Sexist game-world balance

[Falco]

I think the question of sexual differences comes down to your end goal and what the game's designers are trying to accomplish.

If the goal of the game is to kill mobs and level and raise your stats, etc. then having sexual differences requires some balance. If female characters don't have the same strength as male characters, there should be a corresponding positive difference in a female characters intelligence or dexterity over that of males'.

If the goal of the game is an RP environment where PCs will interact socially and in the context of the gameworld, then sexual differences can only add to the RP by presenting the kind of conflict that generates plots and RP.

The key is to communicate to the player that it is their character that is affected, not the player themselves. In all cases, players should be treated equal and allowed (provided they can RP it successfully in the case of the latter example) to choose the sex of their character.

Later,

Falco

[Kaz]

[KaVir]

I got a copy of Designing Virtual Worlds for Christmas, and while reading through it I noticed that Bartle covers many of the points we've discussed here (page 378, "Physical Differences", for those who also have the book).

In particular, he discussed men having "greater upper body strength" (and mentioned that this was actually implemented in MUD1), and pointed out how character gender isn't really all that different to character race. He also drew attention to the idea of "neutral differences", such as clothing and armour designed to fit a specific gender, and summarised by stating that gender differences can be "embraced fully, embraced cosmetically, or conveniently ignored", pointing out that most muds do the latter unless they are making a deliberate point about gender.

[Tyche]

[KaVir]