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Role Playing (Games) Entertainment Games

Gender Inequality In Everquest 48

Posted by Hemos from the but-what-about-the-children dept.
daimou writes "According to a study done at California State University, women avatars sell for 10% less than men. Also look how rich Everquest would be if it were a real country. The New Scientist is carrying the full report." Update: 06/26 14:15 GMT by S : This New Scientist article adds commentary/summary on the original paper the author, Edward Castronova, sent us info about a couple of days ago.
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Gender Inequality In Everquest More

Gender Inequality In Everquest

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  • In other news (Score:5, Funny)

    by d99-sbr ( 568719 ) on Thursday June 26, 2003 @07:07AM (#6301356) Journal
    According to a study done at California State University, Slashdot editors post the same story over 100% more times than other editors.

  • Huh? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 26, 2003 @07:11AM (#6301389)
    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.

    Well, if they are generally lower skilled, doesn't that justify the lesser price?

    English is not my native language, maybe I misunderstood that?
    • Well, if they are generally lower skilled, doesn't that justify the lesser price?
      Overall, that's about 19% less. But "holding all other characteristics equal, it turns out female avatars sell for about 10 per cent less than male avatars."
      So the average $281 female avator would sell for $312 if it were male with the same skills; the additional $34 is because females are "generally lower skilled."

  • Oh my god... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by sabNetwork ( 416076 ) on Thursday June 26, 2003 @07:15AM (#6301403)
    Do these guys have brains larger than dogs? Obviously there is less of a demand for female avatars because there are more male users. Thus, there are fewer bids, and the avatar sells for less.

    "Although the vast majority of EverQuest players are male, around 20 per cent of players choose a female avatar to represent them online."

    Translation: There is a 60% lower demand for female avatars than male avatars. Hmm.....
    • LOL, With the lower demand taken into account, the female Avatars are actually selling for MORE than they should...

    • Re:Oh my god... (Score:5, Informative)

      by Universal Nerd ( 579391 ) on Thursday June 26, 2003 @08:06AM (#6301706)
      A note, right up front: I'm a guy.

      Well, I for one play as a female avatar.

      I started using girls after a Geeks in Space program with CmdrTaco, Hemos and CowboyNeal where Taco was bragging about how his character.

      He used to play a sorceress in Diablo II and some guys would walk up to him and give him stuff. I got to thinking, why not do the same.

      I've played as girls in all the online RPG's I've been in and the guys have been taking it easy on me but they really do like to hit on me - and I play along for the most part.

      On networked games in lanhouses I see guys walking around looking for the dumb b*tch that fragged their asses - all the while I'm sitting next to them.
    • there's also another factor at play: sense of possession. most men that would want a female character don't want some off-the-rack model, they want a specific type/look of character. there's only one way to get a character that looks like you want it to: roll it yourself.

      face it, if you're playing in third person and you're staring at an ass for all of your game time, you want an ass that was made for you to stare at, not someone else....not that I've done anything like that before....
  • It disturbs me when reports begin to come out regarding usage trends/statistics about games... and people take them seriously. Worse yet, they extrapolate theorems from the data and apply them to reality.

    IT'S A GAME! Ok so the male avatars are more expensive. One could easily apply the law of supply and demand to the statistical data. But, that would be taking this GAME waay to seriously.

    I'm sure someone is going to post about how insignificant the reported statistics are in the face of the statistics
  • The New Scientist article references the quotes of someone who is a 'Computer Games Researcher.' What kind of job is this? It's just a GAME!!!!
  • In every field I have noticed gender inequality.
  • All the female charachters in Everquest, just like the female charachters in lesbian chatrooms, are actually fat old men pretending to be hot young girls. WTF?

  • 77th (Score:3, Funny)

    by I_am_God_Here ( 413090 ) on Thursday June 26, 2003 @10:58AM (#6303416) Homepage
    "EverQuest would then be the 77th wealthiest in the world, just behind Russia."

    I am dissapointed in the EQ players, I hope they work harder next year and surpass russia.
  • There are actually quite a few reasons for female avatars selling for slightly (or significantly, in some cases) less than males...but these don't apply in any way, shape, or form to the real world. Well, there is one way. Female avatars have a significantly lower market. And, however much I do /not/ wish to be sexist, it's a stereotype which bears some thought that women are far less likely to get so heavily into such games that they would cause physical or mental harm to themselves...or to spend more m
  • I've been thinging about this since this article was originally posted. the common sence explanation holds true, most EQ players are men, so male characters are more in demand.
    However, on further contemplation, there are a couple of other things going on here. Looking at the original article reveals that only about 20% of teh characters for sale are female, thus that should make up for the difference in demand. But if this makes up for the differnece in demand, we need to think of other reasons why femal
    • The problem with what you're saying is that a lot of teenage guys wouldn't be able to afford Everquest characters, or have a lot of funds in the first place (there are usually more important things, i.e. a car, girlfriend, apartment perhaps, fund, etc.) I can see where you're going, but it looks like a dead-end road...although perhaps the type of 'middle-30s' person you're talking about is right on the mark in this case.

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