No Women In Magic?

It was announced at PAX Australia that there is a reason Magic: the Gathering has an obvious gender skew.

Senior director Aaron Forsythe said that the “dislike of competition” by women and the violent themes in Magic: the Gathering are serious reasons why there aren’t very many women players.

During the panel, an audience member asked,

“There is a large disparity in the gender of Magic players, and while that might not have anything to do with the actual game and what you do, I’m very curious as to why that may be?”

Forsythe replied,

“That’s a tough one. It is getting better, recently, in the last few years, I believe,” Forsythe said. “There are more women playing. I think, in general, the way we have sold Magic and what not, it is very competitive, it is a very competitive endeavour. And a lot of those halls are very testosterone fuelled — sitting around the table, beating the crap out each other for prizes — and without trying to stereotype gender, that is not necessarily something or an environment that women want to hang out in.

“Whether it’s that they don’t want to spend their time that way or it’s hostile to them to some degree,” he continued. “We are getting better about it. The gaming world is kind of notoriously bad for women and we are aware of that, we do what we can.”

I enjoy the fact that Forsythe understands that the gaming industry is definitely gender biased. It is good to see that he doesn’t live in some alternate universe like some people in the gaming industry.

I absolutely love Magic. It is one of my favorite things to do every week with my male and female friends. I have noticed that the lack of women in the community is outstanding. I honestly think the game is pretty “woman-friendly.” Honestly, when playing the game before, I never noticed that the game was not catered to my gender anyways. It’s pretty cool to see that the subject of “girl gamers” is on their minds.

How do you guys feel about the comments made by Forsythe? Do you think that Magic needs to worry about catering to women? I’d love to hear your thoughts.