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Men are from Ogguk. Women are from Kelethin.

A character in a MMORPG is a projection of the self. When an EverQuest gamer plays the game, they are projecting a part of themself into this virtual world. But a character, or an avatar, in such an environment is an interesting combination of both illusion and reality, containing elements of both "you" and "not you" at the same time. It is "you" in the sense that your character speaks, reacts and acts in ways that parallel how you might in real life. On the other hand, a character is "not you" because none of us are really Wood-Elves or Necromancers in real life. But because players spend a lot of time in developing their characters and in building up their social networks, they become personally invested in their characters. And when a player is personally invested, every choice that they make within this virtual construct is personally revealing. Thus, we would expect that differences among individuals are also projected into EverQuest.

We could ask, for example, how gender is projected into EverQuest. What differences in role-playing preferences or in-game behaviors can we find between male and female players? Does EverQuest appeal to male and female players in the same way? Do they continue to play for the same reasons? Or do they get different things out of playing the game?

Demographically, female players comprise 16% of the EverQuest player base. Female players are significantly older than male players (link).

There are many ways we could begin to ask how male and female players project themselves differently in EverQuest, but first we have to establish that EverQuest provides room for variation. In EverQuest, a gamer could choose to never communicate with anyone else. They could play the game as if it were a single-player game. A gamer could also choose to never kill a creature. Almost no one plays at these extremes, but between these two extremes is room for variation. It is the possibility of variation that makes it meaningful to ask whether male and female players find the game appealing because of different reasons.

We found that female players find the social interaction of the game significantly more appealing than male players (link). Male players, on the other hand, are significantly more likely to enjoy the sense of power the game gives (link). As several respondents commented,

He is really turned on by the power and prestige aspects of the game, whereas I use it as an extended chatroom. So we had some conflict over me getting twinked out purely because I was a real woman. [f, 19, dating]

It's something we both enjoy, but we tend to enjoy it seprately. I enjoy it because of the social aspect, while he just enjoys the game itself. [f, 23, engaged]

We also found that female players are significantly more likely to always group with people they've grouped with before when compared with male players (link). Male players, on the other hand, are significantly more likely to have a goal in mind when logging onto EQ when compared with female players (link). As an example,

For instance, I will rather play in a group just for company, even if the exp gain is minimal, whereas my partner tends to literally AVOID other players. [f, 23, engaged]

We begin to get a sense that perhaps while female players play EverQuest to build relationships, male players play EverQuest for achieving goals. If this is the case, we would expect that female players spend more time in both sustaining and participating in social groups within EverQuest.

Guilds are one kind of sustained social network in EverQuest. When respondents were asked to indicate whether they belonged to a guild, 80% of respondents replied that they did belong to a guild (link). Male and female players are equally likely to belong to guilds. Superficially, it appears that there is no gender difference in participation in guilds, but if we look a little closer, we find that this is not the case at all. Female players are significantly more likely to be in officer or leader positions within guilds than male players (link). Female players are also significantly more likely to participate in guild events than male players (link). Thus, it isn't surprising that female players find belonging to a guild significantly more enjoyable than male players (link).

We can refine what we've noted so far about gender differences. Perhaps for female players, the focus of the game is in building relationships, and killing mobs is something you can do while chatting, whereas for the male players, the focus of the game is in killing mobs, and chatting is something you have to do to coordinate battle plans. Perhaps female players find social partners in EverQuest, while male players find hunting partners. A set of findings support this dichotomy.

Respondents were asked to indicate how appealing a set of hypothetical changes to the game would be. Female players are significantly more likely than male players to find enhanced emotes appealing (link). This is what we would expect because enhanced emotes make it easier to develop social cohesion. Male players, on the other hand, are significantly more likely than female players to find more weapon and spell types appealing (link). Having more weapon and spell types is really having more ways to kill mobs, and again this is what we might have expected.

Because female players focus on developing social relationships within EverQuest, while male players do not necessarily care about building social relationships, it is the female players who are more likely to make friends in EverQuest. And we do find that female players are significantly more likely than male players to feel that their EverQuest friendships are better or comparable to their real-life friendships, while male players are significantly more likely to feel their EverQuest friendships do not come close to their real-life friendships (link).

A corollary of this is that because female players are making real friends in EverQuest, and view EverQuest as a social community rather than just a game, they are significantly more likely than male players to feel that valuable things can be learned from EverQuest, as opposed to male players who are significantly more likely than female players to feel that very little of value can be learned from the game (link).

Because male players play EverQuest to gain satisfaction from achieving goals, we would expect that the ability to hack the game would be more appealing to them. And indeed we do find that male players are significantly more likely than female players to hack the game if this were possible (link).

Female players play EverQuest to build relationships and we have already seen that they do develop meaningful friendships in the game comparable to real-life friends. Female players also feel that valuable things can be learned from EverQuest. In a very real sense, EverQuest is not just a game to female players. To female players, EverQuest is more relevant and meaningful than it is to the male players. And the more relevant something is to an individual, the more likely they are to dream about it. And we do find that female players are significantly more likely to dream about EverQuest than male players (link).

Finally, we can see this augmented relevance to female players revealed by attachment to their characters. Respondents were asked whether they would sell their main character at a price determined by their level. We found that female players are significantly less willing to sell their characters when compared with male players (link).

Beyond just personal investment and attachment, we can also look at emotional investment. Because female players are interested in building relationships, we would expect to find that they are more willing to emotionally invest themselves in the game, while male players should be much less willing to do so.

In a sense, this is already true going into the game. About 70% of female players are playing EverQuest with a romantic partner (link). But we could also look at falling in love and role-playing romantic relationships within the game. And again we find that female players are significantly more likely than male players to role-play romantic relationships with another character or actually fall in love with another character or player (link).

Because very few computer games have allowed female players to build relationships the way that EverQuest has, it would be interesting to know whether female players find the game more appealing than male players do. We found that female players are significantly more likely than male players to feel that EverQuest is the best computer game that they have ever played (link).

This question was also asked in a more refined way. A list of different sources from which satisfaction could be achieved was generated, and respondents were asked to indicate how much satisfaction they got from each of the items. Female players, unsurprisingly, get significantly more satisfaction from making friends. But we found that female players also get significantly more satisfaction from completing complex craft items and from completing a quest, both of which are goal-oriented and which we might expect to appeal to male players more. More surprisingly, we also found that female players get more satisfaction from killing mobs than male players do (link). Although these findings seem to contradict the model we have been trying to develop, this is not necessarily the case. Female players generally do not like hack and slash games, such as Quake, because it is all about goal-driven achievement. EverQuest allows female players to build social relationships, and crafting complex trade items or completing quests is something they can do within the context of social relationships. So in a sense, the satisfaction from sustaining social relationships spills over into other areas. Female players are not just hunting mobs. Female players are hunting mobs with their good friends, while male players are more likely to be hunting with strangers. And it is the nesting of one activity within a social relationship that makes it more satisfying to female players than male players.

In conclusion, our findings allow us to build a cohesive model of how gender projects into EverQuest. Female players tend to be socializers. They play EverQuest to develop and sustain social relationships. They are more likely to emotionally invest themselves into the game, and are more likely to feel that their EverQuest relationships are better or comparable to their real-life relationships. EverQuest is more relevant and meaningful to female players and they are more likely to feel that important things can be learned from playing the game. Male players, on the other hand, tend to be achievers. They play EverQuest to gain satisfaction from achieving goals. They are much less likely to feel that their EverQuest friendships are comparable to their real-life friendships. They are less likely to emotionally invest themselves into EverQuest and are more likely to feel that virtual romance is strange. Finally, male players are more likely to feel that EverQuest is "just a game" and that nothing important can be learned from it.