General: Wooing women gamers -- and game creators

Meddle

CNN.com has this article running in their technology area about women gamers and about how more and more are joining school programs focusing on game development / design.

(CNN) -- On a Tuesday night in a San Francisco nightclub, Torrie Dorrell makes a very personal revelation to the gathered crowd: "I'm a full-on gamer, and my husband hates me."

"Cassie" is one of the characters who occupies the online world of "The Agency."

In fact, Dorrell spends so much time gaming, she has risen to the level of "officer" in a "guild" playing "EverQuest 2" online.

More and more, husbands and boyfriends are playing second fiddle to computers and consoles as 38 percent of gamers are female, spending an average of 7.4 hours a week playing, according to the Entertainment Software Association.

Dorrell isn't just one of these female gamers, she also works in the industry. As the senior vice president of global sales and marketing for Sony Online Entertainment, she has made a career out of her passion for games.

"Women are out there in significant numbers playing MMOs, action games, first-person shooters," Dorrell explains. "What is lacking in the equation are women behind these games."

In an effort to balance that equation, Dorrell and her colleagues at SOE have created G.I.R.L., Gamers In Real Life, a scholarship program to attract more young women to careers in game development.

"Go to any video game convention and it appears quite obviously that there are more men than women in the industry," says Courtney Simmons, public relations director for SOE, who helped spearhead the G.I.R.L. program at the company's San Diego headquarters.

Click here to read the entire article.

pussaykat

I don't like this topic. I remember 20 pages long "why men play girls" on wow's forums and stuff like that. In my opinion this can only end in a sexist debate.

E1io

 I lol at mainstream news sources when they report on games.

 

 Female gamers will come when they want to but you won't see a mas samount of them until video gaming is mainstream I think but we'll see what happens.

Kyriene

I'd be willing to bet there are more hardcore female gamers out there than people think, simply because we don't feel the need to scream to the world:

"Hey I'm a hardcore female gamer!"

Before I married my husband I usually put at least 40 to 60 hours a week into gaming on top of a full time job, now I still put in a good 15 to 20 hours a week into gaming on top of raising 2 kids and taking care of my husband, fortunately for me, my husband is also pretty heavy duty into gaming.  We have an agreement I don't do anything during the day when I'm home with the kids that I can't get up and walk away from the computer/Xbox 360 to take care of the kids for, and I don't play anything rated above Teen on the Xbox 360 because of the kids when they are up.  I enjoy the challenge of gaming and I have a blast at it, I play a lot of different stuff, I play WoW, SWG, HGL, Cabal, Diablo II, Halo 3, Orange Box, Lost Odyssey.. those are the games I am playing right now, there are more that I would love to play as well.  I enjoy playing Rock Band with my husband that I am really really bad at that one.  Even our 2 and 5 year olds play video games on the computer and the Wii, though I don't let the touch the Xbox 360 yet .

Billr00

Originally posted by pussaykat


I don't like this topic. I remember 20 pages long "why men play girls" on wow's forums and stuff like that. In my opinion this can only end in a sexist debate.

hmmm... funny you would pull the sexist card with a name like yours .. just an observation

pussaykat

Originally posted by Billr00

Originally posted by pussaykat


I don't like this topic. I remember 20 pages long "why men play girls" on wow's forums and stuff like that. In my opinion this can only end in a sexist debate.

hmmm... funny you would pull the sexist card with a name like yours .. just an observation

oh yeah... forgot about that.

 

EDIT: Technicly that name was 99% kitty and 1% trolling. I love my cat.

Jenneroflok

I heard a term once for female gamers,  while I so not agree with it,  it is a term out there.   Female gamers = Unicorn, wow they are attractive an alluring,   if you get to close, they will gore you to death.

 

Whil;e I do not agree with that, I have found many female gamers that hold there own and I am willing to group with anytime,  it is an old term that is out there,

defafnyr

The female gamer topic has been talked to death.  In my family we are 5 female gamers to 2 males.  Women gamers are not the mythical holy grail. 

What I do like to seeing in this article is the drive to put more women behind the games.  So many games I'd like to play but hate being forced to play the hero of the adventure as a male character.  Look at the newest Star Wars game coming out with that great technology, all the vids showcasing the leaps in technology, and yet a player has no choice but to play the main character, the hero of the story, as a male.  90% of the single player games are written for the males to play male characters.  I think the only good famous game that forced anyone to play a female character was Tomb Raider.  

Flummoxed

 

Originally posted by E1io


 I lol at mainstream news sources when they report on games.

 here's the giveaway: On a Tuesday night in a San Francisco nightclub...

On Tuesday nights a Real Gamer would be hunched over their keyboard on a Raid, not at some club.

 

I question her credibility when she says she's a Real gamer.

I guarantee ye, as the Senior Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing for Sony Online Entertainment she has ZERO time to herself for Anything, let alone dozens/hundreds of free hours to spend being a serious gamer. 

Likely this guild she's an 'officer' in is one of those in-house Staff guilds that are mandatory for management and she's on the roster as one of the officers along with the VP of Shipping and Receiving and a bunch of other execs who've never logged in after character creation.

Mostly this was a sales and marketing PR job given to CNN to say "I'm a female senior executive at a big name company and I play games".  Nice message if you're trying to pump up game sales (which duh is what the senior sales and marketing VP would do) but it's not necessarily the truth.

doodler222

Hum good article.

wikie

really cassie.. that's nice most of us women gamers will be happy for that news

doodler222

sigh.

doodler222

Originally posted by Jenneroflok

I heard a term once for female gamers,  while I so not agree with it,  it is a term out there.   Female gamers = Unicorn, wow they are attractive an alluring,   if you get to close, they will gore you to death.

 

Whil;e I do not agree with that, I have found many female gamers that hold there own and I am willing to group with anytime,  it is an old term that is out there,

Okay that is funny.

admiralnlson

I'd be happy to hear more women like doodler222 are drawn to game making.

A mom who enjoys PK. how better can it get?

APRAurore

We definitely do exist, us female gamers. Not sure why ppl seem so surprised. I've been gaming online for over 10 years. I started out in the text-based MUDs and went to EQ and AO when they were released. My only regret is missing UO in the Felluca days because I went thorugh a temporary period of not having the internet at home. I still played online games in my university's computer labs

doodler222

Neat

AtomicDog

LOL. Girls don't game. They shop and cook barefoot. Everyone knows that.

KRILE0N

Originally posted by doodler222


Myself and my five daughters are gamers.... always have been since the first Nintendo came out.
We have played almost all console types and I moved to online games because I prefer to battle along side other characters (controled by people) and like the communities that are built.
I play atleast 3 online mmorpgs at once, have closed / open beta tested some very popular online games and know how to move through a game a quickly grasp its play-through (user interface, tactics, quest system, etc...)
My daughters each have their own pc's and often party with me (in-game), but they like some of the cuter games (i.e. Angels online, Albatross, Maple Story etc..) and I prefer the Fantasy games with PKing enabled and alot of maps to explore and variations in the game.  The more variations the longer I'll keep playing the game and if I really like the game, I'll use the cash shops.
They do not put as much game time in - I work and go to school and all my spare time after this is gaming. For me, it is a good way to keep my mind 'busy' but away from my work (I am an IT Manager / Web Services) and just compled on degree, hitting a new one this month) and school.
Why game?  Well I have a very aggressive nature, and online games tends to allow me to use this in that environment, vice the real world. I like how it puts my critical thinking skills to use, and we ALL know how you really have to think things through before running in and attacking.  Skills used in certain succession - bring down the kill quicker and etc..
Community - well I fight solo about 99.99% of the time, but - I really contribute to my guild, love the guild chats and when we come together to kick butt.. (i.e. guild wars) or hit up a dungeon for quests that require a group.
The majority of people I encounter are not from the US, and most are guys.  But, I do see a surge in players that are girls.  Generally, if you play a girl character, you are presumed to be a guy, but now when you find out they are a real girl - it is something.  We usually high five each other.
Because of my aggression in a game, I am presumed to be a guy, but when people find out - sure, I am treated different but in a good way.
And I might be aggressive but I also employ tactics - I scope out an area, and watch my prey before I dive in.  I love it when I jump in an am clearly out numbered - and come out being the victor - with maybe a breath of HP left.
For me - the ultimate online game would be where you cannot predict your enemy, and it can ancipate you.  The 'monsters' do not just mill around the map, waiting for you to kill them.  If you get close enough - they sense you (i.e. wind is blowing your scent into their direction), or you step on a twig and they hear the snap. One that might of been there a moment ago has wandered down into a more dangerous region and etc...
I think that is the next step in online gaming - that we gamers cannot 'as easily' figure out how the game will play out, or how the 'monsters' will act.
Peace Out ~
deb. 
 

I'm designing such a game. I've spend maybe a year just perfecting the AI and it's still not done. I have to have smart AI for the game i'm developing. The concept has somewhat been done, but not exactly. Think Naruto. I love that show. I love the concept. I love the combat and the abilities. So i'm creating my own world with the world of Naruto in mind.

It'll play out almost like a fighter game. high punch/kick, mid punch/kick, low punch/kick.. combos.. etc. Then you have your abilties, which i've failed to name so far lol. There's even finishing moves or you can choose to spare them.. death will be harsh in my game.

That's about all I can say on that for now. I'm a 1 man team so don't expect a 2008 release lol.

Anyway, back to the topic. Women do game. I had several women friends in EQ2 before I just quit recently. My gf.. or x-gf played with me at that time. So they're there. Some are ditsy.. some are super good at playing. The same can be said for men. Hell tbh I think men sometimes are the worst players of all.. you know what I mean guys.. when our adrenaline pumps.. we aren't afraid or cautious about jumping into a group of raid x4 mobs and attempting to solo them.. it happens.

APRAurore

For the good of the genre, I hope that more women do get into developing games. I find a lot of the mmorpg industry is very stagnant atm, and the female gender *generally* brings a different viewpoint and kind of creativity to things especially in a heavily male dominated industry. I am tired of seeing Generic Fantasy Game X coming out of especially Western game companies. The sci-fi genre is more interesting but then I am pretty biased in that direction

I'm not saying that men are doing a terrible job, just saying that fresh blood is always good for an industry. That doesn't just include female developers, but developers from different cultures, walks of life, etc.

lekiz

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Originally posted by pussaykat
I don't like this topic. I remember 20 pages long "why men play girls" on wow's forums and stuff like that. In my opinion this can only end in a sexist debate.

---

Well

JYCowboy

I run into many Husband and Wife teams in my play.  Some wives play just a little while others play with thier husband and have a game on the side.  My best friend (going on 30 years) plays EQ2 with his wife as well.  She loves to socialize but when the action starts is a strong member of the team.  Thier daughter has developed a love of the game as well.

Many of the member of my City of Heroes guild are female and so is the leader.  We have an active forum and discuss R/L as much as game.

At the SOE Fan Faire there were many guys but I saw a strong showing of ladies as well.  To say that there are few women gamers, I think, is really miss leading.  I do admit that the number of female develpers was low but at least SOE is trying to change that score with thier scholorship program.

Oh, and my wife and I keep the home fires stoked in SWG.