Shanda Entertainment and its subsidiary Aurora Technology have announced that they are now banning male gamers playing as female characters from their MMORPG King of the World. Shanda is currently China's biggest online gaming enterprise.

In contrast, female players playing as male characters will be allowed to go on playing. All of this is designed to work using webcam verification solutions.

No explanation was given as to why this move was initiated, but it could be due to rampant posing as ladies and scamming for items or game currency as the case is with most other MMORPGs.

This then begs the question: Isn't it strange that you won't be allowed to choose your gender in a game genre whose essence is to allow people to escape into a world where they can be someone else?

And won't the webcam verification be easily bypassed? If it's done as a one-time thing during registration, your mom or sister can pose for you. If it's an always-on sort of thing, maybe you can go shave and buy a wig. Just tell everyone your dad has very dominant genes or something. What do you think?