FC: Female avatars are worth less than male avatars

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

[Perhaps Congress could pass a law? --Declan]

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From: "Nathan Cochrane" <ncochrane () theage fairfax com au>
To: "Declan McCullagh \(E-mail\)" <declan () well com>
Date: Mon, 23 Jun 2003 14:51:47 +1000
Message-ID: <014c01c33943$27f31520$405002a0 () theage jfh com au>
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Hi Declan

US economist, Edward Castronova, has discovered that female avatars, from
worlds such as EverQuest, trade online at an average 10 per cent discount to
their price were they male-designated.

Castronova theorises that the same forces at play in the real world that
keep womens' earning power below that of their male counterparts -- even
where they have identical skills -- are also at work online.

Men, it seems, like to appoint in their real-world successors analogs of
themselves. Online, that behaviour carries over into who they appoint as
their virtual alter-ego, the avatar.

"(R)elations between avatars are gender-based, and include chivalry, dating,
and sex," Castronova notes in the 45-page report, The Price of Man and
Woman: A Hedonic Pricing Model of Avatar Attributes in a Synthetic World.
"(A)bility seems more important than sex in determining the value of a body.
Nonetheless, among comparable avatars, females do sell at a significant
price discount.

"The discount may stem from a number of causes, including discrimination in
Earth society, the maleness of the EverQuest player base, or differences in
well-being related to male and female courtship roles. We do know, however,
that these differences cannot be caused by sex-based differences in the
abilities of the body, since in the fantasy world of Norrath, there are
none."

Castronova's first analysis of the Norrath economics, which I wrote about
($A1.65 to f2 Network members) at the time, found the virtual world ranked
higher as a measure of GDP than some small nations.

MORE:
http://bilskirnir.blogspot.com/2003_06_01_bilskirnir_archive.html#1056342647
76316268

-
Nathan Cochrane
Deputy IT Editor
:Next:
The Age and Sydney Morning Herald
http://www.next.theage.com.au



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