Women who Roleplay at Convetions: Stalking Incidents?

[Rashak Mani]

As a male gamer I must confess to a more than a normal dosage of gawking myself... somehow the male to female ratio is still very very unbalanced. When a good or even medium looking girl gamer shows up its impossible not to gawk a little.... sorry.

Stalking thou I havent heard of... most of these so called nerdy types are so scared of women they wouldnt stalk them. I know the japanese have a more open view of sex and other stuff than westerners... and suffer much more social isolation problems as well. Could be the "explanation". Dont suppose being nerd in japan is the same thing as in the US too....

In Brazil I can say women that I have heard of have never suffered any stalking at all... not even minor harrasment like the bookstore story.

 

[Piratecat]

I've experienced some creepiness during a session from some of the less socially favored among us, but have never had a problem that extended beyond it.

Except for that weird guy who keeps emailing you.

Oh wait; that's me. Never mind.

 

[Americancyco]

stalking

Ive been known to follow hot chicks back to their room then make phone calls at 3 am. Did I just admit to that????

No seriously I have been to different conventions both CCG and RPG with my wife and have seen lots of guys that just start to follow my wife around or start up a conversation and wont let it go. My wife is really good at letting people know when she's not interested but there has been a time or two that I needed to "save her" from the guy that just wouldn't shut the Hell up. But over all nothing that bad.

I have noticed some DMs just can't seem to be fair to female gamers and some male players just need to be the "Hero" to all females in the group. I have even been in a game where a female player was RPing a male character just to keep the "weirdos" away. Was kinda strange for me because I kept caling her character a "her" but she was cool with it. But there was that one guy in our group that just needed to save the girl, even though "she" was a tough ass male Ranger.

On a side story I have been to both Star Wars celebrations and I have to say these have had the largest amount of females I have ever seen at a convention and for the most part the guys don't seem as girl crazy. Maybe because most people are older or we're too busy acting like little kids running around saying "oh look at this and that and that and owww there's a R2D2"

 

[Sanackranib]

stalkers

its been my expirence that there are always guys who are willing to look after (keep safe from this sort of thing) and who expect nothing in return. I have done this myself. size can be imposing and when some guy over 6'2" 350 lbs tells you move along the lady's not interested, most guys would be abligeing, and move along. remember a lot of us have wives and or sisters.

 

[Tewligan]

(CDs, and/or DVDs clearly need to be in little stacks, arranged by what order you play them in the CD player, right? RIGHT!?)

Oh, that's just silly. Everyone knows that the entire collection needs to be in alphabetical order, even if this means shifting everything one CD space to the right whenever a new title is added. And, of course, the disc has to be placed into the case such that any writing or art on the face of the disc itself is right side up when the case is opened - no reading upside down when you open MY media, nosiree! THAT'S the only proper way to do things...

 

[Azure Trance]

Oh, that's just silly. Everyone knows that the entire collection needs to be in alphabetical order, even if this means shifting everything one CD space to the right whenever a new title is added. And, of course, the disc has to be placed into the case such that any writing or art on the face of the disc itself is right side up when the case is opened - no reading upside down when you open MY media, nosiree! THAT'S the only proper way to do things...

Funny, I just finished re-arranged my D20 collection by publisher, rulebook, adventure module, fantasy, and non-fantasy. Hardcover before softcover.

(Three Stooges) Whoop whoop woo-woo-woo

 

[Creamsteak]

I have heard of no such things with gaming. I do know (as a guy) we tend think with the wrong glands. I know some of the strangest people I have ever met were at game conventions and (I hate to say this and will get heck for it) many gamers are socially retarded nerdy guys whom have girl/relationship issues. But I hope this artical you referred to isn't suggesting this is common. This can happen with anything. I just barelu got over the whole Washington DC sniper thing where some rich lawyer politician wanna-be suggest the shooter had to play D&D.

I found the greatest article on this particular subject, but I don't think it was online. Something to do with the "social training of men" to desire women more than job security, money, etc.

Also, on a side note, I'm thinking I'm alone on this one...

but, have you ever been the guy who is with the stalker? A "friend" of mine and three other friends (notice the lack of quotes around the three others), were attending an amusement park. The "friend" kept leading the group everywhere, and I thought nothing of it, till the third or fourth (I don't think I noticed every time) time we were behind the same pair of girls from this guys school. What was really odd, was that he selected the place we were going, the time of day, and everything else. It was at this point I realized what was going on, and I didn't quite know what to say at the time. However, at the same moment, one of my friends pointed out the "friend's" activities to everyone else... and soon enough we all resolved to return home. I only think I encountered the "friend" on two or three more occations, as he attended another school. It was just one of those, "What the hell?" kinda moments.

 

[Wolfspirit]

I've got some attractive female friends who are gamers, luckily we're all Ren-Fest types so they know how to handle the drooling guys (hey, it is possible that Rennies are more civilized than gamers? naaaaaah). However, I guess at Dragon*con we had what might be considered stalkers. There were a group of 3 guys that had been drinking heavily from a pony keg, carrying on, and basically ogling the girls present in their various states of undress. If you've been to Dragon*Con you know what I mean.

Anyway, we hear from the lady working the band's booth next to us that the guys had come back while we were gone for the night. Appearantly they made some very nasty comments about the way two of our group were dancing around in bodices, and some more specifics. And were asking where the two girls were at. The lady then practicaly jumped over the table, at which time one of the security men happens by, and asks the lady (who happened to be one of the people in charge of the event) if there was a problem. After letting the officer in on what was going on, he took the three for a walk outside

Personally, I'm 6'6" and have arms the size of some people's legs. I know that I can be intimidating to those people that don't know me, so I try to avoid that as much as possible.

But I'm really just a big teddy bear

 

[Chun-tzu]

It's kind of the thing you'd normally chock up to Japanese Male Social Retardation (along with the usual gamer stereotypes like not bathing, being grossly obese, not changing clothes, etc).

Don't place 100% of the blame on the guys. Sure, there are sexually maladjusted guys who don't know how to interact with women, and make very bad decisions. There are also sexually maladjusted females, who may be extremely sexually repressed, and will attribute anything a guy does to perverted or deviant intentions.

Both American and Japanese cultures are sexually repressed, IMHO. By that, I mean far too few people have a healthy attitude toward sexuality (of course, any definition of "healthy" is subjective).

 

[Rashak Mani]

Funny that we always assume that Nerdy types like RPGs... have we ever considered that it might be the opposite... that the cool guys dont like RPGs ?

Which way around is it after all ?

Still... women are a tad complicated and nerds very shy ... not a good combination for interaction.