1. That seems like an extremely poor business decision on their part. Its a game. Why restrict what characters people can use? Why only do it for men? If LL ever did that I can't say for certain that I'd stick with sl. I am male in rl, but my avatar in sl has always been female. I run a nightclub in sl and am known for the way my avatar looks. I'd have to completely reinvent myself. I know quite a few people that play as the opposite gender in sl and most of them tend to not be GLBT, though some are. Its just part of what makes SL an interesting experience. Exploring other aspects of ourselves. I even had a themed event at my club where I asked people to spend a few days as another race or gender and we discussed the experience. This MMORPG seems to be making a weird arbitrary decision for no reason.

Posted at 11:34AM on Sep 27th 2007 by Grizzy Griswold

2. As well as being discriminatory and biased, it also strikes me as being very childishly presumptuous about the reasons why one would potentially want to 'play' in a avatar gendered 'differently' from how you appear in RL. It seems like a really superficially researched decision, and one I would take enormous offence at.

Posted at 12:12PM on Sep 27th 2007 by Kisa Naumova

3. what would they do if a male dressed up, put makeup on and acted female(ish) on camera, claiming "her" masculine features on hormonal dysfunction? would they demand to see what is under the skirt? Xp

Posted at 12:25PM on Sep 27th 2007 by TigroSpottystripes Katsu

4. blaming nor claiming*

Posted at 12:27PM on Sep 27th 2007 by TigroSpottystripes Katsu

5. So basically somewhere in China is an entire server full of pictures of genitals? Or do they just let you scan some sort of state ID without making you put 'em on the glass?

Posted at 12:31PM on Sep 27th 2007 by Hollywood Ron

6. Finally, an answer to the age-old conundrum: "I run an MMORPG. How can I get girls to turn on their webcams for me?"

Posted at 1:09PM on Sep 27th 2007 by Jacek Antonelli

7. So is this homophobia -- the fear that the woman you're speaking to (or hotchatting with) is really a man?

Posted at 1:31PM on Sep 27th 2007 by Cyn Vandeverre

8. Oh it's definitely homophobia. But it's so ingrained that they probably don't see it as such.

Posted at 2:08PM on Sep 27th 2007 by Toirdealbach McDunnough

9. Absolutely ridiculous idea. My alt is the opposite gender and its a lot of fun. Thanks for the heads up - I'll make sure to not even take a look at this Aurora thing.

Posted at 2:27PM on Sep 27th 2007 by sirhc DeSantis

10. This is a horrible idea... I mean talk about restricting someone's freedom of expression. You know what I find interesting though... while we outrage against this there is an outrage against those who do it (well not as much of an outrage but a snicker and sneer). It seems that either or no one wins.

Posted at 3:52PM on Sep 27th 2007 by Nexeus Fatale

11. One of the comments on the slashdot post is that one of the admins of the game found out that his cute in-game girlfriend was a guy - thus the rule ;)

Posted at 5:45PM on Sep 27th 2007 by Thea

12. hi mercy! :D

Posted at 8:16PM on Sep 27th 2007 by sean percival

13. Fake news... and you gave it like four categories of its very own! XD

Posted at 12:32PM on Sep 28th 2007 by Day Oh

14. I would just chalk this one up in the very full column labeled, "China is a repressive, dictatorial society with almost no respect for the lives of its subjects or for the rest of the planet". There are far greater evils and impositions happening there all the time, not to mention an environmental catastrophe building that makes others pale in comparison.

On the other hand, I've noticed that while people can't confront great, overwhelming evils, they will often get suitably riled up for much sillier ones like this so by all means, let's protest!

Posted at 3:48PM on Sep 28th 2007 by Ananda

15. Don't give Linden Lab any ideas...

Posted at 11:22AM on Sep 30th 2007 by Gwyneth Llewelyn