Le Gamers de Femme

[an_idol_mind]

I think it's a combination of preconceived notions, marketing, and many current players not serving well as equal opportunity ambassadors to the game. My experience is that most new players are introduced to the game by existing players rather than learning the system themselves. A lot of gamers seem less enthusiastic about bringing female players into the group. I also think that a lot of marketing is targeted toward college-age males rather than females. Behold, for instance, the scantily-clad sorceress on the cover of the 4th edition Player's Handbook.

(Incidentally, my gaming group this weekend consists of four women and one man, in addition to myself. So I'm not entirely sure that gaming is quite the boys club that some outlets make it out to be.)

 

[Mallus]

A lot of small reasons, I think.

And one enormously large one: fewer women than men enjoy pretending to be elves and killing orcs for their stuff. Note that relatively few men enjoy doing this, at least face-to-face at the gaming table.

 

[el-remmen]

In the groups I have played/run since high school there have always been women in the group (ranging from 1 to 3), that is, except for my current group which is all dudes. . . and I have to say I prefer having a couple of women in the group, if only because men seems to behave better and be more focused in their presence.

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

Over the years I've been lucky enough to have several women gamers in my group. At one time, in a group of 5 players, 3 were women. There aren't any currently in my game, though. We meet so seldom most players want more game sessions than we're able to provide, and that includes both men and women.

 

[Umbran]

A lot of gamers seem less enthusiastic about bringing female players into the group.

My expectation is that most folks who pick up RPGs as a hobby do so somewhere in their junior high school to college years. Those are times when a great many of the players are less than adept at dealing with people of the opposite sex as just friends you do things with.

 

[Zander]

Gary's view was that games in general, not just RPGs, simply appeal more to men than women.

Dr Michelle Nephews who has a PhD in authorship and RPGs has argued in a chapter of Gaming as Culture that RPGs match male wish-fulfilment needs closer than they do female ones.

Although I don't agree with Dr Nephews' characterisation (stereotyping) of male psycho-sexual fantasies, I think that both she and Gary are right.

If many women were put off by male gamers (for whatever reason), after almost 35 years of RPGs, you would expect lots of women-only groups. To the best of my knowledge, there isn't a vast number of women who play in such groups.

And if many women were put off by so-called sexist artwork and language, you would have expected a surge in the proportion of female gamers over the years as RPGs became more politically 'correct'. While the proportion of female gamers may have increased slightly over the decades, I suspect this has more to do with men introducing their wives/girlfriends/daughters to the hobby and a shift to more social interaction within RPGs than to any change to the way the rules are presented.

 

[DariusOfCT]

And one enormously large one: fewer women than men enjoy pretending to be elves and killing orcs for their stuff. Note that relatively few men enjoy doing this, at least face-to-face at the gaming table.

Ah, but there is fanfiction, which I mentioned above, that can get quite violent, but is almost entirely female.

 

[Doug McCrae]

Why don't more women do martial arts, or play Magic: the Gathering or drive racing cars?

Why don't more men knit or go to salsa dancing classes or play bingo?

Why don't more women play?

Because they don't like roleplaying games. Ask a tougher one next time.

 

[frankthedm]

My expectation is that most folks who pick up RPGs as a hobby do so somewhere in their junior high school to college years. Those are times when a great many of the players are less than adept at dealing with people of the opposite sex as just friends you do things with.

And in some groups it is a 'guys night out'.

 

[Mallus]

Ah, but there is fanfiction, which I mentioned above, that can get quite violent, but is almost entirely female.

And oddly, homoerotic... wait, maybe that's not so odd, women go for the boy-on-boy action so long as it's rendered in text.

Anyhow... I didn't mean to suggest that women didn't enjoy violent entertainment, only that fewer women than men do. And this probably has something to do with our wiring, and how our wiring gets expressed in our preferred power-fantasies.