"MOBA" Prime World encourages players to stick to their own gender

We've had topics about "crossplaying" here before, I think, though I can only think of one other time that a game actively discouraged it.

The MOBA *

game Prime World is looking to attract more female gamers by charging them less to play... if they so choose to play female characters.

Men have access to an identical discount for male characters, so it's not biased in either gender's favor, but the entire system was put into to place to encourage women who might not want to spend much on a video game to give it a try. On top of lower prices for characters matching your gender, several special abilities *

are planned for the game that only work when at least one male and one female player party together.

All of this is verified through Facebook integration, so it's probably easy enough to game the system, but let's pretend for this discussion that you can't. What do you all think about this game's method of incentivizing women (and men too, to a lesser extent) to stick to their own genders in game?

edited 3rd Apr '12 8:17:35 AM by Hashil

...

What.

Additional hilarity: Female characters in the game still have their tits out.

What a bizarre idea, and it seems kind of a ham-fisted way to try to grow an audience. The last thing some people would want, I'd suspect, is being forced to reveal their gender, especially since the online gaming community is not known for its... tact.

That being said, the way MOB As usually make their money is to sell "skins" or vanity upgrades, and female gamers tend to be your more profitable customers if that's your business model, so i can see why they'd want to lure them in.

Or should they make player avatars Super-Deformed instead?

(Not having looked into this game at all) If abilities are mirrored between two characters that are different genders, then I suppose this is harmless enough, though certainly a nuisance to those who would like to keep their anonymity. If not, though, then it ends up limiting what characters you can choose if you want to stay at the top of your game.

Jurassic Park is frightening in the dark All the dinosaurs are running wild

I don't mind, though it might be annoying for those looking to remain anonymous.

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As it says, you don't have to do this. So it doesn't give people who don't do this a penalty.

Charging people more and barring them from certain special moves if they dont have the right gender combos kind of seem like penalties, actually.

Seems really silly. I'm a dude but prefer playing as female characters when given the choice.

It's still figuring into typical gender paradigms, like those "Women get a free drink" pubs.*

I think the title's technically wrong to this thread, though. Should say "sex" and not "gender" — though it did make me wonder if Prime World offered a lot more gender choice than usually provided by the typical MMO.

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What's the difference between sex and gender again? I had it explained to me once, but it mostly flew over my head.

I was just skimming the article, but what I gathered was you get a bonus if you take advantage of this and nothing happens otherwise.

Yeah I know, I find that it's being offered at all kind of silly.

There is no practical difference between a bonus for participating and a penalty for not.

Anyway, I'm mostly confused by the fact that this is a MOBA. Isn't the point of those games to change characters every match?

That seems the most ironically backward marketing idea ever. Vidja games: By awkward, socially ignorant nerds for socially ignorant nerds. Seriously, though, the ways this is downright stupid are so numerous: -Women will of course be thrilled to be marked as a target by the game for the "T&A or GTFO" crowd, in a pretty unescapable way.

-And even more thrilled to play as generic fantasy sex objects.

-Kind of minor, but thanks for the assumption that men belong with women and vice versa.

-This will promote an even uglier mindset against the foolhardy that will take up the offer, when the Stop Having Fun Guys will rail against how gurlz "get advantages".

Those are the days where I really wish for everyone involved in the hobby to grow the hell up. Quickly.

edited 3rd Apr '12 3:22:23 PM by Sable

So... what happens if you're trans?

Do not fear power... fear those who wield it.

To their credit, they do allow women a choice of not one but TWO different scantily-clad foxgirls to play as. League of Legends only has the one, though men can play as her too. Also their page has details for 12 heroes, half of them are palette swaps. Hope there aren't any women playing this game that wants to play as tank or melee or they may be out of luck.

edited 3rd Apr '12 3:19:39 PM by MrShine

@Moth: Sex is biological, gender is sociocultural and mental. In other words, sex is what set of chromosomes you have, and gender is whether you identify yourself socially personally as male, female, or whatever else you feel you are.

"Proto-Indo-European makes the damnedest words related. It's great. It's the Kevin Bacon of etymology." ~Madrugada

Cart before the horse. If you have a game that women don't want to play, then this is irrelevant. If you have a game they do want to play, then this is costing the company money.

Nous restons ici.

Does this game have multiple races? If yes, do you get a discount if you play a human character?

Seriously, this is a stupid idea. If they really want to rope in more female players, they should start by making female characters less slutty-looking.

People aren't as awful as the internet makes them out to be.

Or making more cutesy Action Girls.