Under all that armor, we're all still human, probably.

I would like to start today with what my avatars in World of Warcraft were.
Johnlocke- eventually was my main, 80 troll shaman. Male
Whowhatwhen- Level 61 Blood elf Paladin. Female-OK LET ME EXPLAIN MYSELF

When me and my brother started playing Horde, we immediately thought "wow, all these races look tragic, why would we play any of them?" We eventually warmed up to their appearances, but the first thing we thought was "Man those blood elf females are the only attractive thing the Horde has."
Also, I wanted to be a paladin and the males looked like sissies.
Me and John had arguments over which one of our avatars was hotter, it was kind of funny looking back on it. We did eventually start getting hit on, and it got really weird really quickly.

But I felt much like myself when playing that troll, I'm not sure why. I'm sure not only avatar creation goes into subliminal description of the player beneath, classes matter too. A warrior or Paladin is going to have heavy armor, be the tough guy that takes all the hits. The mages want to seem intelligent, and the damage dealers want to be the ones that matter. The healers are the benevolent ones that would rather help their allies than fight.
That's what I think anyways.

What originally had me hooked on shammy was dual wielding. Anytime anyone forgoes a shield in favor of another club or axe to beat enemies down with, you know that guy means business. I wanted to be a guy that meant business.
I found myself in a weird support role, dropping totems to increase the party's stats, along with my own. I was a jack of all trades, using magic, support abilities, healing and physical strength all with equal prowess. I helped people out in a party and could take care of myself on my own. I was very well rounded, and that may have been a projection of what I wanted to be.

I'll be honest, I miss those guys a bit.
But I digress, a little anyways.

in the realm of other games combat oriented or otherwise, avatars serve to break barriers and take out the social aspect of physical appearance. People all look how they would like to be seen, and that's how prejudices are broken. We're blind to color and appearances, and can all just communicate on level ground with similar interests and goals. I'd argue that gamers are more social than the average person because of this.  Sure, they may be less interactive with people in the real world, but there are more people on the virtual realm they can relate to. They can even create real friendships in the virtual world, support each other and help get through things in the real world; and they don't even know what the other looks like. Some people create guilds and linkshells and clans for the sole purpose of socialization.