segments of the market. Chris Holko
  • • MMO Launch issues ruining potential segments of the market. Matt Mihaly
    • • MMO Launch issues ruining potential segments of the market. Daniel.Harman@barclayscapital.com
  • MMO Launch issues ruining potential segments of the market. Justin Coleman
  • MMO Launch issues ruining potential segments of th e market. Daniel.Harman@barclayscapital.com
  • MMO Launch issues ruining potential segments of th e market. Jeff Fuller
  • MMO Launch issues ruining potential segments of the market. Matt Mihaly
  • • MMO Launch issues ruining potential segments of the market. Tess Snider
  • MMO Launch issues ruining potential segments of the market. Luca Girardo
  • • MMO Launch issues ruining potential segments of the market. Tess Snider
    • MMO Launch issues ruining potential segments of the market. Matt Mihaly
    • MMO Launch issues ruining potential segments of the market. Jeff Fuller
    • • MMO Launch issues ruining potential segments of themarket. Chris Holko
      • • MMO Launch issues ruining potential segments ofthemarket. Scott Jennings
        • MMO Launch issues ruining potential segments of the market. Jeff Fuller
• New Column by Dave Rickey "Engines of Creation" Now at Skotos Christopher Allen
• Announcing Shadow Door: an NPC Control Interface for Neverwinter Nights Robert Zubek
• ADMIN: So, what has been happening? J C Lawrence
• [Meta] Forward of moderated message J C Lawrence
• New Here MIKE MacMartin
• • New Here Mike
  • • New Here MIKE MacMartin
    • • New Here Miroslav Silovic
      • • New Here MIKE MacMartin
• Looking for a GUI Mud Development program Snicker Furfoot
• • Looking for a GUI Mud Development program Ben Greear
• ADMIN: List archives are now restored. J C Lawrence
• The Price of Being Male Rayzam
• • The Price of Being Male Sasha Hart
  • The Price of Being Male Daniel.Harman@barclayscapital.com
  • • The Price of Being Male Rayzam
    • • The Price of Being Male Byron Ellacott
      • The Price of Being Male Dr. Cat
    • The Price of Being Male Castronova, Edward
    • • The Price of Being Male Boyle, Paul
      • The Price of Being Male Mark 'Kamikaze' Hughes
      • • The Price of Being Male Rayzam
        • • The Price of Being Male Mark 'Kamikaze' Hughes
          • • The Price of Being Male Rayzam
            • • The Price of Being Male Mark 'Kamikaze' Hughes
        • The Price of Being Male Marian Griffith
        • • The Price of Being Male Paul Schwanz
          • • The Price of Being Male Rayzam
            • • The Price of Being Male Paul Schwanz
              • The Price of Being Male Vincent Archer
              • • The Price of Being Male Rayzam
        • The Price of Being Male Castronova, Edward
        • • The Price of Being Male Sasha Hart
          • The Price of Being Male Mark 'Kamikaze' Hughes
            Tue, Jul 01, 2003 at 10:17:31AM -0700 in
            <C12079793797A84CA92DF1A6805676F2028009A5@e2k1.fullerton.edu>,
            Castronova, Edward <ecastronova@Exchange.FULLERTON.EDU> spake:
            > From: Mark 'Kamikaze' Hughes kamikaze@kuoi.asui.uidaho.edu
            
            >> Most men don't want to appear female, simply because that's not
            >> what they are or care to be viewed as. And that really is normal
            >> and OK; not everyone is an androgynous bisexual transvestite.
            
            > truer words were never writ. not everyone is an androgynous bisexual
            > transvestite.
            
            And yet your tone suggests that everyone *should* be so, that a
            preference for appearing to be their own gender is discriminatory.
            
            '"In five years, the penis will be obsolete," said the salesman.'
            -John Varley, _Steel Beach_
            
            > the argument is, men just like being men, so a preference by men
            > for male avatars is not discrimination. but instead of just
            > assuming that men like being men, and calling that normal, let's
            > go ahead and ask the question: why do men like being men?
            
            For the same reason that women like being women and small furry
            mammals from Alpha Centauri like being small furry mammals from
            Alpha Centauri. By their late teens, most humans' self-image and
            sexual preferences are fairly well set. They experiment with their
            image more in online worlds than in the soi-disant "real world", but
            prefer being visible as roughly what they are. Fantasy race,
            profession, and name are somewhat mutable, but usually consistent
            even across multiple games; gender is a very strongly-held personal
            image, and few people play different genders regularly. As Richard
            Bartle pointed out, many users find it actively disturbing or
            offensive to encounter "cross-dressers".
            
            Women dislike being seen as men as much as men dislike being seen as
            women. Don't believe me? Go up behind a woman who's not extremely
            feminine-looking or in a dress, and call her "sir". When you regain
            consciousness, you can call that "research".
            
            > you know, here's one thing i haven't heard from any man in this
            > discussion, here or elsewhere: "Your study is wrong. I like
            > playing female avatars. Being female is more fun and less hassle."
            > Some have said they like playing females to look at the avatar's
            > nice-looking body. Others have said females get gifts and are
            > groups, so they should be better off. But no man has said that
            > they actually do play a female avatar because, on the whole, they
            > like how gameplay is when you're female. But quite a few women
            > have said that about fronting as male.
            
            "Being female is more fun and less hassle" is not a statement that
            they prefer gameplay as a female? In what language?
            
            That would be an entirely different paper, though, and *IF* you can
            put numbers to that, you might have something interesting. But
            right now, you're just pulling that out of thin air, out of your own
            biases, and it does not convince.
            
            There certainly *are* men who routinely play female characters (as
            opposed to brief experiments), especially on roleplay-heavy MUDs,
            but they make up a few perent of the male population at most. Which
            is unsurprisingly in the ballpark for the more unusual kinds of
            sexual experimentation--I'm not talking about homosexuality, as most
            of the gay men I've met in MUDs have played male, often VERY male,
            characters--but dom/sub games, transvestitism, and so on.
            
            Calling it discrimination on such scanty evidence is inappropriate,
            when there are many other explanations; I've offered the one I think
            most likely, and Richard Bartle has a whole list full... When you
            complete your research, I'm sure everyone looks forward to seeing
            it...
            
            Until then, the paper is equivalent to discovering that Dark Elf and
            Troll characters are worth less money at auction, and concluding
            from that that there's discrimination against blue and green people.
            
            --
            <a href="http://kuoi.asui.uidaho.edu/~kamikaze/"> Mark Hughes </a>
          • • The Price of Being Male Amanda Walker
          • The Price of Being Male Richard A. Bartle
          • • The Price of Being Male Castronova, Edward
            • • The Price of Being Male Richard A. Bartle
          • The Price of Being Male Tazzik
          • • The Price of Being Male Richard A. Bartle
            • • The Price of Being Male Tazzik
      • The Price of Being Male Richard A. Bartle
      • • The Price of Being Male Marian Griffith
        • • The Price of Being Male Sasha Hart
          • • The Price of Being Male Tom
            • The Price of Being Male Marian Griffith
            • • The Price of Being Male Sasha Hart
              • • The Price of Being Male Marian Griffith
                • • The Price of Being Male Sasha Hart
          • The Price of Being Male Richard A. Bartle
        • The Price of Being Male Castronova, Edward
        • • The Price of Being Male Richard A. Bartle
        • The Price of Being Male Daniel.Harman@barclayscapital.com
      • The Price of Being Male Paul Schwanz
      • The Price of Being Male Daniel Anderson
      • • The Price of Being Male Travis Casey
        • • The Price of Being Male Paul Schwanz
          • • The Price of Being Male Travis Casey
          • The Price of Being Male Chris Holko
          • • The Price of Being Male Travis Casey
            • • The Price of Being Male Sanvean
              • • The Price of Being Male Sasha Hart
                • The Price of Being Male Tom
                • • The Price of Being Male Sanvean
                  • • The Price of Being Male Tom
  • The Price of Being Male Paul Schwanz
  • The Price of Being Male Amanda Walker
  • The Price of Being Male shop@isparkinson.co.uk
  • The Price of Being Male Boyle, Paul
  • The Price of Being Male Ola Fosheim Grøstad
  • • The Price of Being Male Sheela Caur'Lir
    • • The Price of Being Male Jeff Crane
• Are gold pieces taxable? Koster, Raph
• • Are gold pieces taxable? Boyle, Paul
  • • Are gold pieces taxable? Amanda Walker
  • Are gold pieces taxable? Thomas Leavitt
  • Are gold pieces taxable? Daniel.Harman@barclayscapital.com
• Functors / Loki (was: New Here) Eli Stevens
• Architecture Peter "Pietro" Rossmann
• • Architecture Peter "Pietro" Rossmann
  • • Architecture ceo
    • • Architecture Peter "Pietro" Rossmann
• SW:G this is so unfair Marian Griffith
• • SW:G this is so unfair Marc Bowden
  • SW:G this is so unfair Martin Bassie
• Players policing themselves (was: MMO Launch issues ruining potential segments of themarket.) Derek Licciardi
• • Players policing themselves (was: MMO Launch issues ruining potential segments of themarket.) Marian Griffith
• Q&A with Ken Troop, Lead Designer at Turbine Michael Tresca
• • Q&A with Ken Troop, Lead Designer at Turbine Threshold RPG
  • • Q&A with Ken Troop, Lead Designer at Turbine Mike Shaver
    • Q&A with Ken Troop, Lead Designer at Turbine Chris
• Architecture (Cell Rebalancing) Peter "Pietro" Rossmann
• • Architecture (Cell Rebalancing) Zach Collins {Siege}
  • • Architecture (Cell Rebalancing) Peter "Pietro" Rossmann
  • Architecture (Cell Rebalancing) Daniel.Harman@barclayscapital.com
  • • Architecture (Cell Rebalancing) Peter "Pietro" Rossmann
    • Architecture (Cell Rebalancing) Rossmann Peter
    • • Architecture (Cell Rebalancing) ceo
      • • Architecture (Cell Rebalancing) Peter "Pietro" Rossmann
        • • Architecture (Cell Rebalancing) J C Lawrence
          • • Architecture (Cell Rebalancing) Peter "Pietro" Rossmann
            • • Architecture (Cell Rebalancing) J C Lawrence
          • Architecture (Cell Rebalancing) Rossmann Peter
        • Architecture (Cell Rebalancing) Rossmann Peter
        • • Architecture (Cell Rebalancing) J C Lawrence
          • • Architecture (Cell Rebalancing) Peter "Pietro" Rossmann
      • Architecture (Cell Rebalancing) Daniel.Harman@barclayscapital.com
      • • Architecture (Cell Rebalancing) Peter "Pietro" Rossmann