Also late, and probably not directly on topic (is there a Gamers list
archive?):

Outside of my youth, when I started playing D&D with my sister and three of
my neighborhood friends, I've played in or refereed two groups with women in
the mix. One group was split 50/50, and was composed of 3 (sometimes 4)
couples. The other group was composed of mostly men with sometimes none,
sometimes one, and sometimes two women.

In all cases I've noticed no difference in gaming style that could be
attributed to male/femaleness. Virtually every difference seemed more driven
by personality traits unrelated to gender.

On a tangential note: It seems to me that more important to the success of a
gaming group than a question such as gender is finding people you *want* to
play with, and that are compatible with you in terms of personality and life
outlook.

I have only ever regularly gamed with friends, or strangers that were
friends of other friends (and therefore were already vetted in terms of
personality, sense of humor, and so on). I've only gamed a few times with
people I didn't really know, and in every instance I can't say that I
enjoyed myself.

One of the things I never really liked about online shared-world-games is
that you are forced to play with a bunch of people that aren't your friends.
Sure, you can meet some nice people and make some new friends, but much of
the time you just run in to total bastards. By my definition, that's called
"Real Life", and for me the whole point of role-playing is to avoid *that*
for a few hours of the week.

Ciao,

Joseph R. Dietrich
joseph@joespace.net

----------------------------------------------------------------
GAMERS Home Page:  http://www.phoenyx.net/gamers/