Women and Raiding

TenTonHammer had a post on Women & Raiding, a subject that is always near and dear to my heart.  :)  He doesn’t make any really strong or controversial points, but there is some good discussion about situations that can arise.  (And I must say, I’ve been in guilds with teenage guys who were MUCH bigger drama queens than any woman that I’ve ever gamed with.)

“As it relates to gaming, there are three major groups of women. The first is serious gamers, the second is social gamers, the third is Man-Seeking-Missile (MSM) gamers. Serious gaming women dislike social gamers when they share a guild, and want to strangle all MSM gamers. These are the ones you want in your guild; they are better than most men you’ll ever play with, they care more passionately about performance than most raiders, and they are confident.”

The MSM analogy made me laugh.  We’ve all gamed with problem girls…the ones who have to announce that they’re female in rl, the ones who jump to post pictures on the guild forums, the ones who drop bombshells such as “I’m playing naked” into guildchat.  There’s nothing more guaranteed to make the average raid wipe than having half the guys concentrating on something else.  :)  This particular girl, who quite commonly made very sexual jokes in an attempt to be flirtatious, eventually crossed the line and got /gkicked when she made an extremely inappropriate rape joke.  Good riddance.  A lot of us are female, dear…l2play and get over it.

I haven’t actually experienced any situations where women have been ignored or not taken seriously because of their sex.  I’ve been in two guilds with female GMs, all guilds have had well-respected female officers, and one guild was (sort of) all female.  It was supposed to be an all-female guild, but boyfriends kept creeping in on a “brother-guild” basis and taking over the forums.  Meh.

The only problems that I have experienced have to do with couples.  The GM and partner who always stand together against everyone else.  The hunter leader in my last guild that  made sure that his spouse/girlfriend was on every single run, and got all gear possible.  There’s drama caused by jealousy, and by favouritism.  But that’s not exclusively a female problem.

And what do I think of female raiders?  Even now, my dearest dream is to be part of an extremely hardcore female raiding guild.  No guys allowed, period.  No casual raiders, no couples, no excuses. That would be hot. There would be drama, of course…my god, would there ever be.  But it would still be hot.  :)