G.I.R.L. artificially added to games industry |
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| BY Andrew Woods Jul. 9th, 2008 | More on: |
Julia Brasil of San Francisco has won the 2008 G.I.R.L. (Gamers in Real Life) Game Design Competition. She now gets a $10,000 tuition scholarship toward her education at The Art Institute of California – San Francisco and a paid internship of up to 10 weeks at the Sony Online Entertainment studio of her choice in Austin, Denver, San Diego or Seattle.
“I am shocked and overjoyed to be the first G.I.R.L. Scholarship recipient,” said Brasil. “I’m really looking forward to my internship with SOE, and getting some hands-on experience at such a well-known company. It’s such a great opportunity.”
In order to become the winner, Brasil had to submit an in-game design, original concept art and two essays.
Brasil was one of nearly 100 applicants vying for the winning title of the 2008 SOE G.I.R.L. Game Design Competition (so not wildly popular then).
“We believe our groundbreaking G.I.R.L. scholarship can give Julia the foundation she needs to pursue a successful career in the video games business. SOE is thrilled to jumpstart the first step in pursuing her goals,” said Torrie Dorrell, Senior Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing, Sony Online Entertainment. “We anticipate G.I.R.L. continuing to evolve and snowball, creating even more opportunities for women to get behind these games.”
Hmmm. How do we feel about this then men?
I tell you what, don’t hold your breath if you are waiting for the G.U.Y. (gamers usually young men) Game Design Competition, because there isn’t one.
I am all for equality and in a few situations I am even in favour of positive discrimination (black people in South Africa need help after the centuries of oppression they suffered), but do women need a leg up to get in to the gaming industry? I expect software companies are crying out for female employees, even if it is only so there is someone to use the other toilets. Is the reason that there are so few women in the industry (17% in 2004) because they are being discriminated against? Of course not.
The fact is that most women are NOT INTERESTED in games, and nothing will change that fact. We can all name exceptions to this rule, but it is true for the overwhelming majority. The reason that there are not many games made for girls is that there are not enough girls out there who want to buy them. We can argue about the finer points of this for as long as you like, but the fact is that boys and girls are different and like different things. Try and get a boy to play Barbie and see what happens (at best he will make her have sex with GI Joe - oh, was that just me?).
A little competition, with only 100 entrants (lol), is not going to do anything at all to change the imbalance of genders in the industry. If Sony (or anyone else for that matter) really want to do something about it then they will create positions for women consultants and game designers. They will create focus groups of women to tell them what they want from a game, then they will use more focus groups to tell them how to refine their games to appeal to as many women as possible in as many different countries as possible. But they don’t do this. Why? Because it will be a waste of time and money.
Does everything in life have to be equal? It has to be fair, I’m not suggesting that women should not be allowed to work in the games industry, but if they don’t want to then who cares? What does it matter if the games industry is for blokes only? I don’t see competitions encouraging men to get into the Bridal magazine industry, and nor would I want to.
Maybe women are the last great untapped market for the games industry. Maybe this is the hidden agenda for Sony et al. If this is the case then they need to get serious in their efforts to cater for the needs of the female gamer and not just put on a feminist pacifying show that will have absolutely zero long term effects.
Even if they did get serious I suspect that getting girls to be interested in games would be a bit like getting blood out of a DualShock 3. Am I wrong? Comment below…
July 9th, 2008
at 5:25 pm
“The fact is that most women are NOT INTERESTED in games, and nothing will change that fact.”
http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&q=casual+gaming+women
I think this was shockingly shallow and vacuous. Girls don’t play games! Only guys should play games! Who cares about them, they have their Barbies and shopping!
July 9th, 2008
at 6:06 pm
DarkWulf, he said “most” women, which is totally right. And I think in light in which we consider us gamers, playing Bejeweled in a browser doesn’t count :)
July 10th, 2008
at 2:37 am
I suppose if the women you are typically around don’t play video games you would have a limited view of ‘gamer girls.’ I AM a girl that plays video games and it isn’t Bejeweled. I play a huge assortment of games from Halo and Metal Gear Solid to Chocobo Tales and Prof. Layton. It’s entirely biased to say the majority of girls do not play video games based solely on your own experience, then again it’s the only basis you have to go on. All my friends, guys or girls, play video games and most people I am acquainted with generally play video games as well. I could generalize and say everyone or MOST everyone plays video games but I know that’s not true. I tend to think that people that write these articles to argue if girls do or don’t play video games is a huge waste of space. Some of us do and some of us don’t. Some guys play and some guys don’t, should we dedicate 50 or 60+ articles to that? Oh and that statistic about 17% of gamers is inaccurate. If you look it up girls make up over 30% of the market. I also have a link for some proof http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/ptech/02/28/women.gamers/index.html
July 10th, 2008
at 8:34 am
Thankyou for the feedback everyone.
I knew this article would ruffle some feathers. Tell me Krystin, how many female friends do you have? 10, 20, 30? What pecentage of the female part of the planet do they represent, bearing in mind there are about 3 billion women? For that matter what percentage of women in the western world do they represent? A tiny, tiny fraction of 1% is the answer. So saying, “all my friends play games” is completely irrelevant. Even if all the women in your town played games it would still be statistically irrelevant (but, it would be very interesting). Further, my “17%” statistic is not inaccurate. I did not state that 17% of gamers were women, I said that 17% of the industry were women. Follow the link, read the article.
With all that said you are absolutely right that women are making up a larger part of the market than ever before, and the games industry is just beginning to wake up to that fact. But, as I said in the article, if the games industry want to really tap into the female market then a little competiton is not the way to go about it. Also the games that these new female gamers tend play are very much of the “casual” variety, of which Nintendo is king. You Krystin represent a tiny minority. A girl who plays “hardcore” games. Wow, if I wasn’t already married… ;-)
July 10th, 2008
at 8:52 am
Incidentally, as someone who works in the software industry, I’d say 17% is really good. Better than what I’d guess to be average (~10%).
I think the “casual games aren’t real games” is a really strange argument. What about Sims? Or even those terrible Barbie games? It just seems like the goal post for “real games” is “stuff girls don’t play”
July 10th, 2008
at 6:19 pm
Perhaps it is true that an overwhelming majority of women are not interested in gaming, but one of the reasons this is so is that they may have never sat down and actually played anything. I have found that simply introducing a casual game like Luxor or Feeding Frenzy to other women I have met, and even the ones in my family, will often hook them into at least wanting to own the game in question. I’m not going to drag them into Call of Duty 4 with me and force them to learn the finer points of Search and Destoy, but if it gets them wanting to buy a DS or a PSP to take their gaming on the go, then I’m all for it.
I want to get anyone I can into gaming because it’s a common ground that I can get along with almost anyone on. It’s my passion, so sharing it with anyone who is interested can always brighten my day.
Also, I know for a fact that gaming has not always been an acceptable hobby for girls. Growing up, I was lucky enough to have a father who didn’t care if I was a boy or a girl, he just wanted to play. Ever since I was around three years old we’ve been gaming together. Some girls did not have that influence or acceptance, and while they may have wanted to game with their brothers or fathers, the stigma attached was often too much, so they gave it up. I happen to feel that most females are easily intimidated, especially when it has to do with something that they could possibly take a little flak for, such as being a gamer. Then you have the panel of girls who will only do something if it is deemed “in”, and for girls growing up in today’s world the only “in” thing is becoming a promiscuous, bony model who takes her beauty more seriously than anything else.
You’re right, girls shouldn’t have to have any extra “help” to get into the gaming industry, but for the shy ones who may not have tried any other way, this was an excellent start. Who cares if the industry is “just for blokes”? I care. I’d love it if for once, my dream of becoming a revered video game journalist wasn’t widely regarded as “stupid” or “immature” or “something only for the guys”. My female friends are not up to snuff, and the more women jumping on gaming projects, the better. It would be amazing if there were ever a female that got as much notoriety as Cliff Bleszinski, you know, for her talent, and not how many controllers she can lick.