Gender IDS in the games
In the more lighthearted spaces on the net, people can play with gender identities in unusual and fanciful ways. MUDs, for example, often allow wide latitude in the choice of a gender, and might include many besides male and female. The choice affects the pronouns that are used as the MUD reports your actions and words. For example, a character named Bellows who chooses the "Spivak" gender would be assigned e/em rather than he/him or she/her, and someone who chose a plural gender (swarm of bees?) would be assigned they/them.
Even though MUDs allow these fantastical gender choices, not many people use them, emphasizing again how important gender is and how prominent it may be as part of our online personas. For example, GammaMOO had 8,541 characters in 1994; 21% were female, and 23% were neuter. The latter were mostly guests who had not yet learned how to set their gender, since neuter is the default. Of the remaining 56% almost all were male. Even when people try to maintain a gender-neutral or gender-deviant persona, they are usually questioned relentlessly about their true gender and often reveal it.
On some of the graphical metaworlds, latitude about fantasy genders vanished almost entirely. In WorldsAway, for example, you choose a character that must be either male or female. Admittedly, you can create a head for your character that represents an animal or inanimate object, and many people go around without heads at all - generally because they foolishly removed it and the head was stolen by bandits. But your avatar's body is decidedly male or female.
Eddie Geoghegan, an Irish player who migrated from the online chats known as CB (for citizen's band) into the graphical WorldsAway, expressed his delight that he could now use his favorite nickname, Madra Rua, despite its feminine sound, because gender is graphically displayed:
Madra Rua has been a citizen of Phantasus since November 1995. I came to WorldsAway from CB which I was starting to find a somewhat hostile environment. Madra Rua is, in fact, the Irish phrase for "Fox", literally meaning "red haired dog". It had been my CB/handle for a while, but without the benefit of graphics, people seemed to assume that I was female, so I gave up on it. I was delighted to be able to use it again when I discovered WA.186
Another graphical gaming world called Britannia lets players choose between just the two genders as well, though it also offers a nod to one other aspect of physical appearance by allowing characters to adjust their skin tone. Unfortunately, the tones vary from a muddled gray to an unnatural pink, so the attempt to accommodate diversity in skin color is more humorous than meaningful.