Discussions like this are always interesting. 
Ran into an interesting statistic the other day while surfing the virtual waves of the electronic ocean out there.
Appearantly, IRL, around 80% of all cross-dressers are as straight as a straight person could be, except for the cross-dressing thing. Trippy eh?
To expand on what I said earlier, most of my alts are female. I have a couple male characters ((Swamp bug is my fave right now)) but usually I'm playing a female alt. I'm male, 6'2", 200 pounds, dark haired, handsome and I know Tae Kwon Do. Why on earth would I want to be that here too? Seriously. My one male martial artist is a 14 year old angry kid thats part of a male/female Yin/Yang kinda thing. None of my characters are anything like the way I am IRL. ((Actually, some of the personalities are but they are female characters. LOL))
I would rather roleplay something I'm not.
It's far more interesting.
((Don't ya hate it when you spell check something only to press the submit button instead of the preview button? LOL, I know I do.))
For a lark, and just to make fun of the gender bending issue, I made a character using a female body, made it all armor but the armor's creator got trapped inside while he was working on it and -he-'s a guy though the armor was built for a woman. Needless to say he's often cranky since it's uncomfortable and the fact that the external speakers are glitchy as well so it makes him sound like a girl doesn't add to his mood.
OOC:
I hear people say this a lot. When playing, this is what I hear echoed.
Why do guys really want to stare at a guys butt for hours on end?
Why do women really want to stare at gals butt and breasts of a for hours on end?
Face it. Like a few posts ago, 80% of those who cross-gender are straight. We like to see the opposite sex. For the hours we play this game, the guys want to see beautiful scantily clad woman's butt and breast bouncing on the screen and the women want to see a handsome guy's butt and those abs. When sex sells, why would it be so silly or surprising to find out that people cross dress to not only get a tingle but also, do you really know how hard it is to successfully role play the opposite sex? Unless you're married (or divorced ;P I'll be flamed if I forget divorcee's) , it's not real easy to just jump in feet first. But in all honesty, does it matter if people "gender-bender"? Nope. Not to me. If they do it right and can do a good job that's all I care about. I have never cared what the other person on the other side of the screen's real sex is. Why? Because this is a game. It's fun. For me that's all that really matters. Period. End of story.
Of my alts listed below, three are female and two are male. The only reason I go with one gender or the other is character concept. It hasn't been an issue in-game, though when I'm playing Mr. Apol or Ice Ice Rabbi I sometimes startle teammates when I mention that I have to log off since the husband and child are home and it's time to fix dinner.
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For the hours we play this game, the guys want to see beautiful scantily clad woman's butt and breast bouncing on the screen
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Um, for the record, my character's body parts do not "bounce", nor are they "scantily clad". She obviously wears a very comfortable sports bra. What's remarkable is that she can run 100 miles an hour, leap 100 feet into the air and never *once* fall off her stiletto heels. Now *that* is what I call super. (But, oh, let a patrol guard whack her with a truncheon and she's on her butt, but that's a seperate issue... 
)
I was going to post an insightful response until I realized somehow my half and half mix has shifted to all females. Ah well, go Global Chat, 72 more characters slots to spend hours filling...
It's a lesson I learned in EQ a long time ago. If I play a male ogre warrior, I can't hardly buy a group and people don't have much to say to me. If I play a female woodelf ranger, people are knockin each other down to give me stuff and spamming me with invites.
Same with COH, I play a male character and noone wants to know me. I play a female character and people are knocking each other down to group with me and give me influence.
The only thing that cracks me up is when people hit on my female characters. LOL... It's the total internet cliche`. The see this hot little japanese blaster and think "wowsers!" not realizing I'm a 40 y/o irish guy who's 6'5" 290# with a shaved head and tattoos. hehe.
So, I play both, depends on the concept I come up with. I play the character for the character. That's why I have quite a few characters who don't have ANY travel powers. They're naturals, they can't fly, or run faster than Fitness will allow, so what? That's the character. He/She is out of luck until they implement vehicles.
I have an alt I roleplay for fun.
In her description, she's an 8 year old girl, who acquired a magic weapon that makes her the hero she is.
It was a fun day when I was playing her, and met a hero called Mr Viagra. I tried to get him to explain what his name meant, and why he was named after a medicine.
I have one male character, which I created for RP/concept purposes.
I have to agree, I enjoy the view far more! But I can see the question marks rise over others' heads when I say, "I have to go, time to cook dinner for my husband."
Utter befuddlement. 
Together we entered a city of strangers, we made it a city of friends, and we leave it a City of Heroes. - Sweet_Sarah
BOYCOTT NCSoft (on Facebook)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/517513781597443/
Governments have fallen to the power of social media. Gaming companies can too.
I play only female characters, except for the one man I leveled up to 10 and deleted yesterday. It helps me with the character concept most of the time. If I'm playing a sexy, 400 year old sarcastic, pale white woman being protected by a clan of vampires, it helps to like the looks of the character for not loosing the snotty way she speaks. For rambling about dress codes it helps to have the look of a character wearing Armani.
Or, when I'm playing the first openly lesbian superheroine couple on Virtue, both short, both madly in love, rambling about the advantages of the other. I like that.
So I am bending alot. If I'm asked about my own gender, I mostly refuse to answer because it doesn't matter. But strangely, this question never came up. Maybe because I try to stick to roleplayers for grouping.
It never occured to me that all those presents I get offered could be connected to the looks of my character. But as I never accept any influence and automatically decline non-team gifts, that poses no problem.
Heck 
I was on a Skyscrapper, chatting up some lass in Team Speak, about getting a mission....as you do....one thing led to another and we started talking, you know what i mean Got to the point where I asked her her name " David " it replied back!
WHATS ALL THAT ABOUT !!!
After dropping her/it off the side of the building with Recall Friend, I logged.....Thank you Cryptic for the instant exit to desktop.
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Heck I was on a Skyscrapper, chatting up some lass in Team Speak, about getting a mission....as you do....one thing led to another and we started talking, you know what i mean Got to the point where I asked her her name " David " it replied back!
WHATS ALL THAT ABOUT !!!
After dropping her/it off the side of the building with Recall Friend, I logged.....Thank you Cryptic for the instant exit to desktop.
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That's lame... If you enjoy playing with the person, W.T.F. difference does it make what gender they are? Don't be a dick because you made an assumption that turned out wrong.
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Heck I was on a Skyscrapper, chatting up some lass in Team Speak, about getting a mission....as you do....one thing led to another and we started talking, you know what i mean Got to the point where I asked her her name " David " it replied back!
WHATS ALL THAT ABOUT !!!
After dropping her/it off the side of the building with Recall Friend, I logged.....Thank you Cryptic for the instant exit to desktop.
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That's lame... If you enjoy playing with the person, W.T.F. difference does it make what gender they are? Don't be a dick because you made an assumption that turned out wrong.
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The Shemale ricochet (sp) off the building on the way down. Shame you cant die from falling
Why don't you try www.match.com if that's what you are looking for. City of Heroes is a game...not a dating service.
I am a man, and 18 of my 39 characters are female. It means NOTHING. This is a game!! Not a dating service. It is disturbing that someone would flirt, or even become aroused by a character in a video game! This is a game about being a hero and fighting crime, not trying to "hook up". That's sad, that a person's real life is so lacking that they feel they have to look for that stuff in an online game!!
Eh, we quasi-RP a bit in the SG, but its more fun just to read the bios though, little tidbits of the whole drama unfold if you see enough of us and read all the bios.
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The Shemale ricochet (sp) off the building on the way down. Shame you cant die from falling
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Shame you can't get the addresses of dweebs you meet on the internet so that you can show them what happens when you're mean to people for no reason.
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Oddly enough, all the characters I actually play are female, even though I'm a guy. I don't make any secret of it outside the game, but inside the game I'd rather not deal with it. So I'm always careful to keep separation between character and player; when I-the-player have to do something, the character always says "My player has to..." And I'm always careful not to use gender pronouns.
The problem comes when I'm inviting characters from players I know are male, but forget the characters are female. I invariably refer to them as "he" and get the players mad at me. :P
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Ok, if you're a female hero, I WILL refer to you as she/her. If you're a Male hero I will refer to you as he/him. I don't care if you tell me your rl gender. I will still use the proper pronouns for your hero.
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The Shemale ricochet (sp) off the building on the way down. Shame you cant die from falling
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Shame you can't get the addresses of dweebs you meet on the internet so that you can show them what happens when you're mean to people for no reason.
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LOL...
I was just messing with you...Why the HELL would I have REALLY been on top of a Skyscrapper chatting to some female Char.
Personally I dont give a rats [censored].
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"I have to go, time to cook dinner for my husband."
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I would pay to see the look on these peoples faces in real life.
I don't have any male characters myself*, but I could honestly care less what someone plays. It isn't like I make a point of hitting on people in game. Plenty of cute guys at the community college to do THAT. Um.. I mean.. Play what you want and have fun. If someone freaks out on you then that most likely means that they are insecure about something.
Though I must admit that I rarely get hit on. That might be due to the fact that Kitty(my main) wears some of the baggier choices. Though I do remember a comment on Space Kitten. "You are the cutest cat from space I have ever seen." I was in a group that was fighting things to high for me to even have a token amount of usefulness. When I commented the leader replied with that. They said it was alright that I was basicly a leech. So yes.. the fairer sex does tend to get treated diffrently in game. Thankfully I have only seen the good part of it. To this date I haven't been harrased by some horny little brat**.
On a final note... Part of the scantly clad female problem is due to the character creator itself. My latest alt is somewhat indecent thanks to the fact that most of the good choices are.. skin tight and tissue thin. Might as well wear PAINT when you go out to fight crime.
* Being able to look a sexy man on my monitor while I play isn't enough. I am to much of a RPer at heart to just do something without a concept first. Oh well.. no sexy men for me.
** Might be due to the fact that Kitty just looks kind of mean, and Space Kitten just acts.. well.. to spaced out to be worth hitting on.
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I have to agree, I enjoy the view far more! But I can see the question marks rise over others' heads when I say, "I have to go, time to cook dinner for my husband."
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This is very amusing. My main character is female and my secondary is male. I really enjoy roleplaying so when I play Lumin (female), my SG refers to her as female and when I play Neutron-Star, they refer to him as male.
I make a point of interacting with a hero as they present themselves and as not who I think the player is. In most cases (except for a few friends who play), I know the **hero** better than I know the player.
When I first was playing Lumin with a pick-up group, my husband came home so I sent a team message saying that I had to go because he made dinner for me. One team member asked if I was male of female and another team member said, "Lumin is female, it doesn't matter what her player is, does it?" And you know what? It really doesn't.
***
Lumin (D4,50), Caelestes Lux (PB,50), Corpus Operandi (MM,50)
During parts of history, men used to play all parts, male or female. It's a thing of modern times that women actually play women in the arts.
I enjoy role playing a lot. I do play female characters, but I'm a guy. If people ask I will tell them, or if they think something outside of the game is going on I will tell them (now). That being said, there are many aspects to role playign that I enjoy which have nothing to do with gender. The other day I was axplaining how my character (I) got the name "Vicious Killer", both as my "real" name and as a superhero. People got confused and someone asked me if my parents had named my character, to which I replied: Character?
It was all in fun, and since they were confused after this I explained I was just speaking in character/role playing. The person who didn't get it before understood, but still didn't participate. the other person had fun goofing with me in character.
These games are more fun, they are more rich, they are more three dimensional, if you role play. At least, they are for me. If others don't role play, well, no biggie, people get their jollies in different ways.
Infinity:
Ellen, 50 MA/Inv Scr
February Night, 14 Ice/Ice Blstr
Guardian:
SilverSwordmaid, 29 Kat/Rgn Scr
Vicious Killer, 33 Emp/Enrgy Def
Electromagness, 40 Rad/Rad Def
Sense of Humor, 50 Fire/En Tank
Virtue:
Kickfest, 50 MA/SR Scr
Freedom:
Glorious Ending, 29 EM/DA Bru
IMO people hitting on "girls" on an internet game is the real issue, you see, I play male characters but male people playing female characters does not bother me at all, now what I think is disturbing are people looking for a relationship in an online game, text sex (aka the most stupid thing ever) or something like that.
Why not rp? And why can't guys be girls online? I have a character who is female, and I play her as a female - complete with a female personality. The whole intent of the game is to have fun - sometimes I don't want to be me.