MORE THAN WENCHES & WIVES: WOMEN IN GAMING

  Introduction 

     When I first started gaming at the age of 16, I encountered a fairly mixed group of people and nobody made a big deal about my being a girl.  In real life, I knew girls who roleplayed and online I regularly dealt with players of both genders, so I was just another gamer who happened to be female.  When I discovered Dungeons and Dragons at 21 I found myself in a mixed group and just took it as natural.  But when I started to take part in D&D social circles and message boards, I quickly heard about The Great Woman Shortage.  A lot of gamers complained about not being able to find women who were willing to give the hobby a try.  As I heard it, D&D had been a fairly male-dominated game for some time and though women played, they were vastly outnumbered and rare.

      At first I thought these people were mistaken.  I mean, my first D&D groups were nicely mixed, so the shortage had to be in people's heads, right?  But as time went on I heard about a lack of female gamers from men all over the country.  I also couldn't help but notice how guys looked at me when I went into gaming stores.  It's not just that they sized me up.  They looked at me like I didn't belong there.  They looked at me as though they expected me to be bored, or shopping for someone else, or lost.  I also started to notice that I was the only woman in the store most times, and I started to think that perhaps I should put my musings down in writing.

      When I first wrote a women in gaming section for this web site, I wrote from my own limited experience without knowing how limited it was.  I hadn't been playing D&D for that long and I'd only gamed with less than a handful of different groups.  A letter from a friend made me aware of my blind spot and caused me to rethink many things.  I started to think about how I saw women portrayed in gaming books and by Dungeon Masters.  I started to think about how I wanted to portray women in my games.  I also started to remember all of the women I'd interacted with because of roleplaying.

      I started this section out of a concern for the shortage of female gamers, and I will still discuss such things in the articles below.  But I am now far more concerned with how women are treated in the hobby, as characters and as participants.  I believe that there will always be new female roleplayers, even if there aren't as many as we'd like.  But if they enter a hobby in which female characters are chronically helpless and female gamers are treated poorly, it is unlikely they'll stay.  I am not just interested in the quantity of women in the hobby, but the quality of their interactions, and so I will be addressing as much as I can about all of these things in the articles below.

Does Gender Matter?

      Some people are bound to ask why anyone makes a fuss about female gamers.  How much can gender matter in a hobby in which people pretend to be other people in fantastic settings?  On one hand, I would like to be able to say that gender doesn't matter at all and doesn't influence the hobby, because that would mean that both genders were being treated equally, represented fairly, and encouraged across the board.  On the other hand, I've seen that these things just aren't so and I've also heard the experiences of others.  For many roleplayers, whether they realize it or not, gender is a factor that influences many things.  Some things are subtle, like the portrayal of female NPCs.  Other things are not so subtle, like groups that actively discourage females from playing.  And it's not all bad for women - some gamers treat females better than males in their groups (which is problematic, but can be nice for the ladies).  But if women are being treated differently in or out of character, then gender is relevant and should be explored.

Girl, Female, Woman, Bitch - Which is Which?

      As I proceed, I'll be using a number of different terms to talk about women in gaming.  Sometimes I'll just talk about "women" in gaming as a whole, although I know that there are also young girls involved in the hobby.  When I talk about "girls" in gaming, I'll probably be referring to all women, whether they're young or not.  I will probably even talk about "female gamers" or "females," for short.  Why the variation?  Well, first off, it makes the text easier to read.  If I spoke of nothing but the female gamers who play female characters who talk about female things, the redundancy would probably make you grit your teeth.  But I'll use different terms because I'm trying to encompass a lot.  On one hand, I'm talking about people who were born female, who present themselves as female, and so forth.  But on the other hand I'm also talking about the cultural aspect of being a woman, as well as being a woman in the gaming subculture.  One word just ain't gonna cut it.

      Last but not least, I will also be talking about the ways in which women can be problematic in gaming.  Just as I have encountered and heard about troublesome male gamers, I've also found disruptive female gamers.  I have encountered problems with the wives and girlfriends of men who game and I know that I am not alone.  So I'll be talking about women many would describe outright as "bitches," but I'll be doing more than namecalling.  I'll be trying to look constructively at common problems.

My Articles

     Please note:  I am in the process of trying to construct better and more comprehensive articles for this section.  This is taking longer than I'd originally planned because of real life duties and I apologize for any delay.  As soon as they are complete, I will link them from here and announce them on the front page.

	Women In Character: A look at female characters, including their roles in society, pregnancy, power, and other aspects.
	Women Out of Character: A look at female gamers, their history in the hobby, their impact on games, and more.

Other Women In Gaming

      When I first started this web site I couldn't find many other sites by or about female roleplayers.  I am happy to say that that's changed and there are competent, engaging sites written by a variety of different women.  Whether you think gender matters or not, you might want to look around for other sites that address women in gaming to get a broader perspective.