The gender selection process of the game influences a player's gender decision for his character and the ability to perceive the true sex of that player.
Many people in massively multiplayer online gaming environments are not concerned with the true sex of their fellow players. These players are focused on immersion into a fantasy world and are oftentimes referred to as "staying in character". When a player stays in character it is more difficult to accurately judge their sex. They try to free themselves from the real world and act exclusively based on the online reality. For many players this means fully assuming the role of the opposite sex.
The gender of a player in role playing games by many definitions should be irrelevant, but once discovered the gender of a player, specifically females, will greatly influence the game play. In first person shooter games, such as the Wolfenstein and Quake series by Id, many women have experienced harassment. From the Psycho Male Slayer clan, Georgiana writes "I've been called a "fucking cunt", kicked off of/banned from servers just for being female and kicking butt sometimes I do believe that with the PMS- in front of our names, it does give the losers even more of a "reason" to attack us. It's like it seriously hurts their feelings when they get fragged by a female, and they feel that their only means of defense left is to spew out vulgarities" (gamegirlz.com). This experience is not an isolated one. Many women share similar experiences where they have been solicited for sex or pornographic photos. Once found to be a female not all women had displeasurable experiences. Across all game genres women say that they receive more attention that their corresponding male players. One gamer girl states, "Guys all the sudden want to know your hair color, your opinions and stuff - strange thing is, before my gender was known they really couldn't have cared less.
