Female gamers: Weal or woe?

[Stormborn]

In about 6 years of gaming I have played a grand total of 1 session where women were not present or even the majority. But then at the age of 36 I am the youngest player in the group and so age may account for a lot of it.

 

[Darkwolf71]

I did have an uncomfotable break-up situation in my group once though, which resulted in the male individual being booted from group, unfortunately.

Good choice.

Seriously, The Ultimate Gaming Table has 3 female members. 2 wives and 1 girlfriend of male members. There is realy a lot of flirting all around the table, but it's only because we are all good friends.

 

[Desdichado]

OK; first of all; if you're going to ask if the concept of playing with girls is "weal or woe" and lean heavily toward the latter; please do all of the rest of us a favor and don't play with any. We don't want to expose them to you.

Or; better yet, do and maybe she'll come post funny stories here about the creepy guys she played with this one time.

 

[Obryn]

Wow, I haven't had an all-male group since high school.

-O

 

[Ruin Explorer]

My experiences are completely dissimilar. My wife is one of my players, and obviously that means there's no "hitting on her" factor (esp. as all but one of the players are married or in long-term relationships), and I've seen absolutely no holding of extremely obscene jokes, unfair allegations regarding character parentage/sexuality/special interests, or what-have-you.

She's a good player, and whilst a little retiring in D&D because she's not entirely sure what she's doing (very experienced MMORPG and CRPG player, not so much P&P RPG), certainly contributes to the game significantly. I don't think there'd be any problem if any other female SOs joined in, either, given we all socialize together and are reasonably comfortable with each other. The only potential problems I could see would be if people who didn't want to play were being brought in.

Basically, it's a matter of familiarity and whether the players themselves are stable. Suddenly add a "hot gurl" to a mostly-teenage, mostly-nerdy group is gonna have an impact, and it won't necessarily be for the better initially. However, unless the players have serious problems, by the second or third session, the impact will be over.

Tbh, whilst ymmv, the main thing to do is to not be playing with scary non-social-skills nerds who are either gynophobes or freaks. So long as that's the case, any disruption will be over soon.

 

[PowerWordDumb]

I avoid tricky problems of gender relations by refusing to play with emotionally and/or socially underdeveloped 'people'.

Choose your companions wisely and a fellow gamer's race/sex/religion/whatever just don't come into it.

Unless they're furries. Those we destroy on sight.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Female Gamers: Woot!



While I can kind of understand that some D&D groups have a sort of "guys poker night" vibe and have nothing against that, I myself have never had a real need for that. I've DMed for girls-only groups and mixed groups, and any relationship issues (even between the gals of the girls-only group) have been left at the door long before we enter the fantasy world. That might just be because the ones I play with are mature enough to handle the opposite gender without getting all funny in the head.

But I do totally understand that some D&D groups are guy-exclusive in the same way that a poker night of fantasy football league are -- it's a guy-bonding time. There's nothing wrong with that, really. It's not what I D&D for, but whatevs, I'm not going to sit here and judge you as a creepo for it.

 

[Insight]

I'm not sure the thread title (and the OP) looks at the situation from the proper perspective. Why is the question framed on female gamers? Isn't the problem with socially immature male gamers vs. socially mature male gamers?

Anyway, I expect this thread to soon be mired in bickering and thus closed, which will be too bad, considering this is a topic worthy of discussion.

 

[Obryn]

I avoid tricky problems of gender relations by refusing to play with emotionally and/or socially underdeveloped 'people'.

Well, I was going to ask how old his group was and/or if it's full of virgins.

If they're young & naive - which is my guess, based on the thread title - then yeah, it's a hugely different kind of social dynamic. I don't expect high-schoolers to be as emotionally mature as adults.

-O

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

When I first started gaming, it was almost exclusively boys (although my sister played a few times, and there was a girl on my street that liked playing, too). That changed in high school and college, with the introduction of girlfriends into the group. Since then, and continuing into the "married with children" phase, I don't think I've ever had a group that didn't include members of both sexes.

Edit - I've never really considered a "guys poker night" game. I wouldn't want to give up the regular heterogeneous group, but I bet an all-male game would have a different vibe.