Guy gamers who play girl characters

[kiotsukete]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I'm not on forums much (see: post count) and it took some time to read through each post. Also, I just went through a world transfer this weekend so apparently Lodestone is slow in updating my profile.

Maybe I should just let this thread die, since some seem to have taken offense just by me asking the question. But I wanted to say that I did read what everyone wrote, and I appreciate the enlightening dialogue. At least for those of you who bothered to give reasoned responses to an honest question, rather than read things into the question that weren't there.

I assumed [wrongly, apparently] that most people relate to their character the way I relate to my character, as a personal means of playing out a fantasy to be/do things I can't be/do IRL. Of course I don't fight dragons, craft rare armor, ride giant chickens, shoot fireballs, save the world IRL. But in video games, I can pretend to do all those fantastical things and more - and that's what makes RPG's fun for me. Essentially as an elaborate means of playing make believe.

So in my OP, I wanted to understand why - in a game that lets you choose your character's gender - anyone would want to choose to make believe that they were a girl if they were really a guy, or vice versa. Clearly, this thread shows that not everyone approaches RPG's this way. So now I understand better that different people have different reasons, some really deep and others not so deep.

Btw, I'm happily married so my OP wasn't because I fell in love with a girl character who turned out to be a guy Although some people get really invested in their characters and I wouldn't be surprised if such a thing sometimes happens.

So another question, then: In a game that's based on social interaction between people who may only know you by your character, if you play an opposite gender character than you are IRL, how do you handle the...misunderstandings that can result? Or is that not really a problem for you?

This thread kinda makes me want to use my Fantasia to try living online life as a girl just to see what it would be like . Although my wife might think me [even] weird[er] .