I don’t mean to underestimate the power of women.  I truly understand how cesarsuki explained that at many points, women really overpowered man.  But if you want to compare MMORPG with military, and how women can influence decision of the “main actor” of the stage, I will have to say: men came first, my friend.

Why would I say that?

Let’s be realistic.  First, we are living in a world that has change in progress BUT hasn’t changed yet.  It is a patriarchal one, where men are considered dominant.  Most of the leader of nations are men.  Most of the wealthiest people in the world are men.  Most of the military generals are men.  MMORPG is about role, and it is not about how to live peacefully happily ever after in the game, because so far, the concept hasn’t changed from how to slay as much monster as possible, how to achieve highest level as fast as possible, how to conquer as much areas as possible.  It’s about aggression, and men response well for that areas (Coi & Dodge 1997, Maccoby & Jacklin 1974, Buss 2005).  And guess what, in my country the leader of strong guilds are mostly men.

Tales Of Pirate guild war taken from IGG site

Second, let us take a look at the history of military and conquerors.  How many of them are men, and how many of them are women?  Is the list dominantly filled with women?  I believe: no, it isn’t.  It’s full by men’s name.  Hammurabi, Cyrus, Leonidas, Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great, Darius, Xerxes, Shi Huang Di, Liu Bei, Cao Cao, Sun Quan, and many more.  Yes, there are some women who play a very important role in some conquering, such as Cleopatra, but they are only few compare to men.  Some might argue that the world culture was not recording too much about women’s role, so it is not fair to compare the number.  Again, it is shown that my first argument is true, we live in a patriarchal world.  I know it’s not fair.  Most of conqueror type guild in MMORPG, is lead by men (not the character, but the player).

Alexander The Great

Does this make men better than women in playing MMORPG?  Please don’t get me wrong, I will say: no, it doesn’t (or for at least, not always).  I just said that men came first when it comes to the nature of nowadays MMORPGs.  In most of the events, even in the future, men will be the initiator.  Will it be changed in the future?  Maybe.  Maybe not.  But in my opinion, it won’t be changed in the near future. Because men are naturally aggressive, while women are natural supporter and provider.  We never heard about father earth or father nature.  We always called her mother earth and mother nature.  Because women are not natural penetrator, they are natural life provider.  No wonder, when I play with women that playing their role as a healer, usually they are good.

Women also heavily influence men’s decisions.  Yes, I agree with that statement… for some cases.  People are focusing in some “crazy acts” of men because we are naturally logical beings (up to 80% prefer thinking) while women relies heavily on their feelings (up to 75%) – MBTI surveys.  So it is more exciting to talk about different case rather than talking about the “usual” logical beings.  That’s why we found Helen of Troy, which can initiate a war, and I also has an article about similar case in MMORPG.

Helen of Troy

So why should we talk about these differences? 

Well, we should.  Yes, we want to treat every man and woman as equal.  But without knowing our differences, we can treat each other in a wrong way.  That’s why there’s a book about these (Men from Mars, Women from Venus).

Last words of this part, the beauty of MMORPGs world lies in the differences.  I heard many people complaint on how the character look the same and demand more customization like Perfect World in MMORPGs.  So, women can have different ways of playing, and that what make us (men), love them.