Criticism: Accepted

This could only be a bug.
Of course! Why allow something as compelling as sex differentiation or physiology to play a meaningful role in virtual space?
Why should choice of avatar gender be meaningful when it need only be aesthetic?

We do deep disservice to femininity when we dissociate gender - when we allow it to be a point of no distinction in our minds and a null value in our simulations. By avoiding the very real and interesting concept of gender difference we typically default, in service of 'equality,' to a male valuation over which we construct a female facade.

The problem? It is far easier to embrace an artificial (and safe) sameness than to design for the natural implementation of gender equality: complementarity.

At issue: Age of Conan's most recent bug:

A problem exists in the basic combat system - female characters deal less damage than their male counterparts when engaging in combination attacks:
"The main reason for the discrepancy in damage output that you're seeing is that the length of an animation isn't equal for both Male and Female characters in many cases"

>:) A happy accident ??

The sweet irony of the mistake is it's basis in the animation system. In pursuit of physicality and compelling human movement the developers created a bit of gendered physiology. Deep down I wonder if they weren't intending for the female set of movements to be more "graceful" or dance-like. Nevertheless, now things are interesting.

Like most happy accidents, this bug, at its best, hints at possibility. In its current form the game offers no upside (complement) to gendered combat inefficiency, but in the context of the Conan universe why not add a seduction component or substitute dexterity for strength?

Knowing this game's demographic, there may already be a social distinction to choosing a female avatar: A previous bug, that had the unfortunate side effect of a global breast reduction procedure on the female avatar population met with cries of outrage and threats of account cancellation. I see in this outcry the notion of a breach of contract (who are you to change the appearance of an entity i identify with?) as well as the deprecation of curves as an aesthetic and social currency (in a virtual world that caters to it's audience).

Obviously, Conan isn't looking for femininity to be approached in design terms, and an effort will be made to force gender differentiation back to the realm of aesthetics - where the female form is pure visual flair. Conceptually, this is representational Hysterectomy; it's also boring, plain, and increasingly standard.