It's true: The experience was eye-opening to me, and that was what--13 years ago? Actually longer, now that I think about it, since I started playing at release in 2004 (also on female characters).

And you're right, I think it's a valuable experience that has to be seen to be believed. It's easy for me to post about it here, but it's difficult to convey how annoying it was (at best). Not simply from borderline sexual harassment either. There was, at the time, an undercurrent of harassing accusation that any dude playing a female character clearly had to be "gay." Looking back on it, this whole idiotic and immature belief was laughable, because all the gay guys we had in our guild played male characters. They also gave me a hard time for being hit on with some regularity, so at least there was some levity among our group to make light of an otherwise sad and disgraceful situation.

Unfortunately, that's not the only circumstance I can remember. There's easily half a dozen others varying from odd to outright creeper material that stand out, though not as much as the one I shared above. I figure if it happened to me that frequently, it's absolutely happening to women whom other players know are women MUCH more often. It wasn't just limited to long term encounters, either. Just standing around waiting for something as a female character in the early days of the game sometimes painted me as a potential target.

A friend of mine who also played female characters--and who moonlighted as a stand-up comedian--had similar experiences, but his dialog was absolutely hilarious to watch.