Female Gamers? Are there more of us now?

[Djeta Thernadier]

Double Post Deleted, Sorry. It said "Database error, press refresh.

Darn pesky gnomes messing with your screen!

 

[eris404]

Interesting reading... I do believe there are more female gamers now, and that the trend will continue. I dunno what the exact reason for this is, but I would think that better marketing strategies have something to do with it (back in the day these games were only pushed to a very small target audience).

I can't say for certain, but I think some of it has to do with the riot grrl/ladette trend in the early to mid 90s and the whole pop culture GenX thing that was happening around that time, too. I remember being in college and finally meeting other girls who were into the same stuff I was: video games, comic books, horror movies, music, RPGs. It was finally OK to not only openly be a geek, but more importantly, to be a girl geek. This was magnified later when I started working as a web developer in the late 90s and "geek culture" became really hip (imagine working with 40 or so tattooed 20-somethings who staged Doom tournaments after office hours. Ah, those were the days!). I think probably it was just the right time.

This just makes me think of another topic that keeps being brought up here, about female gamers who play just because their signifigant other does, and then stop when they lose interest in the player. (Or the wife or girlfriend who plays because they want to 'keep an eye' on their guy when he's out with his friends...). I wonder how prevalent this is amongst female gamers. I doubt anyone on ENworld fits this category (otherwise they would likely not be on here). And how many gamer women started playing because of a guy they were dating and kept gaming up long after he was gone...

Not me. I started gaming when I was about ten or so. My current boyfriend plays because I do (although he did play when he was younger) and more times than not, he finds himself a "gaming widower." We did have one girl who played because her boyfriend did, but after he moved she did continue to play for a little while. Most of the girls in our group are gamers through and through and were introduced to our group through mutual friends.

 

[Michelle Lyons]

I tried to learn in grade school, when our gifted teacher brought in a copy of the Basic Set, but no one else was interested, so it went nowhere. That was my last experience until college, when my then-boyfriend (now husband) decided to run a game for me and my roommates. The first group I was in was all females, except for the GM. Since then, I've taught... I don't know something like 5 or 6 female friends of mine how to play. I've been the only girl in a large group of men, I've been asked not to play in a game so as not to spoil the "boy's night out" feel, and I've been ostracised by another female player who wanted all the boys to herself. In general, though, I've had more good experiences than bad.

Even just looking at the big cons, there are a ton more women now than there were even a few years ago. There are more female writers and artists than there were before. There are more female store owners than there were before. It's a very good thing.

 

[PoppaGunch]

Funny this is how I met my wife. She played in a game I was running in a WoTC store in Pentagon City Mall. My current gaming group consists of my wife and another female. If anything my wife acts as a consience for the group. Keeping them on the subject and what not. And since she is a mother, she is like the momma of the group. Even playing the cleric in most campaigns.
I find that having females in the game changed my games somewhat. But only for the better. Now the group actually bothers with things like diplomacy. Go figure.

 

[ghettognome]

I forgot to mention my preferences in the game. I generally prefer spell casters, if for any reason...the complexity of them. I also like gnomes.
I have dated other gamers, and some that weren't, but I found that they didn't understand nor like the fact that I was a gamer. Right now I am with another gamer, but he is the best of them all, and I am lucky to have him. (smiles at d20dwarf).
Currently I am playing a Minotaur fighter in a Dawnforge campaign, the first time I have truly played a fighter and I am really enjoying it, but I think more so because he has some pretty honorable goals for himself. I enjoy the role playing aspect, but I find I enjoy the munchkining out to go along with it.

 

[SpringPlum]

What city are you in that they'd call you a bruja? I'd hate having to
explain to everyone I am not a brujo

I live near Dallas and the woman was an older, very supersticious Mexican woman. I did have a talk with her and I think I got the point across that D&D is just a fun game.

 

[mythago]

This just makes me think of another topic that keeps being brought up here, about female gamers who play just because their signifigant other does, and then stop when they lose interest in the player.

I would guess that this is more prevalent in groups where the only reason the female player is accepted is that she's an existing player's girlfriend. Once that relationship ends, the rest of the group no longer has any reason to welcome the (now ex-) girlfriend into their group. And since her presence is probably not comfortable for the EP, guess which one of them leaves?

My admittedly unscientific experience is that female gamers tend to stick around based on their early experiences in gaming groups. If they have mixed-gender groups, or play with guys who regard them as gamers first and potential girlfriends second, they'll stick around. If, on the other hand, their exposure is to adolescent* jerks, they associate it with the hobby and never come back.


*Please note that adolescent behavior is a function of maturity, rather than age, here.

 

[NewJeffCT]

I do think there are more female gamers now than there were when I started gaming 25 years ago or so. I do not have any exact figures, just a general, overall feeling.

However, the times I have gamed with women, it was always one woman and a bunch of guys at the table.

But, one thing I did notice was that the guys tended to behave a little bit better at the table – not as many in or out of game insults, especially when one guy brought his very attractive girlfriend – now wife – to game with us. When she was with us, we all seemed to try and act very heroically in-game.

After she & her boyfriend moved away, it took us a while to get a campaign up to speed again, as we went back to our old ways of flinging insults and acting selfishly in game and a few attempted campaigns crashed and burned after only a few sessions.

 

[ASH]

I am also a girl gamer.

I started playing when my boyfriend (now my husband) ran me on a solo adventure about 7-8 yrs ago. I really enjoyed it and he thought that it was cool that a girl liked the game. So, after a while I was put in to his group.

At first it caused some problems because he was the GM and the other guys in the group could not let the fact that I was his girlfriend stay out of the sessions. But after a while we ended up changing the people in the group a bit and now we have two groups of 5. I am the only girl, but the neat thing is that 2 of the guy's girl-friends are interested in playing, as is a really good friend of mine, so I have ran an adventure with mostly girls. I dont know very many girls that play, but I do know that it probably occurs more than it used to.

If it ever ended up that I was not with a guy who gamed anymore I dont know if I would game or not. Probably not at first, because he owns all the books. But, I would still be interested in it, and in time would probably try to find my own group of gamers. I know i have met alot of female gamers on randomlingshouse.com, they have a specific forum for girls only. Its nice!

Anyway, I just thought that I would throw my situation and expreience in to the pot!

 

[I'm A Banana]

I'm just not attracted to boisterous, occasionally violent, heavily acoholic party girls, is how I can run my group without any great sexual tension....also probably why we have the moratorium on outsiders for now, because may be I'm unique in that....