Confessions of a full time Wizard confession

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

here aren't enough female gamers in our hobby who have the intelligence and confidence to express themselves in words effectively, AND have a fun personality, AND choose to be openly and shamelessly feminine.

Or, alternately, there are PLENTY of such women, but few have a position at WotC where they get to write about D&D like Shelly does.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

When the best way she can describe her character going into town to pick up supplies and gear is that she's "going to the mall," then it's hard not to think of her as having just stepped off the set of Clueless.

You haven't seen a non-gamer-friendly movie in 15 years, have you?

 

[carmachu]

Awww, thanks for the love!

Shelly is a good writer, but I agree with you, carmachu, sometimes it does smell of trying too hard. The airhead thing is what makes me want to smack her silly. No girl I know is going to want to play D&D because she can think of the local town shops as "the mall" or roleplay running in stilettos.

I see what WotC is trying to do by having Shelly in the spotlight, but I worry she's going to be a cartoon-y presence that nobody takes seriously.

I'm sure Shelly is a wonderful women, and good writer. But the manner she comes across is EXACTLy like some of you say. Someone hit it on the head when they said from the movie "Clueless". Too hard on her humor, for me, hurts her writing, not help.

You can be a girly girl and a gamer, without falling back into a mall rat or valley girl sterotype.

 

[ProfessorCirno]

If you really want to encourage girls to get into the hobby, probably the number one thing you don't want them to do is purposefully and repeatidly draw attention to the fact that they're a girl

The article felt too much like she was trying to artificially push the "GUYS I'M A GIRL" part too much. Yes, I saw your name on the article, that's all you need.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

If you really want to encourage girls to get into the hobby, probably the number one thing you don't want them to do is purposefully and repeatidly draw attention to the fact that they're a girl.

Unless your goal is to first get across to a segment of the audience that girls do play the game, since there is at least a historical segment of the potential audience that views D&D as a boys-only game.

We don't even have to spend a lot of energy looking through old threads to find examples of why this might be so. I think there was even a thread in 2007 where the OP declared that he wouldn't allow women into his game.

So, yeah, there is a reason to establish that women do game. Now, the message may not be necessary for you, but it's not a message without some value.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Oh, and the PHB2 cover shows some sylvan person with two spectral wolf companions. The guess for that had been shaman, as I recall. It wouldn't be terrible if it was druid, either.

 

[ProfessorCirno]

Unless your goal is to first get across to a segment of the audience that girls do play the game, since there is at least a historical segment of the potential audience that views D&D as a boys-only game.

We don't even have to spend a lot of energy looking through old threads to find examples of why this might be so. I think there was even a thread in 2007 where the OP declared that he wouldn't allow women into his game.

So, yeah, there is a reason to establish that women do game. Now, the message may not be necessary for you, but it's not a message without some value.

You misread my point - the problem is not only that she's artificially pushing the HEY GUYS I'M A GIRL factor, but she's doing it in a way that only reinforces the stereotypes that make so many basement dwellers refuse to allow girls in their games.

Yeah, girls game. I game with girls. Fun times all around. But pushing the "Tee-hee!" factor doesn't help anyone.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

But pushing the "Tee-hee!" factor doesn't help anyone.

No, it doesn't help you or the women you game with.

They don't need her message. She's trying to reach a totally different bunch.

 

[Wormwood]

No, it doesn't help you or the women you game with.

They don't need her message. She's trying to reach a totally different bunch.

And after 8 years, my wife still doesn't have a clue what the hell I could possibly be talking about on ENWorld.

But she likes Shelly's articles.

Different audiences is right.

 

[Alzrius]

You haven't seen a non-gamer-friendly movie in 15 years, have you?

The fact that I referenced Clueless, which is about as non-gamer-friendly as a movie can get, wasn't a tip-off for you that I'd seen it?

Sounds like Shelly isn't the only Clueless gamer around!

(In my defense, it was being shown in school during one of those long break periods they give you after a school-wide standardized test. That was when I found it in myself to begin skipping school.)