Season of Sexism #2: The Fake Geek Girl; plus Origins Award Winners, and Red Aegis' designer dream t

[h=3]Season of Sexism #2: The Fake Geek Girl[/h]
The second episode in our Season of Sexism! [See episode 1 here] Over the last few years there's been a particularly obnoxious phenomenon of men accusing women at conventions and the like of being "fake geek girls". This week we (badly) re-enact a couple of famous examples and ask folks at UK Games Expo 2013 what they think of the issue. Note that rants performed in this video are reconstructions of real rants and are performed by an actor. They do not reflect the opinions of EN World, the actor, or any of the interviewees. Next week we take a look at sexism in gaming art! [HI][threadcm]http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?337600-Season-of-Sexism-2-The-Fake-Geek-Girl-plus-Origins-Award-Winners-and-Red-Aegis-designer-dream-team![/threadcm] [/HI]

[video=youtube;vFjeUQgJ8rI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFjeUQgJ8rI[/video]
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[h=3]EN World News[/h]

• We have our usual collection of articles and new content for you to enjoy!
  • Gamehackery: Living in a Metadata World[HI][threadcm]http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?337571-Gamehackery-Living-in-a-MetaData-World[/threadcm][/HI]
  • Explosions in the Sky: A boardgame review of Hanabi from Abacusspiele [HI][threadcm]http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?337572-Explosions-in-the-Sky-A-review-of-Hanabi-from-Abacusspiele[/threadcm][/HI]
  • 3G: Some Rules Are Better Than Others[HI][threadcm]http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?337591-3G-Some-Rules-Are-Better-Than-Others[/threadcm][/HI]
  • Game Design 114: Flaw Finding [HI][threadcm]http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?337592-Game-Design-114-Flaw-Finding[/threadcm] [/HI]
• The ZEITGEIST hardcover Kickstarter is coming along well - we are approaching our first stretch goal ($5000) which will add lot of art and maps to the hardcover compilation of the adventure path (Pathfinder and D&D 4E). There's one quesiton we've been asked frequently, so we thought we should make a little FAQ:
  • Will the Pathfinder and 4E books be separate? Yep! Separate books! You choose the one you want.

[h=3]RPG News[/h]

• Check out this preview from FFG of Enemies of the Imperium, a supplement for Only War. There's also a FAQ and errata for Only War.
• Matt James is heading up a new game company called Vorpal Games. He's been drafting in some great talent - Brian R James, Ed Greenwood, Erik Scott de Bie, Eytan Bernstein, Mike Schley, Claudio Pozas, Miranda Horner, and Erik Nowak. As I understand it, the angle here is that you don't play a character, you play a dynasty - each game session (of ten) you play a consecutive descendant. The character dies (either in-game or of old age) each session, but the real character - your dynasty - gains skills/powers. The game itself will be called Red Aegis and will be a Kickstarter project opening in July.

[h=3]Community News[/h]

• Game Knight Reviews has reviewed Kobold Press' Midgard Adventures: Beyond the Ghostlight Reef.
• Gaming Tonic talks a bit more about house rules in It's A Rule, Not A Law.
• Kobold Press has a series of articles covering development of their Deep Magic Kickstarter: Crafting the Cover, Meet the Editor/Developer, No More Handwaving.
• Sly Flourish presents the Best D&D 4E Encounter Tricks - in-battle skill challenges, escalating auras, shared lifeforce bosses, and minion generators.
• The Chamber of Mazarbul has an article about hombrewed lasting wounds in 13th Age; plus one about danger vs. lethality in RPGs.

[h=3]Boardgaming & Other News[/h]

• Fantasy Flight Games has previews up for new runners from the upcoming Creation and Control expansion for Android: Netrunner. The three new Shaper identities will soon be featured in a deck building installment. Creation and Control is available for pre-order.
• Triassic Terror is a tactical game from Eagle Games that has players trying to breed herds of dinosaurs and then migrate them across various terrain. Herds will be hunted by T-Rex and velociraptors and have to avoid dangerous terrain features such as volcanoes.
• Critical Failures is a novel about a group of jaded 30-somethings who get sent to the fantasy world of their RPG. Author Robert Bevan says "It's comedy/fantasy. The language is strong and some of the humor is low-brow, but it's been doing pretty well".

[h=3]2013 Origins Award Winners[/h]
The Origins Game Fair took place over the weekend. During the convention, the 2013 Origins Awards winners were announced (these awards are voted for by attendees of the trade show). Congratulations to all the winners!

Best Roleplaying Game
Marvel Heroic Roleplaying Basic Games – Margaret Weis Productions

Best Roleplaying Supplement
Marvel Heroic Roleplaying Civil War Essentials Edition Event Book – Margaret Weis Productions

Best Board Game
Lords of Waterdeep – Wizards of the Coast

Best Collectible Card Games
Legend of the 5 Rings: Embers of War – AEG

Best Traditional Card Game
Doctor Who the Card Game – Cubicle 7 Entertainment/Treefrog Games

Best Family, Party or Children's Game
Quarriors! Dice Building Game – WizKids

Best Gaming Accessory
Metal Steampunk Dice Set – Q Workshop

Best Miniatures Rules
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Campaign Starter Set – WizKids

Best Historical Miniature Figure/Line
Ancient Greeks - Victrix Ltd

Best Historical Board Games
Samurai Battles – Zvezda

Best Historical Miniature Rules Supplement
Flames of War: Nuts – Battlefront Miniatures

Best Historical Miniature Rules
Flames of War: Open Fire! – Battlefront Miniatures

Best Miniature Figure Line
Marvel HeroClix: Galactic Guardians – WizKids

Best Game-Related Publication
Battletech: Weapons Free – Catalyst Game Labs

Hall of Fame Game Inductees
Munchkin – Steve Jackson Games
Dominion – Rio Grande Games

Hall of Fame Inductees
Lisa Stevens, Paizo Publishing
Loren Coleman, Catalyst Game Labs
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[Dannyalcatraz]

Clearly, we need interviews from French and Brazillian cons as well.

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

I'll say this about "fake geek girls": It's been my experience that most geek girls tend to limit the scope of their geekiness more than guys. Most geek girls I've met are Anime geek girls or Vampire geek girls or (insert topic here) geek girls. It's rare to meet one who is into: RPGs, Miniature games, Magic the Gathering, Anime, Comic Books, Sci-fi, Fantasy, Computers/Technology, Board Games, and Video Games all at the same time. Whereas I know...quite a few guys who like all of those things. Plus, those guys are not just INTO all of those things...they have libraries of board games, they've memorized the plot of every episode of Star Trek, they built their own computers, and so on.

It's certainly possible this is a result of many geek girls being new to geekdom and just beginning to explore their passion for it. Because of this, their lack of knowledge on subjects that we as geek culture consider important can come across as a lack of desire to learn about them. Given we're a culture that is pretty much defined by our almost obsessive desire to learn more about our subjects of choice, that can come across as "fake".

I think there is a severe difference between someone who likes Star Trek because they've seen a couple of episodes and kind of liked that Kirk guy...and someone who has seen them all and argued with their friends over how the warp drive functions. One has a mild interest in science fiction. The other is a geek.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

It's rare to meet one who is into: RPGs, Miniature games, Magic the Gathering, Anime, Comic Books, Sci-fi, Fantasy, Computers/Technology, Board Games, and Video Games

I am an indisputably geeky dude- one of the nicknames i have in my gaming group is The Grand High Nerdus. And even so, to use 2Ed terminology, I have Major Access to only 5 of those, and Minor Access to the other 5. OK, maybe 6 & 4.

 

[delericho]

It's rare to meet one who is into: RPGs, Miniature games, Magic the Gathering, Anime, Comic Books, Sci-fi, Fantasy, Computers/Technology, Board Games, and Video Games all at the same time. Whereas I know...quite a few guys who like all of those things.

The problem comes when some guys use that to build a test for "fake geek girls". As if, somehow, a girl at a convention has to justify her right to be there. (And, even if that weren't offensive to demand such a justification, surely "I came to a convention" should be more than enough?)

The other thing is this: I would almost certainly fail any but the most basic test for "fake geeks". I don't, and have never, played MMOs. I've never LARPed, or played Magic, nor had any interest in either. I've seen very little Anime, and while I've read up on the big stories in comics, I've read almost none (especially since Marvel's "Transformers" comic ended in '91). I've painted plenty of minis, but I've almost never played any of the games.

So, am I a "fake geek"? Or does the fact that I've gamed for 25 years qualify me? Or, as I suspect, is it that I'm a guy, and therefore immune from having to justify myself?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

He's a mole!!! GET HIM!

 

[delericho]

Yeah. My wife was shocked to discover that I'm secretly normal.

 

[Mike Eagling]

I'll say this about "fake geek girls": It's been my experience that most geek girls tend to limit the scope of their geekiness more than guys.

And every geek girl I've ever known still had an unhealthy obsession with shoes that puts my obsessions to shame.

a girl at a convention has to justify her right to be there. (And, even if that weren't offensive to demand such a justification, surely "I came to a convention" should be more than enough?)

Purely on that basis they out-geek me.

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

The problem comes when some guys use that to build a test for "fake geek girls". As if, somehow, a girl at a convention has to justify her right to be there. (And, even if that weren't offensive to demand such a justification, surely "I came to a convention" should be more than enough?)

Oh, I agree. It is insulting to test people. Though, I've been to enough conventions to know that not everyone there really cares about the convention. This applies to both men and women. Though, the numbers are lopsided in terms of women. They come because their significant other really wanted to go and used their like of Sailor Moon or Angry Birds as justification that they would really love the convention. Geek guys can be ever hopeful that they can turn their girlfriend into a geek.

Simply showing up for a convention doesn't make one a geek. Though, being forced to go to a convention doesn't make someone a fake geek either.

So, am I a "fake geek"? Or does the fact that I've gamed for 25 years qualify me? Or, as I suspect, is it that I'm a guy, and therefore immune from having to justify myself?

I don't know. Don't know you well enough to make that decision. Not sure I really know anyone well enough to make that decision.

Though, I have to admit that simply playing D&D doesn't make one a geek. There are plenty of "weekend gamers" who play D&D once a week or once a month as their one and only geeky activity.

I've met a couple of guys like that. They didn't fit in with us because they didn't get any of our references and nearly 25% of the time we spend playing D&D are making Star Wars, Anime, Sci-fi, Fantasy, Monty Python references. Often, I wonder if we get together to revel in our geekiness as much as play D&D.

They'd get frustrated that they didn't understand any of our references and we'd get annoyed that they didn't seem to find them funny.

I think "fake geek girls" go in much the same way. People don't so much make "tests" to see if they are geeky enough, some people just don't fit in with the geek culture. There's nothing most geeks hate more than having to explain geek culture references:

"That guy failed to eat that cake, he dropped it on the ground."
"Maybe that's because 'the cake is a lie'"
"Huh? What do you mean...the cake is right there!"
"Ugh...there's this game called Portal. In it, there's a computer that makes you go through all these tests. It's kind of insane but it keeps promising you cake. Then, when you get part way through the test chambers you see 'The cake is a lie' written in blood on some of the walls. It's obvious that previous test subjects wrote them and...You know, nevermind...it was just supposed to be funny."

Sometimes it can seem like it's a test. But it's more like we just expect all geeks to know this stuff and when they don't, we're not sure how to react.

 

[Mike Eagling]

"That guy failed to eat that cake, he dropped it on the ground."
"Maybe that's because 'the cake is a lie'"
"Huh? What do you mean...the cake is right there!"
"Ugh...there's this game called Portal. In it, there's a computer that makes you go through all these tests. It's kind of insane but it keeps promising you cake. Then, when you get part way through the test chambers you see 'The cake is a lie' written in blood on some of the walls. It's obvious that previous test subjects wrote them and...You know, nevermind...it was just supposed to be funny."

Then apparently I'm not a geek, seeing as I've never played Portal?

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

And every geek girl I've ever known still had an unhealthy obsession with shoes that puts my obsessions to shame.

Heh. I'm still one of those people who doesn't ascribe to the "If you are obsessive over anything, you are a geek" philosophy, which I know is fairly common.

Otherwise, we'd have to consider sports geeks part of our community. Most of us joined the "geek community" to get AWAY from the sports geeks who used to make fun of us for playing computers games during our lunch breaks in high school.

I go with the old school definition of geek. Basically, if there was a well posted in USENET group about the subject in the 1990s, it qualifies as a geek subject.