Dude*, that reminds me of Guild Wars. I always played girls in GW b/c I didn't have a tank and you were actually harder to click on if you were short and the shortest person was a girl. So I had two girl main characters. With my ranger, I could actually hide inside of my bear, making it impossible to click me. So you had to tab through the whole team to select me. Good times. But completely irrelevant.

What is relevant is that in my thriving guild, we had a few stand-out players (me not being one of them -- I relied on hiding inside of my bear. That's not exactly "skill."). And they would lead other players through really tough areas or teach us good strategies.

My guild leader was a guy down the road. He was maybe 28-30 years old. I was in my low-mid 20s (23, 24ish) and most of the guys I played with were 20-40 years old, with an occasional teenager. It was amazing how different the skills were of those who were young and those who were old. The 30-year-old guys were far better at the game than the 16-year-olds, which was the opposite of what I'd expect.

One day, our guild leader buys a Teamspeak server. And this day happens to be a guided tour through some horrible underworld or something. And our tour-guide is a well-known super-awesome take-down-a-whole-guild-on-his-own badass.

Badass 10 year old, I should say. Or maybe 11. Definitely not puberty yet. I was shocked to know that one of my hero players was a teeny tiny kid. We picked on him and he held up real well. "Shut up or I'll leave you to die," would be things he'd say. And he had the power, so we did. :)

It was one of my first great lessons of the Internet being the great equalizer. Ender's Game touches on it with Valentine an Peter using it to become president of the world as a child, but it's sort of true. You can be only your actions on the Internet and nothing else. No rotted tooth, bad-hair-day, lazy-eye or fungal infection matters.

I don't blame women for being silent, but I wish they weren't. If there really are that many of them out there, I'd say "Speak!" Pretty much every system and game has a mute button now. Mute the idiots and they'll get the point.

But also, finding a date is hard when you're a WoW addict. So, you know, lead them on and then maybe let them drive to "your" doorstep in Iqaluit, and then he'll get the point that maybe he needs to ask girls he knows IRL on dates.

*Yep. On purpose.

I'm pretty open about the fact that I'm a woman, so there hasn't been a lot of confusion so far. Of course, in the past I also tended to visit forums that had mostly female users. If someone addresses me as a he, I will often point it out, unless it doesn't feel relevant at all (and, as has been mentioned before, if I think I'll likely not talk with that person again). Like crewdroog mentioned, I have this little feminist voice that won't shut up, and I don't want it to either. It's free to stay, especially since so many women these days appear to think that being a feminist is equal to hating men and being evil in general. Well, it's not.

And I've had the creepy flirting thing in MMO's as well. Random guys who start complimenting your avatar and then ask questions about what you are like in real life.

I'm still lurking about, poking my head in the threads that aren't giveaways, hashtag drama or plain old neckbearding--threads like these! :)

I have been managing a nascent community of my own and it keeps me rather busy when I am online.

I used to think the creepy guy thing in games was an exaggerated stereotype... Until I started grouping with real life female friends. Its ridiculous how donning a dress can turn some weirdos into even weirdo weirdos. Just for fun, I created a female toon to further see what all the fuss was about and I can clearly see the harassment level increase when I'm on a female toon. Although, the most harassment I ever get is from being logged on simply as a healer. People have no shame in begging for heals ;)

To be fair, I've seen some creepy girls flirt at anyone they knew for sure was a guy... but its been very rare in comparison.

What cracks me up is the number of guys I know that roll female toons. (which also goes back to the gender confusion based on avatar/name). If these kids had any clue... ;)

This. I had one pretty funny (in some ways, sad in others) conversation with this guy who started flirting with me, only to suddenly ask: you ARE a girl, right? Would have been hilarious if I'd been a guy.

Well, if someone called me "her" I would correct him or her. Not because of "How dare you call me that!" but quite simply because I am a male.

lol

Still working on the huge cushions, tribute and tent part.