[semi OT] Women wargamers -longish

>She (meaning women) is much more
>likely to choose (to use an example we ALL know) an Eldar over a Space
>marine force simply because the mini's are more "elegant and graceful"
in
>appearance.  Same thing with ships, she is more likely to go with a
Vorlon
>ship than an Earth Force destroyer.  Once they get into the game and
start
>to play they may then get interested in more "realistic" based games
with
>rugged, warlike mini's that are about effect, not appearance.
>	For the record, this is not a generalization, it is a
specification, based
>on my personal experiences with women gamers, it may not represent
women as
>a whole, but it does represent those that I know.
>
>Later,
>
>Ryan, aka Shrike

G'day guys,
	I'd tend to agree here. I've often been asked why more women
don't get
into wargaming and based on personal opinion it comes down to: 

a) The look of the thing. For instance take my armies/fleets:
FT - FSE because they look nice, they taper and catch the eye and they
give
a feeling of power without
    having huge knobby bits or being bulky. I'm also doing up a home
grown
fleet, for my 
    invented minor power the Independent Antarctic States, using an
assortment of modified and recycled 
    minatures which were chosen because they all look sleek. 
DS/SG - haven't actually got any for these yet, but I have ordered a
complete set of "The minatures are
    out there.." from Nic to be used for at least one of these games. I
chose them because they were
    different to what the guys would have, but mostly because they're
cute.
Napoleonic - Saxons and Russians, the first because I like their
uniforms
and the second because I like

   bearded men (long story).
Fantasy - Dwarves because they're cute and have beards.
Ancients - Persians, Wallace's scots and Sparticus' slave revolt army,
the
first because I'm fascinated by
  the period (and the beards) the second for familial resons and the
last
because its unconventional, Kirk
  was a hunk, and its all too often underestimated by my opponents.
Necromunda - Nun's with guns (all of them) + the naked one, mostly
because
the official figures sucked
 (excuse my terminology). The only decent set were the Van Saar and my
husband got to them first so
  I had to find something else and the Nuns were unconventional and
worth a
laugh.

Most women just don't find squat, heavily armoured/gunned things
appealing.
I know this sounds absurd, but it has to feel right. the closest I can
get
to explaining this is that it shouldn't look like a rhino, it should
look
like a panther (if you're going to catch the average woman's eye) - and
that's the animals I'm referring to (I have this funny feeling that
tanks
or something share these names). Either that or it has to have character
(i.e. be cute, humourous, unexpected or brightly coloured). I think this
is
why female wargamers like dragon figures so much.

b) Abillity to suspend disbelief. Its much easier to get a woman to play
if
its at least one step back from today. Thus pre-WWI (maybe with the
exception of bi-planes) and Space or Fanatasy based games appeal - at
least
to me and the other female wargamers I've come across. I don't know what
it
is exactly, but if its too much like what the military is envisaged to
be
like now then I'm not interested. For instance I love FT, but I'm fairly
ambivalent about SG, DS and if given the choice would pick FT or another
period/genre altogether. 
	Maybe I don't speak for all women here, but this does seem to be
one of
the biggest turn offs for the women I know, or have observed, who have
ever
come into contact with wargaming (whether they then tried it for
themselves
or not).

c) The shouting. I'm not having a go here (honestly), but a lot of women
just don't like the arguments that go with playing wargames or the "well
if
I'd had the chance this would have happened" posturing that seems to
occur
alot post game. I've learnt to deal with the first and I now just ignore
the second, but they really did bug me for ages!

d) The "she's just a girl" attitude. Now I know that many guys don't
think
like this anymore (well at least not after they've had their butt kicked
a
couple of times), but this is still a very pervasive attitude amongst
wargamers. Though to be fair, its either because they're from a
background
where this attitude is accepted, they're too young to know any better
(yet)
or they've come along to gaming to escape the wife/mother and don't
expect
to run into one there. 

Basically though if you want more women to game then my advise is;
they'll
often need gentle coaxing at the start (push the fun, before the realism
side of things); they need colour and grace to catch the eye; and that
they're not being stupid or flippant they just have a VERY different
perspective to you. Though you should watch for this, because we know
this
and we'll use it, after all "All's fair in love and war" :) 

Hope this helps all of those out there who are developing figures or
games
or just trying to attract someone of the fairer sex to their gaming
table :)

Happy gaming,

Beth

------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Elizabeth Fulton
c/o CSIRO Division of Marine Research
GPO Box 1538
HOBART 
TASMANIA 7001
AUSTRALIA
Phone (03) 6232 5018 International +61 3 6232 5018
Fax (03) 6232 5199 International +61 3 6232 5199

email: beth.fulton@marine.csiro.au