Where Did All The Girls Go?

[MrMyth]

I think there are some small grains of truth in the blog post, but also a lot of assumptions that aren't consistently true across the board. Outsider's post hits on a lot more relevant reasons - some groups just aren't welcoming to women.

Currently, both my gaming groups are about 1/3 female. One of them has a female DM. The LFR night at the locale store has several regular female gamers, most of which regularly DM. Of them, some get more into the RP elements of the game, but others are eager to just dive into the hack-and-slash of things.

Here's the thing. Your conclusion is that "the shift towards more mechanical and procedural tabletop RPGs has ‘closed the door’ to many potential female players."

It would follow, then, that the current number of female gamers must be much smaller than how many used to game back in the day, right? Yet I don't sense that is the case. I think the game has become more welcoming in many ways, and imagine the number has grown - perhaps not by leaps and bounds, but certainly enough for your statement to just not hold true.

If you have evidence to the contrary, of course, by all means present it.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

I think the reasons there are not a greater number of females playing RPGs are myriad and trying to "solve the problem" is complicated. The one thing I think is missing from the OPs blog is: Societal perception.

The fact is, RPGs are still seen as a highly-geeky thing that as a kid is likely to get you stuffed into a locker at school. In my experience, more boys are willing to let their geek flag fly than girls. Is that because there are more boys interested in geek things are so can feel more comfortable among "their own kind?" Is it because girls have more peer-pressure to fit in to the larger societal vision or normalcy? Is it because the media often portrays geek boys as acceptable in a quirky, but endearing way, but rarely depicts geek girls at all?

From another angle, why don't RPGs appeal to "jocks" more? Many of the arguments in the blog fall apart when it comes to boys who are jocks, except for the idea of perception.

 

[Bullgrit]

My first thought when someone brings up a lack of females in playing RPGs is: So?

I've got no problem with women being in my RPG group/game. But if women, in general, aren't as intereted in RPGs, so what?

Does anyone care that there aren't many men quilters, scrapbookers, Twilight fans, etc.?

If a woman wants in on my game (and I've had some in my games), I'm all like, "Great, we play Thursday nights. Come on in."

But if I look around my table and see just six guys sitting there, I don't think, "Gee, something's missing."

Bullgrit

 

[D'karr]

But if I look around my table and see just six guys sitting there, I don't think, "Gee, something's missing."

Bullgrit

Yep, same here. I have several games going on and I organize some of the local RPGA games. For my home campaign we have 3 females, because we play with married couples. For my other home campaign we have one female. And for the local gamedays we have a complete assortment. Some tables will have more "girls" than not.

What I have found across the board is that they just want to play and have fun, much like the guys. Fancy that...

 

[outsider]

I take issue with generalisations about the kind of game women like to play because in my experience they're never wholly true. Some women may match those statements; certainly not all.

There's nothing wrong with a hobby being dominated by one gender, just so long as the other gender is welcomed as equals.

These are two very important points, and they are why I disagree strongly with the OP. You can't say with any accuracy that an entire gender wants less mechanically complex games. It is both a ridiculous generalisation, and it most certainly does not treat women as equals.

The entire blog post reminds me of the talking Barbie from the early 90s that would say "Math class is tough".

 

[Set]

It might be useful to look at what games like Vampire, or MMOs like Warcraft and EQ2 and whatnot, bring to the table, that attracts larger percentages of women as players.

I'd be tempted to say that the non-combat focus on Vampire (while you need to fight stuff to gain levels in D&D, games like Vampire and GURPS assign points at the end of every session, fight or no fight, and fighting can be pretty brutal), but most of the women I've played with have been hack and slash nuts, even more eager to wade into a fight than the male players. So that preconception seems to fly in the face of my personal experience.

For MMOs, I'd be inclined to assume that it's the rich quest plotlines, and chains of missions with various named NPCs, who may be stuck reciting scripts, but still turn into 'familiar faces' after a time. I've noticed a ton of male players obsessively doing quests to 'increase their quest count' or 'for the XP' or 'to earn this achievement' or to 'get the reward,' but it seems that the questers who seem to be most interested in just following the storylines are the ladies. (On the other hand, I've run into plenty of male players who turn off XP so that they can 'experience more content,' without 'leveling too fast,' which boggles even my compleatist mind at times, although it makes more and more sense as I get older and realize that I have seventy characters in the lower levels, and only one or two at the high levels, and tend to delete characters in the mid-levels for inane reasons so that I can start over...)

 

[outsider]

For MMOs, I'd be inclined to assume that it's the rich quest plotlines, and chains of missions with various named NPCs, who may be stuck reciting scripts, but still turn into 'familiar faces' after a time.

When I talk with female WoW players about WoW, the aspect that they tend to focus most on is the teamwork(whether raiding or guilds in general). Whether that applies to all women or even female WoW players in general, I don't know.

Men need to stop making assumptions about what women want, and they need to stop making decisions based on those assumptions. It is extremely paternalistic. If you want more women involved, you need to ask women why they aren't involved and what would make them get involved.

 

[ExploderWizard]

Men need to stop making assumptions about what women want, and they need to stop making decisions based on those assumptions. It is extremely paternalistic. If you want more women involved, you need to ask women why they aren't involved and what would make them get involved.

I refute this idea on the grounds that it is too simple and makes too much sense.

If the nerd crowd could communicate clearly and effectively with women do you think this topic would even exist?

 

[Nagol]

I refute this idea on the grounds that it is too simple and makes too much sense.

If the nerd crowd could communicate clearly and effectively with women do you think this topic would even exist?

Or even if the crowd would still be considered nerds?

 

[Festivus]

I can't recall a gaming group that didn't have at least one, usually two or more females in recent times. Sure 25 years ago it was different, but now... many women play in my gaming groups. I had a 4E home game that was 4 females and 2 males.