Where Did All The Girls Go?

[Nagol]

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.

I'm not sure how much different it was in the mid-80's either. I had two girls in my first D&D campaign from '81-'83 out of 7 players.

Dealing with the gamers in the local area, I noticed at least 1:10 were female then. When I went to a predominantly male (focused on engineering, math and comp sci) university in the mid-80's, women were over-represented in the gaming community and still kept about 1:10 ratio (male to female student ratio was closer to 19:1). Individual group ratios were more highly varied, of course.

 

[outsider]

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

Call it a pipe dream, but I would hope that one day our community will stop studying half of the world's population as if they were an alien life form, and instead just talked to them as equals a bit.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

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?

But we need more female gamers so that we can meet women without having to emerge from our basements, and engage in conversation about things other than gaming in order to procreate. Without more female gamers, how will we pass on the gamer genes?

Surely you don't suggest we shower, dress decently and go out to meet people in non-gaming social settings. That's more scary than facing an ancient black dragon while naked and armed only with a toothpick.

 

[ValhallaGH]

Surely you don't suggest we shower, dress decently and go out to meet people in non-gaming social settings. That's more scary than facing an ancient black dragon while naked and armed only with a toothpick.

Then pass your Will save, hygiene, and get out there.

---
For pretty much my entire gaming career I've had one or more women in most of my gaming groups. Just treat female gamers as Gamers (don't focus on the female-ness, as difficult as it may be) and most of them will react as Gamers. Fun, jokes, and friendships will follow.

Good luck.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

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.

Do they? I would be inclined to accept the premise that MMO and console and pc games in general have more gender balanced demoraphics but is there any hard data avialable?

As for WoD, in the beginning yes that was my observation but I think it was because those games made inroads into the goth subculture where there were a lot more females than the wargamer culture of D&D and other rpgs of similar vintage. But does anyone actually know what the situations is nowadays?

 

[Crothian]

But does anyone actually know what the situations is nowadays?

Going by the games I've played at cons; Amber, Buffy, Changeling, and Serenity seem to attract the most women gamers.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

Going by the games I've played at cons; Amber, Buffy, Changeling, and Serenity seem to attract the most women gamers.

Interesting datum, so does that mean that women come to rpgs via media or literary SF or WoD?

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

Going by the games I've played at cons; Amber, Buffy, Changeling, and Serenity seem to attract the most women gamers.

Buffy and Serenity of course come from TV shows with fantastic, strong female roles to emulate. Perhaps women feel more comfortable with these games because they expect that they will be more readily accepted playing a strong, female PC because of the TV history. On the other side, perhaps they fear they will have to fight for that acceptance in D&D and other games and don't want to have to deal with it in what is supposed to be a fun pasttime.

 

[Crothian]

Buffy and Serenity of course come from TV shows with fantastic, strong female roles to emulate. Perhaps women feel more comfortable with these games because they expect that they will be more readily accepted playing a strong, female PC because of the TV history. On the other side, perhaps they fear they will have to fight for that acceptance in D&D and other games and don't want to have to deal with it in what is supposed to be a fun pasttime.

Yes and no. Women who game cover the full gambit of types of gamers like men who game do. Some like to power game and I've seen more then a few that just like to kill kill kill!! Looking in on the RPGA rooms there are usually more then a few women at many tables and I'm sure that's true of Pathfinders version as well. Don't try to shoe horn them all in the same mold as it just doesn't work.

 

[gynoid]

Yes and no. Women who game cover the full gambit of types of gamers like men who game do. Some like to power game and I've seen more then a few that just like to kill kill kill!! Looking in on the RPGA rooms there are usually more then a few women at many tables and I'm sure that's true of Pathfinders version as well. Don't try to shoe horn them all in the same mold as it just doesn't work.

So true.

I suspect that people, including women, are playing Buffy/Serenity games because they both like and are familiar with the settings. The outreach of television programmes is tremendous and there are huge communities that are already role-playing in and writing about those universes online. Tabletop role-play is surely a natural extension of a current and thriving fan base.

I'm just not convinced that women are playing certain games solely because of the strong heroines in those settings. I mean, if it was a choice between a Gor game (please let there not be a Gor game) or Buffy, then sure, but it's not, and there are a multitude of reasons why a certain player of either gender might choose a certain game.