Sony's G.I.R.L. Scholarship Opens For Applicants

[MikeWehner]

Sony's G.I.R.L. Scholarship Opens For Applicants

College students can now apply for a chance to see Sony Online Entertainment from the inside.

Note: Contrary to the original report, both male and female applicants may submit for a chance at the scholarship. We have updated the post to reflect this.

Sony's female-focused game design competition, Gamers In Real Life (G.I.R.L.), is now accepting applicants. The program offers one winner $10,000 towards furthering their education as well as a 10-week paid internship with Sony Online Entertainment.

To be eligible for the competition, applicants must be over the age of 18, currently enrolled in an undergraduate program that applies in some way to gaming. Each applicant must hold at least a 3.00 GPA.

Submissions take the form of two pieces of concept art as well as a 500-word essay that must answer the questions "How can you change and improve the image of women in games?" and "How do you think such changes will help create games that more women will want to play?"

The G.I.R.L. scholarship program is currently in its 6th year, having been founded in 2008. "At SOE, we believe that diversity is one of our keys to success and it is truly woven into the fabric of who we are as a company," notes SOE's Senior Vice President of Global Sales & Marketing, Laura Naviaux. "We want to help make the games industry even that much more approachable and our goal with the G.I.R.L. Scholarship is to provide an easy way to usher even more women into the industry."

If you're interested in possibly applying for the program, you can view all the rules and specifics on the program's official submissions page [https://www.scholarshipamerica.org/gamersinreallife/].

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[Dogstile]

I give it two pages before someone brings up sexism.

Edit: Very generous indeed. I should probably make that "a few posts".

 

[josemlopes]

How do we erase sexism in the videogame industry?
By making schools that only accept females! What a great idea /sarcasm

EDIT: Dogstile, you were very generous in expecting two pages

 

[Selef]

I give it two pages before someone brings up sexism.

more like two posts.

I see what they are trying to do here, but its kinda like a kid trying to make things by apologizing to someone for calling them a name and then calling them the name again while apologizing. They mean well, but they screwed it up kinda.

Edit: Then again when you think about it, there are a lot of scholarships based on gender/race.

 

[Froggy Slayer]

Look, Sony, I see what you're trying to do, and it's admirable, but...goddamn, this has to be the most hamfisted way of implementing in. I mean G.I.R.L.? Seriously? This is what you think is treating women seriously? Christ.

 

[Irridium]

Well, when wanting to sell to people outside the "straight white male" demographic, this is one way to start. Hope it leads to good things.

Look, Sony, I see what you're trying to do, and it's admirable, but...goddamn, this has to be the most hamfisted way of implementing in. I mean G.I.R.L.? Seriously? This is what you think is treating women seriously? Christ.

Dude, it's Sony. "Ham-fisted implementation" is kind of their thing.

 

[Hagi]

Yes! How dare they restrict scholarships to certain demographics!

You think sexism is the problem? At least that one applies to 50% of the world's population.

At least 90% of ALL people EVERYWHERE are being EXCLUDED just because they aren't residents of the USA. This rampant nationism has to stop, it has to stop now!

 

[ritchards]

I know there are a lot of people (including a lot of women) who are fine with it, but the term 'girl' shouldn't be applied to 'woman'! (Although I do admit I like how the acronym unpacks.)

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

The nitpicking of this scholarship's validity within the first 9 threads is kind of disturbing to see.

 

[Ruley]

Reminds me of the horrible "Science: its a girl thing" advert the EU put out a few months back.

 

[Thaluikhain]

*Facepalm* So it begins. Some people just don't know how to do these sort of well intentioned things without putting a gigantic bullseye on themselves and giving the MRA types a brand new yelling point.

Assuming it was well intentioned, rather than something aimed at looking like they are.

But yeah, this is clearly the worst thing ever and proof that the feminists are taking over and destroying society, this never happened under Bush etc

 

[Legion]

The only thing I don't really like is the idea of "How do you think such changes will help create games that more women will want to play?"

There is this rather odd idea that most games are aimed at males. Yes, most action games are, certainly. Ones that involve violence and other such things, but that's not most games overall. This idea will perhaps be helpful for those who make triple A shooters and such, but to be honest, they aren't into making games to please people, they are in games to make money. It's why they go for the lowest common denominator rather than putting effort into making believable characters and solid plots.

Those kinds of developers make games aimed at teenage males, because such games will give them the best return. Hell, Epic talking about the lack of a female lead in Gears of War is evidence of that.

The backwards attitude of some developers will certainly help there be more decent female characters, and more big name games that may appeal to women, but sexism men isn't the only cause behind it. Money making as a primary motivation, and society still living under the "Computer games are for little boys and man-children" idea are just as guilty.

On a side note. I see ten times as many people go into threads such as these to post nothing except "INB4 Bigots", than actual bigots. Do people think it makes them open minded and clever to point out that such topics are going to attract trolls, or flame-baiters? I am sure it should count as low content posting.

Yes! How dare they restrict scholarships to certain demographics!

You think sexism is the problem? At least that one applies to 50% of the world's population.

At least 90% of ALL people EVERYWHERE are being EXCLUDED just because they aren't residents of the USA. This rampant nationism has to stop, it has to stop now!

Not really a comparable argument. Living outside of the country kind of stops you from being able to attend you see. Not to mention that different countries have different grading systems, and all the other jazz such as visa's and so on.

Yes, I get you were not being entirely serious, but you seemed to be mocking those who might call it sexist by bringing up an incomparable example.

*Facepalm* So it begins. Some people just don't know how to do these sort of well intentioned things without putting a gigantic bullseye on themselves and giving the MRA types a brand new yelling point.

I am not sure what this has to do with magnetic resonance angiography.

 

[KingGolem]

You know, I really don't see how giving scholarships out to only women is a means of striving for gender equality. Equality means that a person is judged on their own merits, without secondary considerations like gender, race, class, religion, nationality, or whatever else.

 

[rbstewart7263]

Look, Sony, I see what you're trying to do, and it's admirable, but...goddamn, this has to be the most hamfisted way of implementing in. I mean G.I.R.L.? Seriously? This is what you think is treating women seriously? Christ.

dude no one from feminists to whoever complains when its women in"..." scholarships anywhere else no one will here.

Honestly Im cool with it like I know that in 20 years when there are more women than men making games no one will give me a scholarship but Im too apathetic to really care.

 

[Hagi]

Yes! How dare they restrict scholarships to certain demographics!

You think sexism is the problem? At least that one applies to 50% of the world's population.

At least 90% of ALL people EVERYWHERE are being EXCLUDED just because they aren't residents of the USA. This rampant nationism has to stop, it has to stop now!

Not really a comparable argument. Living outside of the country kind of stops you from being able to attend you see. Not to mention that different countries have different grading systems, and all the other jazz such as visa's and so on.

Yes, I get you were not being entirely serious, but you seemed to be mocking those who might call it sexist by bringing up an incomparable example.

Because Sony Online Entertainment doesn't have offices outside of the states nor are there respectable universities elsewhere nor are there things like standards for grading systems.

And yes, I am mocking those who call this sexist. Not everything limited to one gender is done out of any sense of that the different genders are of different value.

There's nothing unfair about providing an incentive to a certain group for whom there are also societal obstacles for a given path. Exactly because the two genders are of equal value that incentive is given so that valuable people, regardless of their sex, can get the opportunities to express their talents.