Subject: RE: Girls in Magic Date: Tue, 9 Jun 1998 10:24:10 -0400 From: "Novosel, Martin" To: "'fkusumot@ix.netcom.com'" Before my response to this article. Let me say a few things. Cathy, I agree with you 100% that more females should be involved in Magic. It would be great for the game as well as the players and would add imensely to the experience of Magic. But hoping for females, girls(I will call you women) to become a larger % of Magic players is a pipe dream. I have been playing this game for several years. And before this, I have tinkered with RPGs, miniatures, etc. The RPG and gaming industry has been around for a long time. In the decades that this arena has flourished, the number of woman participants should have (and I beleive has) stabilized and its current number. Simply stating that the overwhelming majority of the participants is male. This has had over 20 years to settle and the numbers never change. Magic is different from RPGs and other games so lets discuss it separately. To illustrate my points, I will use examples that I have encountered with my wife. I have been married for a year and have been with her for the four previous years. My wife is an extremely intelligent person and can talk me in circles. She can outwit just about anyone I have met. She has the mind to play the game. My wife, in this respect, is an exception. Most women are not raised to have calculating, analytical minds. Ever go to a war history class in college? I guarantee that 90+% of the people in that class are men. Why? Because most women do not want to go over great military strategy. They are simply not interested. Women would rather discuss the social ramifications of war than the war itself. This is the choice between attatching to the tactical or the emotional. Men and women are toatally different mental and social animals. Thats just the way it is. I could go into a 20 page biological and pysiological dissertation, but I won't. Women are biologicaly less likeky to enjoy a game of Magic the gathering. At this point I will refute Cathy's arguement about the problem solver's mind. I am going to get specific so if you want, skip to the next section. Men are better logical problem solvers than women. It is biological fact. It has to do with a structure in the brain called the corpus collasum(CC). This if the bridge between the two halves of the brain. A women's CC is more developed than a man's. That means women can solve problems faster than a man but they cannot tell you why. Their brain has gone through the thought processes so fast that they cannot comprehend the steps to solving that problem. Ever hear a woman say, "Just because" during a discussion. This is why women have a harder time explaining problems. Men's minds must take a slow, logical approach to a problem. They, step by step, form solutions. Magic takes a slow, step by step, approach to overcoming the logical dilema that they are faced with. If you do not believe me, ask any geometry teacher who can solve proofs better. He will say men. As for right answers on a test, the women catch and surpass the men. Actually, the CC explains a lot of the differences between the sexes. Ask a biology professor or teacher, it is fascinating. OK. Bio 101 is over. Back to the topic. Lets look at the mental aspects of this discussion. Most women are raised to be the more gentle and fairer sex. Is this right? I am not going to get into that. All I am saying is that boys got G.I. Joes and girls got Barbies or Cabbage Patch Kids. Magic, the game, is about a battle, a violent display of death and carnage. Women in general do not want to engage in this kind of conflict. Why would they? Most women have not been social programmed to want to do this. On the rare occasions when a females is interested, other problems arise. Most people remove themselves from this because we realize that this is a game and it doesn't affect us. Don't tell that to my wife when I terror her Shivan Dragon. Men say, "Damn, you killed my dragon... I'll summon a vampire, your turn." Women say, "I cannot beleive that you would do that to my dragon." I know, I know. I am not stereotyping, I have seen this. Women have a harder time detaching themselves emotionaly from the game and take defeat much harder than men. Why would a female want to play this game competitively? She is going to take her lumps (like all of us did) at the beginning, get discouraged and quit. Any women who make it this far are truely an exception. Lets look at the social aspects. The average magic tournament crowd is the following: Die hard magic players. Kids. Normal casual players. And the strange ones. These groups overlap but the types are the same. My wife has a hard time getting into conversations like, "and then he fireblasted a wall of blossoms...... during the otherr guy's attack phase." "Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha." She understands the jokes and the talk but she just doesn't care. This isn't so bad, but when half the crowd has purple or no hair and the other half stinks to high hell, I even wonder why I am there. Don't get me wrong, if you like purple hair, great. Power to the people. But bathe. Talking to several females who like Magic, most say that the other gamers drive them away from the game. I am sorry but the diehard gamer base, purple hair and all, are not going to change. So if these women and my wife do not want to play in the tournaments, I do not blame them. This is perfectly understandable. In order to be succesful in Magic, you need to be dedicated and a bit obsessive. This game takes time and a lot of it. In order for me to play at the level I want, my wife picks up the slack for me and gives me the time I need to play, practice, etc. If both of us wanted to play PT caliber, nothing would ever get done, the cat would starve and the oil would never get changed in the cars. She is frankly more interested in other things than this game. Also, men are more likely able to obsess on a game. Women are usually to practical to obsess on something silly like that, they are too worried about something way more important than a mana ratio. In closing, I would like to say that men and women are different. This is what makes the opposite sex so wonderful. Lets not try to coerce females into a male dominated game just because they should. Lets revell in our differences. Magic is not easy, so playing at a high level takes sacrifice. If women want to play, they will. Female determination is a powerful thing. But the bottom line is this, if you are not interested in the game, then you are not going to play. This is the way it is. Fighting biology and years of social influence is difficult. Although it would be nice to see more women on Magic, it simply will not happen. Biologist in the box, Martin Novosel