It’s a Boys’ Club – Sony Says to Industry Let There Be More Women
Thursday 20 November 2008 @ 6:16 am | By Sol 5 Comments
It’s no secret that women gamers are drawn to different aspects of gaming then their male counterparts. The gaming industry is seen as a teenage boy clubhouse. While there has always been talk surrounding getting women more involved in this industry, finally a company is taking real action.
“Today, I am challenging everyone to take action to help level the playing field for women pursuing a career in video games,” said Torrie Dorrell senior vice president of Global Sales and Marketing for Sony Online Entertainment LLC (SOE). “We can encourage diversity in development and make a difference, hopefully creating more opportunities for women.”
SOE is piloting, G.I.R.L. or Gamers In Real Life, a new initiative designed to encourage female students pursuing a career “in the creative and applied arts, with the ultimate goal of developing video games that are more interesting for women to play,” stated in a SOE press release.
There are a number of statistics and write-ups concerning this topic, but it is pretty clear that in the game development industry and within the gamer population “girl gamers” are a small albeit growing population.
G.I.R.L. is a scholarship program given to students of undergraduate studies relating to game development. Female students compete by submitting original artwork or essays to be judged by a panel. This scholarship has been in the seedling stages for quite a while and I think this is a fantastic outreach opportunity.
Let’s be real honest here and make some general, bordering on stereotypical statements, guys are very goal oriented. Girls that I know who play games tend to enjoy games that are either more cerebral or social based. Games like Rock Band, World of Warcraft or The Sims fit in this type of category and casual gaming is still dominated by women.
In a growing multibillion dollar industry, where nearly 75% of paying casual gamers are women demonstrating they play and are willing to purchase games for themselves, the potential revenue created by having women design games with the woman in mind, are too good for developers and publishers to pass-up.
What are your thoughts? Think I’m wildly off base and the gaming industry won’t change? Let me know in the comments.
[G.I.R.L. / Via SOE Press Release]
, Casual-Games , gamer , Girls , PSA , Scholarship , Sony , Web Notes
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[...] Random Feed wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptIt’s no secret that women gamers are drawn to different aspects of gaming then their male counterparts. The gaming industry is seen as a teenage boy clubhouse. While there has always been talk surrounding getting women more involved in this industry, finally a company is taking real action. “Today, I am challenging everyone to take action to help level the playing field for women pursuing a career in video games,” said Torrie Dorrell senior vice president of Global Sales and Marketing for [...]
It must be funny but at least the 4 girls i have played videogames against were quite competetive and i lost to them.
(on the subject) The thing is, i dont see so many ladies focusing on engineering carreers, so i think it will be very positive to encourage them before college to persue carreers oriented towards gaming engineering. Highschool or earlier.
The IT/ CS dept. at my college keeps going on and on about the importance of having female programmers… meh, I could care less.
If you want more women to play games, have CLAMP produce a boys love game or some shit.
Girls will swallow it faster than greasy hotdogs at Nathan’s hotdog eating contest.
I also dont think that gender dictates whether or not you are a hardcore gamer, or casual gamer.
I believe that it has to do with the age that you become interested in games, if at all.
I think that casual gamers play those types of games because they were never really introduced to them at an earlier age. Some girls are actually made fun of or mocked for playing games because its for “nerds”; so in order to fit in, they don’t play until a game comes out (say, Sims, Guitar Hero) that is socially acceptable.
Most hardcore gamers start at a very early age, or just get hooked instantly when they are older.
But who knows, that’s just my two cents.
I think video-games and “gamers” are becoming more socially acceptable. It is easier to get into games nowadays. While some games are terribly difficult, casual/social games are readily accessible.
While I’m sure they exist, I’d sooner expect to see a FemGamer be great at Rock Band or Boomblox than I would Call of Duty. Not by virtue of them being a woman, although some may argue men are more wired for aggression, but because dual factors of being raised in a gaming environment and social accessibility.
It isn’t easy to pick up a fairly complex FPS where speed and tactics are core strategies for success and do well.
However rhythm games allow engagement on a already familiar plane.
In other words I agree with Link, but I think there are other deeper factors at work as well.