Is Shanda Really Banning Males From Gender-Bending?

Joystiq are reporting that the story I posted yesterday - about Shanda banning males from playing female characters in one of their MMO's - may be nothing more than a rumor. They point out that the story has originated from one questionable source (17173, where they couldn't actually find the original article) and no official confirmation has been released by Shanda.

Joystiq also states that they find it hard to believe a publicly traded company would violate people's privacy by making them send in a picture of themselves. In the western world I'd be inclined to agree but if we're talking about China here then it doesn't seem surprising for a country where many freedoms are suppressed. If the intent was to protect females then making them take a picture of themselves isn't doing much to promote that initiative.

Combine the questionable editorial judgment with the translation problems inherent in citing information from a Chinese site and you have a perfect recipe for an erroneous story to spread across the internet. - Joystiq.

Shanda really needs to make a press release to deny this story if it's nothing more than a rumor. We all know how fast information can spread over the Internet and people are ripping into Shanda when we don't even know whether the story is true or not. I'm going to reserve further comment until we find out if the story is legitimate.

UPDATE: I just found this article about Shanda acquiring Aurora Technology back in July. The article states that Aurora Technology currently operates two virtual worlds (Feng Yun Online and Legend Online) none of which are the reported King of the World. In fact, a search for King of the World brings up no conclusive evidence that the game even exists - all the results are based on this recent news. Also of note is the fact Shanda's English website makes no mention of the game whatsoever.

I think there may be a strong possibility that this news is fake.

UPDATE 26/9/07: I posted the last update over on this post at Joystiq. Today the posts author (Kyle Orland) replied to me with this:

The game just entered open beta in China, according to 17173, so I think it actually exists. Doesn't change my opinion on the whole gender story though.

http://english.17173.com/content/2007-08-23/20070823100013823.shtml

However, the original news came from the site and since Kyle just questioned the reliability of said site then how do we know that this MMO wasn't completely made up? It still hits me as a little strange that you can't find any information on the game other than this article. Wouldn't Shanda mention the game on their site?

I think I'm reading way too much into this.

Rumor Control: Shanda's anti-gender-bending MMO policy - Joystiq.

Chinese MMO Bans Males From Playing Female Characters.

Shanda (Nasdaq: SNDA) subsidiary Aurora Technology has frozen game accounts of male players who chose to play female in-game characters in its in-house developed MMORPG King of the World, reports 17173. Aurora stipulates that only female gamers can play female characters in the game, and it requires gamers who chose female characters to prove their biological sex with a webcam, according to the report. - Pacific Epoch.

What? Talk about discrimination!

Since there's no word on females being banned from playing male characters then this ban is extremely one-sided. Not only is it discriminatory against males but it also limits males in choosing their very own alter ego - something that I thought was a big attraction in the MMO world. Also, with the massive amount of MMO's on the market today (not forgetting one that's taken over most of the known world) isn't Shanda effectively laying a death sentence on one of their games?

However, Shanda does have a pretty legitimate case for employing such a ban. There have been a number of reported cases of males playing female characters and pretending to be a real-life female to other male players in order to get free stuff. Giving free stuff out to players you hardly know is pretty stupid in the first place and - unless you know them in real-life or have seen hard evidence - you should never determine a players true sex base on their in-game characters gender.

Of course there's a simple solution to this. When prompted to show evidence of your gender through a webcam you can simply get a female sibling/friend to go in front of the webcam for you. I'm also confused as to how Aurora Technology could possibly dedicate the resources to police such a service when these resources could be better spent on improving the game.

My advice? Considering I've never heard of the game until now coupled with this news I'd suggest playing another MMO.

(See my updated post where I question the legitimacy of this news)

Shanda's Aurora Bans Transsexuals - Pacific Epoch (Via Kotaku)

Robo-Pigeon To The Rescue!

Pigeons, awful things. They shit on you, nearly pluck your eyes out and crowd around you when you stupidly take out a sandwich to eat downtown. You could always do what they did on 24 Hour Party People and lace bread with rat poison, thus, killing all the little bastards - but that would be inhumane, wouldn't it? What if, then, you could control them? Dive bombing them into the nearest river sounds like a tempting option.

Scientists in eastern China say they have succeeded in controlling the flight of pigeons with micro electrodes planted in their brains, state media reported on Tuesday.

Scientists at the Robot Engineering Technology Research Centre at Shandong University of Science and Technology said ther electrodes could command them to fly right or left or up or down, Xinhua news agency said. - Reuters

It's a bit scary to be honest, if they can do this with pigeons then what's stopping them trying it on humans in the future? Ok, so we're not dumb 'rats with wings' riddled with disease (ok, some of us aren't!) but what's stopping them with technology proceeding at such an extreme rate? If you can design something that directly interfaces and controls the brain against their will then it won't be too long before it can be adapted to humans. Hence...

'GOVERNMENT CONTROLLING RELEASED CONVICTS WITH MIND CHIPS!'

Ok, maybe not, but there's nothing wrong with a bit of whacky speculating.

Bird-brained China scientists learn to fly pigeons - Reuters.

Chinese MMORPG Gives Players Real Land.

Tianchang Networks, who run Chinese MMORPG Datang, are planning to give out sections of a 100 acre plot of land in Zhejiang - to it's faithful players. That's REAL land folks, you know? The outside world!

Nearly 10,00 players will get a piece of this land, all in all leaving little room to stretch your legs. Still, it's a novel idea and may actually get gamers out of the house.

In return for the 49% share of Zhejiang, Tianchang have agreed to add a virtual area in Datang that resembles the scenic area. Fair deal? Probably not, but let's hope Blizzard doesn't try this one. Maybe Iceland could divide up amongst 7 million users. I'm sure it'll be fun to throw some WoW addicts in the geysers!

Online game starts land rush - Pacific Epoch.

(Via Kotaku)