Bigboy said:
Why would anyone deny having a penis? It's like the trump card for life.
Because most MMOers are geeky guys who will bend over and do anything in game for a little female attention, not even talking cyber here, not even talking flirt either, just by virtue of having a female character most players will assume that the human in control is also female.
This issue is reinforced by the believe of teenagers that playing a female toon in an MMO makes you gay (not gay as in ghey, or ghay, or however people mutilate it, but as in sexual orientation gay). Those guys' biggest fear is a highschool locker room conversation that goes like this:
"dude, did you rock last night in FFXI?"
"totally dude, my character is just wtfpwning everything!"
"cool man, so awesome, you rock, who did you name your character after?"
"..."
"you know, like a WWF guy or something, or like Chuck Norris or so?"
"well ..."
"wait ..., wait ..., I know ...., you named him after the xmen dude, the one with the blades!"
"actually ..."
"no no, not the one with the blades, the other one, hulk or whatever his name was"
"yeah, well, her name is Bianca"
"???"
"?"
"dude?"
"yeah?"
"your characters name is .... Bianca?"
"yeah dude, she is totally cool, this hume monk and she really tears the shit up man, woot!"
"eh ..., dude?"
"hm?"
"get the fuck out of this locker room you fucking gay bitch, go somewhere else to bum fuck someone, not fucking in here, omfg I can't believe it, just wait till I tell <insert plastics here> about this, fucking fag!"
Way back in the days of the tunnel in EQ, my mule was a barbarian female, not unattractive by low-polygon-count standards. Named her 'Tunguska', and was wheeling and dealing in the tunnel. I swear, I never said to anyone that I was a guy, I always admitted when asked that I was a guy, but in years of being at the tunnel, I only got asked a few times. I never flirted with anyone, all I did was buy and sell, and it was good.
me: "Hey, I saw your are selling <insert item here>, do you still have it?"
he: "sure, you need it?"
me: "awesome, am I happy that I finally found it, been looking forever and a day for it, saw one a week ago but the guy had already sold it by the time I send him a tell"
he: "ah, well, I have one, 2,000 plat"
me: no response
he (after a while): you there?
me: "yeah, sorry, had to look at my notes to see whether I have that much across all my characters, and I am sorry, but I don't, thanks for the offer though"
he: "well, how much do you have?"
me: "thanks, but really, I don't have nearly enough, and I don't want to shaft you, you are better off to sell to someone who will pay 2l for it, it's worth it, it's a good item"
he: "yeah, but I just want to get out of this fucking tunnel, so how much do you have"
me: "I have 750 on me, and I can get 50 from another character, will be a few minutes to run her here"
he: "750 will work, where are you at?"
me: "T2"
<the end>
Trade was done, I checked for him to leave the zone, and sold the item for 2,500 to 3,000 using the same approach as above just reversed, a la "I really don't want to sell, it's so hard to find, I really need the cash for something else though".
In the end, did I lie? I prefer to call it social engineering, but regardless, I certainly never deceived anyone about my real gender. It's odd, I had no moral problems suckering someone with a sad story, but making someone believe I am female in real life didn't seem right to me (maybe because I didn't want to hear anything close to "oh yeah baby, I am mounting your and riding you hard with my 10 inch cock").
Imagine the same conversation that took place in the tunnel, except instead of 'Tunguska' the character would have been a burly male barbarian named 'Bruno". After Bruno saying he doesn't have that much, the majority of players would have said something along the lines of "oh ok, well maybe next time, good luck to you!".
Jesus this post got long, guess that tells you how my day at work is going, lol.