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The Time for Women in Games
VeeCee writes "Next Generation has an interesting article on why few women are game developers, why it should change, and how." From the article: "Fulton then cited workforce statistics, showing that in 1950, 30 percent of women worked, compared with 70 percent six years ago. 'We're rapidly becoming equal players in the larger workforce. More women are playing games.' Citing a study that showed women outnumbered men as players in the 24 to 35 year-old demographic, Fulton granted that casual games were a factor. 'However I think there's an appetite there. As we get online, as the games start getting more interactive, more social, women are getting more and more interested in what it means to play games.'"
I tend to think Roberta Williams is more of a pioneer here. "King's Quest"? The founding of "Sierra"?
Oh, hells yeah. When I was a kid and played her games I always fantasized about marrying a geek chic like her. Roberta was more influential in gaming, but she didn't write particularly girl friendly games. Blue Moon, Brenda's game design company, wrote games (maybe only 'a game,' I can't remember) with a social interactive slant that was aimed at girls. But besides that, Roberta is a fairly talented but mostly self taught game programmer while Brenda is a genius computer scientist who has researched some very deep issues that impact nearly all areas of computing. She wrote a book analyzing computer-human interaction in terms of Aristotle's Poetics that I would consider an absolute must read for any UI designer.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
I work for a smallish MMOG startup company in a major urban area - I'm the only female software engineer, and the only woman outside of the support staff in an office of ~20 people (including coders, artists, and management). It's quite lonely - the main problem seems to be a lack of qualified female applicants for job openings. We've done the standard craigslist thing, but maybe 1 in 10 of the applications are from women, and all of them so far have been mediocre. As much as I have an axe to grind about lack of diversity, taking someone who's not qualified for a position in the interest of affirmative action is not a realistic or beneficial choice.