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[personal profile] bluegargantua
Hi,

So on my trip this weekend, I picked up a gag gift for Annie. I got her a copy of Confessions of a Part-time Sorceress by Shelly Mazzanoble. I figure, "heh, it'll be fun to snark on and good for a few laughs".

It's worse than you could ever imagine.

I don't know who this book is targeted at. I mean, ostensibly, it's meant to help ease more women into the game, but I feel like the only women it's speaking to are women who I would never, ever want to sit down at a gaming table with. Imagine if there was an episode of Sex in the City where the girls wanted to play D&D. I mean, you're thinking "Kim Cattrall -- Sexy Cleric, rar!", but you just know that when it comes time to actually play, you'll want to kill yourself because they're spending more time trying to find a backpack to compliment their armor than actually playing the game. And yes, there's a lengthy section where the author hits the marketplace and haggles over a name brand purse and clutch for her character. Oh and there are Cosmo-style quizzes to help you determine your race and class (by the way, on the race quiz? Half-orc isn't one of the possible quiz outcomes because, you know, half-orcs are ugly).

The other thing that I noticed (aside from pink! Pink! PINK!) is that she constantly compares some in-game thing to a real-life experience. Now, to some extent this can be a great way to explain certain concepts and if it's not the real-life experiences I'd use that's to be expected. And I now fully believe that 0-level spells are M&Ms. But this constant analogizing takes away from the important part of the game -- it's a fantasy adventure! You're exploring strange, dangerous places! You're fighting off evil monsters! You're wielding arcane powers! Don't just reduce it to a shopping trip at the mall and a desk job in the cubicle labyrinth with the Boss Minotaur.

I feel that women who might be attracted to D&D are much like men who might be attracted to D&D in that both of them consume fantasy media. Originally I was going to say that they read Fantasy/Sci-fi, but maybe they really like watching Buffy or anime or Heroes or the Lord of the Rings movies. But however they approach it, I feel like most D&D people have some interest in fantasy worlds. If all you ever read are Daneelle Steel novels, I'm betting that you probably won't care for D&D much. The book just swings wildly for an audience that couldn't care less about the topic and is flat-out insulting to the audience that would.

Ugh.

So. I am very, very, VERY sorry that I got this terrible, terrible book for my wife. I really do love her very much and this isn't some passive-abuse thing. I strongly encourage no one else to buy this piece of drek. I sincerely hope that a bunch of women gamers track down Ms. Mazzanoble and give her the chewing out she so richly deserves. If you're morbidly curious about it, I can arrange to lend you our copy, but I'm warning you, it's really awful.

later
Tom

[EDIT: My wife thinks it's a better book than I do. So perhaps I just "don't get it" what with being an "old fogey" and a "grumbling grognard". I still think it's pretty lame and even if there are people for whom it would resonate (and who would also not drive me nuts at the table), I'm not sure how it's going to get into their hands. Her suggestion is that it's a book for gamers to give to their SOs to get them interested. So perhaps. I hope she does do a post about her gamer-girl experiences since I'm curious to hear her elaborate on them.]

The wifey weighs in

Date: 2007-10-09 02:51 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] asciikitty.livejournal.com
Ok, so reading through it a little bit this morning - once you get over the design elements, it's not as bad as all that. The target demographic is not... well, me. It's not aimed at gamers geek girls at all. It's aimed at a girly-girl segment of the population who may or may not be interested in gaming, and Shelley is hoping to get a few of their dollars and maybe one convert. Ms. Mazzanoble is, as she mentions in the first few pages, a PR person for WotC. She's marketing, not geeking, and she does a fairly good job of packaging D&D for her audience.

Her audience, by the way, is a girl named Cristina (yes I spelled that correctly.) I used to work with Cristina. She was a fashion designed by inclination and training, a data entry rock star for money, and a secret Harry Potter fan. Cristina needs this book. Or more to the point, WotC needs Cristina to have this book.

As a book, it sucks. As an elaborate advertisement? It's not so bad.

(Actually? there some really really GOOD gaming advice in there. As a book for experienced gamers, it sucks. As a book for me, it's a little too pink for me to read, but it's not the worst thing in the world.)

So. Don't buy it without reading a bit first, is my take on it.

And yes Tom, I will be writing to Ms. Mazzanoble about my girl-gamer experiences.

Date: 2007-10-09 04:17 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] missionista.livejournal.com
I think you need to send this review to the publisher. Sign both your and your wife's names to it. Show the publishers that this kind of crud isn't worth printing, and that you are telling all of you D & D loving friends never to buy it.

Date: 2007-10-09 04:45 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] asciikitty.livejournal.com
signing his wife's name to it won't help. She thinks it's not that bad, and she's actually reading it, rather than flipping through and being horrified by the bright bright pink.

the more I read it, the more I'm convinced that it's, if not the best gaming book I've read this week, not the worst. Yeah the metaphors are tortured, but she's not actually serious about all the shopping stuff (it's really tongue in cheek) and the style is casual enough to be non-threatening.

Date: 2007-10-09 07:23 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] missionista.livejournal.com
Sorry about that--I responded before reading your post. What I meant by signing both names is that it would be good to hear "this is drivel, and I won't buy it" coming from both men and women. However, since you do not feel that way, of course you should not sign your name to any such hypothetical letter.

Date: 2007-10-09 08:14 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] asciikitty.livejournal.com
yeah, I figured that's where it came from. I also (tom, correct me if I'm wrong) don't think that TOm sat down and read the thing cover to cover the way I did, and I also also would like to point out to my darling husband that he's been playing D&D since I was in preschool, and I have been playing for not quite two years, and so to him it's drivel, and to me it's useful information not all of which I've managed to pick up yet.

it's actually good. if I get off my ass tonight, I'm going to write a proper review in my own journal.

Date: 2007-10-09 11:03 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] lizthefair.livejournal.com
I'm glad to hear the shopping stuff can be interpreted as tongue-in-cheek. I've not read the book yet, but based on what I read of it on-line, I was hoping that was the case (or at least a possibility.)

I'm really interested in what you have to say about the rest of the book as it sounds like we might be in a similar place in terms of gaming experience.

(got here though the Iris forums)

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