My Week As A Dude
by Kassadee Marie, HSM team writer
Day 1 – My avatar: The first thing, I had to get out of those default clothes, but I wasn’t going to spend money on a male avatar.
I downloaded the Infamous demo to get Cole’s outfit, which comes as separate pieces. Then I played the free levels on the Namco Museum Essentials trial to get a few t-shirts and a pair of shorts. I also started up RDR (Red Dead Redemption) for the costume, although I wasn’t sure I’d use it. As soon as I hit Home, I worked on my avatar’s build and face and made him a large guy with manly features. I thought he was quite handsome, with a well-trimmed beard — and he was a redhead, too! So, then I ran to the mall and “purchased” the free guy stuff at the kiosk on the second floor and then went through Threads and Loot and picked up some more t-shirts and other items. Now I was able to dress him a little less like a newcomer to Home.
I also collected the free personal spaces from the Casino, the Midway and Sodium and some other things that I knew were readily available, such as the items from Sodium and the Konami Penthouse. I planned to work on more ornaments and furniture the following day. Two surprises that day: a friend request and no invitations to join a “fam.”
Day 2 – Free stuff and Motorstorm: There are a lot of freebies in Home! I picked up a few clothing items from the quiz at Sportswalk, but I don’t know… is turquoise masculine enough for a manly guy? It goes well with his red hair, but do regular guys think of things like that?
I remember more and more “freebies” as I go from space to space. I’m missing the things from Irem that I can no longer get, though; I love those colorful robots. I picked up a couch from Hot Shots, ornaments from Edo and some pieces of furniture from the Vendetta game at Abstergo Lab, but not the couch which takes a win with 500 coins. People play a lot better here than I remembered from two years ago and they defeated me quickly!
Why was I picking up this stuff and decorating? In case I made a friend and invited someone to my Harbor Apartment. So now, I had enough items to decorate in a manly fashion… a big TV, giant mech making machine, space-y stuff and Infamous posters. That should do it. Later, I went to Motorstorm for the free things and a little atmosphere. It was very sparsely populated, but someone spoke to me there and said I made a good DJ, though there was no friend request this time. We talked for awhile and then he said he had to go. What am I going to say if some guy asks me about COD or MW3, or whatever FPS is new right now? (Wait, are those the same thing?) Will I pass as a guy since I don’t play them?
Day 3 – More free stuff: I won the Ansadafone space at Aurora. Woot! Now I have a second space to show off, if necessary. I also dug up a wonderful rusty old can and found a pink coral ring (which I am way too manly to wear) at Southern Island Hideaway. I lost all my free chips at the Casino, but did not win the fountain.
It occurred to me, as I ran from space to space, doing my usual “errands” that I may be avoiding the real “hardcore” places that I studiously abstained from going to as myself. There are places on Home known to be frequented by certain types of families. Godfather 2 is where the Mafia-styled families hang out. The Playground is known for its hip-hop “gangstas” and Siren is known for the vampire-styled families. Visiting and spending some time at these places is actually why I made this male avatar. I thought it was time to take Flynn out to where the big boys play. One space per day for three days, I believed, would fit best to get a real, although light, understanding of these spaces and not overwhelm myself.
Day 4 – First up, Godfather 2: There at GF2 everyone seemed to stand on the stairs and no one appeared to play poker. The guys were generally in the defiant pose and the girls generally seemed to dance. The ratio of male to female avatars there was even more pronounced than usual. I noticed that guys with girlfriends stuck very close to them.
I got the impression they really don’t like fake females there; I wondered how they felt about fake males.
I posed defiantly to fit in, braced myself for a fam-war and waited.
And waited.
Yawn.
Those conversations there could have been happening at the Hub or Pier Park. Where were all the gangsters? I did see a little “hash tagging” and some of the worst language (both grammatically and in terms of swearing) that I have ever seen on Home. Also, I became involved in a conversation about Hitler, with an admirer of his. This person seemed to have a lot of facts, but not much sense. This was not what I expected there; maybe I was there on an off day?
Day 5 – The Playground: I froze about thirty seconds after I arrived, but I didn’t think much of it until later. After I returned, I was surprised by a comment about a fashion show that one male made to another. This was not what I was expecting here either. There were a few glitchers behind the barrier and a few people playing H.O.R.S.E. and chess. I asked one person about his ID, thinking it indicated a gang affiliation, but he said it was just his initials.
At this time most of the people were standing in the street and not dancing on the stage. An argument eventually ensued with comments about playing “freeze tag” and “wardrobe wars” (freezing the space by use of the wardrobe glitch). Eventually, there was an agreement between these two people, where one agreed not to freeze the other user, if the second person agreed not to report him.
Then while noting the not-unexpected tagging and foul language, I was approached by that same person whose first comment to me was “poof?” to which I replied that I would “rather not be.” After several questions which were not responded to, such as why he would want to do this to me when he didn’t even know me, he did indeed freeze me. I returned to the space for the third time, reported him and sent him a PM telling him that I had done so. He advised me that he didn’t care because he had been reported many times and was never suspended for more than 24 hours because he “had friends who worked at Sony.” I told him that I didn’t believe him and noted that he had an “L” and an underscore in his ID and that he probably made a new accounts after he was banned. I also asked him if I could use his nick for this article, to which he replied “no,” but he seemed quite proud of being known on the forums for his hot pink pop-up color. This was enough (and more than enough) Playground time for me.
Day 6 – Siren: After my experience yesterday, I was really nervous about going to Siren. I was tempted to ask to be escorted by some people that I know, but decided I would brave the space alone. I waited until almost 10:00 Pacific time before I went there and to my surprise, the space was almost empty. There were about four other people there. After a few moments I realized one user was trolling two others, mostly by use of fast typing and self-proclaimed intellect, and I made a few comments to them.
I found it interesting that he tried to bully me, and when he failed to engage me in an argument, he left. About this time another person sent me a private message and complimented me for standing up to the bully. I took this opportunity to ask him about himself, why he was at Siren and what he thought of the people who spent a lot of time there. He admitted that he saw a lot of drama, arguing and freezing there, but stated he “liked dark spaces” and usually was there with his girlfriend. Later, while I was talking to him, people started showing up one by one and a group stood together in the shadows. He advised me that these were members of a vampire clan. After listening to them converse for awhile, I realized they were a group of friends who greeted each other with affection and enjoyed each others company. Somehow, in my limited experience, Siren turned out to be the friendliest and most enjoyable of the three public spaces I was worried about visiting.
Day 7 – E3: Safe at last, just collecting freebies again.
The wrap up: Recently, to research another article, I felt the need to spend some time as a male avatar. So, I used a secondary email address and created a new Home account. Although my experience would not qualify as a scientific inquiry or even a fair sampling, I have drawn some conclusions from my experiences.
One is that there are still places on Home that I prefer not to go to as myself or as a male, due to the people who spend time in these spaces and the reputation they have.
The second thing is that guys don’t get as much attention on Home as girls do, but they are treated better. No one ran up and called me a horrid name for no reason. No one danced on me or crouched closely in front or behind me. No one greeted me with a “Hi, sexy” or an even worse private message, or even commented on my avatar’s appearance. Some people (guys) initiated conversations and some even answered questions, all without personal remarks.
So, which avatar will I be using in the future? The answer is my female one. I may have to put up with things I don’t like and avoid some public spaces, but this is the one that makes me feel like myself when using it and it’s the one where my friend list is almost full with people I know, respect and even love. I wouldn’t give them up for anything.
June 17th, 2012 by Kassadee Marie | 2 comments
Home is endlessly entertaining to this California girl. Kassadee has been in Home for about four years, and loves almost everything about it (with a few notable exceptions). She spends way too much money there, and perhaps too much time... Someday she will travel the world and write about the people she meets and the places she sees.
OK, OK. Here the way it is as I see it. I don’t understand why someone would want to cross dress, it’s a-ok with me. Whatever put’s one on.
I did try playing an early version of Tomb Raider as Lara Croft (no choice) but I had to quit. I didn’t do no good at the game. Usually I chalk it up as lack of skill but this time I’ll just say female avatars got too much stuff that gets in the way. And don’t send any women wrestlers, skiers, skaters, ball players or other athletes my way to beat me up. I’m all for females doing athletic stuff and I admire their stuff.
I also admire your efforts at doing what you done to write your article which was interesting. And you do make a handsome fellow, indeed you do.
Kass nice follow up to the gender bender article I wrote. This is a great piece on what it is like to be a man from a woman’s perspective. Love the articles and the comments- nice to know a fellow California Girl.