"Just who is it I see before me on my screen? Is it him, or is it me? What real difference could it possibly make?" Mark Wallace discusses player-to-avatar relationships.

John Tynes laments the loss of roleplaying when the face-to-face roleplaying games were converted to modern CRPGs. Join The Contrarian as he contrasts these worlds, and looks at the players trying to force it back into MMOGs.

"As I psychoanalyze myself, I'd have to say my first reason for switching gender isn't to become a woman, but to not be myself. I want to take a break from myself - and playing a girl puts me in far more neutral territory." Chris Dahlen explains why he prefers female avatars.

Though descended from tabletop games, CRPGs borrowed from the settings and mechanics much more successfully than they captured the spirit. Will Hindmarch, a self-professed RPG snob, discusses his feelings on this, and how his experience in World of Warcraft has affected them.

"When people are so far immersed in a story, everything the story touches develops meaning." Nova Barlow gives us a behind-the-scenes look at how players react to events, and shares some of the knowledge she gained while creating them.

Like any form of gaming, RPGs have odd conventions that only gamers know. John Walker decided to test these conventions on the streets of Bath, England, and provides some very entertaining results.

"You can't tell your story, no matter what it is, without others to listen. What's wrong with having a slightly off-kilt story to share?" Joe Blancato tels us of his past roleplaying experiences.