作者：Hugo Aranzaes

网络RPG通常会给予玩家许多自由。他们可以选择打怪或是探索地下城，遇到新人或增强自己的团队，使用相同或不同性别的虚拟角色。虽然最后这种举动在今天看来是再正常不过的事情了，许多MMORPG玩家却难以解释其中原因。网络论坛对于这一普遍现象的话题就是：为什么？为什么玩家要反串异性虚拟角色？他们从异性角色中看到什么？这能够提供什么好处？我们不难想象其中原因。也许是因为男性角色夸张的肌肉令男性玩家不那么舒服，也许是因为女性玩家是为了避免其他玩家的性骚扰。困难的地方就在于试图系统地证明性别切换的真正原因。在最近几年，许多科学家开始研究这一课程。以下就是他们一些最有趣的发现：（请点击此处阅读本文第1篇）

角色扮演：

在2001年，Nicholas Yee针对成百上千名《EverQuest》玩家展开了多项选择和自由回复的调查，发现27.4%受访者出于角色扮演的原因而使用异性角色。有些玩家称角色扮演的关键在于扮演一个与自己截然不同的人物，切换性别只是其中一种方式而已。还有些玩家表示自己选择异性角色 是因为感觉“符合”自己所创建的角色。

视觉形象：

相同的调查结果显示，25.6%的玩家是出于视觉形象的原因而选择异性角色。有些人就是喜欢该角色的造型，还有些人则是因为难以辨识同性别的虚拟角色。最后，有些男性玩家表示自己就是喜欢那些迷人而富有攻击性的女性角色形象。

tomb raider effect(from thepunkeffect)

性别探索：

显然，仅有7.1%的《EverQuest》玩家是为了性别探索而使用异性角色。这种举动令某些玩家得以探索男性与女性角色之间的不同行为。例如：受访者表明女性虚拟角色具有更亲密的关系，女性能够与男性角色展开更直接的互动。

《EverQuest》女性玩家为性别探索而采用异性角色的比例（21.1%）高于男性（6.2%）。对于MMORPG女性用户而言，这有时候意味着使用男性角色可以发现自己受到的不同待遇，同时也可以避开其他玩家不必要的性骚扰。

有时候，切换性别有助于玩家对异性产生更现实的看法。许多男性玩家扮演女性角色时遭遇了其他男性玩家的性骚扰。之后，他们当中就有些人会更理解女性玩家在这种情况下的感受。另一方面，女性玩家扮演男性角色时，则有助于他们认识到男性所应面对的困难，例如不可以向他人求助，或者会遭遇他人的冷面相对。

优势：

据Yee调查显示，有11.8%的《EverQuest》玩家选择切换性别以便获得一些优势，但玩家可从角色性别中获得多少优势的情况则不尽相同。男性和女性玩家都认为大家会更认真地对待男性角色。这可能会影响到玩家的表现，因为MMORPG包含了一些团队合作活动，例如分配任务和讨论团队战略。另一方面，有些玩家认为，使用女性角色可以让自己获得更好的待遇，甚至是来自其他玩家的免费道具。这些礼物之后就会转移至自己的主要角色。这种欺骗行为可能让人们鄙视这些“使诈”切换性别的玩家。

女性角色得到的优待有时候会让她们在交易领域获得一些优势，这类玩家会发现他们的顾客接受更高的价格或者免费出售自己所得的道具。这也许能够解释为何在《Fairyland Online》中，女性角色更可能从交易中获得好处，以及为何女性角色要以更高的价格出售药水。但Lou及其同事认为，这可能与女性玩家更关注游戏的社交层面有关。这可能会让药水对她们来说没多少价值，但对更为成就导向型的男性玩家来说却仍然很重要。

使用异性角色也会因游戏情况而对玩家表现产生不同影响。在《EverQuest II》的女性玩家中，这种影响是消极的：女性玩家使用同性主角所完成的任务，明显比那些采用男性主角的女性玩家更多。这未必就意味着女性玩家在使用女性角色时更喜欢或更擅长这些活动。另一个解释或许就是使用异性主角的玩家较不关注传统MMORPG目标，这种效应在女性之间更为强烈。但在一款不同的游戏中，其结果却可能截然不同。在《Fairyland Online》中，比起使用异性角色的女性玩家，采用同性角色的女性玩家升到50级的时间更久。这表明并不仅表明使用男性角色会令女性玩家发挥不同表现，而且这种行为还会让她们在升级中获得极大优势。另一方面，这可能也只是意味着更有经验的玩家更可能使用异性角色（这可能是因为他们更有冒险精神）。

角色性别和安慰剂效应（游戏邦注：指病人虽然获得无效的治疗，但却“预料”或“相信”治疗有效，从而让病患症状得到舒缓的现象）：

先不考虑其他因素，虚拟角色的性别本身似乎就能够影响玩家表现。在最近针对120名美国大学生的试验中，实验人员要求参与者从一个平等分配虚拟角色性别的随机系统中选择一个角色。在接受自己的角色之后，参与者就必须在两名异性虚拟角色面前解决一道数学题。不管参与者生物层面上属于什么性别，男性角色的表现总是明显优于女性角色。这表明参与者对自己行为的期望至少有一部分是建立在自己角色性别的基础之上的，这一点就能够影响其表现情况。

animal vs crysis 2(from thepunkeffect)

虚拟角色性别对表现的影响似乎与玩家对任务的看法有关（例如任务是更适用于男性还是女性）。在2011年的一项试验时，142名德国大学生接受了电子游戏描述，并创造了自己想使用的一个虚拟角色。之后他们要选择自己虚拟角色的性别，然后接受两个游戏场景描述，并开发出另外两个虚拟角色。最初，受试者更倾向于选择自己本身的真实性别，但遇到特定游戏或场景时，情况就会发生变化。无论他们本身的生物性别或性别角色倾向（更为女性化还是男性化），他们都会为更为男性化的游戏（例如《侠盗猎车手：圣安地列斯》、《孤岛危机》、《Urban Chaos》）创造男性角色，并针对更为女性化的游戏（例如《模拟人生》、《My Animal Hospital》）创造女性角色。除此之外，受试者还会为追击场景创造带有男性特征的角色，为目击采访场景创造女性特征的角色。显然，玩家认为更为男性或女性的角色更适合某些特定的挑战。如果不能获得任何好处，玩家就更偏爱那些代表自己生物性别的角色。

个性

不同调查发现特定个性类型和使用异性角色之间存在关系。例如，《EverQuest》中拥有异性角色的玩家更为开放性，这种开放性表明他们富有想象力和好奇心，容易被美丽和新颖的体验所吸引。对这类玩家来说，外形可能是其定制角色过程中的重要影响因素。《EverQuest》中拥有异性角色的玩家的责任心较低，这表明他们对系统性的工作和成就并不是很上心。这类玩家可能更喜欢探索角色定制所能提供的不同选项，而不是仔细地分析如何创建更有竞争力的虚拟角色。这种行为会增加他们创造和使用异性角色的机率。有项10年前针对1040名《魔兽世界》玩家展开的调查却发现了不同的结果。拥有异性角色的玩家较为内向，即他们更为保守和害羞。拥有这种特质的玩家对满足自己个人喜好的角色定制更感兴趣（例如选择一个种族或性别，让角色形象看起来更棒），而不是根据游戏需求来选择角色。拥有异性角色的玩家还有较高的情绪稳定性，这表明他们更为平静，富有安全感和自信。这类玩家与另一名异性角色在艾泽拉斯（国家名称）中同行时不会那么不自在。

结论

找到玩家为何使用异性角色，这是一个复杂的问题。其中原因可能因人、游戏或场景而异。但其中最盛行的使用原因，可能与积极目标有关，例如提升游戏经验或减少性别刻板印象。这可能就是玩家接受这种行为的关键原因。不幸的是，其中也不乏消极使用异性角色的现象。例如隐藏我们的真实性别以欺骗或骚扰其他玩家，这可能会对MMORPG的未来产生重要影响。开发者应该移除与角色定制相关的功能，或者迫使玩家显示自身的性别认证。无论好坏，切换性别正成为一种普遍做法，玩家和开发者都应该想想这种现象未来会对游戏产生什么影响。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Avatars of the Opposite Sex. Part 2 of 3: Better, Stronger, Faster.

Hugo Aranzaes

Online RPGs tend to give their players a lot of freedom. They can choose to fight monsters or explore dungeons, meet new people or strengthen their team, use same or opposite sex avatars. Although this last practice seems to be a normal occurrence these days, many MMORPG players are having trouble finding an explanation for it. The prevalent question among the online forums on the subject is: Why? Why would a player choose an avatar of the opposite sex? What do they see on the character of the other gender? What does it has to offer? It’s not hard to imagine a reason though. Maybe the exaggerated muscles of male characters are making men uncomfortably aware of their body image. Maybe women are just trying to avoid sexual harassment from other players. The difficult part is trying to scientifically prove what causes gender swapping. In recent years though, many scientists have started to study the subject. These are some of their most interesting findings:

Role playing:

On 2001 Nicholas Yee applied several multiple choice and free response surveys to thousands of EverQuest players. He found out that 27.4% of them used a character of the opposite sex for role playing reasons. Some players talked about how the point of role playing was to create a character completely different from yourself, and that gender swapping was just one way to achieve this. Others said they chose the opposite gender because it “felt right” for the character they were creating (Yee, 2001).

Visual appearance:

The same study showed that 25.6% of players picked characters of the opposite sex because of their appearance. Some just liked how the model looked, while others found it difficult to identify with the avatar of the same gender. Finally, a couple of male players manifested a particular appeal for attractive and aggressive female characters (a.k.a. the “Tomb Raider Effect”) (Yee, 2001).

Lara Croft’s attractive & aggressive style has influence female character development for many years.

Gender Exploration:

Apparently, only 7.1% of EverQuest players used characters of the opposite sex for gender exploration. While unpopular, this practice allowed some of the players to discover how differently male and female avatars tend to behave. For example: Participants reported that female avatars showed closer relationships, while women noted a more direct interaction between male characters (Yee, 2001).

Female EverQuest players were significantly more likely to use characters of the opposite sex for gender exploration (21.1%) than men (6.2%) (Yee, 2001). For female MMORPG users, this sometimes meant finding out how differently they would be treated if they used male avatars, while at the same time avoiding unwanted sexual advances from other players (Hussain & Griffiths, 2008).

Occasionally, gender swapping helped players gain a more realistic perspective towards the opposite sex. Many men playing as female avatars experienced sexual harassment from male characters. Afterwards, some of them showed a better understanding of what female players go through in this type of situations (Yee, 2001). On the other side, female players indicated that using male avatars allowed them to recognize the difficulties men have to deal with, like not being allowed to ask for help or facing less friendly attitudes (Yee, 2001).

Advantages:

According to Yee’s study, 11.8% of EverQuest players choose to swap genders to obtain some kind of advantage. There are several conditions in which players can benefit from their avatar’s gender. Both men and women, for example, reported that male avatars seemed to be treated more seriously (Yee, 2001). This could greatly affect player’s performance since MMORPGs tend to involve several teamwork activities, like distributing tasks and discussing group strategies. On the other hand, according to some players, using a female character allowed them to receive a better treatment and even free items from other players (Yee, 2001). These gifts were (in some cases) then passed to their main avatars (Hussain & Griffiths, 2008). This type of deceiving practice could be promoting a negative attitude towards gender swapping between “tricked” players

The preferential treatment sometimes received by female avatars could provide some sort of advantage in the field of trading. Players could find their customers accepting higher prices or just sell the items they obtained for free. This could explain why, in Fairyland Online, female characters were more likely to obtain profits from trade (Lou, Park, Cha, Lei & Chen, 2013) and why women sold healing potions at higher prices when they were using female avatars (Lou, Park, Cha, Lei & Chen, 2013). Lou and his colleagues, however, think this could have something to do with how female players focus more on the social aspect of games. This would make healing potions less valuable for them, while remaining important to the more achievement oriented male players.

Female avatars tend to be better traders in Fairyland Online.

The use of avatars of the opposite sex tend to influence performance differently depending on the game. Between women who play EverQuest II, the effect was somehow negative: Female players using main characters of the same gender showed significantly more fights with monsters and completed quests than female players who opted for male avatars as main characters (Huh & Williams, 2009). This doesn’t necessarily mean that women prefer or are better at these activities when using female avatars. Another explanation could be that players with main characters of the opposite sex have a tendency to focus less on traditional MMORPG objectives, and that this effect is stronger between women. In a different game, however, the results were quite different. On Fairyland Online, female players using characters of the same gender required significantly more time (an additional 19.24 hours) to reach the level 50 than female players using characters from the opposite gender (Lou, Park, Cha, Lei & Chen, 2013). This suggests not only that women using male avatars behaved differently, but that this gave them a considerable advantage in the leveling up process. On the other hand, it could just mean that more experienced (and therefore, better) players were more likely to use characters of the opposite sex (maybe because they were also more adventurous).

Avatar’s gender and the placebo effect:

Putting other factors aside, the avatar’s sex alone seem to be able to influence the player’s performance. In a recent experiment, 120 university students from the United States were asked to choose an avatar through an aleatory system that was actually programmed to equally distribute avatar’s genders between the subjects. After receiving their characters, participants had to solve mathematical problems in the presence of two avatars from the opposite gender. Regardless of the participant’s biological sex, male characters performed significantly better than female characters (Lee, Nass, & Bailenson, in press). This suggests that participant’s expectations towards their own behavior are at least partially based on their avatar’s gender, and that this can influence their performance.

The avatar’s gender effect on performance seems to be associated with how players see tasks as either more male or female friendly. In a 2011 experiment, 142 German university students received video game descriptions and then were asked to create an avatar they would like to use on them. Afterwards they were requested to choose their avatar’s biological sex. Then they received two game scenarios descriptions and were asked to develop another two avatars. Initially, participants were more likely to give the avatars their real gender, but this changed when they had to face a specific game or scenario. Regardless of their biological sex or gender role tendencies (more feminine or masculine), participants created male avatars for the games previously rated as masculine (GTA: San Andreas, Crysis, Urban Chaos) and female avatars for those identified as feminine (The Sims, My Animal Hospital) (Trepte, Reinecke & Behr, 2011). Additionally, participants created avatars with masculine attributes for a pursuit scenario and chose feminine characteristics for a witness interview situation (Trepte, Reinecke & Behr, 2011). Apparently, players believe that more masculine or feminine characters tend to be better prepared for specific types of challenges. When no advantage is gained, players seem to prefer that avatars represent their biological sex (Trepte, Reinecke & Behr, 2011).

“My Animal Hospital” was identified as a feminine game, while “Crysis” was perceived as more masculine.

Personality:

Different researches were able to find a relationship between specific personality types and the tendency to use avatars of the opposite sex. EverQuest players who owned characters from the opposite gender, for example, scored higher on Openness (Yee, 2001); a trait that describes imaginative and intellectually curious individuals with an appeal towards beauty and new experiences. For this type of players, appearance might have an important role during the avatar customization process. Having characters of the opposite gender in EverQuest was also associated with low levels of Conscientiousness (Yee, 2001); a trait characterized by a reduced importance given to methodical work and achievements. Players on this category might have preferred exploring the different options character customization had to offer instead on carefully analyzing how to build a more competitive avatar. A behavior that could have increased their chances of creating and using characters of the opposite sex. A study executed ten years later on 1,040 World of Warcraft players showed, however, different results. Ownership of characters from the opposite gender was associated with low Extraversion (Yee, Ducheneaut, Nelson & Likarish, 2011); a personality type that involves more reserved and shy individuals. Players with this trait may have been more interested in customizing their characters to satisfy their personal preferences (like choosing a class or gender that made the avatar look better) instead of adapting them to the game demands. Having opposite sex avatars was also associated with high Emotional Stability (Yee, Ducheneaut, Nelson & Likarish, 2011); a trait that includes more calm, secure and confident individuals. This type of players probably felt less uncomfortable with the idea of walking through Azeroth with an avatar of the other opposite gender.

Conclusion:

Discovering why players use an avatar of the opposite sex is a complex problem. Reasons to do it vary depending on the person, game or scenario at hand. The most popular usages, however, seem to be directed towards positive objectives; like improving the playing experience or reducing stereotypes. This might be the key for the general acceptance of the practice between players. Sadly, negative usage is also part of the phenomena. Hiding our real gender to trick or harass other players could have an important impact over the future of MMORPGs. Developers could end up removing some features related to avatar customization or forcing the players to show some proof of their sexual identity (as weird as that might sound). For better or worse, gender swapping is becoming a common practice, and both players and developers should try to figure out what implications this has for the future of gaming.

Visit us next week for the final part of our series, when we try to find out what effects could gender swapping have on the players.（source：thepunkeffect）