[MUD-Dev] Gender and Mud Development

[Jon A. Lambert]

On 7 Jun 99,, Nathan F Yospe wrote:
>
> What, you and Holly and Katrina and Kristen and... um... uh, oh. Is this
> really that male-dominated a pursuit? 

MUD-style, yes, male-dominated. Mush-style, no.  This list, yes.  
Programming ability and experience, not male-dominated.  

> You know, coming from physics, one
> of the worst fields for male-domination, and seeing female students with
> a series of confrontations with chauvenistic professors and the like, it
> always gave me a feeling of "oh, I can't stand this, I hope the younger,
> less entrenched generation manages to change things..." ... is mudding a
> good indicator that this is an unrealist hope?

Hope for what?  
While it's not PC to say so, boys and girls are still substantially made 
up of the same stuff they were in the old nursery rhyme.  Their social 
and _play_ interests are quite different and don't intersect a great deal 
into much later in life.  
    Can this be changed?  Probably, but...
Just as the solution to poverty is not to steal and redistribute the 
wealth of the rich,  the solution to sexism and chauvinism is not to
make man or woman sexless.  The problem particularly lies with men (and 
many women) who hate, fear and despise women, not with those who adore 
them.  There are those who are working right now trying to create a 
sexless society a turn back 6000 years of evolution.  I find such a idea 
abhorrent.  Celebrate the differences.  Don't be neutered in thought, 
word, or deed.  :)

> Are there reasons that an
> overwhelming majority of the admins and developers here are male? 

Yes.  80% of muds are Hack-n-Slash, Shoot-em up, kill things and run 
around with blood, sweat, bugs, and guts pouring out.  Seems to me boys 
like these things; my girl just rolls her eyes.  ;)

> And is
> this something we can change?

First, why?  For it's own sake or for a set specific reasons?  Design 
games that attract women and you will spawn more players, implementors 
and designers of such games.  I know at least a dozen women who are far 
better qualified to program a server.  Artificial barriers aren't an 
issue and programming abilities are not an issue.  Interest, however, IS.
  
Secondly, on this list only particular brands of games or styles of play 
are discussed.  The only common links of interest between these games are 
technical.

Consider briefly the recent threads on Achaea and Ultimate Universe.  Are
these games that appeal to significant numbers women?  Personally I think 
not.  So would you likely find lots of women involved in creating such a 
game?  Again, no, unless they were getting paid.

Now Consider games like Furcadia, AmberMUSH, PernMUSH, etc.  Do these
games appeal more to women?  And do we find more women involved in such 
games as implementors and wizards?  I think yes.  I think the above games
probably come closer to achieving 'gender balance' than most others that
we often discuss here.

It is not suprising than an excess of clubs on the MUD-DEV list have 
driven most of the hearts!


--
--*     Jon A. Lambert - TychoMUD Email:jlsysinc at ix.netcom.com             *--
--*     Mud Server Developer's Page <http://pw1.netcom.com/~jlsysinc>      *--
--* To fight the empire is to be infected by its derangement. Whosoever    *--
--* defeats part of the empire becomes the empire; it proliferates like a  *--
--* a virus... thereby it becomes its enemies." -- P.K. Dick               *--


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