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feature :: women in the games industry

Women in the Games Industry

Anna takes an in depth look at the role women have in the video game industry, and interviews some prominent women working behind the scenes.

Intro | Brooke Luder from Sega Creative Assembly | Hannah Crosby from THQ Studio Australia | Sheridan Meulblok from Good Game

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At the moment, there are very few women in the Australian games industry – in fact, around the world, we’ve found that while not impossible to find, women are outnumbered greatly in most roles (you’ll mainly find the girls who do work with games in the PR and Marketing departments). Most recently, there’s been a focus on what roles women take in the development of a game. During 2007, there was some controversy surrounding how gamers were receiving the radical notion that a AAA game was being produced by a woman. Enter stage left, Jade Raymond of Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed fame.

She was young, she was beautiful, and she was working in the games industry. Normally what you’d consider a recipe for success, this turned about into accusations of sexism and exploitation when Ubisoft took this genetic advantage and placed it squarely in the middle of the marketing of Assassin’s Creed. Her abilities as a producer were questioned as gamers saw the previews and TV spots as a marketing ploy aimed at exploiting the young male “fanboy” audience. The qualities of the game became overshadowed by the new discussion of her capabilities and what her attractiveness might be hiding about the game. That comic was thrown about and suddenly the industry was thinking very carefully of how it portrayed the women who worked with them.


Jade Raymond - Lead Producer on Assassins Creed


"There aren't that many women making games, but we're definitely seeing a lot more games geared to women and women of all ages are playing more. For the industry to continue growing and to get a female audience, or an older audience or people who are looking for a different type of entertainment, they have to start taking chances and deliver different kinds of experiences." – Jade Raymond (Financial Post)

At the moment, we’ve got developers around the world suddenly realising that by focusing on the stereotypical gamer, they’ve been ignoring a large part of their market – and it hasn’t just been women. As a knee jerk reaction, we’re seeing the rise of “pink” games – games developers believe appeal to women because they’re based on domestic tasks or are focused on socialising and networking. Personally, I’ve never seen the need to make gender-specific games (for example, The Sims was never intended to be marketed as a game for women until it twigged that far more women were playing it than men), but I do recognise a need to begin to break down these assumptions of a male-dominated industry. Half the reason a woman might not pick up a controller is because of this perception that it’s ‘just not for them’.

Nintendo have been at the forefront of this change – most people saw the Wii as a gimmick, to try and entice the so called non-gamers and casual players into the console wars at the expense of the hardcore Nintendo fanboys. For some reason, it’s still popular, selling consistently each and every month since release to men and women, families and singles, grandparents and kids. Nintendo have been able to do what developers are still scratching their heads over in expanding their market base. Somehow, they’ve made a system that will appeal to each demographic in some way or another. At the retail level I’ve been spending my time in, interest in the DS is coming equally from the elderly and the under 12s. It’s not just the system either; most platformers will hold a charm for both male and female gamers and the rise of Brain Training has been fuelling interest for the system rather than the “gimmick” of the touch screen.

We’ve also got a change coming through in the portrayal of women within the games themselves. The rise of heroines like Jade (Beyond Good and Evil) and April (The Longest Journey) have developed from their heavily endowed and cheesy Lara Croft clones. Portal (arguably one of the best games coming out of 2007) came with only two main characters, both female. The use of heroines and strong female leads as opposed to the generic stereotypes is growing as developers realise this can have a major influence on how well the game is received by female gamers.


Modern female game characters - Jade (Beyond Good and Evil), Chell (Portal), April (The Longest Journey, Dreamfall)


In the wake of all this, I’ve been charged to put together a little insight on what’s happening with women working within the industry and how female gamers perceive their role in the market. We already know the stats – 42% of gamers in Australia are female. Most are considered casual gamers, though we’re finding that more and more women have expanded into genres previously considered decidedly male interests. Note the past tense. I’m of the opinion that women have been involved in more than just casual gaming for years, it’s only now that the industry is paying attention to them and that the women themselves are beginning to consider themselves as gamers. We’re also finding an increase in the number of young women interesting in pursuing a career in the games industry, not just in marketing or PR roles, but in programming, level design, art and quality assurance. School leavers are encouraged to take up degrees in IT with scholarships on offer with the aim of addressing the gender imbalance. Programs like this are helping to introduce women to career options they would have dismissed out of hand by the overwhelming attitude that gaming is a male-dominated hobby. Expanding the demographics of the gaming industry will only improve quality and variety (well, with a little hope).

Coming up is Women in Games, being held by AIE in Canberra on Thursday 1st May at 6pm. You will need to register to attend – which you can do so here. They recommend that if you have ever been involved with playing games, developing games, education, IT and Software development or were interested in finding out more about the career pathways available to those wanting to get into the industry. They’ve got a website set up if you wanted more information on what will be happening on the night and what they hope to achieve.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve rounded up a few friendly faces to answer a few questions on what they think of the gaming industry and where it could be heading towards in the future in the lead up to this event. We’ve got Brooke Luder, a Graphic Designer from Creative Assembly, Hannah Crosby, an Artist from THQ and Sheridan Meulblok (also known as Lux) from ABC1’s Good Game.





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