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A gentleman

320 (87%)

Perhaps a lady?

21 (5.7%)

Other. - and No, NOT an invitation to spam about this choice below.

27 (7.3%)

Total Members Voted: 365

Voting closed: August 18, 2011, 12:25:51 am

[Lectorog]

I'm surprised that this isn't here yet, so I have to do this. You've forced my hand, B12 community.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I wouldn't say I qualify as a gentleman, but it is one of my goals, so I voted for it.

[RayesKotrora]

I have never smoked more than two cigarettes at one time, so I don't think I quite qualify as a gentleman.

[Lectorog]

I have never smoked more than two cigarettes at one time, so I don't think I quite qualify as a gentleman.

Don't worry, it's just a meme.

On second though, after looking through some Google Image results, I'm not sure I want to be a gentleman. Seriously, just Image-search the word "gentleman" - it's not what you may expect.

[Reverie]

I don't think I qualify as a gentleman, because--well, I'm not. Take that, society!

[Detonate]

The forum's gender ration is 1.8:1, M:F. Just to show the hilarious inaccuracy and hotbed of trolling this thread will degenerate to, I voted female.

[Lectorog]

I don't think it's too far off. 87% male, 6% female sounds like it could be right. Unless people are just voting "other" because they don't think they deserve to be called gentlemen or ladies. I think it's safe to assume that 87% of the population that has voted is not, in fact, gentlemen. Prestigious few would hold that title with pride.

[Vector]

I'm a woman, not "perhaps a lady."

But whatever.  Good to see y'all and this old topic again.


EDIT: ... Why do you want to know how many chicks are fluttering around here, anyway?

[Sowelu]

Meh, I can see the curiosity.  Not a "Hurr how many chicks on the forum", but an honest "Does this game only appeal to guys" thing.  Sometimes it seems like guys have a monopoly on ridiculously-complicated OCD games.  At least, none of my female friends can get into DF, or things like SpaceChem...and these are all nerds who play/GM tabletop RPGs, and play other games along the lines of Oblivion or Sims or WoW.

I could see it being a brain chemistry thing, where some male brains might have a totally whack reward center while female brains don't get that the same way.  I don't know.

[Ovg]

I'm a supermodel sexy girl trapped in a fat, sweaty, neckberded nerds body.

[Yoink]

I drink tea, and sometimes I even eat crumpets! Do I count?!

[kirrian]

If DF even tried to attract female gamers through some "special" feature then this might be a relevant question to the developers.  But sometimes a game is just a game and not really focused on marketing issues.  Which is probably why I love games like DF.  There is little, if any, focus on "the lowest common denominator" to help promote the game to 'the masses'.  Let alone attracting a certain segment of the potential audience.  Although my feelings might have something to do with having had lots of ideas crushed under the wheels of 'focus group' marketing methods for a long time.

I would suggest that if this was just a fun exercise in curiosity that the poll be something like:

* boxers/briefs
* panties/thongs/g-strings

Without any other explanations or descriptions and let the !!Fun!! begin from there.

=P

[Mickle]

There was an interesting post about this from the creator of Gearhead, which is a sci-fi roguelike. Various data led him to suggest that the ratio of male to female players may be much less skewed than the ratio of male to female forum users (or other visible community participants), creating the perception that the game is almost exclusively played by men. This perception feeds back into the problem by making it seem less acceptable for women to play the game, which makes us less likely to participate in the community visibly or mention it to IRL friends. (This is a very kind and welcoming forum by any standard; it's not the behaviour of posters that matters, but rather the demographics of who posts and who doesn't.)

[Vector]

I'm a supermodel sexy girl trapped in a fat, sweaty, neckberded nerds body.

Shall I use female pronouns for you in the future, then? =)

*shrug*

I have to say, "ridiculously complex sandbox" doesn't appeal to me anymore when there's an incomprehensible world out there to solve.  I look to games to give me explicit puzzles, since I'm already living in a sandbox and have more choice/freedom than I know what to do with.

Protein folding sounds like a lot of fun, though.  Might go try that out sometime.

There was an interesting post about this from the creator of Gearhead, which is a sci-fi roguelike. Various data led him to suggest that the ratio of male to female players may be much less skewed than the ratio of male to female forum users (or other visible community participants), creating the perception that the game is almost exclusively played by men. This perception feeds back into the problem by making it seem less acceptable for women to play the game, which makes us less likely to participate in the community visibly or mention it to IRL friends. (This is a very kind and welcoming forum by any standard; it's not the behaviour of posters that matters, but rather the demographics of who posts and who doesn't.)

This, too.  I even pretended to be a dude when I joined.

[kirrian]

There was an interesting post about this from the creator of Gearhead, which is a sci-fi roguelike. Various data led him to suggest that the ratio of male to female players may be much less skewed than the ratio of male to female forum users (or other visible community participants), creating the perception that the game is almost exclusively played by men. This perception feeds back into the problem by making it seem less acceptable for women to play the game, which makes us less likely to participate in the community visibly or mention it to IRL friends. (This is a very kind and welcoming forum by any standard; it's not the behaviour of posters that matters, but rather the demographics of who posts and who doesn't.)

Very interesting observations, although his data is not scientific as he even admits.  I tend to agree with his ideas on the subject despite that.  I have often not participated in some game's boards because of poster behavior, but I have also not participated in some because the game didn't really have that level of interaction for me.  I wonder if the same dynamic isn't true for Hewitt's observations.  Some games (I'm looking at you most facebook games) promote or even require players to interact and so have high social participation.  Others have excellent modding opportunities to promote social interaction among players.  And still others are primarily solitary games with little modding or leader board activities and perhaps posters to any message boards that exist for them are the more competitive in-your-face types who want to try to create the social action among those who enjoy that game (whether they realize that is what they are trying to do or not).

Of course, all this skirts (no pun-intended =P) the lines of gender stereotypes in regards to common psychological behaviors and mannerisms, which for some is just as valid or invalid as personality type stereotypes.  Still it would be great to get some real honest research into a range of different game types and their players and the player's overall interaction with that gaming community.  I think it would help developers (not DF developers thankfully) more easily prioritize request features and modifications, or even steer them into gathering opinions in other ways then just sampling their own message boards.

Me... I tend to just play games and leave all this marketing stuff up to people who don't have enough skill or imagination to create or dream of the possibilities.

[Ovg]

I'm a supermodel sexy girl trapped in a fat, sweaty, neckberded nerds body.

Shall I use female pronouns for you in the future, then? =)

You can call me Shirley honey.