Times have changed since my day, but when I started out playing MMOs for the first time, I was probably 20 or so. It was weird to me to see elves and dwarves on the character selection screen. I didn't understand them. Didn't understand how to even play them. They obviously came with a ton of lore behind them and I was intimidated. It was much easier to start with a human (or barbarian, actually). Safe, boring, sure, but it was familiar and easier to identify with. It took a while before I got accustomed to the game and tried out different races. Elves were the next step since they were still closer to humans. And then finally I tried out a gnome. I really started to get into their lore and their culture. There was definitely an attitude shift when I played with others. I'd get accused of not actually being a female player. The amount of random cyber-gropings I'd get dropped off dramatically, woo. However, it was like I discovered a secret club. Fellow gnome players stopped in their travels and greeted each other. There was such warmth and genuineness, much like what we see in this thread. This began my life-long love for dwarves, gnomes and all creatures small.
When I see disparaging comments about dwarves, particularly with the females, I just remember how odd they seemed to me at the start, too. Back when we played gnomes, my husband told me that he was contacted in the game by another player. This person was a human character and was waiting on a boat to cross continents. And in the middle of the ocean was an small island with a lone shack and a short pier. On it was my husband's gnome, just standing there and fishing, and enjoying himself. That player said that scene left such an impression on him that he created his own gnome that day. I've seen the artist Aimo get some flack for her dwarf + Alistair pairing, but I've seen a lot more comments from players saying that they were inspired to create their own dwarves because of her.
Remember that even though there are a handful of thoughtless comments, there is also a much wider, invisible audience that is watching and reading along. Sharing why we love the characters we love goes much farther than snarking back. I hope that makes sense. Just saying don't sweat the small stuff. (Pun not intended!) 
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. Where's that "Oh, god honey no," meme. I would still play Dragon age if they did a human only story(my party would consist of non-humans), but I wouldn't be much into it, unless they had family like Hawke. I could have easily seen a dwarven family running away from the blight. The only problem would had been was... we wouldn't have direct ties into the templar/mages problem. I saw the templar/mages problem as everyone problem, though. 
