I think the behaviors Dave'sWife describes are typical of individuals who've had considerable exposure to role-playing games like Dungeons and Dragons. To them, the Internet is a super-sized gaming place where anonymity allows them to push the role-playing concept to extremes.

I don't believe the typical Mudcatter is prone to those behaviors because most of us have not spent hours and hours actively pretending to be someone else. We don't easily make the shift from real self to persona.

Oh, there have been a few infamous role players around here, but for most of us the face we show on the Mudcat is the same one we wear every day. That doesn't necessarily mean we're more mature than our role-playing younger-generational counterparts, only that we tend to express our immaturity in different ways.