Re: An introduction

G'day guys,

Given the warnings about drowning the list I wasn't going to jump on
this
thread, but then you started bringing up the rarity of female gamers so
I
thought I'd better put my two cents in.

I'm 26, I'm currently doing a PhD in ecomathematics, I'm female and I
game
(though I usually have to resuscitate my opponent first if he hasn't
been
forewarned that he will be playing a girl!)

I started gaming when I was 4, with pegs (no really, I'm not taking the
piss). Unfortunately growing up on a farm out the back of beyond meant
that
no-one had the vaguest of ideas that playing with "toy-soldiers" was not
an
unusual thing. Thus, it degenerated into that unspoken of family secret,
until I hit Uni that is. Then in a moment of insanity I joined the
fencing
club, I promptly fell off a waterfall at their first club picnic (yeah
I'm
a real picture of grace and elegance in action - and pigs fly). Anyways
Derek happened to be at the bottom and he asked me out etc. 5 days later
I
stumble across his Starfleet Battles minis (carefully hidden so as not
to
cause me to panic and flee) - a door was opened, other people play too!
5
days after that I was playing Empire V (Napoleonics). Since then I've
rolled more ones than should be statistically possible, given the law of
averages, been called weird at my own wedding by my father-in-law (he
games
too, he just didn't like the fact I kept beating him), and got a ton of
lead - including my own FSE fleet and Dwarf, Naughty Nun, X-File alien
and
Russian armies and enough WWI planes to refight anything you like. I've
also play tested a few Piquet modules, had two children that think
gaming
is the natural order of things and I spend every Friday night ritually
poisoning half a dozen or so fellow gamers with my cooking before
heading
into FT battle.

My parents still don't talk about it. In fact my Dad (a lay preacher)
bought a book about why wargaming can lead you to devil worship, sigh.

Happy gaming,

Beth

P.S. The comment about asking your would be female gamer what colour to
paint you army is a good place to start, after all a girl wouldn't be
caught dead playing with an army who wasn't tastefully colour
co-ordinated ;P

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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