The Mana World Forums

Introduction
An interesting topic came up earlier today at the skulls regarding shims which has inspired me to write this guide. Hopefully after reading this guide you will have a better understanding what a shim is, understanding shim's and their motives and how to properly identify a shim.

What is a shim?
A shim is male who poses as a female online. They have plagued the internet since its arrival and can usually be found in online games, chatrooms, forums etc. There is some controversy surrounding the word shim, its history and literal definition. Some claim it derives from simply putting "she" and "he" together. While others argue it is short for "She is a him". Regardless of the definition you choose to accept the meaning remains the same, A male deceiving others into believing he is a she.

Into the depths of a shim's mind
There are several reasons why a person may partake in such a despicable act of being a shim Bellow I have made a list and brief explanation for your reference.

> Attention seekers - lack of attention "in real life" drives these individuals to pose as a female to feed their hunger and need for attention.
> Sexual dysfunction - the shim in question may have a problem with their own sexual identity. More sinister they may be using their false identity to prey on others to fulfil their own sexual desires.
> Scammers - the shim in this case in regards to online gaming will use their identity to exploit items from their victims or other help and special treatment.

Identifying a shim
Some shims have became elaborately clever in convincing and maintaining their alter ego. You would be surprised the lengths some of these people will goto. For the untrained and naive person when encountering a shim this may pose a challenge in the ability to know in fact they are dealing with a shim. Bellow I have compiled another list to help in identifying a shim.

> Pictures - one of the major give-a-ways that a person is a shim is the picture they use to pass themselves off as. Use the simple golden rule "If it's too good to be true....." Here is an example:

"She" sends you this pic


Chances are here is her real pic


> Lesbian - 99.9% of all females claiming to be a lesbian online are really shims. This is one of the oldest shim methods in history. They use this method to "make friends" with other lesbian females but in the end sadly it is just two guys cybering each other thinking they are with some hot chick.

> The persons name - do they use a name such as; hornygirl69, sexyhotchick, Monique? These are sure give-a-ways.

That is all I have for now

Wow, I was eating.. thanks a lot.

But nice guide I guess, i'm not sure what kind of a moron.. doesn't know about this though

LOL and I love how you snuck Monique in there. But there's many more on tmw, AnnaB to name one..

Why exactly do you consider people who pose as people of the other sex dangerous, Amun?

The only reason to be afraid of these people is when you a) seek for a relationship online or b) are a sexist who treats people differently based on their sex.

When I am looking for a romantic or sexual relationship I do it offline. On the net I treat all people the same, no matter what gender they are. I judge people by their actions and skills, not by their gender. I don't even want to know the gender of the people I interact with, be it their sexual, mental or biological one, because it is as relevant for me as their hair color.

In MMOs I frequently play female characters. But not to cyber with guys and get presents from them but because the female models often look much more appealing to me. And seriously: when I have the ass of a character on my screen all the time I rather prefer it to be the ass of a hot girl than that of a musculous man.


tl;dr:
Guys who pose on the internet as girls do it mostly for one reason: To get a laugh about people like you, Amun.


Strip partially related:

When I am looking for a romantic or sexual relationship I do it offline. On the net I treat all people the same, no matter what gender they are. I judge people by their actions and skills, not by their gender. I don't even want to know the gender of the people I interact with, be it their sexual, mental or biological one, because it is as relevant for me as their hair color.

Very well said. I must say that is my take on the whole issue as well. I don't care what sex the avatar is any more than a care what sex the person on the other computer is because I'm not here for romance, just for entertainment, and in my mind romance is not entertainment.

Now some may consider sex to be entertainment but even that is better IRL. So bottom line, don't go to MMORPG if you're lookin' for a woman.

Amun wrote:a despicable act of being a shim

What have you got against people playing female characters on online games? RPG stands for role-playing game; if a man wants to play a female role this should not be frowned upon. As for doing it for sexual reasons or attention... that should be taken elsewhere on the internet.

feline monstrosity wrote:

Amun wrote:a despicable act of being a shim

What have you got against people playing female characters on online games? RPG stands for role-playing game; if a man wants to play a female role this should not be frowned upon. As for doing it for sexual reasons or attention... that should be taken elsewhere on the internet.

Females shouldn't play video games especially online ones they ruin the game play.

Too right! What are they doing playing video games when there's washing up to be done? Plus it's dangerous to plug a computer in in the kitchen!

feline monstrosity wrote:Too right! What are they doing playing video games when there's washing up to be done? Plus it's dangerous to plug a computer in in the kitchen!

Exactly! I'm glad someone finally understands.