"I'm Here to Game"

Last Thursday I attended two seminars about women and gaming at Gen Con. The seminars at Gen Con were really one of the best aspects of being there. I don't often get to sit in with a group of people who know games and discuss issues inherent to the culture and,or process of gaming.

Girls Just Want to Get Their Game On

The panel for this seminar included women with a wide range of gaming experience. There was a panel member who works for Wizards of the Coast, a woman from Game Salute, All Games Considered, Married Gamers, and Geek's Dream Girl. They recorded the panel for Game Salute and handled the session as an open Q&A.

From this panel I learned that there's a trend for librarians to run RP's for kids. That's pretty exciting news for me. We heard stories ranging from playing Magic in the back of chemistry class to women feeling free to be ultra-violent in games to reduce stress in life. One interesting story came from a woman who played a female character back in the early days of D&D. During a session the DM brought out a male NPC who was from a culture that controlled women. From then on while this NPC was present her character was not allowed to look at him. Those are all the details I know, but wow, there is a lot to unpack with a story like that.

One last tidbit. I was excited to hear that the man sitting in front of me had written his dissertation on women, sexism and gaming.

Best Quote of the Seminar: "I'm here to Game".

Women in Gaming

I had to hurry to get to the next panel and was glad to see some friends had arrived as well. This panel again included women with a wide range of gaming experience. There was someone from Gaming Angels present, a PhD student, and several other professionals. My notes on this panel are a little patchier because we got there late enough that we had to sit in the back of a huge room and I couldn't always hear what was going on. (My hearing issue, not the fault of the staff).

This panel covered everything from gender issues in cross-play during LARPS to defining the hard core nature of those who play casual games.

Something that came up again and again was women being demanded to prove themselves both as competent gamers and even as women. Why do women have the burden of having to prove themselves to be as good or better at things? What makes men the default? These gender issues are not unique to games, but are prevalent in American culture.

Many women reported that Geek Culture was more accepting of people who are different than wider American culture. I was delighted to hear one panelist compare it to the Metal community. When I got into the metal scene I found the people to be the nicest people I had ever been around. Geek culture can be the same way.

This panel also discussed the phenomena of industries that look for gamers. One of the panelists had secured her position because of her experience with online gaming. The issues of management and technical skill that gaming takes can translate in the right industry to valuable skills as an employee.

Ultimately we seemed to agree that everyone had stereotypes that they needed to confront. I heard several women critiquing the appearance of other women and wondering how to relate to them. This is a hard issue. Hopefully, the internet and events like Gen Con are helping women connect with others. I argue that the internet is our greatest cultural potential for furthering true equality.

Conclusion

I hope panels like these happen again next year. It was eye-opening to hear from other people and get a variety of experiences and opinions discussed.

Fishnets and Female Characters!

Here it is, the inaugural issue of Zatanna.

Tub woh si ti?

Maybe we often miss or overlook the layout of the panels and the gutter in comic books, but they are crucial to the story. I really got into reading manga because of way the panels moved in many of the titles.

DC Comics has not disappointed me in its creative layouts. For example in Zatanna the panels sometimes have a clear, white gutter between scenes that then switches to floating over other panels. When Zatanna reads someone's mind in the story each panel is surrounded by a smoky looking and messy frame that really emphsizes the action and what Zatanna is doing with her powers.


Ok, what about the fishnets? They come out when Zatanna has to confront the story's villain. Gl

For a first issue of a series I thought this book worked rather well. There wasn't a lot of back-story exposition and yet we still got comfortably situated into Zatanna's reality.

The ending promises much more to come.

Finally, I had an observation about the two big American comic book publishers that came out of my pulls for this week. A few years ago I passed the time in my life that I happily read media that contained mostly male driven plots and played games with only male PC's. It had never bothered me, but I also don't believe in gender roles aside from the social constructs of individual cultures. I don't fit into what the American female gender role is and I don't care.

At some point in my mid to late twenties I realized that I wanted to see more female characters just being people and doing things like any one else. I realized that male was the default in almost anything I liked and I started to realize that maybe that's what kept so many other women away from the media I liked. Maybe the media saturation of our culture with traditional, outdated ideas about gender is a contributing factor to staunch gender divides and all those related problems. I've always just felt like a "person" and not one particular gender, although due to what I liked I often found myself cast in the role of being masculine.

Well, Marvel Comics declared 2010 their year of women and have done several things to spotlight women artists and have put out some good one-shot titles with female characters. I think drawing attention to the issue and writing about is important. Meanwhile, DC is just releasing a bevy of great comic books with female leads. Both approaches are awesome.