I have played a lot of MMORPGs (Massively mutiplayer online roleplaying games.) and have always played as a female character. Yes, I used the "I'd rather watch Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft rather than Arnie Schwarzenegger as Conan the Barbarian hour after hour," as justification but, it should come as no surprise, the reality is more complex than that. The simplest explanation is that, in game, I can convincingly express a feminine persona though a beautiful female character. Something I could never do in real life. This bit from my journal may shed some light:
[In game] Eva is me. She is that feminine part of myself... that happy, friendly, carefree, innocent expression of myself that I keep so effectively bottled up inside. ...she is popular, well liked, makes friends easily, is sought after, people love being around her. She is, in many ways, all the things I am not; and yet she is me, or rather, comes from within me. Is it any wonder I want to spend my time being her?
