Important New (Gay) Discovery

Here's a bit of moderately old news I got in Gamespy Daily (http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993864). I just thought to post it up in case anyone had read or heard anything about this. I would like to point something out.

Read all of it if you like. I read it only because it seemed mildly interesting. The fact is, however, that none of this article holds any real merit. I will show why. I will underline their main statements and hilight why the entire article is retarted.

Sexual inequality exposed in virtual world 15:25 24 June 03 Female virtual characters suffer from sexual inequality in financial matters, just like their real-world counterparts, according to a new study of the online game EverQuest. EverQuest is inhabited by tens of thousands of internet gamers at any one time. Players choose a character to represent them in the role-playing world. These avatars can be male or female and one of many fantasy races such as elf or ogre. Once a character has built up experience and skills, some players then sell them for real cash through the internet auction site eBay. "Holding all other characteristics equal, it turns out female avatars sell for about 10 per cent less than male avatars," says Edward Castronova, an economist at California State University at Fullerton, who examined the value of characters sold on eBay. Overall, male avatars sold for an average of $346, while the generally lower skilled female ones went for $281. The discrepancy notably mirrors differences in wages earned by men and women in the real-world, says Castronova. "This discount may stem from a number of causes," he told New Scientist, "including discrimination in Earth society and the maleness of the EverQuest player base."

The rest of the article is pretty gay. I wouldn't reccomend reading it, but it's here in case anyone is interested.

Sex swap Although the vast majority of EverQuest players are male, around 20 per cent of players choose a female avatar to represent them online. Jason Rutter, a computer games researcher at Manchester University, UK, adds that the difference could also reflect differences in the way male and female characters are treated in the EverQuest game. "In EverQuest, as well as other games, people respond to you differently based on your sex," Rutter told New Scientist. "There's a growing literature about how female gamers adopt male characters to stop getting hassled." Trading characters and items from EverQuest on eBay has grown into a profitable sideline for some players, although the game's owner Sony has sought to put a stop to the practice. In January 2002, Castronova calculated the average wage EverQuest players could in principle earn by trading all the items obtained in the game on eBay. He found the game's per-capita gross national product would be $2266. If it were a real country, EverQuest would then be the 77th wealthiest in the world, just behind Russia. Will Knight

"This discount may stem from a number of causes,"

That's bullshit. The discount stems from a single cause, which was noted absentmindedly in the article:

Overall, male avatars sold for an average of $346, while the generally lower skilled female ones went for $281.

This is rediculous...

Me: Would you pay more for a level 65 MALE character, or a level 12 FEMALE character?
You: The Male
Me: Oh, the male character? That's because he has a penis, right?