Being a roleplayer has its disadvantages. Sometimes people you communicate with virtually won’t be able to tell which is the “real you” and which is a persona, confused such as they are with the variety of characters I might play that they’re familiar with. One time I created a ‘me’ character in Second Life that was… a bit more like me, but without the characterizing layering; that was a mistake. In spite of the rules we’d set up, someone got bent out of shape with their emotional commitment (and my own seeming lack thereof), and I lost a good friend. Sigh. Alas, humanity; you are a difficult thing.

Since I’m an evil person I once handcrafted a female profile photo and posted on a dating site, just to see what sort of responses I received. By intent I included a lot of the things I’m interested in myself in the profile, shaping her as I would a roleplaying character. Needless to say, the response was overwhelming… and, well, depressing. Out of over 30 solicitations in 24 hours, one, ONE, person commented on something in the profile. Men, Bah. My ‘favorite’: “hi how r u”. That’s it. I’m like.. geez.. I can use complete sentences and fairly proper punctuation in my simulated profile; can’t you!?! Creating a similar profile as a man elicited… nothing. Nada. Zip. Double sigh. Being a geek really sucks sometimes.