Many of us have indulged in the pleasure of playing online games. To be more specific, I'm talking about Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games. These behemoths of games engulf your soul almost making you feel like you have obligations to attend to in that 'other' virtual life. Both Max and I have played MMO's in the past for years at a time. Max used to play EverQuest and I used to play Final Fantasy XI hardcore. Our dedicated raiding days are over, but we still play FFXI and WoW casually. But the real question of this post is, what gender did we play? Max played as a male, but I played as a female character.

A recent article on the Inquirer titled, "Online gamers indulge in fantasy sex swap" talked about the gender swapping in online games. There's an overwhelming majority of men and women who pick the opposite sex when engaging in online role-play. The Inquirer goes on to state that about 70% of women choose to play as male characters and 54% of men lean towards female characters when playing.

Why switch genders? Everyone wants to fit in whether it be in real life or online. Most studies concluded that virtual sex changes are for the benefits of the gender. Women may play male characters because they feel they have more status among their other male colleagues. They may also play male characters simply to prevent other true male players from soliciting them. Conversely, men play as women either to flirt with other males, or to gain other game perks. In their studies, they had some more honest male gamers come forward to tell them their real reasons for choosing female characters, which obviously is to explore fantasies they wouldn't in real life.

The majority of gamers will tell you that they play MMO's as an escape from their real lives. While this is true, it shouldn't be a substitute for real life interaction. So the next time you're running around World of Warcraft, be careful in who you think are guys and who you think are girls. That sexy dancing necromancer chick may just as well be a 40 year old guy having fun strutting his perfect women in the game.

Source: "Online gamers indulge in fantasy sex swap"