A Journey, A Revelation, And Some Nudity

[Ultrajoe]

Is this how veterans treat their community, manipulating them? That doesn't sound right too me. Maybe if you did this by yourself Joe I could walk restrain from posting and go to bed but the fact that so many users that are held in high esteem did this just... well cuts me up inside.

It was just me and Labyrinth, all the others at escapism genuinely believed that the Ultraproxy was me.

That. and can we please stop with the "I haz confeshonzorz!" threads? Are we really that desperate for attention? Seriously, what did you hope to gain other than attention?

Some entertained people, some more reactions, some smiles and my balls back.

As for the people getting upset: Really? Come on. It's Ultrajoe and Labyrinth. What were you expecting? The first gets his kicks from evading attempts to discover his actual identity (his name, Dean, is the first substantial personal identifier we've gotten out of him in a year and three months, other than the fact that he owns a dog and lives somewhere in the vicinity of Sydeny) and creating mystery and suspense around everything he does. He's also agressive as fuck.

Labyrinth? She gets her kicks posting in-depth essays on human behavior, social habits and philosophy twice a week in off-topic and she's at the beating heart of nearly all Escapist Community activities (Escapist Meet-ups, Escapist Radio). Coincedentally, she's also agressive as fuck.

Put them together and this experiment is almost the logical conclusion. Really, the fact that they were comfortable enough to do it here is a good sign. It means they consider the people here friends and didn't think their experiment would upset anyone too much. They figured people would be laughing along with them at the end of it. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say they wouldn't have run an experiment like this on Warcry or another strange distant forum (Labyrinth might have, Ultrajoe wouldn't have seen the point), because half the game was seeing how their friends would react.

1) You know I own a Cairn Terrier, to be specific. I have posted pictures of him. He is adorable.

2) This was all her Idea, to be perfectly honest. I can't say I didn't immediately agree, however. Such an idea was bound to occur.

3, The Important One) Precisely, what's the point of this if I learn how some strangers react? It was only possible among friends. Friends I did not mistreat or insult, only decieve, and then come clean to. It's because I do care, in a sense, that I chose the escapist.

I'm wondering if there really was anything of value to be learned -- the reactions of people to your assumed genders were predictable. I could sit at a bar for a few hours, completely oblivious to gender cultures/stereotypes, and arrive at the same conclusions. Kudos on the execution, but I don't think I can say anything much more positive about it than that.

It was also about experiencing it first-hand. You can read all about brazil and possibly learn more about it and its culture and a native, but it's not as fun and not as involved as going there and living it for yourself. I did have fun, and we did enjoy ourselves, and that was always the most important outcome. I was really hoping more people would enjoy this along with me, rather than feeling hurt.

I was promised nudity. Still, nice post, if a bit long. You were a little heavy on the metaphor though

If this thread existed for a purpose other than the entertain and intrigue, it would be to gloat. I do not wish to gloat, so the metaphor and lame gags are thick and fast to try and prevent the hurt I have seemingly entirely failed to prevent. The reactions in the thread alone are unreasonably interesting.

 

[Delicious]

Sounds like you went through a lot of effort for some extremely generic observations. Most of them can be summarized under the "people treat you differently when you are a different gender" concept.

Props for the decoy though, I can safely say that I did not expect a double gender switch. It made sense partly because I always felt your style of writing to be slightly feminine, no offense.

 

[Ultrajoe]

Sounds like you went through a lot of effort for some extremely generic observations. Most of them can be summarized under the "people treat you differently when you are a different gender" concept.

The fun was in the discovery, like in LotR or 'Sophie's Choice'. I never reached the end of those books but I can only imagine the ending is rather unclimactic.

Props for the decoy though, I can safely say that I did not expect a double gender switch. It made sense partly because I always felt your style of writing to be slightly feminine, no offense.

I'm an extroverted egomaniac who regularly pretends he's an armoured, dancing knight who even went as far as to invent and pretend to be an Evil twin of this fabrication. The words 'Flamboyant' and 'Pointless' cannot do any acceptable level of justice to the peacock that I am. Quite frankly i'm surprised half of you don't think i'm gay. I really enjoyed Drama.

 

[Gruthar]

It was also about experiencing it first-hand. You can read all about brazil and possibly learn more about it and its culture and a native, but it's not as fun and not as involved as going there and living it for yourself. I did have fun, and we did enjoy ourselves, and that was always the most important outcome. I was really hoping more people would enjoy this along with me, rather than feeling hurt.

I'll stable my moral high horse for now (he's gotten far more exercise than he's used to), so you long as you are aware that your quest for Brazil negatively impacted the local environment, unintended though it may be. I think that there is a far more valuable lesson than experiencing what it's like to be a girl on the internet.

/preachy Gru

 

[Lord Krunk]

Well, it was fun while it lasted. Though, you totally evoked Rule 34. [http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s46/Labyrinth_11/Ultrajosepine.jpg]

I will admit that I was curious as to how UltraJosephine would be received. She was sassy, short and one of my closest friends. Funny to watch on the day. Funny to recount to the masses.

This was, in part, an academic exercise. I wanted to know how much it would shift Ultrajoe's experience of the forums, how people reacted to "her", how they acted toward, around and about "her". I offer my apologies to anyone who was offended by their unwitting guinea-pig employment but I couldn't exactly tell you guys ahead of time. And yes, I had wild amounts of fun and hilarity doing this, as did Josephine. No doubt a revealing experience for all, not just about the deal where someone online may be entirely different to what you expect, but also how their reactions do change.

This is not me being snobby and arrogant, I have to clarify. It is just me experimenting to see, for myself, what happens on these forums that I'm not otherwise privy to.

So, Ultrajoe, I hope you had some fun. I hope everyone else did too through the shock.

Ah, you were in on it too. I was only told after Escapism though, but I did have a couple of odd clues that made me skeptical. Naturally, the joke's on Indigo_Dingo now, the only person who wasn't surprised after the 'Ultrareveal'.

What I'm sad about, however, is that I can't make fun of Ultrajoe's height anymore.

As for me, I think I'll stick with Cube. I... I think I've grown attached to her (as an avatar, get your minds out of the gutter), so I might keep her indefinitely. And besides, who doesn't like JSRF?

 

[chstens]

Good grief... Hitler was a great speechmaker, a very charimsatic man and he created tons of new jobs for Germany, but pointing this out to some is social suicide.

The extra jobs were all about preparing for war though - large motorways were built even though there were nowhere near enough cars to justify the extra roads. It was clearly aimed at motorising an army. So yes, extra jobs were created but not for the right reason.

When the Nazi's came to power they effectively banned women from working so all those jobs were given to men.

Also there were huge purges throughout the police force. A lot of (good) policemen that were members of the Nazi party were 'reassigned' into the Gestapo, so all the vacant job positions in the police force were given to any other poor bastard who still didn't have a job.

And then all the extra-job-workers had to join the army to fight a war that they helped to create. So I'm not sure the extra jobs was a good thing. Especially when all the recently jobless women were then sent to munitions factories to help supply the army.

Excellent point.

 

[Ultrajoe]

Excellent point.

I think you're in the wrong thread. Addmitedly, I may be very wrong, and somewhere in the last page I managed to trigger godwins, but I just think someone with a tabbed browser got lost. Good, valid point, but not in the right place. It's like a monster truck in your grandmas living room. Monster trucks are awesome, but your crushed grandmother is not. And if you think so, you're god damn Hitler.

 

[neuromasser]

This whole thing somehow didn't surprise me at all, altough I read stuff about UltraJosephine when it all happened. It's probably because whole gender-switching thing was never interesting to me (actually I find it disgusting, but whatever). I think that you really can't justify your actions, whatever your true goals were (or Labyrinth's, for that matter). Also I agree with Fire Daemon, and I think that you owe those long-time users an apology or something.

But that's just my opinion, I never got to know you :/

 

[garfoldsomeoneelse]

Cool story, bro sis bro.

I'm here for the nudity, if someone could direct me to it?

Also, this.

 

[Labyrinth]

I would like to say that for my part in this I accept all responsibility. FireDaemon, I knew that some people would feel betrayed. Some part of me hoped beyond chance that it wouldn't be so but I'm not that naive. I can only wish that you don't leave because of this.

As for those wishing nudity, can you not see that you have it already? Before you is Ultrajoe, naked of pretence, bare in his ungodly armour. And no, you can't unthink that. Ever.

 

[Ultrajoe]

I would like to say that for my part in this I accept all responsibility. FireDaemon, I knew that some people would feel betrayed. Some part of me hoped beyond chance that it wouldn't be so but I'm not that naive. I can only wish that you don't leave because of this.

See? It was her, all her. I was forced to do it, against my will and better judgement. I wept.

As for those wishing nudity, can you not see that you have it already? Before you is Ultrajoe, naked of pretence, bare in his ungodly armour. And no, you can't unthink that. Ever.

Right now I really am naked. Go figure.

 

[Labyrinth]

I would like to say that for my part in this I accept all responsibility. FireDaemon, I knew that some people would feel betrayed. Some part of me hoped beyond chance that it wouldn't be so but I'm not that naive. I can only wish that you don't leave because of this.

See? It was her, all her. I was forced to do it, against my will and better judgement. I wept.

Oh please. You laughed. You settled back in your chair and guffawed at the sheer opportunity for shenanigans this presented. Joke's still on you though.

EDIT: Actually.. I do like the idea that I can both make Ultrajoe do my bidding AND make him cry.

 

[hypothetical fact]

Another well writen blog, kudos. The problem with these blogs is that people who aren't related to the event or just don't care about your life find nothing special in them. Yeah you pretended to be a chick, as has half the internet and the majority of female mmo characters. If there is something to discuss here please enlighten me; but for now these blog posts just come off as a frivolous use of a public forum to talk about yourself..

 

[mshcherbatskaya]

I feel like, in the interest of scientific integrity, you should run a similar experiment on a female-dominated forum.

I think this would be an interesting experiment. Ultrajoe, if you decide you would like to try both sides of the gendered experience on a female dominated forum, I would be happy to assist you. Indeed, if you want to jump into the deep end, I know a couple good mainstream feminist forums you could try.

It's work though, building two new convincing alts on another server. You'd really have to level them both up to run a raid like that, and you'd spend a lot of time grinding posts and threads to get there.

 

[Ultrajoe]

Another well writen blog, kudos. The problem with these blogs is that people who aren't related to the event or just don't care about your life find nothing special in them. Yeah you pretended to be a chick, as has half the internet and the majority of female mmo characters. If there is something to discuss here please enlighten me; but for now these blog posts just come off as a frivolous use of a public forum to talk about yourself..

NOTE: This thread exists to make genuine observations and prompt actual discourse in the readers. If you wish to post along the lines of 'I'm such an individual and don't give a shit' then you're individual in the sense that god will find a unique hell for your ass to suffer in for wasting our time.

I mean, I put this right at the top, so people who were disinterested could not waste their time reading my thread. I don't force people to read my threads, any more than people are forced to read 'Solid Snake V Freeman: The Victor?', it's a public forum where these things are traded back and forth. I wrote this inspired by my experiences to discuss the dissonance between the female and male online experiences, a point I spelled out quite clearly despite you not being able to find it. The fact that people are ignoring that point in favour of discussing my ethics suggests that people do take an interest.

The thing is that you're assuming I give a damn about the people who don't care. I wrote this, as with my Sydney Funnel Web article, to entertain and inform the people who do care, who are involved. And I have included relevant information for the rest of you, to boot, about the unecessary gender divide. I suppose what i'm getting at is that you marching in here to firmly plant your opinion of disinterest is a thousand times more pointlessly disruptive than this thread existing, such comments contribute nothing. I don't want to debate this with you because this thread doesn't exist to showcase the indifference of various readers, or even to showcase myself, it exists as an anecdotal dicourse on the issue at hand, it's how I write things.

Comparing it to a blog and sneering at it for your own applied classifications is not only incorrect but does severe injustice to the value of blogs or stories like these, to serve as repositories of human experience and allow the discussion of ideas through them. People don't read this to hear about me, I didn't wite it to talk about me, assuming as such is an insult to me and my intelligence. I wrote it to share and discuss the things I experienced, not my experience, the fact that the latter is proving more popular seems, however, to shoot whatever claim you had to my frivolity in the foot. Off-topic exists to discuss things that interest it's denizens, discussion wouldn't turn towards the personal aspect of this story if it didn't interest them, even if I intended otherwise.

The point is there, it's already had posts discussing it, if you want to talk about it then by all means go right ahead, if you want to call me a slimy git then by all means go ahead, but what's not important is the relevance or target audience in the thread. We don't need to go Meta on the thread, as it's only making it harder to focus on the 'point' you seem so eager yet inable to locate.

Let's be friends.

 

[Ultrajoe]

I feel like, in the interest of scientific integrity, you should run a similar experiment on a female-dominated forum.

I think this would be an interesting experiment. Ultrajoe, if you decide you would like to try both sides of the gendered experience on a female dominated forum, I would be happy to assist you. Indeed, if you want to jump into the deep end, I know a couple good mainstream feminist forums you could try.

I'd love to see their opinion on my experience, what they would think of the thread or the way I handled the month or so as the other sex. I couldn't go on as a female and then reveal myself to be male, the trick of this excercise was in changing from my authentic personality into a labelled version, to join as a female, pretend to be female, then pretend to reveal myself as male only to reveal otherwise... well it loses the elegance. However, it would please me greatly to take this thread to them and get their opinion on the events within.

In fact, this may be essential to getting the full gamut of experience from the event. And it might even be fun.

 

[LuzGutierrez]

Alright, I read the first post, and I'm a little confused at what's going on, but fromwhat I read, what you're trying to say is that you "pretended" to be female for a while?

That's sort of funny, mostly because I have a twin-brother, more over that we look almost identical. The real funny thing is that sometimes I get mistaken for a boy, so I can pull off things like pretending to be him. In fact, I too did something similar to what you did, but in reverse. To not bore you, and everyone else with the details, it can be summed up by saying, I was one of "the guys" for sometime, and it was an...interesting...experience. I'll go on, but only if anyone is interested...

Would you care to enlighten me if I'm getting any of this wrong?

 

[Ultrajoe]

Would you care to enlighten me if I'm getting any of this wrong?

No, you're right, I pretended to be a girl for a while. It's a little more complex in the technical details, a girl went to a public event and pretended to be me rather than just me waving a digital hand and saying 'Female Here', and it was among people who knew me well enough, but the end result is that for a while I pretended to be female.

Seriously, tell us about your time as one of the guys, it would be awesome to get some idea of what the reverse experience is like, especially since this was in person rather than over the internet. Anything you can tell us would be greatly appreciated.

 

[neuromasser]

Let's be friends.

I don't want fake friends :'(