Female Gamers? Are there more of us now?

[Brother Ezra]

My players are equally split 50-50: three women, three men.
Observations:
1. There does not seem to be a significant difference in the ability or styles of role-playing between genders.
2. There also does not seem to be any bias from either gender towards hack n' slash versus immersive story telling.
3. The men fart less when the women are present.

 

[Ssyleia]

I am 30 now, close to 31, and I have been a DM since I was 10.

Over the years I have had 8 female players in my gaming group - only one of which was my girlfriend. On the contrary I have had about 30 male players...

I am extremely fond of female players, because they enrich the game with "unexpected moves" (or so my male players call them), great enthusiasm and gaming initiative, and not to mention a great talent of player-side storytelling!

No, seriously, I would much rather DM a 90% female player group over the usual 90% male player group because women are more adapt at role playing that non-gay men are. They have less complexes about including romance and/or sexuality in the game and (sorry my male fellows) they make better elves, dwarves, fighters or wizards than male players. They just have the ability to get more into character and act accordingly.

I have never had a woman player sit on the couch saying nothing, and roll dice for combat. Women players are so much devoted - it is an enrichment to any campaign to have them along. I wish there were more.

Unfortunately, I have made the experience that female players also tend to inspire romantical feelings in single male players. Especially, if a campaign involves romance between party members, complications tend to arrise. At least two male players in my campaigns have had that kind of complicaton (Note: Both times the female player had a serious relationship). As a DM I hate standing in the middle of such an Incidence. Both times, I have been friends with both. Sure I know that the male is the faulty one -- but what should I do, without getting partial? This is a sad aspect of having female role players and I wished neither incidence had either happened or neither incidence had been worth mentioning but unfortunately they aren't...

Please, dear female Gamers: Keep up the hobby, you are doing a great job!!! However don't have your characters involve romantics with a real-life single male, even if you feel sympathy for him - for it might ruin not just the game but real-life friendships

I love you all

 

[Merlissa]

Hi,
I'm actually a really new gamer (my friend got my hooked earlier this year). I'm a female and in the gaming club that I'm in there are really few of us. I think just 4 of us and this is on a campus. In three of the games that I'm in, there's only one game that has three girls (including me) and one has myself and one other female. And if I say that I play a D and D, than alot of people will look at me weird and I've even had someone say "but your a girl". Which was acutally really funny. Other than that, I love playing and am glad my friend got me involved and now I try to get all my female friends to play (the ones who already don't)

 

[Darklone]

Right now 5 guys, 2 girls.

 

[bubbalin]

And what about those gamer women who can't afford to attend a con unless it's in town?

No offence, but I think this is a bit silly, because I would argue that many men would also fall in the same category... Now if you were talking about dedication to go and spend the money on cons that would be a different argument which I will not guess at for fear of offending... But I would argue that socio-economic status more than gender predicts con affordability...

I think that EN world may have more female gamers attached to the people who hang out here because in general I would say there are more dedicated players here who are not as interested in playing out their hangups in game... But maybe I'm being generous with the maturity level of you lot.

 

[Buttercup]

My games have always been around 50/50, not counting me. If you count me, then there are usually more women than men at the table. We haven't ever had any problems with creepy group dynamincs. Everybody likes both roleplaying and combat, so the games have a mix.

I actually know two more women who would like to play, but I don't want more players. I think I could easily find enough women to run an all-girl campaign if I wanted to. My experience may not be typical, dunno.

 

[Buttercup]

I think that EN world may have more female gamers attached to the people who hang out here

What about the female gamers who hang out here? You know we're here, right?

 

[Afrodyte]

No offence, but I think this is a bit silly, because I would argue that many men would also fall in the same category... Now if you were talking about dedication to go and spend the money on cons that would be a different argument which I will not guess at for fear of offending... But I would argue that socio-economic status more than gender predicts con affordability.

Unfortunately, I am offended because my statement had nothing to do with gender predicting affordability, and questioning the soundness of my logic based off an assumption you made does not strike me as particularly respectful. Just because I mentioned both gender and affordability in the same sentence does not mean I am making a causative relationship. It was mentioned that female gamers often avoid cons because of the socially inept people who often (as I have heard) go to them. However, like everyone else, what if they would like to go but can't because of financial constraints? I didn't feel the need to include that explanation because it seemed to be understood (a la Djeta's comment).

 

[Belen]

Unfortunately, I am offended because my statement had nothing to do with gender predicting affordability, and questioning the soundness of my logic based off an assumption you made does not strike me as particularly respectful. Just because I mentioned both gender and affordability in the same sentence does not mean I am making a causative relationship. It was mentioned that female gamers often avoid cons because of the socially inept people who often (as I have heard) go to them. However, like everyone else, what if they would like to go but can't because of financial constraints? I didn't feel the need to include that explanation because it seemed to be understood (a la Djeta's comment).

Some guys avoid cons to miss those socially inept people too. I have only been to a con once in my life and that pretty much convinced me never to go again. There were more than a few freaky people there.

Heck, I was worried about NC Game Day to some extent, but I tend to trust EnWorlders and everyone turned out to be cool.

 

[Belen]

Our group

I currently have 4 guys, 2 gals in the gaming group. This came after a two year period where it was all guys. The first lady, my lovely wife, joined the group after we started dating. I convinced her that gaming was a good thing, so she gave it a try and she is not trying out the GM hotseat.

The second lady, Lola, we met at the NC Game Day III. She participated in my fallen earth game and we also played in Rel's game. She did not have a regular group and things just seemed to work out.

Personally, I think that women add a deeper element to the game. Not that women are any better/worse roleplayers than men, I just think a mixed group tends to stay more focused and the group, as a whole, roleplays more.

Just my opinion though.