Both the writer and the action, yes indeed

What sex do you pick when you role-play? MSNBC takes a brief look at why men and women choose to play male or female characters in games.

One of the "gal gamers" (is this really the term du jour?) sums it up nicely:

Forty-year-old gamer Laurie Stier of Somerset, N.J., says role playing and gender-bending is nothing new — actors and authors have been doing it for centuries, and video games are just the latest way to play a role.

"I mean, how many times has Peter Pan been played as a woman?" she asked. "With role-playing, we are both the writer and the action."

This is what we've been saying about online relationships and sex for years, too – it's a shared story in which you are author, character and audience all at once.