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.
As an aside, I want to be a researcher checking out EQ characters on Ebay.
Ideas on this? My theory – most players are male, and don’t want to play females because they’ll get called ghey by the l33t guildmates.
The article does say “generally lower skilled female characters”, so skill level could certainly explain some of the difference.
A lot of males play female avatars, though, according to many women players, not very convincingly. And many women play male avatars, the article says, to avoid harrassment. Gender switching is common, so the gheyness is an unlikely factor.
No hint as to what the sample size here is or what the median rate was. I mean, one male character going for 100 more than the others could make a significant statistical difference. Not enough info in this article to really tell.
My theory – most players are male, and don’t want to play females because they’ll get called ghey by the l33t guildmates
Sounds about right. There’s already enough shame in these games if you buy an Ebay’d character, especially if you didn’t know the player beforehand. If you buy one and it’s not even the same gender as you, then it’s even worse.
Not to mention the problems that could arise if you bought a character of the opposite gender than you and then got some /tell out of the blue with some ahem suggestive overtones from a friend of the previous owner. :shock:
