More Women Want to Design Games

[Austin MacKenzie]

More Women Want to Design Games

While gaming may not be "just for men," game development is still dominated by men. That may be changing.

The Guildhall of Southern Methodist University [http://guildhall.smu.edu/], a graduate program focused on game design, has just reported its incoming class is 20 percent female, a far cry from the standard four to seven percent present in the gaming industry.

"We are extremely pleased that the January 2010 cohort has a higher ratio of women in the mix," Founder and executive director of The Guildhall Peter Raad said. "There has been a disparity between the number of men versus women in the videogame industry far too long and we believe this increase represents a growing trend of more women seeking a career in game development."

While 20 percent may not sound like much, it's a huge shift and a possible indicator of what the industry may look like in the future. The numbers have definitely generated some excitement among The Guildhall's faculty about the future of the industry.

"To create games that are compelling and games that appeal to an ever-expanding market of gamers, diversity must be cultivated within the development community, as well as within the individual teams that develop a single game," Raad said.

The influx of women into the world of game design is definitely good news for us gamers. With more voices and backgrounds developing our games, it can only mean more great games for us to play.

Source: <a href=http://gamepolitics.com/2010/02/11/girls-upping-their-game-guildhall>Gamepolitics

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[PedroSteckecilo]

I know two people working in the game industry, both are Women and both are amazingly talented (one's an artist, the other is an Animator) and though both are currently working for Casual Game Companies both would rather be working on something more interesting and "hardcore" for all you purists out there.

 

[tsu-money]

I say let them. I could care less who the game comes from but as long as it's a great game I'll give it a try.

 

[TheNumber1Zero]

Don't care who they are, what they look like, or what they have to keep hidden under penalty of law.

As long as the end result is grand.

Still good to hear.

 

[Therumancer]

As I have said for a while, the only way "minority" groups in the creative landscape are going to get more representation is to produce more creators of fiction and fantasy. Whether the "issue" is being black, female, hispanic, or whatever.

The only thing to worry about however is that while encouraging diversity, one also has to be careful to avoid the "we are the world" syndrome and start requiring people of various "types" in game design teams and the like simply because they exist, one problem with groups that have previously been a minority within an industry getting involved is a sudden movement to kick them into positions they really didn't earn. Leading to sudden, radical change, and a reduction in quality.

Basically I just hope the games industry sticks to it's guns, and brings this about as a very slow, gradual development, and takes input without going totally politically correct (which is already an increasing issue, given the flak over games like "Seven Days In Fallujah" which got cancelled, or back in the day "Rise Of The Triad" which was also called racist though it was produced, and a pretty decent FPS for the generation).

 

[Kollega]

Yeaaaah yeaaaaah yeaaah! [footnote]That's from Ghostbusters' theme song.[/footnote]

Always good to see a movement towards equality - and diversity. As a matter of fact, the diversity of people in the industry and, by extension, diversity of their ideas that get implemented into games, is even more important.

 

[IamQ]

I don't care about their gender, but more people joining the gaming community is always a plus.