Project GenderBender: My own experience

If you haven’t been paying attention to Rivs’ site, you should be. He’s a fun writer to read with a very conversational tone. He’s upfront and direct, without getting bogged down too frequently in the minutia of gaming, and his oft-irrevrant attitude blended with a general good-natured superiority complex makes him a pleasure to read. Lately, he has been experimenting with one particular project in his current main MMO, WoW. He’s been playing a female character, and trying to behave in game as if he was a female. Not the internet’s overly sexed, hyper-accentuated, wanton-lust queen idea of a female, but an honest to god female. Until recently, he hadn’t any real blips on his radar of sexual behavioral inequality, which I think speaks as much to the lack of population early on in the game as it does to the quality of the typical male gamer. However, his posts made me think of my typical past having played female characters, and on incident sticks out in my mind.

*Slapping forearm*

Going back to EQ2 might have been a foolish decision for me, and not because the game is bad. Everquest 2 is probably the MMO that I played the longest for one stretch of time over any other game. It’s the MMO that I connect the most with in terms of gaming history. I spent a lot (and I mean a LOT) of time in that game, and loved 99% of it. The problem I’m seeing is that diving back into the game, I’m remembering how deep the game is, and how entrenched I can get into it, and I really do like to touch the bottom of the pond.

Lego Universe is still out there

This is a great read for how a game company views the creation and maintenance of an MMO. It’s a good read if you’re interested in the industry at all for that matter.