I'm male. Otherwise, it'd be Kavayitri, not Kavi. Not that I'd expect you to know that, but now you do
I'm much more comfortable role-playing as a female. My very first rpg character was male but I couldn't play it for more than a couple hours or so. I tried a few various male characters after that but none were satisfying to play, so after a while I completely switched to female ones. The only male character I enjoy playing (which is the one I referred to) is a world of warcraft druid, and that was after trying a female one - I think it was partly because none of the wow female character models were particularly druid-like in my mind.
As regards cross-playing in general, I'd say at least 70% of my friends have cross-played at least once but only two in my experience (myself and a girl I know) do so consistently. Generally, it is for aesthetics, though in the cases of the girl and myself, we both prefer the company of the opposite sex, think them categorically superior, and often identify with them more.
In general, people are more likely to cross-play if they are trying to create a character which is unlike themselves (as a writer or a painter would). Much depends on the level of distance between the actual human player and the character, which is a hard thing to measure. Actors, for instance, literally become the character they are acting, as long as they are acting, thus inspiring abilities (even physical abilities) they do not have when they are "themselves." Thus, I don't think it too much of a stretch to say that when I cross-play, I "am" female, inasmuch as one can be in the game parameters.
So anyway, back to the topic...
- you recommend .hack to everyone, and for those that have seen it, recommend they watch it again
- you refer to "the world" as an existing mmorpg just to confuse people
