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]
​

[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
​

 

[Morrus]

It's like that on these boards too. And the problem, if problem it is, is only getting more noticeable. There are some people who might as well be from alien planets the way they talk about D&D compared to my experiences.

That's not just you. I see it as a feature, though, not a bug. There are so many way to play D&D (not even bringing editions into account) that it can be quite eye-opening. I've learned stuff here I'd never had learned had I not been exposed to different outlooks and playstyles.

 

[Mike Eagling]

Sometimes, they are presenting it (willfully or thoughtlessly) as if their own experience was IT, and that other things should be discarded.

Yeah, that's clearly unhelpful.

Of course, the flip-side of that (hopefully) is those who inadvertently present such ONE-TRUE-WAY-ism might learn something too.

 

[Dr Simon]

To the topic in point, back when we played in college (late 80s or so), we started as the typical male group but we were joined by some of our female friends mainly because one of them fancied one of my friends. By the standards of some of those bloggers in the video piece, a "fake geek girl", although such a term didn't exist back then.

However, turns out she really enjoyed the gaming and carried on with it when she went off to university. I don't think you can denigrate anyone's reasons for trying the hobby - better that somebody does than mock from a distance.

(She got her man, by the way, but the gaming lasted longer!)

And now for some side-tracks:

There are boys in cooking classes and learning "women's hobbies" without criticism.

Interesting point. Back when I was at school in the 80s there was only one of my male friends who went on to do "Domestic Science" as it was then known. However, most of the Michelin star chefs are male, perhaps because that aspect turns cooking into a prestige competition. And it could also be argued that the likes of Heston Blumenthal have made cooking "geeky".

And, Game of Thrones has certainly helped. Whenever I post on Facebook or a non-gaming forum about GoT, most of the respondents are female, which surprises me since it's a dark and brutal world where women are often relegated to second class status.

My wife, who is usually lukewarm concerning anything fantastical, really loves GoT. I think it's because it's as much character driven as anything, with less reliance on swoopy visual effects like most blockbuster films (something that annoys me these days too). Also, although the setting may have an authentic mediaeval attitude towards women's rights (or lack thereof), it's got a lot of powerful female characters, and quite varied in the way that they exercise power, from the manipulative feminine wiles of Cersei to the feisty defiance of Arya.

 

[NewJeffCT]

I think this is a key part of the problem. 30 years ago this would have been true, but time change and some have a harder time keeping up than others. As a female back in the 80's you basically had a choice - be part of the mainstream female perception or join the ranks of the geeks. There wasn't a lot of middle ground, at least not publically, and it was difficult to belong to both worlds. Today, however, things have changed. There are boys in cooking classes and learning "women's hobbies" without criticism, and women have proven they are more than capable of serving a great snack they whipped up while they GM their local gaming group. Having skills or interests in the traditional female areas doesn't have to mean that you cannot also have skills in areas considered "geeky", and while people are starting to realize it, it's slow going in some circles.

Sure, maybe some boys in cooking classes, but my daughter's dance school still hands out end-of-year awards to the boys that go to dance class, for being brave enough to go against conventional wisdom and go to dance class.

 

[Puggins]

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 have to point out that you were most likely not getting away from sports geeks. Much like your definition of what constitutes a "geek" and what constitutes a "fan" of Star Trek, there is a wide- WIDE- gulf between what constitutes a sports fan and what constitutes a sports geek.

A sports fan follows his favorite team or a number of favorite teams. He may get deeply, emotionally involved with his teams.

A sports geek STUDIES sports, getting into deep minutiae that the average sports fan derides or passes off as useless or nerdy. I know many, many sports fans. I know very few sports geeks- I'd like to say I'm one of them, but that's placing myself in a place I probably don't belong.

You might've heard about one of the most famous sports geeks- Nate Silver was an analyst for Baseball Prospectus, which is an organization which scientifically studies the game of baseball and provides an excellent analysis of why teams do and don't win. He transitioned into political geekery and successfully predicted the result of all fifty states elections in 2012. He is the very definition of a geek in both the political and sports world.

I have a feeling a game geek might feel comfortable around sports geeks and political geeks. All geeks feel the need to study and analyze their passion, regardless of what that passion might be. You might have different loves, but you have a very similar mindset.

 

[Janx]

I've never heard of the "fake" geek girl before, but I can definitely say it's true about a woman in gaming gets a lot of attention, be they real geeks or fake.

Me neither. Speaking sexistly here for a second, I can't imagine any chic who's not a geek who would take the time to strut the halls of a gaming convention to turn down the unwelcome advances of geeks.

It's well known stereotype that a girl can be herself (namely, be female with a pulse) to get the attention of a geek. it seems improbable that anybody so interested in that demographic would need an extra layer of "fake geek" in order to secure their attention.

Methinks anybody who's gonna rant against girls in their hobby probably has deep issues and needs a visit to the Exodus clinic.

 

[Campbell]

Honestly, I view this issue mostly as a reaction to the mainstreaming of geek culture. I've heard similar retorts against hipsters wearing Star Trek or Nintendo t-shirts. It's pretty much bull in my book. People are diverse. We like a lot of different things and no one is required to fit anyone else's narrow definitions of what a geek is.

While I see geek tests pointed at females most of the time, I've also been on receiving end. I have some fairly geeky interests, but football, wrestling, weight training and heavy metal were just as much a part of my upbringing as D&D, comic books, and Magic. Half of my D&D group in high school were on the wrestling team. I was in a World of Warcraft guild that included most of my platoon when I was in South Korea. The guy that hosts our L5R game is a dedicated home brewer. I've never really understood the desire to self-identify as a geek and only do geeky things, but I've definitely gotten my share of weird looks for wearing a Lions jersey to conventions and the like.

 

[vonmolkew]

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?

Guess I'm a fake geek too....though my wife would say otherwise. Just recently visited the Antietam battlefield - she called me a geek. Just bought some dice at a new local game store - she called me a geek. I just finished re-reading Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman - again with the geek. Guess I don't get this whole "girls being fake geeks" thing. It seems to me that if a woman is carrying around a three-ring binder full of Magic cards and knows what the terms "mana" and "tap" mean - she must be a geek. For what it's worth, I only know the words but couldn't exactly tell you what they mean - seeing as how I, too, have never played Magic nor have ever wanted to.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

"Tap" is a word that can have a variety of meanings, depending on whether the context is ordering a beer (or medical procedure), playing a CCG, learning how to use a hammer, watching a classic mocumentary, taking a class in dance, or composing a rap song...

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

Really glad the video provoked such a response! It was a fun couple of days interviewing and talking to people about it all. And another round of public thanks from me to Our Esteemed Editor for putting me on first!

Much of what I'd put in a post here I've already said in the video, of course, but I think it's interesting that in this thread (which is overwhelmingly sensible and well thought-out) I'm still seeing some of the same stuff, although at a much lower level. Frankly, my opinion is that it doesn't matter what I think of someone else who is doing something geeky. At a convention? Great! Playing D&D? Great? Missing what I think are common and obvious references? So what? It's got absolutely nothing to do with me. If someone says to me "I'm a geek!" then they're a geek. I do not need to ask questions or have them justify it in any way, it's simply not important to me.

And that, in a nutshell, is why this topic irritates me so much. I simply don't think about how geeky someone is when I meet them at GenCon, or playing boardgames in London, or online. Their gender is utterly irrelevant to me - what matters is the person in front of me, how they act, what they say, how they game. I'll treat an irritating or arrogant women exactly the same as an irritating or arrogant man.