An Empirical Study on Gender Switching of MMORPG Players

Abstract

In this study, we explored the players’ behavior of gender switching in a MMORPG game. The empirical data is come from the Soul of Magic online game and 65,407 samples were collected for analysis. With regard to the gender of avatars , 37,031 players (56.60%) select ed male avatar s while 28 ,376 players (43.40%) select ed female avatar s. With regard to t he gender of players, there were 49,398 male s (75.50%) and 16 ,009 female s (24.50%). The result reveal that there were significant difference s between the gender s of the players who chosen the gender of avatar s. One third of male players chose female avatar s and one fourth of female players chose male avatar s. Among the age layers, 50.17 to 66.12 percent of female avatar s are played by male player s while 5.85 to 23.60 percent of male avatar s are played by female player s. According to the result, the gender switching in online games happens more on male players than on female ones.