Breaking down the barriers in gaming

Over at ChannelFireball, there's a new post about women in Magic: the Gathering (or to be more specific, "marginalized" people, a term the author uses seven times, and apparently applies to anyone who does not have both a male sex and a male gender identity). It begins with this brazen statement on what the problem is:

People who are not cis male have been actively excluded by the actions and behavior of those in the Magic community, both on an individual and systematic level. Gender imbalances don’t appear out of nowhere. The lack of consistent PT-level players who aren’t men isn’t an unfortunate accident, and we’re not inherently less interested in gaming or competition.

 

People of marginalized genders are made to feel unwelcome in many Magic spaces, whether that’s on a local Facebook group, in a thousand-person GP hall or among a private professional testing team.

That's a bold statement to make without any evidence. The gender imbalance existed long before Magic, dating back to people who played with historical miniature armies. The author brings up systematic (should this be systemic?) problems, but there's one issue. The system is controlled by a company that has been woke since its very founding. 

But let's talk about marginalized people. It's not just sex or gender identity. I'm guessing the author is relatively young, and for all her life, gaming has been, if not particularly popular, at least mainstream. It's appeared favorably in television shows, people watch others play video games over Twitch, and good looking people livestream their D&D games. 

But what was the reputation of gamers in the 1980s and 1990s?

Freaks. Geeks. Losers. It was common to comment on their appearance, with derogatory terms like "whales and rails". Their smell. Their pasty skin. That they live in their parents' basement and have never had a girlfriend. 

So those who found a community in hobby gaming were often people of low social status, the ones who didn't find success in sports or the grand popularity contest that is high school. They were marginalized for reasons other than demographics. 

That's wordy. How about an acronym? MFROTD? 

Heck, it was only ten years ago when a Gizmodo intern wrote about an OKCupid date with a Magic: the Gathering world champion, and how she was offended that he didn't disclose his geeky interest in his online profile, as if it were a herpes diagnosis or something. That's the world that older gamers knew. 

Since the author made assertions without evidence, I'll do the same. The main obstacle to women in gaming is not players or game stores or the people who run organized play, it is the opinion of other women about those women who get involved in gaming. Make that go away, and the gender imbalance will be reduced (but not eliminated).