Gender brought about some interesting happenings in SmallWorlds this morning. In my experience, the women seem to outnumber the men in this virtual world and so in this category, Hank is a minority. Although Hank is still having some trouble overcoming his newness, female virtual characters seem to be more willing than male virtual characters to give Hank a chance.
The first time Hank experimented in SmallWorlds, he had two female characters literally fighting over him. I mentioned this instance in my first blog. Since then, other female characters have shown an interest in Hank. What I found most interesting was that this morning in SmallWorlds, three different female characters initiated conversation with Hank. No male characters attempted to speak to Hank. Hank did initiate conversation with one male who was polite but did not stick around to chat for long.
This morning, two of the conversations initiated by female characters did not have romantic undertones. Both conversations were friendly and Hank gained a couple of new friends but flirting was not an element. However, the third conversation initiated by a female was somewhat flirty. Her name was Anna and she was white with purple hair pulled back in a ponytail. She wore a mini skirt and tall platform boots. She introduced herself and then asked if Hank had a virtual girlfriend. Hank said no and then she asked if Hank had a girlfriend IRL (in real life). Caught off guard, Hank responded with a yes. In future interactions with female characters, Hank is going to have to be a little more smooth if he wants to woo a virtual lady friend. It is a bit awkward since this is my first time impersonating a man and as you might imagine, I've never had a female try to pick me up. Go figure.
Hank did approach one female character this morning but she seemed to want nothing to do with him. As he walked over to her she said, "Ouch, stop clicking on me. Get a job." I'm not exactly sure what this meant but Hank decided to leave her alone. No reason to get involved with the crazy ones if you know what I mean.
One thing I found interesting after hanging out in SmallWorlds today is the fact that traditional gender roles seem to play out in virtual worlds just like they do in the real world. For instance, I had plenty of interactions with females because I am a male. Only one interaction today was with another male character and that was only because I initiated it. What this says to me is that people assume that, in general, men are attracted to women and women are attracted to men. I think this is a good set-up for my next blog on sexuality. I am going to conduct a little experiment next time I am in SmallWorlds and I will report my findings to you all next week.
Until then, I pose this question to you: if you are hiding behind the disguise of a virtual character opposite your real gender, did you find any surprises when interacting with male and female characters? Was it what you expected? Did you find it enlightening to walk in the opposite gender's shoes?
Hello Randi, I too wanted to comment on your blog about "gender" and the online experience I had during my experiments in my virtual world of Habbo Hotel. From what I can tell SmallWorlds is a lot like Habbo Hotel, and the role gender plays in the real world, seems to play the same role online in virtual worlds. The experience you had with your Avatar “Hank” is similar to what I experienced with my female avatar “Isabel.” I think gamers in these virtual worlds (whether they're a male or female) make an avatar and play as the gender of a character of who they are in the real world. As you said with your experience, male avatars seemed mostly to interact with female avatars/players, whereas female avatars would interact with both genders regardless of their sexual undertones or emotions for those interactions with others.
ReplyDeleteAdditionally, since I decided to change my avatar to the opposite gender of what I am in the real world, I got a better understanding of the interactions and communication behaviors of the opposite gender. I too have not flirted with the same sex before so it was hard to be “smooth” in certain situations when a gamer tried “hitting” on me. On the other hand, I did find it much easier to play as a female avatar in virtual worlds because other gamers would be more open and friendly to a female and friend request me more when I played as a one than as a male avatar. The only conclusion I could see this was because of the ideology, acceptable behaviors, and social understanding we’ve created for the role of gender to play in relationships has been defined by our culture and life experiences in the real world, which then has been transcended into virtual worlds like Habbo Hotel and SmallWorlds.