Is MTG still a no-girls club?

Hey Veeky Forums I have been wondering why MTG players actively try to discourage girls/women from playing MTG? Is this still a thing that goes on?

I ask because we used to play at a small FLGS since alara/zendikar block and were early adopters of EDH in a small group of 3-6 people.

Then out small FLGS closed down so we all went to play at the bigger LGS which hosts more events and has more players. Everything was fine when I walked in the door, but when the ~50 people playing noticed my fiancee they were all staring with "What the fuck are you doing here" looks on their faces. I'm pretty oblivious to these things normally - but fuck: even I picked up on the uncomfortable vibe going on.

Because of this we dropped MTG and moved onto playing warmahordes and the people there are super chill and easy to get along with, but It's kind of shitty that we can't get out to play EDH anymore together, and we do enjoy playing and improving our MTG decks - but let's face it your deck can only get so good by playing one other person over and over (and it gets dull even if you have 2 or 3 decks to choose from).

I know its impossible to gauge from store-to-store how things are, but are things generally getting more positive for getting women into the game and not being dicks to them?

Look at me, I'm replying to a bait thread!

Its not a bait thread but whatever ... I guess honestly this kind of a post is probably not great for Veeky Forums now that I think of it.

If this is just going to be a thread of shitposting then let the thread die.

Bringing your anime hug pillow to public events is frowned upon, laddie

Bumping this very important thread that I didn't read after the first sentence

>but are things generally getting more positive for getting women into the game and not being dicks to them?
Not as far as I have seen sadly. It depends on the crowd of course. I quit Magic for the same reason you did, the community near me just seemed to be made of the worst sorts of people. But when I play Malifaux with my female friends everyone is very mature and polite. It is a case of mileage varying.

It feels very much like a no-girl's club.

I can only speculate on why.

There is a lot of degenerate behavior in Magic. It's almost cult-like how players proudly promote the gambling aspects of this game. As such, this game attracts some people with problems and I'm sure weird awkward male-issues overlap with money-management issues.

You tack that part on top of the fact that the game is stupid expensive. So expensive in fact, that only a very stupid portion of people are willing to blow their mortgage payment on the game and then we have other terrible overlap. Really, I can't imagine anybody rational starting to play this game. Only a fucking idiot would start playing this game as is. Combine that with gender issues and this game is just about the most unappealing thing from a female perspective.

It's too bad, I would like it if women were around. I know this comes off the wrong way but shit-talking women is only entertaining if there's an actual woman around to shit talk back. Some people are just horrible and just don't censor themselves - there's a guy at my store who just makes every woman in the building feel awkward. You could call me a coward to not tell him to shut up, but unfortunately he's the big cheese in our community and I needed a place to play. I don't play anymore because it's just a socially toxic place, one that for no good reason is also hostile to women.

It's weird, my community is in the same situation. We started at ALA/ZEN too then had to migrate. And nothing's been good since.

In general, as a male, I always like it when women participate in whatever conversation is going on, even if they want express their dislike of the situation or someone's opinion. That's how good discussion starts. It's not that I'm sexist - I always talk as if we're sitting in a philosophy classroom and there is no offense meant. I wish women would engage but they just don't even when presented with interesting topics or addressed directly.

a while ago Maro said on his blog that the current player base of MtG is something like 2/3 male, 1/3 female.
I would go find the post but it was from a long time ago and I don't feel like doing all that searching

addendum: This statistic would be about the entire spectrum of magic players, not just the people who play at game stores. Because, as said, they can be just socially toxic places.

Yeah, as if that's a meaningful statistic. Given that Wizards gives zero fucks about data collection I'm willing to bet that figure means this:

Of the people who take our website/email surveys: 2/3 are male; 1/3 are female.

You ask anybody actually playing the game what the actual statistic is in their store and they'll tell you that 99/100 players are male. I don't know what is the benefit of lying to women that the game isn't a sausagefest to get them into the store. Just fucking tell them it's a fucking sausagefest instead of feeding them a bullshit statistic that is only going to mislead their expectations and is only going to disappoint them more when they find a community overrun by retarded guys.

For what it's worth to you or OP or anyone else in the thread, my FLGS has about six girls of ~80 players or a little under 8% of our player base.

To be sure, one is a middle-aged mom that comes to FNM with her ten year old kid (who also plays), but she's come to the midnight prerelease before and she knows how to play at least.

OP here

The weirdest thing to me is ... wouldn't you WANT women to play MTG? FNM can be date night. That's like ... the most win-win scenario I can think of for a MTG player. I don't know why some dudes will actively sabotage the opportunity to meet someone who shares in their interests.

I'm just so confused about the whole MTG culture... Like ... its hard to explain or understand but it feels like a self-defeating loop where clearly most guys would like to meet a woman who shares, but then when the opportunity knocks, they chase said woman away. It ... makes no sense.

The game is as expensive as you want it to be.

I agree with you on the shit talking point, without 'opposition' faggots go ott in their sperg.

That's a pretty rad mom actually. When I was a kid my mom threw out all my vintage cards because it "was distracting me from my schoolwork"

fucking retarded immigrant parent mentality...

What's this? Speed dating but you have to play MTG against the girl?

I think you may have something here.

Stop.

Never identify with the 'culture' if you'd rather not validate it.

Also,

your gf will never enjoy this game and it's community unless she's under 6/10.

>I know its impossible to gauge from store-to-store how things are,
The Warmahordes players you know probably include some ex-Warhammer types, and the smart ones will tell you it isn't the game, it's the players.

My local CCG crowd is mixed, but we went from one store to three, and the tolerance of the store that started it all locally may not have carried over to all of the heirs. I know one of the newer stores has been charitably described as a rat hole opened to give the proprietor wholesale access for his own use, while the store that inherited most of the original crowd is much more open and happy. It helps that the good store's crowd now has married adult pairs who started playing at the store as kids who would stomp out any new kid who got out of line socially.
The downside is babies in the store...

1% or 8%; kitchen table or store it doesn't matter. It's still a long ways off from 33%.

The ultimate point is that their data collection is dogshit and they spout useless statistics for their stupid player base to parrot without critically thinking it over. The entry-level marketing and PR tactics working on Magic players is just the worst thing on the planet and actively contributes to making communities terrible places.

Magic players generally want to meet people with an equal level of passion. And sorry to say, many new players and/or women just lack that passion.

Don't get me wrong, I would love to introduce someone to the game regardless of gender. But here's the problem with Magic, everyone wants to be king know-it-all and it doesn't matter if they're good at the game it doesn't mean they're good teachers. And people are just terrible teachers; nobody's sat down and thought about the best way to ease someone into this ridiculously complex environment. So I can't get a word in or form a cohesive lesson without some guy butting in with their two cents. Imagine I'm teaching you to drive and just as you're turning someone in the backseat tells you about the wipers - that's what teaching Magic is like.

So, not only do new players expect a lesson handout, experienced players perpetuate the lie that they and the community are capable of helping someone learn the game and ultimately fucking fail hard at it. The fact that women have their gender working against them doesn't help their situation.

In some way I blame Wizards. Every year they find some new half-assed means of helping new players. But it benefits them to have players be as ignorant and addicted as possible so they waste money "discovering" this game; and players perpetuate that mechanism because they want to shark and dominate a new player because it makes them hard to know they're top dog.

And that may come off as crass and I'm sorry but that's the godawful truth.

>Never identify with the 'culture' if you'd rather not validate it.

Sorry ... What does this mean? Am I correct when I interpret your statement as "Dont try to understand the culture if you aren't a part of it"? I have a feeling that I'm misinterpreting you though.

>your gf will never enjoy this game and it's community unless she's under 6/10.

Well I have to disagree with you here... my fiancee does enjoy the game... a lot. She loves the complexity, the deckbuilding, and the execution of her deck.

Building magic decks is a nice creative outlet for both of us which is really good because our day jobs are sort of mundane office jobs with not a ton of room for that sort of creativity.

And to finish addressing your final point, we did enjoy games at the smaller FLGS. It was a pretty rad group of people. Just the larger LGS had this wierd vibe going on with its community.

>FNM can be date night
If I wanted date night, I go to a speed dating night. I want to relax and play cards.

>Be me
>Get into Magic in highschool
>Get my friends into it
>We played in the library
>Sometimes girls would come up to us
>"Hey, can I play this game with you guys?"
>Us: "Sure! We'd be happy to teach you!"
>"Heh, nevermind!" starts barking out laughter and walking back to their table
>We'd still offer to teach any girl who wanted to play the game even if we knew they'd come from that table.

Larger Events seem to be much less hostile than LGS. IIRC a third of players polled are female but they are almost all casual the community just seems so hostile at times.

>Magic players generally want to meet people with an equal level of passion. And sorry to say, many new players and/or women just lack that passion.

I can see the points made in your post, but I have to disagree with this line.

Many magic players I meet want to meet people who want to play magic cards. Being passionate about it is really cool, but hardly necessary.

And that passion will build over time - just like it did for you at some point - and then you will have more people to enjoy the hobby with in the end.

>In some way I blame Wizards. Every year they find some new half-assed means of helping new players.

Actually those free 30-card sample decks with only evergreen mechanics were great, I thought. My fiancee started with those decks. The girl clerk at the store gave her two decks to take home when I dusted off a small handful of old cards to trade in for new cards... when she got home she surprised me with the decks - the clerk girl taught her how to play while I was learning about what EDH was all about. And she legitimately stomped me. And that felt good for her so she built her Mayael the Anima deck and thats how it all began.

tl;dr the 30-card decks do work but you need a friend who knows how to play to mentor you.

Schoolwork is very important. Whatever the reality of your education and home life situation, don't hate your parents for wanting a better life for you than they had. Be grateful if they made a lot of sacrifices for you.

That's a pretty shit situation you were in, bro... in our school the girls just ignored the mtg players.
Worst thing is, there probably existed nerd girls that wanted to play but didn't want to be completely ostracized when the "popular girls" were dicks to you and your friends.

High school is a garbage barometer of social expectations in general, though.

Why would girls want to be around a bunch of usually smelly, unkempt nerds playing cards to begin with?

MtG isn't an autoclub, you're not actively learning a useful skill by playing it, or getting reps, or acquiring anything that would appeal to most women and the people that gravitate toward it are usually the type that are uncomfortable doing things more proactive anyway. I understand that there's nothing stopping a girl from being as introverted as any male might be but those types do other shit to deal with that, not fucking MtG of all things. MtG being a boys club is not only out of left field in terms of that mattering but why would it matter to begin with? It's just a card game.

>Why would girls want to be around a bunch of usually smelly, unkempt nerds playing cards to begin with?

Yeah, what is with that anyway? I don't think you can restrict this to women in general because when I go to a store to buy shit, and the place smells like an armpit - I don't want to sit there and play games; I want to GTFO as soon as possible.

How do you guys survive a busy FNM where you are shoulder to shoulder with other people?

Obvious bait is obvious
That being said. My brother taught 4 people how to play magic 15 years ago, 3 of them were girls, I was the 4th

I didn't really mind it that much.

I'm in college now, and given that there's no real "lunch breaks" or anything, I don't really have a reason to stay after my classes. Don't know any MTG or tabletop players, closest I saw was a couple guys playing Wife Schwarz or whatever it's called in the dining hall.

Oh when I was in college there was a nerd club and they played mtg and board games. It was actually a lot of fun, and the people were nice and easygoing.

Strangely enough, I was back on campus a few years later and was going to drop in to see if anyone from my undergrad was still there as a grad student, but turned around when I heard obnixious, stale reddit memes being shouted down the hallway. So the club changed a lot since I left. YMMV.

Insular communities treat all outsiders like shit. Having a vagina doesn't make you a special case.

Nice.

Depends entirely on your LGS

Several girls come to ours every week and nobody gets too autistic about it

>muh internet is a boys only club
>muh science and math is a boys only club
>muh vidya is a boys only club
>muh card games are a boys only club
>muh literally everything is a boys only club

Op here.

If what you say is true, then why was I able to sit down at a table and nobody cared? The same went for the other dudes from my small FLGS. It just went ... wierd and unwelcoming... when my fiancee walked in after parking the car.

So, yeah. I would say that the response from the players was based on her gender.

>I had a slightly bad spider-sense when she entered and clearly this would happen at every single event with every single mtg player

not gonna lie, muh dick.

>muh makeup tutorials is a boys only club
>muh shitty fanfictions is a boys only club
>muh pajamas parties is a boys only club

Heh .. you make a legit point.

I didn't want to write a whole essay about what happened that day so I never elaborated on the details...

I cross checked with a bro-tier former clerk of the closed FLGS who was present at the store that day and playing MTG and he kind of said something along the lines of "yeah ... thats kind of how it is here ... sorry"

I cant remember the exact details also because this happened a few years ago.

Literally not what he said at all

>inb4 he calls your fiancee ugly

It never was. Just stop being autist, grab a deck and play with people

OP here,

Alright thanks for the discussion Veeky Forums. Looks like shit hasn't changed much. I still don't understand why things ended up this way, but it is what it is.

Guess i'll put my MTG cards back on the shelf and keep playing warmahordes and RPGs for the time being.

Why don't you play kitchentable with your fiancee ? You don't have to go to a LGS to play MtG
>But always using the same decks get boring
Get a prerelease pack and play sealed deck

>muh makeup tutorials is a boys only club
Queens aside, more and more guys are getting into effeminate behavior and even non-metrosexuals care greatly about personal care, fitness (for the looks) and fashion, so we're not that far off.

>muh shitty fanfictions is a boys only club
It sure as fuck isn't a girl''s only club.

>muh pajamas parties is a boys only club
We just don't call them pajama parties. I pity you if you never had a sleepover or partied the night away at one of your friend's empty house before college.

this thread is the reason people make fun of nerds.

...

Well, obviously the solution is to call everyone who plays MTG giant fucking shitlords, write articles about how the "magic player" identity is dead and spend more time painting your nails to look like your mana lands instead of playing the game.

As a former MTG tournament grinder, this is my take on it:

I never met any woman who legitimately enjoyed playing MTG when I played (2003-2012). The girls that did play played because their boyfriends played, including my ex-girlfriend. My ex never got past the basics of the game, she never understood the very complicated interactions that make magic fun. If you don't legitimately love the game, you won't want to keep playing it.

The two women I know of that legitimately love the game at a competitive level are Melissa DeTora and Gaby Spartz. DeTora is clearly infatuated with the game, she's been on the pro tour for years. Spartz I know little about other than she's a commentator that has an understanding of advanced MTG concepts. The level of knowledge Spartz has isn't achievable by somebody who doesn't legitimately like the game.

So why don't women love the game at a competitive level the same way men do? I think it does have to do with the conditions you have to play MTG in: local game-stores that are very much boy's clubs and huge tournaments with thousands of dudes. Dudes that are very competitive—competitive to the point of being unpleasant to be around. As a man, I don't mind being seated across from dudes with unpleasant attitudes for an 8-hour tournament. If I were a woman, I would probably be uncomfortable and/or annoyed sitting across from unpleasant guys for hours on end.

>metrosexuals
Yunno the people responsible for pushing that word into the common lexicon did so to sell their grooming advice service to affluent professionals who don't have time to learn style.

They then turned around and said all that "metrosexual" stuff was bullshit and that what women REALLY want are manly men - like lumberjacks.

What WAS your point? Because claiming any of those are gender-restricted is ridiculous.

Now you get it.

Why the fuck would you think that's a good idea?

I've never once seen get judged based on sex, race, age, or sexuality in years of playing. If you're getting treated like a shitter, it's probably because you're a shitter.

I dont think op was talking about playing competitively. I think he was going in to play casually

What you say makes sense but isnt relevant to what the op was talking about

Unless you are just trying to make the point that the competitive scene is also shit

I was making a point that competitive MTG is shit. It has been since I was 12 and getting talked down to for playing affinity.

My gf's pretty open minded, we love board games (among other things, not our chief hobby), and she was a fan of the Pokemon TCG so she was willing to try Magic. The artwork was appealing (cool female characters, creatures and beasts) and the collecting aspect was a plus. What put her off was when we went to an FLGS that actually played Magic.

The men weren't macho and rude, neither did they stare, but they collectively had terrible BO and looked like they didn't care for themselves at all. She has legitimate clinical OCD so this was impossible for her to deal with. She had an awful time and it put her off playing entirely.

Its not a win-win if there are 10 guys for any one girl. These girls will get annoyed quickly and leave.

Two of my female friends started playing the same time I did (among others), but they don't have that much interest anymore. But all of my friends don't wanna play Magic that much at the moment, although it seems like that is open for change.

The playgroup I'm playing with is purely male. I don't go to FNM as I don't have a good deck for that. The prerelease events I went to had one or two girl each with 30 guys participating as well.

I'm more curious how mtg evolved into that. I'm used to that by video games, but there the playerbase was male dominated in the first place since the late 80s.
MTG is sort of a new hobby too, isn't combined with technology which boys seem to like more and pretty gender neutral you'd think. So why do women not play it that much?

There are two girls that go to the same MTG night I do, they both have bf's and are kinda shy but they're pretty good.

It might help that it's a small group but no-one makes a big deal out of it, I assume that's the same for everywhere else.

I have to agree. I'm not a woman and there's gaming stores that make me uncomfortable.

You can usually tell as soon as you set your foot in: the stares you get, the smell and how people are dressed and groomed. The moment I see a fat, hairy asscrack the moment I step in the store and smell armpit juice I know I'll just pretend to look around and then leave before anyone can ask me questions.

Then there's stores that are decent places with decent people and would you believe it it also has girls. Who would have thought.

This. It's the competitive nature of the game (and it can get hella cutthroat sometimes!) that seems to be the biggest turn-off for women. They don't want to have to fight that hard for "fun", so they go elsewhere.

>WANT women to play MTG
I want people to play the game. Their sex is irrelevant. From what I've seen, women are just not interested in the game by and large. Maybe there is a hostile atmosphere where you play but no one bats and eyelash here. There are a handful of girls the show up on occasion and they get treated the same as anyone else.

I can't think of a more lame destination for a date than my lgs. She really doesn't like being around ignored by "those sweaty nerds" anyway.

Because you're a grognard and she isn't. The point still stands that it has nothing to do with gender.

I know a really solid (40/60 split) of men and women that play, but yeah, a lot for MTG players are shit. Also, if they weren't hit on or belittled constantly, you'd have more female players.

I'm not even white knighting, it's fucking cringy when I see it.

W E W L A D
E
W
L
A
D

Where do you losers congregate such that EVERY lgs you go to us full of smelly fat neckbeards who shit on newbies and the owner's wife's son blatantly cheats but gets away with it. I've played MtG for more than a decade in New England and I've seen lgs go from ~1% female to ~10% in twohe recent years. There are occasional people with actual mental disabilities but I've never actually see need the fabled lgs troll because stores here understand fostering an environment people want to play and spend money in

Because the game itself (as in the core mechanics and rules with all flavour and lore removed) appeals more to men. Some women enjoy it, while most people, men and women both, just don't give a shit. Same reason why math and science fields have more men in them. For some psychological reason, men enjoy playing with math and numbers more

So do some women, but they can't because autistic weirdos think they own all Veeky Forums hobbies because Gary Gygax had a dick.

Why would guys want to be in that group either? Girls want to play for the same reasons guys do. To play.

It is absolutely some cringy shit. Just one of the many layers of cringe you get sometimes, depending on what store you go to.

Like, look, guys, I'm no social butterfly myself, but let's at least be polite to the other players. No trashtalking, no hitting on players of the opposite sex, no tantrums. I don't think I'm asking for that much, and yet something like half of the stores I've gone to in my life would have failed that very basic metric.

I've never seen a lot of women playing MTG ever since I started in Gatecrash. First one I saw was in a couple RTR/THS FNMs, iirc. Also saw her in a couple prereleases and she'd always force Boros in some way. Maybe saw her in DGM pre, too, but I'm not too sure. Saw her like 3 or 4 times, I think.

Later moved to another store, played a couple times in a league against another girl, but I suppose the main reason she was there was because of her boyfriend. Haven't seen her again since the league ended. Also met a third woman in that same store, but she seemed like some crazy bitch who was lusting for nerd cock, as she blatantly teased both me and a friend of mine. She was also extremely annoying and loud, to the point where she was clearly not welcome in that store and stopped going there. There was a fourth one, but I only saw her a couple times over a month or two and never again. Was clearly just playing for fun, didn't really care to get involved in FNMs or whatever, where everyone is playing tier 1 decks and trying their hardest to win a pack.

It has to do with assuming women are outsiders.

Don't pretend the gender doesn't matter. Excuse it or explain it or say it doesn't happen all you like, people who go to flgs and are female or had female friends go with them or who pay attention to other humans all know that what op is talking about totally happens.

As to why "because nerds, particular magic players, are fucking autistic losers who can't handle normal social situations and talking to women is hard even for the ones who aren't jaded assholes and those ones are going to look at a woman and instantly see every woman who ever laughed near them and every rejection they ever received and lash out if possible." I mean it's not hard to see what going on.

The solution is to raise a daughter who can get into nerd shit early and has tough skin, or to encourage your gf or friends to endure it. Only by women putting up with this shit now can we make a future with slightly less retarded gender gaps in our hobbies.

And is that at all surprising?

Some of the best makeup artists in the industry are men.

Men can do most things girls do and will definitely not be kept out by women. Who's making fun of a male makeup artist? Girls who also like makeup, or dudes who hear about it?

>Have a shop where everyone can act like an adult, be cool with each other
>usually legacy, draft and EDH
>everyone is in their mid 20s to mid 30s
>Helps that its also a bar/cafe
>70/30 men to women

>shop in my last town had a ton of high schoolers spouting memes
>Modern, Standard, Draft, and EDH
>some grognards that had 0 other ways to interact with people
>pizza and fast food surrounding the place
>elitest dicks that went to every grand prix and open, one claims he made it to the pro tour but couldn't get a ride because lol no job
>70/30 men to women

Honestly I think its just that some areas have less women that want to play magic for whatever reason they come up with on their own

Kids are under zero obligation to be grateful to their parents. Parents however are under obligations to raise their kids.

Girls in general aren't interested in technical things. This isn't a rule, but a general guideline. Have you honestly never noticed this in life?

>Proper grooming being of appealing appearance is now effeminate

this

I played the agot lcg at nationals a few years ago and it was fun, I don't think anyone was particularly shitty. But I've had people ask like "did your boyfriend help you with your deck" or "where did you get that deck" etc. But that's a ffg lcg and the 2.0 community is really shitty now. It was basically a dead game so Idk if that makes a difference.

But ya, I'm not gonna put up with shit too long I'll just go play video games or whatever. I've got my own friends for games, don't really need flgs if it's not worth it.

Aren't card games a traditionally female thing? Bridge, whist, etc.. plenty of women have played games throughout history, why should mtg be so different in terms of appeal?

Sure, but what about black jack and poker which have more male players?

>It has to do with assuming women are outsiders.
Because women do tend to be outsiders. Sometimes a heuristic is just a heuristic.

This is more a problem inherent to FLGS (usually male-dominated places) than to MTG itself, and even so, it doesn't happen everywhere.

When it happens it's better to just avoid it though. You're not going to change people in a store. It would be ideal if you could, but usually in those situations being shitty is something that has zero consequences for them, so just try another store.

I'd wager that has more to do with the gambling aspect than the cards which happen to be the vehicle.

>wouldn't you WANT women to play MTG
Holy shit, it's almost like the people who would like to see women play and the autistic sperglords are... COMPLETELY DIFFERENT PEOPLE

I find one of the largest problems to be people who can't differentiate the internet from reality.

Magic wasn't a no-girls club until the girls nobody wants to play with started to pretend they cared about the game to get more clickbait money from desperate virgins and social media "activists".

Because a lot of MTG players are neckbeard autists who have never held a real conversation with a girl. They would be this way with or without the game, it's just that games like this attracts a lot of them for some reason.
Source: Am neckbeard autist

Ironically you would lose that bet. Check out the slot machines nex time your in a casino. Most slots have women, while tables have more men

Oh, that's interesting. I've only ever played with acquaintances for low or no stakes, and it was usually close to even.

You're right bridge etc. is mostly played by women, though thats more due to "my grandma/mom taught me". More technical games draw more men in general . This has been shown time and time again.

It's not that women don't like Magic because of the men who like Magic. It's that WotC and tumblredditfacebook insist on pushing the game for the wrong crowd. Cosplayers, fanartists and bloggers will never feel "safe" in a Magic enviroment be it GPs, the FNM or the kitchen table because they don't care about the game, they care about the IP. And of course this clashes with the people who are there to PLAY THE GAME.

My LGS is full of women, the trick is these women aren't fujoshits and tumblr SJWs. They're dorito gremlins and female jocks/sports fans. Competitive women who enjoy PLAYING a GAME at varied degrees of competitiveness.

But contract bridge is one of the most technical games you can play with your standard 52-card deck, no?

Late to the party, so I didn't read this gigantic thread, but there's a simple reason: boobs.

Seriously, in every other bastion of nerddom you have a group of boobs who monopolize all attention without the necessary passion or dedication because it's the easy way to attention. Since mtg players are usually part of some other extremely nerdy hobbies, they understand that once females are openly accepted, you'll get stupid beta males white knighting and throwing money at them to seem cool, which pisses off a large number of people. My flgs has quite a large female playerbase, but we're also in Canada, so by and large most of us have touched a female boob other than our mom's at somepoint in time. Still, you get the grognards who have no concept of humanity, and interact with women like they're some sort of fancy videogame with the tips and tricks they picked up on the internet.

The way to combat this is by having reasonable males mitigate the retardation. I have a cute girlfriend who I've been dating for 4 years, so when I play with a female player, I go out of my way to just play magic. Sure, we may have slight small talk, but they're there to play magic, I'm there to play magic, so I focus my conversations about magic, and we all have a good time.

Dude what? Hell I do a lot of stuff with my gf tabletop and she plays magic. Those things aren't dates. They are things you do together. How socially malajusted are you that you that you can't take your girlfriend on a normal ass date.

>wouldn't you WANT women to play MTG?

no.

Sure, but if you've been playing since your were seven you wouldn't notice. Trying to learn it/mtg when you're 24 is whole other ball game. Esp since mtg is full of grognard neckbeards and not nice old ladies who give you hard candy if only she could find it in her purse, oh dear, where are my glasses?

This is true but most of my friends prefer hearthstone over magic. And we've given magic a try before. It seems we only really like it casually. And parts of the lore too.

You know, I hear a lot about this kind of stuff, but I never see it.

At Aether Revolt prerelease, out of ~100 players, there were about 20 women. So, i don't get where this "boys club" mentality even exists. Is it purely on the internet?