Girls are finally getting the attention they deserve in the gaming world
by Ben Zackheim 
{ Mar 28th 2005 at 8:01AM }
At least according to ABCNews. I'd love to know exactly what they mean by this. It's not clear after reading the
piece. First, the writer says that women love to shoot someone just as much as the boys do. Then they cite The Sims as
a great example of how much women love games.
When you consider all the females who love Quake, Halo, World of Warcraft, The Sims, and Soul Calibur it becomes clear
that the only thing missing in the gaming world is a public relations push for women. The titles are out there for
females to enjoy. They just need to be welcomed into the fold as the ass-kickers they are.
The piece ends with an example of how women are becoming game makers as well. Now this is defintely an area where the
ratio needs improvement. One trip to the annual Game Developers Conference is proof positive of that. I don't think
there's an easy solution to this imbalance, but my best guess is that time will solve it. With all the young female
gamers out there today, can female game makers be far behind?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Christopher7xii @ Dec 18th 2005 8:46PM
Big difference with women. Women are more compelled to have a well-rounded, family life. Often to become developers you need to become programmers, and in order to succeed at programming in the video game industry, you need to sacrifice your social life.
Being blunt, women are intelligent and smart enough to realize that work is not life. Most men don't. They think 'money good, work good, money is the focus of life.' - Granted, not ALL women are exactly the same, but it's a lot more common for a woman to put her career second to her kids than it is for a man. Men become obsessive with their work. I think that's why the field is so dominated with men. It's not like its 'hey, boys only!' club. It's just that who else do we have to rely on to completely seperate themselves from any form of socialization? The DnD nerds, the guys picked on in high school for being math geeks, members of the chess club. Regardless of what a female is into, she can always find someone. Guys on the other hand, we just hope that someone wants to date us when we sink to that level of geekdom. Then the lonely path leads more geekdom. Vicious cycle that creates programmers that become developers.
Again, I'm not saying any of this to be sexist. I just think that men are more likely to become obsessed with the lesser things in life... Like coding.
Vladimir Cole @ Dec 18th 2005 8:46PM
"With all the young female gamers out there today, can female game makers be far behind?"
There are lots of women who drive cars across bridges, but that hasn't improved the ratio of women who become engineers.
And there are lots of women who use Microsoft Word and other popular software products, but that hasn't increased the quantity of female software engineers.
In other words, I don't think that a demographic's use of a product necessarily translates into that demographic's desire to help create such products.
In fact, the opposite could be true. Because we're making such testosterone-fueled games, we could be turning women off from a career in the industry.
Hammer @ Dec 18th 2005 8:46PM
"Being blunt, women are intelligent and smart enough to realize that work is not life. Most men don't. They think 'money good, work good, money is the focus of life.'"
Work may not be life to a woman, because they can get a man if they're dead broke. A man can't walk around broke and expect to get a woman. That's why men work so hard.
"Granted, not ALL women are exactly the same, but it's a lot more common for a woman to put her career second to her kids than it is for a man."
Oh, so you're saying that it's more common for a woman to take part-time work or quit her job and simply rely on the income of her full-time husband?
"Men become obsessive with their work. I think that's why the field is so dominated with men."
You just gave the answer to yourself. Women don't put as much effort into work as a man would do. There's not too many women who would want to give up valuable "me" time and put in serious hours.
"Again, I'm not saying any of this to be sexist. I just think that men are more likely to become obsessed with the lesser things in life... Like coding."
Just as women become obsessed with the lesser things in life, like shopping and watching Oprah and Desperate Housewives?
"In fact, the opposite could be true. Because we're making such testosterone-fueled games, we could be turning women off from a career in the industry."
Boo-fucking-hoo. If they don't like it, they can change it. I just don't know how many people will buy crappy "grrl-power" games, though. If they made something decent, that would be a plus, though.
Joey Geraci @ Dec 18th 2005 8:46PM
Wow, have you ever had a girlfriend, Hammer? Don't think so.
Myria @ Dec 18th 2005 8:46PM
Ummm... Hammer? If you ever get sick of having a temper tantrum there in the 1950s you might want to join the rest of us here in the 21st century where, I know this'll come as a shock, but most women work and we take care of jello brains like you, besides. Sadly, we also have to put up with way too much of your kind of misogyny in far too many games.
Hammer @ Dec 18th 2005 8:46PM
"Wow, have you ever had a girlfriend, Hammer? Don't think so."
Have you ever had a girlfriend before?
"Ummm... Hammer? If you ever get sick of having a temper tantrum there in the 1950s you might want to join the rest of us here in the 21st century where, I know this'll come as a shock, but most women work and we take care of jello brains like you, besides."
Oh boy. I knew I'd get someone's panties in a bundle and they'd HAVE to come and reply.
Now, before I begin to dig into your comments, I'd like to say that you didn't seem to have a problem with what that first poster said about men "not being smart enough to realize that work is not life." Do you consider men to be mentally inferior, or was that an oversight on your part?
Anyway, I know most women work. Show me where I said I didn't. What I said was that women don't want to put in the amount of hours it would take to do a job such as developing games.
And please tell me how you take care of "jello brains" like me.
"Sadly, we also have to put up with way too much of your kind of misogyny in far too many games."
Haha. What are you talking about? I don't make games!
You know what? Since I'm bored, please go into an elaborate description of what kind of misogyny that you poor women face in gamingdom and I'll counter with all types of misandry. It'll be fun! :D
Hammer @ Dec 18th 2005 8:46PM
"Wow, have you ever had a girlfriend, Hammer? Don't think so."
Have you ever had a girlfriend before?
"Ummm... Hammer? If you ever get sick of having a temper tantrum there in the 1950s you might want to join the rest of us here in the 21st century where, I know this'll come as a shock, but most women work and we take care of jello brains like you, besides."
Oh boy. I knew I'd get someone's panties in a bundle and they'd HAVE to come and reply.
Now, before I begin to dig into your comments, I'd like to say that you didn't seem to have a problem with what that first poster said about men "not being smart enough to realize that work is not life." Do you consider men to be mentally inferior, or was that an oversight on your part?
Anyway, I know most women work. Show me where I said I didn't. What I said was that women don't want to put in the amount of hours it would take to do a job such as developing games.
And please tell me how you take care of "jello brains" like me.
"Sadly, we also have to put up with way too much of your kind of misogyny in far too many games."
Haha. What are you talking about? I don't make games!
You know what? Since I'm bored, please go into an elaborate description of what kind of misogyny that you poor women face in gamingdom and I'll counter with all types of misandry. It'll be fun! :D
Dan @ Dec 18th 2005 8:46PM
The ABC News bit was decent, if on the short side (and the title was pretty groan-inducing). They only talked to one womean from EA and few mostly unnamed girl gamers.
If you're really interested in mainstream women's gaming, check out http://www.GameGal.com .
PEZinvaders @ Dec 18th 2005 8:46PM
It's not surprising that the article fell way short of actually saying anything interesting; most pieces I've read on games or gamers in the mainstream press are written by people who don't seem to know anything about what they're covering. That aside, they've been talking about female gamers "finally" getting coverage for about ten years. I participated in the first All Female Quake Tournament back in '97 and they did basically the same story, with the same title, of course without the head of EA there to represent.
The thing is women make up a much larger gaming audience than is reported because they only count certain genres, namely FPS, RPG, Sports, Racing, etc... No mention of card games, online flash games, things like that. I think if they did there would be a huge spike in the age range as well. Is that interesting to anyone besides the companies trying to make money? I don't know. But that article was a snooze anyway... Well, more like a short nap.