

Aurora Technology, a subsidiary of Chinese entertainment company Shanda, has reportedly frozen the accounts of men playing female characters in its MMO King of the World. Players who choose female in-game avatars must prove their gender via webcam in order to be granted access to the game.

Setting aside for just a moment the fact that being able to play as a girl is a major reason many guys play MMOs in the first place, this procedure is a joke. The only thing it verifies is that the person with the account a) knows a female, and b) persuaded them to sit in front of a webcam for a few minutes.

The policy makes no practical sense and is an invasion of privacy to boot. Hopefully it will be short-lived.

Shanda’s Aurora Bans Transsexuals [Pacific Epoch, via Kotaku]