Should girls be allowed to play fighter characters

[Zappo]

Why do I have this sinking feeling that there's a lot of wasted 1's and 0's on a hard-disk somewhere ?

Eh, who cares. Disks are cheap nowadays. The thread is worth it just because of the fun I get from watching people getting confused wondering whether they are talking about player gender or character gender.

 

[mmu1]

When training is nearly equal, this is true.

Speaking as the high school distance runner that weighed in at 135 for quite a while, I will tell you that I could easily outpack many of the 6'+ 200+lb football players with a 70lb pack on my back. Not to knock on football players, but if you want to claim any sort of endurance, you have to train for it.

Still, what does this have to do with Fantasy? Let the player play any sort of PC he or she wants. If there is an in-game restriction on a PC gender/class combo, fine.

It doesn't have anything to do with fantasy. Going off-topic is what internet message boards are all about.

And of course you'd want to assume equal training - that's how they generally do it in the military.

 

[Djeta Thernadier]

LOLOLOL!!!!!!!1!!1

I love this. "...but in case it is..." lolololololololol!!!!!1

Why are so many people just dying to believe crap like this is true?

I've got about half-a-dozen young, female .alts all over the net and it doesn't matter what random, inane rubbish I post (certainly as bad as Hot_Lil_Witch's shtick), the only boards who are ever fooled are the geek topic boards - supposedly the smartest people in the universe.

lol

I'm not really sure what you are getting at?

Maybe Lil Witch is not a real poster. So what?

I am a real poster and I was once not "allowed" to join a gaming group because I am female. So I don't find her (or his if it's a guy posing the question) OP to be that far off. The OP is a perfectly legit concern of some female gamers. Lucky for me I found a real gaming group. And those guys who wouldn't let me play are the ones who lost out on having another player in their group.

We get new posters here every day, as with another message board I frequent (which is not a geek topic, unless you consider travel planning to be geeky). There was a time when EVERYONE here had 2 posts. Some people lurk forever and don't post until they have a serious concern.

I'm not 100% sure if Lil Witch is a real person or not, or just a troll trying to rile people. But whatever the OP was intended to do, I think it started a very interesting discussion, not to mention has spawned a few other gender related topics. This stuff is very interesting to those of us who are interested in gaming as it pertains to sociology.

No one ever said gamers were the smartest people in the universe (hmmm, I think there are threads about that somewhere). And your notion that "geeks" would be fooled by a female post that wasn't real doesn't really mean they are stupid...maybe it means we're just more trusting and willing to help out a fellow gamer in need of advice.

Gender doesn't really have much to do with it.

And if you have a fetish for posting on message boards as a woman when you are in fact a man, that's your right , I guess, if it gives you some sort of deranged pleasure. But I personally don't get it?? Is that actually....fun...for you?

 

[JRRNeiklot]

I take it the gist of this thread is that women shouldn't play fighters because thet are more suited to charming their way through encounters than hacking?

Bull. I've had the pleasure to game with several women and every single one of them was more blood thirsty than any of the guys. They sometimes tirtured npcs in ways that made the rest of us cringe. Now all women are not like that, certainly, but in my experience (with a somewhat small sample size, I admit) women tend toward the martial classes more than men.

They should of course, be allowed to play any class a guy can, though.

 

[Kemrain]

Am I the only one who sometimes finds it mildly disturbing, or at least suspension-of-disbelief undoing, when people play characters not of their own gender?

As off topic as the rest of the thread..
I can't speak for everyone, but in the groups I've played with, every one had men playing female characters, and it wasn't disturbing either to the players or the game. In the game I'm playing in right now, the whole party is female, and at least half the group is in posession of a Y chromosome. No one's disturbed, bothered, or distracted by males playing females in any of the circles I've gamed in, and no one even bats an eye when someone speaks more softly, changes intination, or alters pitch for a female character's voice, as long as they don't try to emulate Minnie Mouse. I like to think we're a pretty progressive group, but I'm suprised someone would be disturbed by a man playing a woman.

Gender rolls were made to be blurred, crossed, or ignored intirely!

- Kemrain the Ambiguous.

And, back on topic, I do hope this thread started as a troll. It pains me to think that someone could be so ignorant and intolerant. Got an in-game reason for it, great; otherwise, take a hike.

 

[Mystery Man]

Everybody knows boys are better than girls!

 

[diaglo]

Help is that true?

it is true for the Campaign your DM is running.

in the standard rules or those of other DMs. no, it isn't true.

 

[Rackhir]

Maybe Lil Witch is not a real poster. So what?

I am a real poster and I was once not "allowed" to join a gaming group because I am female. So I don't find her (or his if it's a guy posing the question) OP to be that far off. The OP is a perfectly legit concern of some female gamers. Lucky for me I found a real gaming group. And those guys who wouldn't let me play are the ones who lost out on having another player in their group.
:

I'm all for continuing interesting posts on exactly why the israeli military doesn't employ women in front line combat positions or something similar, but how many posts do we really need saying that "Yeah, you can play fighter characters, it's a stupid dark ages opinion not to."

People, if you have something interesting to add to the discusion, please keep posting. If all you have to add is yet another "Yycpfciasdaont", post. Then we get the idea.

 

[Trainz]

lil_witch,

Your DM cannot forbid you from playing any class that he allows male players to play.

It's OK to play a fighter.

 

[Majere]

As someone who has spent a large part of my time in contact with the military I can say that the best reason for women not to be infantry has nothing to do with women and everything to do with humans as a social whole. Incidentally I believe it provides an argument against homosexuals in the army to a lesser or greater extent.

Its is a simple and inescapable fact that when you birng men and women into contact there will be "relations". Even if it is agains the rules of the army this can and will happen.
And once it does your whole army is comprimised.

It is that much harder for a soldier to see a member of his unit kille if that member was his lover.
Its is a fact that men will goto a woman in distress, in combat, such emotional thinking may end up killing the whole unit.
Imagine a soldier X is in relations with a soldier Y and soldier Y cheats on solider X with soldier Z. Clearly X and Z are NOT going to be able to fight together, hell, they might just kill each other instead of the army.
Situations like this are simply limitless, not to mention all the trust issues that come with suspicions of nepotism if there were relations between soldiers of differning rank.

A modern military simply cant have these social factors affecting the the performance of their soldiers.

Thus, in my opionion, units should be all male OR all female.
In a detached role member of the opposite sex can be an excellent motivational tool.
Most male rowing crews have female cox's because men will push themselves further for a woman.
Most female rowing crews have a male cox for similar reasons.

Given that the AVERAGE ( I stress the word average) male is both more physically resiliant and stronger, and more likely to be inclined to join the armed forces, it makes sense that if you are to have a military of only one sex it should be male.

I 100% believe that a well trained female soldier can be 100% as effective as a male one, but I dont believe that a male soldier can be 100% efective while he is fighting along side her. However in isolated roles, as pilots, special forces, snipers. Or as officers in non combat roles, in the artillary, on ships and so forth, they are fine soldiers.

Just my 2c
Majere