Meet the Modders

[Ares de Borg]

Much respect, Hikaro!

 

[Blue Monkey]

... video games that allowed you to choose a female character to play, ...

One of the ethnographies on the reading list for my independent study is Coming of Age in Second Life by Tom Boellstorff. He talks a lot about "identity tourism".

And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.

He found that most people eventually settle on an avatar that looks a lot like an idealized version of their physical self. But it seemed to me that the most interesting individuals in his book either changed avatars from time to time or found one to express something different than the quotidian that yet was definitely themselves.

It's also worth looking at the section of Nardi's My Life as a Night Elf Priest about why people choose the avatars they do based on their perception of gender and sexuality.

 

[Gojira54]

H - As others have stated - "Be Yourself", "Maybe your courage can help others", "Much respect". There is not really much I can add to that as that conveys my sentiments exactly.

You can only truly be happy if you are not hiding yourself from yourself, and the best test of friendship and love is by baring all, and seeing who still stands with you. You've got my support.

Congrats K on your continued career!

Not much news on my front, other than I've somehow survived a mass layoff that cut my team in half, and got promoted during it too. I think I would have preferred to keep a few teammates and pass on the promotion, but such is life. PinkMothra07 is continuing to dominate the Mini Cheer circuit, and is being tested for GATE.

 

[Ozymandias]

Book deal closing in (well, at least i was asked to meet the publisher next week).

-z

 

[Ozymandias]

PinkMothra07 is continuing to dominate the Mini Cheer circuit, and is being tested for GATE.

Sounds nasty! Any cure

 

[DJ Bonebraker]

2. Sorrow He passed from lung cancer at too young an age.

Damn, I didn't even know...

Blue Monkey: Those are interesting findings. I wonder what they would have said about some of my custom avatars in various games. For instance, here are 3 (of 15 total) variations on my female avatar for Soul Calibur V:


SCⅤ Laura by Hikaro Takayama, on Flickr

...And one based on how I look in RL (farthest one on the Right. The other two are Tobuscus from "I can Swing my Sword" and Captain Titus the Spess Mehreen):


SCV Youtube by Hikaro Takayama, on Flickr

....And my FF XIV character:


My Final Fantasy XIV Character, Laura Beinbrech by Hikaro Takayama, on Flickr

Once again, thank you all for the support.

Gojira and Kyriakos, I wish you well in your careers and hope for the best for you all.

 

[Kyriakos]

Thank you all

The meeting went quite well. We shall see what will happen..

 

[Kyriakos]

After an interview today i pretty much was accepted for some work in a local library (answer will come in a day or two). In fact they offered that i organise some informal seminar for philosophy, or philosophy and links to literature. It is voluntary work but i was very happy to be offered this cause it interests me a lot

Some kind of 2 hour/week meeting/seminar with a small group of interested people, and discussion of material in the library and the themes mentioned.

 

[Blue Monkey]

PinkMothra07 is continuing to dominate the Mini Cheer circuit, and is being tested for GATE.

Sounds nasty! Any cure

AFAIK, GATE is Gifted And Talented Education : a public school program for children that are smarter than their teachers. SRSLY.

Blue Monkey: Those are interesting findings. I wonder what they would have said about some of my custom avatars in various games.

The ethnographies differ, depending on where the anthros play and how the conversations are framed. Nardi spent time in both China & the US playing WoW and talking to players. In China (largest population of WoW players) males seldom have female avatars because they normally play in internet cafes and publicly playing a female earns a reputation of being a ladyboy in RL. In the US playing as a female is not that uncommon. For the men who do the primary reason seems to be, to put it politely, they prefer the third person rear view of a female avatar if they are going to play WoW for extended periods. Personally, imho, that particular motivation starts to implicitly say something weird about their self-conception, since emotional identification with the avatar seems to boost affective interest in the game.

I haven't read Nick Yee's book yet, but since he maintained a site for several years with multiple surveys about WoW and had about 30,000 respondents, there are probably some interesting findings on avatars & gender identification. If I end up exploring WoW firsthand as part of this pilot project I'll likely play as a male Pandaren. Can't quite bring myself to make both a gender and that much of a species leap simultaneously.

 

[DJ Bonebraker]

I wonder how species identification and other factors fall into this study: I almost always play human characters, mainly because a lot of fantasy/sci-fi gamers have this attitude that "humans suck", and I like proving such assertations wrong.

Also, I tend to create characters with the same hair and eye color I have in RL... It's kinda funny that I'm gender-fluid enough to have no qualms as presenting as the opposite gender, but I have hangups about using a different hair or eye color....

Finally, I USED to justify my preference for playing as female characters using the "prefer the 3rd-person rear view of a female avatar if I'm going to play for extended times" line, but that was because I was afraid to admit to actually using said female avatar as a cathartic release for my pent-up gender identity issues. I wonder how many others have done or are doing the same....

 

[Blue Monkey]

I wonder how species identification and other factors fall into this study:
....

Hopefully somebody will build a mmog with the avatar-creation flexibility of Spore, or more. Only then will there be a real test of what people prefer to play as. And an advancement system that doesn't require interracial violence. There's a thread in this subforum about non-combat mods iirc.

 

[Gray Wolf]

I've come to the realization that I'm gender-nonconforming. While I still identify as male, I'm basically the inversion of a "tomboy": I like dressing up fancy, pink sparkly things and other typically "feminine" things.

Much respect and admiration to you Hikaro. I'm glad you know yourself better and are willing to share this with others. My guess is there are a lot of people who have similar feelings who would never admit it especially in public. [/QUOTE]

One thing that always bothered me is how girls are mostly encouraged to push the boundaries of traditional gender roles, i.e. a girl who cuts her hair short, wears pants and likes sports is often praised and encouraged, while any boy who takes even the smallest step outside the rigid, macho role defined for men is bullied, harassed and intimidated for it.

Yea, there is definitely a double standard isn't there? Good observation.

 

[Gray Wolf]

Removed.

 

[Takhisis]

Oh dear. Must have taken some courage to admit to that… how can we help?

 

[Gray Wolf]

Oh dear. Must have taken some courage to admit to that… how can we help?

Yea, and I guess people think I'm crazy now. I ruined my reputation!

The medicine helps me though and I'll be alright...

 

[Jerry'sGoldfish]

Moderator Action: [snip]
Please read the forum rules: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=422889
Deleted.

 

[Takhisis]

Don't worry, Gray Wolf, there's no need to feel ashamed.

 

[Jerry'sGoldfish]

i am even worse than him but i cannot admit it loudly!!


Moderator Action: snip!
Jerry'sGoldfish, your comments are highly insensitive and have been deleted in this post and your earlier post above. I am issuing you with a warning for these comments and must ask you to refrain from taking it any further.
Please read the forum rules: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=422889

 

[Gojira54]

AFAIK, GATE is Gifted And Talented Education : a public school program for children that are smarter than their teachers. SRSLY.

Gray Wolf - OCD is a serious but common disorder - I know plenty of people with it, at varying degrees. I myself have some very mild tendencies in that area - I am a perfectionist that will keep tinkering with something until it is perfect, which it never is. If I can't do something very precise, I tend to not do it at all.

There are medications out there that can help you. You are not crazy, and most people wouldn't think you are. And do you really care about those that do?

 

[Blue Monkey]

Members of long standing have mentioned to me more than once in PMs that pretty much all of us here (themselves included) are a bit peculiar. The ability to see things differently is a prerequisite to creativity. And an appreciation of the links between elegance and precision is an important aspect of virtuosity.