Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper will investigate male participation in “gender-switching” in multi-player online role-playing games. Within the last six years there has been an explosion of massive multi-player online role-playing games. These games create a continuous online world that allows people to access it whenever they want without the world changing significantly from day to day. The student will interview male players who have chosen to interact within the online world as females. The paper will focus on why they decided to play female characters, their perceptions of how they are treated, the ways in which they tailor their actions or words to come across as “more female,” and their thoughts on the significance of portraying themselves as female.