Gender in Gaming

[WolverineDG]

Here's an interview with a friend I know IRL who is taking the bull by the horns to not only expand the market for games, but include more women in the gaming industry:

http://www.samanthablackmon.net/notyourmamasgamer/?p=1060

[Phlem]

1. That's great!

The gaming industry could use a union too. Maybe I'd still be working there but 60 hours for weeks on end? That's why there are mostly youths in development, programmers not so much. Last time I went to my shop (a rather large dev house) you could count the amount of people over 40 in both hands, the rest kids. Which is weird because a lot of talent that build over the years end up leaving to spend more time with family.

I'm lucky as I'm still doing 3D modeling in a state that I've lived in all my life and haven't had to move, and with weekends and evenings with my family. That's really the main thing the older generation wants that is important enough to go look for other work if they don't get it.

I still love games and dev but these days the only way to have a life is to build the games your self cause you at home with the family at least.

-p

[niyad]

2. one of the things that annoyed me about games back in the early 90's was that there were none

that I could find that were "brain games"--everything seemed to revolve around violence, combat, explosions, etc. when I would go into stores to try to find more mentally challenging games, I was treated as though I were nuts. especially when I asked for games designed by women.

don't know how much the situation has changed, but I doubt it has changed very much.

[Phlem]

3. You'll probably find more brain games now,

there are a lot of cheap one's on Steam, but as for designed by women, I think the Nancy Drew titles are the only one's I can think of. There are a lot of tools these days that help build simple games without the need of a programmer, say if your a designer or an artist like me. But try Steam out if your looking for brain games. Portal is a good brain game.

-p

[Warren DeMontague]

5. Portal is GREAT.

Man, I had fun with that, once I got the hang of it. Portal 2 also.

[Warren DeMontague]

4. I think there's some interesting narrative stuff happening in games.

Yes, action and blowing stuff up, too, but good character and storytelling as well.

Mass Effect is a pretty ripping yarn, which can be played from a variety of gender/orientation perspectives.

[Phlem]

7. Another great choice

good eye.

-p

[MicaelS]

10. Agreed, check out Steam...

They have a PopCap games package. Over 30 games for $100. Steam classifies them as Casual, Family, Strategy, Action. You have to install the free Steam app, then buy some games.

http://store.steampowered.com/

Also free PopCap games at their website. http://www.popcap.com/

[Neoma]

6. Awesome!

Fighting for equality in the gaming industry.

[Starry Messenger]

8. One that bugs me is the paucity of women in Civ games.

Yes, there are women *leader* characters, but all of the artists, merchants, etc. are all represented by male figures. The workers/farmers all read male-which is so wrong.

Civ4 at least had the female spy character late in the game, which was cool, but Civ5 got rid of espionage, so now there is no woman.

We actually lost a woman in the upgrade. I was sad!

I like the game, but I wish it hadn't written women out of the nuts and bolts of society.

[Phlem]

9. There are a lot of standard

formula's that deliver money in the end that are hard to move away from for Exec's. New paradigms are hit and miss so Exec's play it safe so the money can come in and unfortunately in general testosterone based games sell.

It's like the 2D to 3D phenomenon, a lot of companies still made 2D games even though 3D was available. A shinning example of that (and also trying to assure themselves success in a new paradigm) was the one of the first 3d games that took advantage of 3D cards, Tomb Raider. I don't think I have to go into the whole Lara Croft issue but it is also an example of why 2D and 3D brain games have had success. I see it filling in a missing niche in the market place that could be primarily made up of the female gender, that would be fascinating research.

Honestly I don't see why making a female model and adding all the animations that the male models have to it, is that difficult. Someone has to spend time on it but for all the time and energy during the development stage that's wasted on do over's or new design directions, it's not that much.

my 2 cents.

-p

[WolverineDG]

11. As u can see in the article, Sheri's made herself a PITA

within the industry simply for asking "what if the player is a female." it's obviously going to be an uphill battle for some time to come, but I'm glad she's actually doing something instead of just wringing her hands over the blatant discrimination she faces every day.

[Starry Messenger]

12. *nods*

Women working in the industry asking these questions is absolutely going to shift issues like this. At the consumer level, where I'm at, all I can do is say "Hey, this sucks!"

[Warren DeMontague]

13. As a consumer, you have more power than you may know.

I have friends and acquaintences both at the corporate level in video games as well as other tech related industries, and the good organizations are ALWAYS trying to keep their ear to the ground as to where the public (i.e. the people who pay) is and how they feel, where they want development to go, etc.

Make noise. Make a LOT of noise. It will be heard.

[Starry Messenger]

14. This is the first time I've ever really talked about it, so that's good to hear. :)

I tend to keep my mouth shut about fan-related stuff ever since I caused a huge flap on Facebook by complaining about the awful looking Wonder Woman pilot that got floated out last year. Even my brother got on my case! Some comic book artists I know (male) also got kind of shirty with me about it, so I figured I was running alone into some entrenched headwinds.

Most women I know would buy and love games full of women kicking ass. I tend to play less active games like Civ, so I've never known if there are other women who noticed or cared about the lack of women in it.

[Warren DeMontague]

15. I'll bet you some of them took notice of this:

http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1008767&ecid=a6506033675d47f881651943c21c5ed4

As I said elsewhere in the thread, I've been impressed with the Mass Effect franchise, which allows one to play as different genders & orientations. Dragon Age (also from BioWare) allows diff. orientation relationships as well, although I forget if you can play as a female central character or not.

Portal, if you haven't tried it, is a GREAT game, especially if you like spatial problem-solving.

I'm an XBOX player, so that's where my focus is re: the above, can't speak to other platforms. I don't do much gaming on the computer, for instance.

[WolverineDG]

16. You were not the only one upset about that

Sheri had a few things to say about it too. You are not alone

[Starry Messenger]

17. I'm so glad to hear that!

I'm still pissed about that! I don't want to knock your thread off-subject, I could go on for hours just on that subject, lol. I'm so glad that got cancelled. It's good to hear I'm not alone!