Women Gamers vs. PCs/DMs Significant Others

[Queen_Dopplepopolis]

I think that assuming that individuals that fall into the "geek" culture are from any particular income level is inacurate... but, I could be wrong.

However, as a general percentage, I'd bet there are just as many geeks that fall into the lower, middle, and upper income levels...

Numbers-wise there are probably more in the middle class... but, that's only because there are more people *in* the middle class.

At current, our gaming group is pretty diverse so far as income goes... I am from a very, very poor family - hubby and I fit into the middle class now, though. We have the daughter of a wealthy family that does very well for herself (and her husband ), now. Additionally, the DM is from a wealthy (especially by South Dakota standards) farming family. There are representatives from every income class at our gaming table... and, in about equal proportions.

Back in the day when I was in high school, the people that tended to be "into" geek culture were the poor kids... maybe that's not true everywhere... but, that was certainly the case where I was from.

(Wow, the places threads can take you!)

 

[fusangite]

I think that assuming that individuals that fall into the "geek" culture are from any particular income level is inacurate... but, I could be wrong.

However, as a general percentage, I'd bet there are just as many geeks that fall into the lower, middle, and upper income levels...

I was afraid things would go this way. Class and income are linked but are not identical. Afrodyte and I are making observations about class not income. One of the features of being middle- rather than working-class is having cultural permission to have a very low income at times as an adult provided one is articling, interning or studying.

In certain industrial towns, in fact, working class people sometimes have a higher average income than middle class people do. There is a complex matrix of interaction between income, class and culture that I won't go into here. Suffice to say I am primarily using the term "middle class" to denote cultural rather than economic attributes.

 

[Queen_Dopplepopolis]

I was afraid things would go this way. Class and income are linked but are not identical. Afrodyte and I are making observations about class not income.

My apologies for the misunderstanding - I was defining the "classes" based on DungeonMasterCal's response, so I assumed the discussion was leaning towards income levels. It makes a little more sense, now... However, I would contend that gamers come from all cultural classes, as well. Even with altered definitions, the people in my group are incredibly varied so far as cultural identity goes - probably even moreso than looking at income levels...

But, as with everything that has come up in this thread, that is just our group.

 

[mhacdebhandia]

Currently, I play with three women, and know of at least six or seven others who play.

In my current groups, two of the women started playing because our social group at university is virtually identical with the core membership of the gaming and fantasy/science fiction society. In other words, they play because nearly all of their friends do, and they were constantly exposed to it. One of these women has actually been converted from resenting all the talk about gaming that goes on in social situations to playing enthusiastically (if infrequently because of the work and study schedule of the players).

The third woman I play with at the moment might have eventually followed that same path to roleplaying, but she started playing much sooner after joining the group because she started dating a gamer who encouraged her to play. Even so, she's not really gaming to be with him; he's not in the game I play with her.

Of the first two I mentioned, one is single and the other lives with her fiance, who does not game at all, whether it be roleplaying games, computer games, or even boardgames.

One of the women I don't play with no longer games at all; she's the bad player I've mentioned a few times here who can't separate her character's treatment by the other PCs from her treatment by the other players. She originally joined because her then-boyfriend was running a game at their apartment, but continued playing in that game and another he played in after they broke up, before quitting in frustration.

Others have been enticed into roleplaying by a DM's running a game catered to their most preteen fantasies - they're fairy princesses in a Changeling: the Dreaming campaign. They seem to be very into their characters' personalities and goals, which bodes well if they ever expand into other games and campaigns.

The only problem that my social circle has experienced recently with gamers who are dating each other is when one of my friends (with whom I play in one game) joined the fairy princess game basically to be with his girlfriend. It's a problem because, well, they make out all the time, apparently. I'm glad I'm not playing in that game, and were I running it I wouldn't have let him join - it's as distracting as someone getting bored and turning on the television or going to the next room to play a computer game.

 

[mhacdebhandia]

Double post. Moderators, please delete.