Coming out of the closet...

Confession is good for the soul, they say. So here goes. I'm not a woman, I just play one in Second Life. Until now. Say goodbye to gorgeous, 30-something, white-haired Epy, and hello to handsome, aging, gray-haired Epo.

Questions arise: why did I use a female AV for so long, and why have I decided to reveal my RL gender. Every day, every minute, everything we do (or don't do) effects our future. Every now and then Fate intervenes and offers us a wild card to play (or not). When I joined SL, I had no idea I would still be here almost two years later. Not because I thought my interest would wane, but because I doubted that Linden Lab would hold up under the pressure of explosive growth. For this reason I never went Premium, preferring to rent rather than purchase land.

But back to the questions. Why did I chose a female AV? Blame it on Lara Croft, heroine of Tomb Raider. This third-person action game was (I believe) the first computer game to have a woman as the principal character. I quickly grew accustomed to watching a female character perform the actions that I controlled. So when I joined SL, and was given the opportunity to select the gender of my AV, I had no hesitation in choosing female. So did a lot of other guys.

And I gotta say, it's been fun. For starters, speaking as a straight guy, I'd rather watch a woman walk ahead of me, than a man. Thank goodness for the sexy walk animation! Suddenly I had a whole new wardrobe to experiment with, and I discovered that I had no difficulty in selecting which lingerie to wear, which shoes went with which outfit, and how I wanted my hair and make-up to look.

But the minute Epy stepped out to explore the world, I experienced male-female relationships from a whole different perspective. Guys would hit on me! "Hey Babe", "Hi Doll". I had become a sex object! So for those early months when she explored SL's most popular activity, she became a lesbian. But all that was before I became consumed with building shoes. But being a woman stuck. Epy made friends as a woman, but when she started exchanging RL information with others, I always felt deceitful. I've confessed my RL identity to a few close friends, but I'm tired of the deception, and that's why I've come out of closet. From now on, Epo will appear as a guy. Get used to it. And all those gorgeous outfits? I've transferred all I could to one of my alts - a gorgeous, white-haired, 30-something woman.

One last thing: I don't want to hear from anyone complaining that I tricked them by appearing as a woman. Get over it. Ain't nobody here looks like their AV; that's the advantage of this place: we can and should be anyone we want.