Single women gamers

[Buttercup]

4) DON'T HAVE WOMEN IN CHAINMAIL BIKINIS!!!
5) Don't show all NPC women as brainless bedtoys. Yes to get that historical feel most women will have more of a subservient postion concerning men, but even some commoner women can be strong minded and at least mistress of the home life.

As for what has changed.....biggest change appears to be the use of she/her instead of he/him in some products. I know this is to try to be more politically correct, but in my opinion is just annoying. Male pronouns have always been the norm for uknown persons and making every other one female just seems trite. I am all for female examples of PCs, NPCs etc, but don't stick em in just to be PC.

4) Amen, sister!
5) Yes to this one too. Although in medieval England, women were allowed to own property, join guilds, and take apprentices. Some of them became rich in their own right, and no one was concerned about it. So if one is going for historical accuracy, having female shopkeepers, guildmasters and whatnot is perfectly reasonable.

Re the male pronoun always having been the norm for a person of unknown gender, did you know that Shakespeare used "they" instead of "he" in those circumstances? As in, "If a person is sickly, they can't help it." If it was good enough for the bard, it's good enough for me.

 

[Buttercup]

So, I have a few questions for the women on the boards. What are some of the ways that men can make role playing more accessible and enjoyable to women? Also, how has gaming and the gaming environment changed for women since you started playing RPGs?

This has been asked before, and I'm never really sure how to answer it. One problem is that lots of women who might be interested haven't ever been given the opportunity.

Another problem is that young teens still think of the opposite sex as icky in many cases. If a group of 12 year old girls sees a group of 12 year old boys playing D&D, those girls are going to roll their eyes and go practice putting on makeup instead. It would be useful if we could find a way to market the game to 12 year old girls too. Don't know what that would be. But I wasn't a typical 12 year old. I liked rockets, and Star Trek, and books about history as well as ballet and teen pop stars.

In general I think we need to find the women who have the standard set of interests you find in most RPers, such as SF & Fantasy fiction, history, mythology, that certain set of movies we all love, and so forth. Then we need to invite them to play. Teach them the game without overwhelming them with rules, and without hitting on them, and I think the work is done.

I also think that we women who already play should make it a point to bring new women into the hobby. This goes for men who can behave too. I know that I would have been playing 20 years ago if I had been invited to play by anyone who wasn't a smelly, scary freak. Sadly, only the scary types invited me, so I never did. How many other potential women gamers are also hiding out there? Lots, I'll bet.

 

[Buttercup]

A question then to the ladies on the 'boards - how much of your own personality goes into your characters and their motivations? Also, do you exclusively play female characters?

I think the first part of your question isn't related to gender, but to how good a RPer the person is. Those of us who aren't so good will probably play ourselves over and over. Those of us who are very good will probably play characters whose personalities diverge quite a bit from our own.

So far, I've only played female characters. I don't have any urge to play a male, but who knows what the future may bring.

 

[Buttercup]

ROTFLMAO

I don't know if its just me but after posting I read the previous posts about sex drive and a pop up advert for Viagra..... well popped up.

Inez, ENWorld doesn't use pop ups. If you are getting them while surfing here, you've got some spyware on your computer. Better look into that. I'm just guessing that you downloaded and installed kazaa?

 

[hong]

I think the first part of your question isn't related to gender, but to how good a RPer the person is. Those of us who aren't so good will probably play ourselves over and over. Those of us who are very good will probably play characters whose personalities diverge quite a bit from our own.

I don't think it's so much a case of being "good" at RPing, as what floats your boat. Some people like creating lovingly detailed characters with fleshed-out histories and backstories (a "method actor" to use Robin Laws' terminology). Then you get people who basically want to get into fights (a "buttkicker"), or just want to collect shiny objects ("powergamers").

In all cases, though, gender doesn't have anything to do with it. It's possible to be a method actor and play only male or female characters, because you don't think you can "accurately portray" a male or female (whatever that means). Conversely, it's possible to be a buttkicker or powergamer and cross the fence now and then. It's not like most games these days put sex-based constraints on what characters you can play; and a sword is a sword regardless of what the character wielding it is.

So far, I've only played female characters. I don't have any urge to play a male, but who knows what the future may bring.

Character's I've played since 3E came out:
- male half-orc barbarian
- male human tank fighter
- male human martial artist (sword guy)
- female bamboo spirit folk martial artist/blade dancer
- male human archer

I like to get into fights.

 

[S'mon]

Re: Re: ...about to alienate 97% of the female readers

I guess it's a good thing we don't game together then. And it's even better that we don't work together. I work with men and women, sitting on committees together, working on joint projects, supervising and being supervised. In the past 10 years, I only recall one instance of a guy who tried to sexualize everything. I thought he was an annoying jerk, actually. The rest of the guys I work with just get down to business, as do I.

The thing that I think isn't healthy is the notion that men and women cannot be friends or coworkers without sex entering into the picture.

Yeah, I agree. Personally I've never noticed any sexual tension in ANY mixed-gender D&D game I've played in, and I've played a few. By and large D&D doesn't IMO engender that kind of thing unless you actively go looking for it. Vampire LARPs, maybe. Not D&D.

On the topic of staring - if a woman is wearing a low-cut outfit it's hard for most straight men not to stare! It doesn't matter whether it's your wife, girlfriend, or a stranger. Since the purpose of such outfits is to draw attention to that area, I can't see that it's something to condemn men for, either. While it may be possible to hold an intellectual conversation with someone showing a lot of cleavage, it's harder than if they're demurely clad. That seems like simple fact to me. It's not a question of good or bad, at most it's a question of appropriateness - eg I wouldn't want my wife to wear an outfit showing lots of cleavage to the office, and I don't want men staring at her at the office, either, whatever she's wearing. At a party or social gathering it's different. Luckily she strongly agrees with me.

 

[S'mon]

I do find the use of the female pronoun a little strange, as I have a Bachelor's in English. However, I suppose I can live with it, even if it seems to be a bit PC. (Pity English never developed a gender neutral pronoun.)

It did 'they' as third-person singular gender-neutral. However this was replaced by 'he' in common use. I still use 'they', though.

 

[Theuderic]

I use "he" it requires less work on my pronouns and people understand what I mean.

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

Kamikaze:

Are the pills that you're taking, Red, or Blue?

 

[Buttercup]

Re: Re: Re: ...about to alienate 97% of the female readers

On the topic of staring - if a woman is wearing a low-cut outfit it's hard for most straight men not to stare! It doesn't matter whether it's your wife, girlfriend, or a stranger. Since the purpose of such outfits is to draw attention to that area, I can't see that it's something to condemn men for, either.

I agree completely. I should have made clear, I suppose, that I was talking about having my chest stared at even though I wasn't wearing anything provocative.