Chicks Dig Gaming - Book about Women & Games

Tomorrow the 11th of November the book 'Chicks Dig Gaming' will be available, This is a sister book to the Hugo Award-winning Chicks Dig Time Lords and other publications from Mad Norwegian Press.

In Chicks Dig Gaming, editors Jennifer Brozek (Apocalypse Ink Productions), Robert Smith (Who is the Doctor) and Lars Pearson (editor-in-chief, the Hugo Award-winning Chicks Dig series) bring together essays by nearly three dozen female writers to get their views on why they love gaming and the games they play.

Authors such as Catherynne M. Valente (The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland…, Indistinguishable from Magic) examines Super Mario Bros. through the lens of Samsara, the Wheel of Birth and Rebirth; Seanan McGuire (the October Daye series) details how gaming taught her math; G. Willow Wilson (Alif the Unseen) revels in World of Warcraft; and Rosemary Jones (Forgotten Realms) celebrates world traveler Nellie Bly and the board game she inspired. Also featured are some exclusive interviews with Paizo CEO Lisa Stevens and Dragonlance author Margaret Weis.

Editor Jennifer Brozek describes best what this book is about:

Despite the progress made in gender equality in various gaming arenas conventions, online gaming organizations, gaming podcasts and shows, and with professional authors, game designers, and artists - there is still an element that believes "girls don't game" and that "women don't belong in gaming." With this collection of non-fiction essays from both game lovers and industry professionals, I wanted to show the diversity of the women in gaming and the women who love all kinds of games.

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We received a review copy, but I did not get far enough to actually cast a verdict, but I enjoyed what I read up to now.

The book can be bought at, amongst others at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

More information.

It's delightfully written, and it asks you to change conceptions and misconceptions at every turn. It's a fine read by any standard, and I'd recommend it to any gamer.

Women play games … on men

I hope this doesn't have to go in the Controversy section as well

As for the book, I doubt there's much new information in it. Women like games? I'm shocked. There are as many ways to enjoy games as there are people. I don't really need to read about them.

Games are my favorite kind of entertainment. It's about fucking time that so many people gave themselves the gift of enjoying them.

Maybe there are some marketing suits that need to hear this, but it's not news to me. My two sisters love games, and RPGs in particular. My last girlfriend was partial to beat-em-ups, and her sweet demeanor would vanish as she swore like a sailor at the TV during tough moments.

I've suddenly came across this study : http://quanticfoundry.com/2017/01/19/female-gamers-by-genre/

I crown you king of necro-thread Alrik. You are on a roll this week.

Alrik Fassbauer said:

I've suddenly came across this study : http://quanticfoundry.com/2017/01/19/female-gamers-by-genre/

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Interesting read. A few surprises in there, such as SWTOR doing so well among women, and some good news: Over 25% of RPG gamers are now female. That has to be progress, as there were hardly any (that I know of) when I was a kid.

Not Enough Chicks Dig Gaming.

Maylander said:

Interesting read. A few surprises in there, such as SWTOR doing so well among women, and some good news: Over 25% of RPG gamers are now female. That has to be progress, as there were hardly any (that I know of) when I was a kid.

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Alrik's linked study claims that 23% of WoW gamers are women, but my experience doesn't really match that at all. I ran (or helped run) a guild in WoW for over 10 years, one of the top 30 guilds in the US generally (progression-wise), and over those years, a few thousand people applied to join. I'd say about 2% of them were female. If the 23% number is true, then I guess the women playing WoW have much, much different in-game interests than the men that are playing.

Stingray said:

Alrik's linked study claims that 23% of WoW gamers are women, but my experience doesn't really match that at all. I ran (or helped run) a guild in WoW for over 10 years, one of the top 30 guilds in the US generally (progression-wise), and over those years, a few thousand people applied to join. I'd say about 2% of them were female. If the 23% number is true, then I guess the women playing WoW have much, much different in-game interests than the men that are playing.

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Yeah, I've done high end raiding as well, and that scene certainly isn't filled with women. However, 12 million people play WoW, and only a small % of that are hardcore raiders.

Also, it has increased slowly over time. We used to have 1-2 women, and now we have.. I think 4 out of 20, which is actually 20%. Go back half a dozen years or so and that certainly was not the case.

Stingray said:

Alrik's linked study claims that 23% of WoW gamers are women, but my experience doesn't really match that at all. I ran (or helped run) a guild in WoW for over 10 years, one of the top 30 guilds in the US generally (progression-wise), and over those years, a few thousand people applied to join. I'd say about 2% of them were female. If the 23% number is true, then I guess the women playing WoW have much, much different in-game interests than the men that are playing.

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I think it's because you were in one of the "progression based" guild. When I was in one of the best guild in one of the oceanic server, there were much less women compared to casual guilds I have joined later. Women in both progression and casual guilds usually played with their husbands/partners and I noticed a lot of times women had to go off to do some "real life chores" while their male partners stay on - hence women miss out on progression/loot/raids/runs etc and eventually quits or look for more casual guild.

Similar story in my case - currently in the 2 man guild with hubby. I like competition - both raids and arena but currently don't have enough time to be competitive. Another motivation for me to play is... Collecting cute outfit transmog for the win!!!

Among Open World games, Assassin’s Creed Syndicate is noticeably higher than the genre average (27% vs. 14%). And among Western RPGs, Dragon Age: Inquisition is also much higher than the group average (48% vs. 26%).

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All those sweet, sweet romances in DA:I sure attracted a lot of female lol. I've read some of fantasy stuff women came up with romanceable companions and it sure scared the hell out of me lol.