Anyone who is interested in D&D, the subject of women in gaming or roleplaying games in general can’t help but have run across the storm of controversy surrounding Jonathan Tweet’s recent comments.

Well, I’m all of those things, and I have an opinion about everything, which is why Propagandroid invited me to be a guest blogger here at The Gamer Dome. Before I continue, I’ll say a few brief words about myself. Most importantly for this venue, I’m a gamer. Not a “girl gamer” by the way. A gamer. I love D&D as a player and DM. I love Euro board games. I love computer games. I love Rock Band. I’m also an educated professional woman, a dog owner and the wife of a really wonderful man. And did I mention that I’m opinionated?

Ok so the other day on Purple Pawn I found a link to the article in Cerise Magazine about 4E and gender inclusiveness, which quoted Jonathan Tweet. The quote and comments about it are spreading across the blogsphere, with each post and comment seemingly angrier and more offended than the last.

I must confess that I don’t understand all the fuss. Let’s deconstruct Mr. Tweet’s comment, shall we?

The most extensive form of the quote I found was from this blog.

Roleplaying, as currently construed, appeals disproportionately to guys because it’s mostly about the things that men evolved to enjoy: hunting and warfare. It’s about a group assembling to undertake (imaginary) risks for glory and dominance. It’s the same reason that team sports, such as basketball, are more male, whereas women compete to be judged beautiful and worthy (ice skating, gymnastics). TCGs are even more male-oriented than RPGs as they’re about direct conflict with little to no story or personality. When I was in Finland 5 years ago, the TCG players were typified as guys without girlfriends. LARPing has more female appeal because it’s more about personalities, relationships, clothing, and make-up. Finally, the quality of gamer men is a factor. A Finnish gamer I met said she got into gaming as a way to meet good-looking guys. The US gaming scene has less to offer along those lines.

I’m going to take this sentence by sentence. First, can any of us argue that roleplaying in its current form does, in fact, appeal disproportionately to men? No, I don’t think we can. Is that because it’s focuses on hunting and warfare? And are men predisposed by evolution to enjoy those more than women? Yes, to both. I really don’t see anything controversial there. I mean, we know that in Neolithic cultures men did most of the hunting and women did most of the gathering. Nothing to get up in arms about yet.

Do roleplaying games focus on group risks? Is the object glory and dominance? Well, pretty much. I love to kill things and take their stuff, you know? And I can get behind doing it for (in game) glory, but I will admit that the dominance thing goes over my head. I don’t think that way. Do men play to act out their dominance fantasies? Who knows, and frankly, who cares. Still, it’s not an offensive concept as far as I can see.

Ok now for the team sports vs. ice skating comment. Regardless of the fact that some women do actually enjoy playing basketball, the statistics clearly show that the men’s sport is more popular to play and to watch. And how many men do you know who rearrange their schedule to watch Olympic figure skating? Yeah, I thought so. Bottom line, Mr. Tweet stated something else obvious.

As for TCGs, can anyone deny that they, too, appeal overwhelmingly to guys? I’ve watched Magic tournaments before, and the players were at least 95% male. I played M:tG as a computer game, and enjoyed it (even though it was buggy as hell) but I can’t imagine enjoying the CCG, at least in part because the other players are not my first choice of people to hang out with, demographically speaking. Angst-ridden teenage boys? Are you kidding me?

And let’s talk about LARPing. Please, don’t try to deny that LARPing is about costumes, personalities and drama. I mean, what else is it about? And people who like that sort of experience are far more likely to be women than the people who play tabletop D&D. So again, I’m perplexed about how stating the facts is offensive.

Finally, Mr. Tweet made a comment about the quality of gamer men. I’m sorry, but if you think he’s off base, take a stroll through the dealer hall at GenCon. Every year since GenCon has been in Indy, Peter Adkison has felt the need to suggest in the program guide that people should bathe and put on clean clothes daily. Why do you suppose he keeps harping on that, if gamer men are just like everybody else?

So now we can see that Jonathan Tweet’s comments are not only inoffensive, they’re also grounded in reality. Even if you don’t agree with his statements, why on earth would you get offended by them?

We won’t ever bring women into the hobby if we can’t talk honestly about the things that keep them away.