I don't consider my gaming avatar as some kind of "me".

It is a paperdoll, a Barbie that I prance around in a game. A marker, the Monopoly hat.

I don't REALLY assume the identity of an female elven bard in EQ2.

So if I play the undead, I must want someone to kill me. Stupid premise - its a just a game.

I'd like to see a poll that asks how many MMO players think that the other players they interact with, are actually the same sex as the character they're playing. 

I've been playing MMO's for a long time, and I've always assumed that when I see a female character, there is a guy at the keyboard.

This has changed a bit lately with the advent of built in voice chat in games now. Kinda disconcerting to team with a hot nightelf babe with the voice of Gomer Pyle! :)

and they both have that Mitchell and Webb look?

A mate of mine created an Everquest character of a long-legged, blonde haired, elven female.
The amount of gifts and help he got was amazing.
My next character was a girl.

Hey it's a little bit sad, but what about the people who respond to it?

Accually, if you believe the rumours, some games make you wanna change your gender.

A long standing rumour in CO2 is dat a female character will lvl faster then a male character.

I am a guy who played a female character to get free stuff. Of course, that was back in the days of MUD. Now-a-days, I tell myself it is because I'd rather stare at the backside of a female toon than a male one.
The people that I actually know and interact with online know that I am a guy in real life so it really affords me no advantage other than the eye-candy.

If you had the pleasure of sitting for hours on end and watching the character on screen jump, fly, smite mighty enemies and look pleasant for photo-ops, wouldn't you rather make a character that you wouldn't mind looking at for countless hours on end? 

The majority of people make characters that they find attractive, why would it be surprising they would make characters of an opposite sex?

Second of all, it'd be interesting to see the numbers differentiating gamers who seriously roleplay from those who play the game like an action game. The difference being the roleplayers actively think of themselves as the character, while the action players disassociate themselves from the character. It's like watching an action movie and you know you're not the hero, but rather it's someone else's story being told.

Perhaps these players just want a female avatar, while these games are called MMRPGs, there isn't much RPG going on. Just because you play a female looking char doesn't mean you pretend to be female. 

As soon as these transsexuals get on voice comms it is going to be rather obvious and who doesn't use voice comms these days?