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 Vertrucio wrote:

Likewise, the reason why nudity and such influences sales numbers may be due to the fact that this is a very niche hobby dominated by males. Which is okay, except that just because a hobby is male dominated, does not mean that it was and always will be, or even should be. If anything, nudity and sexualization being such a sales booster indicates that our industry has done a poor job of appealing to and enticing other kinds of gamers that don't buy based on that criteria.

There's probably more women into table top miniatures games than you think.

But as Vertrucio brings up, it behooves all of us, producers and consumers both, to be thinking about market expansion. When the market expands, everyone benefits. We have been seeing some serious market expansion, and I think it is fair to say that we are seeing more women enter the hobby, which is awesome! With market expansion comes a greater diversity of products, faster releases, higher product quality, lower prices, and larger player bases. We get to see more of what we want and we get greater access to it.

People can make whatever products they want to. It's a free country. But we can choose which products we support, and which we don't. And when we make those decisions, it is worth considering how this niche market is perceived in the wider world, because that unequivocally has an impact on how, where, and to what degree the market expands.

If women do in fact represent a relatively untapped demographic, we should absolutely be considering why. How are the products we support perceived by this demographic? Is there something we can do about that?

Yes, absolutely, there are things we can do.

We can support products that help move the market in the direction we want to see it move. Do you want to see more believable female miniatures? Buy them. Tell producers why you are buying them. Tell producers who don't produce those products that you want them to see them.

And if there are products you want to see less of, say so. I don't think we need a separate thread for this discussion. I think this discussion should be had IN the threads about specific products because this is a product-driven issue.