Wanted: Girls Who Make Games

[Atari]

MSNBC has posted an article that takes a look at the women making video games.

Ellen Beeman, one of the founders of Women in Games International, was a TV writer when she came to games over a dozen years ago. She recalls the first GDC she attended in 1992, where she and another woman planned to meet up. “I asked her, ‘How will I find you?’” Beeman says. “She laughed and said, ‘Don’t worry, we’ll be two of 10 women there.’” Beeman agrees that things have changed since then. “There’s no comparison to where industry was when I started and where it is now,” she says. “But we’re not, as an industry, getting the word out that this is a good career for women.”

[Vezpira]

I thought the part where the industry is looking for a kinder, gentler touch was rather interesting. How funny that others think that all women will be able to provide such qualities simply because they are females.

At any rate, I wish I would have known how male-dominated the industry was beforehand. Playing games and enjoying various techie things has always been second nature to me. However, now that I am starting to peer into the career aspect, the dichotomy is ever present. And it is pretty sad.

On a brighter note, I really can't wait for Spore to come out. The blurb written about it in EGM about 2 months ago was such a tease!

[Atari]

Hm, that reminds me of when I was in an all-female quake clan. People would come into IRC looking for a shoulder to cry on, assuming we would make good therapists with the added bonus of understanding the gaming passion. Fact is, most of us were not particularly sensitive people. If we were, we would have probably been scared off long ago from the FPS trolls and their smack talk. You had to have a bit of a tough skin to play under a female name, especially for someone in an all-female clan.

[Pezwitch]

Hm, that reminds me of when I was in an all-female quake clan. People would come into IRC looking for a shoulder to cry on, assuming we would make good therapists with the added bonus of understanding the gaming passion. Fact is, most of us were not particularly sensitive people. If we were, we would have probably been scared off long ago from the FPS trolls and their smack talk. You had to have a bit of a tough skin to play under a female name, especially for someone in an all-female clan.

I have a hard time explaining this to some people... I am a computer technician. I am a good computer technician which means I don't really care about the end user, all I'm interested in is fixing the equipment.

In short I care more about their computers than I do about them.

All good computer techs share this personality trait. I don't understand why people think I'm going to be "gentler" than a male tech.