Why was Karl attracted to Danny in the game?

Question

In S05E01 of Black Mirror, Danny and his friend Karl play a VR fighting game where one of them is a girl (Karl) and the other is a guy (Danny).

Within just a few minutes of their second time playing, Karl comes on to Danny and they end up having sex a bunch. When Karl first explained the VR game mechanics, he says that all the emotions, pain and feelings are experienced, but IIRC he never mentions anything about the psychology of the characters (i.e., since Karl is a female then he's attracted to males in-game)...

Given this, why would Karl have been attracted to Danny's male character? All throughout the episode Karl sleeps exclusively with women and is never shown being attracted to males. Additionally, when they decide to kiss each other towards the end of the episode Karl says he didn't "feel anything".

So, why/how would Karl have been attracted to Danny's male in-game character?

Answer 1

It seems to me that Karl just had developed some attraction for Danny in real life, and the game was just an easy way to bring his friend into it. Since they always play with the same characters, perhaps that was a hint of Karl's sexuality.

We only see on screen a small part of their lives, who knows what else Karl has been through during the 11 years gap in their friendship...

At Danny's next birthday, Theo invites Karl for dinner as a surprise. Karl reveals to Danny that he has been unable to recreate the feelings with other players as he had with Danny.

Which further reinforces this idea.