GenCon Indy 2007, let's shake the male/female ratios--or not, they seem fine here ;)

[Ottergame]

Do you know of a boy that wants to join Girl Scouts? I've taken my son to Girl Scout camps to play in the tagalong units and he had lots of fun. There are a lot of girls that are bailing on Girl Scouts because it's too girly girl, so they join the Venture Crew with Boy Scouts (but only after they're fully into puberty, that I don't quite understand) I've not heard of many boys talking about Boy Scouts being to manly for them. If they were, they would probably be laughed out. I guess that's one place women have the advantage. It's okay for girls to be girls and girls can also be Tom boys.

Girlish boys are usually beaten up.

I stopped going to boy scouts. As a gay boy, I felt uncomfortable there.

 

[mara]

Like I said, I have not had the pleasure of hearing about female gamers and I've certainly not been encouraged to learn more. I found this site on my own and opened my own account. Torin could easily have mentioned it to me, but he chose not to. The gaming greats I am regaled with are male. Point me in the right direction and I'll learn.

Or maybe I should just give up and realize that since I don't understand gaming, I don't belong here and I should stop trying to find a way to let other women, like myself, realize the fun in gaming. This morning I was all excited about going to GenCon, now I'm not so sure. I certainly don't feel any kind of warm fuzzies here.

Goodnight.

Did you ask your groupmates for examples of female gamers? Why is that important? Why would a pitch like "Hey, my friends and I are getting together on Saturday to play D&D, it's a fantasy game that's really fun. You know Lord of the Rings? Yeah, it's kind of like that, only you get to decie what to do." need a "Oh, by the way, there are a number of well respected female authors who contribute to the roleplaying industry and it is perfectly normal for women to engage in this hobby." tacked on? Frankly, someone trying to convince me to participate in something because other women find it interesting would decrease my interest because I don't consider myself to have anything automatically in common with other vagina bearers. Did you ask about online gaming websites? My groupmates know that I read online forums, but I'm not going to start proselytizing about message boards unless someone shows interest. What other direction do you need to be pointed in other than the Player's Handbook? These are serious questions.

What would be the benefit of a 'girls only' table and why should I bother attending it instead of a mixed group? Judging by my group, such an experiment would result in bloodshed, mayhem, and chaos in a festival of delighted hack and slashery that would make the males wince. Is that what you want? I game with gamers. I'd rather know about someone's opinions of the paladin multiclassing restriction that their prefered gender adjective when evaluating a potential player.

In short, I'm unsure what you want by wanting more women. What are you attempting to accomplish? How will in increase your fun? How will it increase *my* fun, as a member of the population of vagina bearers at which this effort would supposedly be aimed?

As for bringing more women into the hobby and to GenCon, start local. If you have female friends, talk to them about how fun gaming is and play with them. Tell them about this big gaming convention and how it would be neat to go as a group to check it out. A friend's recommendation is worth more than advertising and you'll have female gamers that you'll see more than once a year. Oh, and if it's Cat Piss Men you fear, well, you'll just have to trust me that women have the capacity to reach levels of squick far beyond the average CPM specimen, as a former gamer roommate of mine proved.

And women do not under any circumstances guarantee warm fuzzies.

-Mara

 

[Sephera]

Please close this thread

I would like to request that this thread be closed or possibly even deleted. I realize at this point I have not been acting according to the basic rules that I agreed to just yesterday when I joined this group. I inadvertantly offended several people and feel I unintentionally started the whole thread was started in an uncivil manner. (Reference - the basic rules "Keep It Civil")

I apologize to everyone.

Take care,

Sephera

 

[jgbrowning]

As for bringing more women into the hobby and to GenCon, start local.
-Mara

The whole premise of this thread is cart before the horse. The reason why there are more women at GenCon now than there were 15 years ago is because there are more women gamers now than 15 years ago. GenCon is a sample from a demographic. If the goal is more women at GenCon the action needed to reach the goal is the creation of more women gamers.

That said, if women, blacks, jews, muslims, buddhists, vegetarians, handicapped people, carnivores, fatbeards, cat-piss men or whatever self-defining group one can think of wants to form activities based upon said self-defintion: more power to them! After all, GenCon is merely a self-defining group forming activities based upon said self-definition of "gamer" to begin with.

joe b.

 

[paulsometimes]

Who wouldn't want more of this...

at Gen Con

Are they all over 18? A couple of them look like they could be getting some gamers in trouble

 

[jgbrowning]

Are they all over 18? A couple of them look like they could be getting some gamers in trouble

I believe that would be the 4 husbands and 1 boyfriend missing from that picture.

joe "I think that's the correct SO breakdown..." b.

 

[Tarrasque Wrangler]

Are they all over 18? A couple of them look like they could be getting some gamers in trouble

If I may speak on behalf of the Gorgeous Ladies of ENWorld for a moment:

"Exactly which of us do you think look old, JERK?!?!?"

 

[The_Universe]

Who wouldn't want more of this...

at Gen Con

I don't think I could handle TWO (or more) Queen-D's, so I must oppose your cloning-scheme.

 

[Michelle Lyons]

If I'm able to attend GenCon on a year where such a thing occurs, I'd be happy to take part in it. While there are obviously a number of female gamers in this thread who don't feel their gender figures into that whole equation, there are doubtless others who take a different approach, such as Sephora. I fail to see how this would be objectionable in some way.

Personally, I'd be very interested in a History of Gaming seminar that focused on the role women played in this industry. I know Margaret Weis did early work as an editor for FASA now and again in addition to her work with TSR prior to and including Dragonlance. I've heard that both Mercedes Lackey and Katherine Kurtz might have done the odd bit of editorial or writing work early on, but I've no proof of it other than dimly-recollected hearsay. Lauren K. Hamilton used to write for Wizards' game fiction lines.

In truth, there's quite a few women in the industry though most of them are outside the d20 market. Ann Dupuis is a respected publisher whose recent game of note is the Dernyi RPG. Rebecca Borgstrom wrote Nobilis and has had her hand in more sterling projects than I can list here. Nicole Lindroos started off at White Wolf, I believe, and was one of the original staff members there before co-founding Green Ronin with Chris Pramas (if I got that wrong somehow, I know they'll correct me *grin*).

Penny Williams was a long-time fixture at Wizards of the Coast. Gwendolyn Kestrel has written for more D&D books than I can count, while Jennifer Clarke-Wilkes made the move from TSR to WotC along with Ed Stark, Rich Baker, and a number of other well-known names. Sue Cook was an editor at WotC, I believe, before diving into Malhavoc Press along with her husband, Monte. Lisa Stephens' name has been connected to WotC and many of its most successful lines for ages. Michelle Carter is another editor and writer at Wizards, whose work has graced many a D&D book.

Sharon Turner Mulvihill was an editor, then managing editor, then a VP at FASA Corp -- not to mention one of the best bosses I ever had the pleasure to work for -- before moving on to an amazing stint at WizKids. Jill Lucas went before her at FASA, and while I never had the opportunity to meet her, her name is well known in the industry and she has a lot of friends here still. Michelle Nephew is rightly a fixture of and driving force behind Atlas Games along with her husband, John, and her CV is just as prestigious as anyone else's you'll find in this industry. Renae Chambers has art director to her credit during her time at Soverign Press and then at Margaret Weis Productions, including the ENnie-awardwinning Serenity RPG.

Anyway, just thought I'd toss that out. If there is ever such a booth featuring female industry folk that doesn't involve a wet T-shirt contest, I'd be happy to take part.

 

[Bront]

Anyway, just thought I'd toss that out. If there is ever such a booth featuring female industry folk that doesn't involve a wet T-shirt contest, I'd be happy to take part.

You'd probably get better attendance if it did though
*ducks*

Seriously. I just want more gamers. Men, Women, Athropomorphic Animals, Hyperintellegent Pan-dimentional beings, doesn't matter to me. You game? Come on over to my table.