On women in Magic

Recently Lauren Lee and Lauren Rae Orsini wrote articles on the subject of why more women don't play Magic. Their posts are here and here respectively. I thought I'd weigh in on the subject.

Magic is, in many ways, the perfect storm of anti-womaness.

There are studies that show that women are better at holistic, social problem-solving than analytic problem solving. Whether this is a result of biological tendencies or social pressures is not relevant, only that this fact is true. This is supported empirically by the fact that there are less women present at the highest level of many strategy games, ranging from poker to Magic. Women also possess much less of a presence than men in highly analytic fields such as mathematics and many science professions.

This is not to say that women are not capable of performing these professions, only that they are less inclined to as a group. The root cause of this inclination is unimportant; only that it exists and is unlikely to change in the near future.

Magic is the pinnacle of the analytic game pyramid, and thus it makes sense that there would, naturally, be more men than women that play this game.

The second thing that keeps women away from the game, as has already been alluded to, is the type of people that play Magic. Magic draws heavily from the gamer/geek/nerd crowd, and these types of men tend to be more socially awkward around members of the opposite sex. This is for a number of reasons:

1) A general lack of tact
This stems from the fact that many geeks/nerds spend a lot of time on the internet and among a very tight group of friends, and thus are exposed to a smaller set of social interactions than the general crowd. Furthermore, since we are talking about geeks/nerds, many of them have been ostracized since middle school. This, in general, results in a lack of social tact as those skills are not important within the social circles that these people participate in.

2) An overly competitive nature that stems from emasculation in other areas of society.
Like it or not, most geeks/nerds are generally emasculated in real life for some reason or another. But, in many respects, they are still men, and thus seek dominance and validation in some other aspect of their lives. Games frequently end up being this outlet, where the competition serves as a proving grounds of sorts. Many people thus attach emotional and personal significance to each win and loss, making it more than "just a game." This causes competition to be particularly cutthroat, resulting in bending rules and/or "rules-lawyering." Having fun takes a back seat to winning.

3) Deviance from standard social norms.
The fact of the matter is many magic players are fat and smelly. Regardless of whether you like it or not, people judge others by their appearances. I am not going to weigh in on whether men or women are guilty of this. Both sexes judge each other by appearance. Magic players, as a whole, conform far less to traditional standards of attractiveness which I am sure is a turn-off for women, even if they won't admit it. Lauren Orsini has posted about this here.

So, as a whole, the general type of male who plays Magic is not someone whom women desire to interact with on a regular basis. If they do not possess a strong love for the game, they will see this type of person as a reason to not play, and will thus leave the game.

Thirdly, Magic has an intellectual and financial cost that is significantly greater than many other hobbies. While some might disagree, the learning curve in Magic is incredibly steep. Try to teach any new player how to play Magic, and you will see the difficulties involved. The game is very complicated from both a theoretical (interactions) and practical (rules) standpoint. Some people are naturally very good at picking up this type of game, but they are a tiny minority. Most people have to invest a large amount of time to learn the game, which, in and of itself, is a significant barrier to entry.

Magic also has a strong financial cost associated with it (the mythic debate is a good example of this). Between buying singles, drafting, tournament entry fees, and travel expenses Magic players spend a lot of money to play the game they love. This is also not an insignificant commitment, especially for women, who, on average, make less, and have a higher cost of living than men do (I understand this isn't their fault, but it is still a fact).

These are three main barriers to entry present in Magic, and they are far more off-putting to women, in general, than men. I don't think that this is likely to change in the near future, although perhaps we as players can combat it by actively attempting to recruit more women. I do think that women can succeed at the game, but it is clear there are many more obstacles for a woman to become a successful Magic player.