[Slightly OT] Too many beautiful women at GenCon!

[Mistwell]

Gaming experiencing same trend as Comics

I'm hoping that the same phenomenon that occurred in the Comic Book industry is now happening to the Gaming industry. Years ago, the San Diego Comic Con (the Comics equivalent of GenCon) had few women...about 10 men to every 1 woman. Gradually, that ratio has gotten better. This year, it was about 3 men to every 1.5-2 women, and at times seemed about 50-50 (with total attendance at an all time high).

The cause for this is varied, and not directly applicable to GenCon. Much of it can be attributed to the Con being dubbed the Pop Arts Convention, instead of just comics (this includes toys, movies, art, costumes, non-comics lectures, etc...). Some to a shift in comics away from superheroes and towards topics of more general interest to society at large. Some to an aging of collectors, who bring significant others and families. Some to a loss of stigma, from Hollywood making so many comics-related movies. And some to heavy advertising for many years on radio and television for the Con.

My hope is that this will continue to occur at GenCon, so that some day the gaming industry will boast a near 50-50 population as well. I think it's a healthy diversification for the industry, and more interesting to attend.

 

[Voneth]

He obviously has powers of mind control...

Add me to the jealousy listing. *chuckle*

FD

I love living in Florida. I see nice ladies like that all the time. I pretty much write it all that they are all attached, though.

 

[Furn_Darkside]

I love living in Florida. I see nice ladies like that all the time. I pretty much write it all that they are all attached, though.

Heh. To be honest, the last thing I want is to meet a woman. I am determined to be left alone by the world. But, New York has its fair share of beautiful women.

FD

 

[JeffK1966]

I've only gamed on a regular basis with one woman in my life, and she was considered attractive... not just gaming attractive, but attractive in general. She wasn't a great gamer/role player, but did well enough. She was certainly a surprise to us, as we had gamed with her boyfriend for several months before she showed up, and we thought of him as the typical gaming geek (though he was in grad school at Yale at the time...) And, for some reason, the gaming geeks at the table all seemed to play better/more nobly/heroically when she was there, too.

And, we do have a couple of guys at the table who have wives - one who doesn't game, and my wife who has shown occasional interest, but has no clue about gaming.

So, I'd imagine as the children of gamers grow up, there will be some attractive ones that do get into role playing, as seems to be the case from this thread.

Plus, I think sometimes the women that 10-15 years ago in their teens thought of gamers as strange geeks have grown up to realize that some gamers are smart & nice guys with good jobs and will be good husbands... and, then they get into gaming with them. Granted, there still are a few in our group that are fat, lazy, underachieving slobs - but not all of us.

 

[mmadsen]

I'd love to see more resources for NPC interactions, reactions, formulas for creating backgrounds for them, etc. More things that go into details when it comes to clothing, goods, etc (find me a single magical dress in the DMG). More details for dancing, etc, or anything else that tends to interests men more then women. I just feel like the D&D seems to support mostly guy's "interest" and for female's interest things, I have to create on my own from scratch.

I love your comment on the magical dress. At least there's plenty of magical jewelry. Anyway, if you look at the magic items handed out in a typical D&D campaign, they look a lot like the toys little boys played with: swords, armor, ray guns (magic wands), etc. If it helps you hunt, kill, or build, guys tend to like it, and it ends up in their fantasy game.

The Star Wars movies did a good job of mixing fast cars and laser swords with princesses in pretty dresses -- and both genders ate those movies up.

 

[Arravis]

You might get a kick out of this then

http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=17904

 

[mmadsen]

You might get a kick out of this then

http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=17904

Excellent work, Arravis. I'd completely ignored that thread, because I had no interest in "Interesting shopping in ancient Netheril" -- not knowing anything about ancient Netheril, and expecting D&D shopping to mean buying magic tac-nukes with chests of gold. What a pleasant surprise!

 

[Arravis]

I did another for my gamers last weekend... Interesting Shopping in Athkatla! I'll have to post it soon... it's nowhere near as big though.

The Constallation Dress was a big hit... black silk evening dress with a black-purple velvet insert on the corset in the front with 200 tiny diamonds sewn into the entire dress which maps out a constallation (or starfield) chosen by the client. It's got a silver-thread and black silk cord belt and a silver thread border on the skirt, plus black-lace arms with glittering silver at the end of the sleeves as well...

The Fate Candle wasn't as much of a hit, but I'll have to post that later .

 

[mmadsen]

I did another for my gamers last weekend... Interesting Shopping in Athkatla! I'll have to post it soon... it's nowhere near as big though.

Get to it! Chop, chop!

The Constallation Dress was a big hit... black silk evening dress with a black-purple velvet insert on the corset in the front with 200 tiny diamonds sewn into the entire dress which maps out a constallation (or starfield) chosen by the client. It's got a silver-thread and black silk cord belt and a silver thread border on the skirt, plus black-lace arms with glittering silver at the end of the sleeves as well...

On the topic of special clothing (not necessarily for women though) after reading a bit more about the Roman legions, it's even more clear that "boss" enemies should have lots of distinctive features: scarlet cloak, transverse helmet crest, sword on left rather than right, etc.

 

[William Ronald]

I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that gaming has been around for over a quarter century now. We are a known element in the popular culture, if sometimes one that is not always highly regarded.

As such, the population of gamers has grown. There also are not just more genre types, but gaming styles that range from hack-n-slash to intense role playing. (I like a mixture of everything.) As such, this is bound to attract more people.

I do notice that women at cons pay attention to men who dress in something other than jeans and a t-shirt.

On a tangential note, I let the young women who participates in the costume contest as Duct Tape Girl know that this site had a link to an article from the Milwaukee Sentinel Journal for which she was interviewed. I also gave her advice on how to get a copy of the paper. She was glad to be able to get a copy of the article.

(General rule, most women appreciate gentlemen.)