I have two friends who play ATITD who told me about this incident. They weren't particularly bothered by it. I have played the trial account of ATITD with them and have been thinking about joining in order to play with them.
I won't do it now, though. This is the most outrageous thing I've ever heard of. Apparently people can justify incredible things in the name of "just a game." Well, an online game isn't a novel where you read about what happens to some characters. It's a living environment where you exist, as your character.
I wouldn't pay money to play any game where I will be (unbeknownst to me) treated as lesser than other characters, and insulted as well, because I am female. I just can't imagine those players waiting to trade, then discovering they couldn't do it, because they're female. I would have hit the ceiling.
This would be bad enough coming from just another player, but to come from the game designer himself? As for whoever said that the female character should then prevail on some male to get the goods for her (or flirt her way into it), I say - hey, I don't particularly want to live out your ridiculous chauvinist female-as-slave fantasy.
And I'm sure not gonna pay you money to do it. Glad that trial didn't cost me anything.
Slashdot Mirror
I have two friends who play ATITD who told me about this incident. They weren't particularly bothered by it. I have played the trial account of ATITD with them and have been thinking about joining in order to play with them.
I won't do it now, though. This is the most outrageous thing I've ever heard of. Apparently people can justify incredible things in the name of "just a game." Well, an online game isn't a novel where you read about what happens to some characters. It's a living environment where you exist, as your character.
I wouldn't pay money to play any game where I will be (unbeknownst to me) treated as lesser than other characters, and insulted as well, because I am female. I just can't imagine those players waiting to trade, then discovering they couldn't do it, because they're female. I would have hit the ceiling.
This would be bad enough coming from just another player, but to come from the game designer himself? As for whoever said that the female character should then prevail on some male to get the goods for her (or flirt her way into it), I say - hey, I don't particularly want to live out your ridiculous chauvinist female-as-slave fantasy.
And I'm sure not gonna pay you money to do it. Glad that trial didn't cost me anything.
Cocoanut