Portal Creator Sees End to Industry Sexism in 20 Years

Andy Chalk

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Nov 12, 2002
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Portal Creator Sees End to Industry Sexism in 20 Years


Kim Swift is calling on women in the videogame industry to be "visible, outspoken and strong" in order to inspire the current generation of girls to become the next generation of game makers.

Kim Swift may not be as instantly recognizable a name as, say, John Romero or CliffyB, but you almost certainly know her work. She headed Valve's Portal development team and was also involved in the creation of Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2 before departing to direct the development of Quantum Conundrum for Square Enix. She knows a thing or two about making games, in other words, and she also has a few ideas about how to address the problem of sexism in the game industry.

"As a participator in the 1ReasonWhy hash tag, I am ashamed to admit that I am scared of sharing everything; I'm scared of sharing the worst of it," she wrote in a recent blog post. "I am fearful of delving below the surface. Talking about this subject in public is terrifying because frankly you never know when retribution is going to rear its ugly head and what sort of consequences will come about because of your words."

She acknowledged that sexism isn't a problem that can be overcome quickly or easily, because adults aren't going to change their deeply-held beliefs just because someone on the internet told them to. Kids, on the other hand, aren't quite so stratified in their thinking, and they're the ones she believes should be the focus of efforts to change the landscape.

"I have a secret wish. Whenever I'm in the public eye, whether it's doing PR or giving a talk - and this is going to sound amazingly corny - I hope that there's a little girl out there that sees me and thinks to herself, 'Oh look! Girls make games too'," she wrote.

"I see the solution to this problem coming not a year from now, not five years from now, but twenty. When this current generation of kids sees the good example that we should be setting now. And though we may not be able to tell it completely like it is just yet, there's still plenty we can do to help future generations of game developers," she continued. "So ladies, my call to arms is this: Be visible. Be outspoken. Be strong. Be smart. Be kind. Be everything that the younger versions of us could've pointed to and proudly said: 'Girls make games too.'"

Sounds like pretty smart advice to me.

Source: In the Base Case [http://www.inthebasecase.com/?p=17]



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Fappy

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Jan 4, 2010
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That's the way to do it. Targeting the youth is always the best way to shift cultural ideology. Many of the white adults in the 60's that hated minorities still hated them after the civil rights movement, but most of their children didn't. Look at the issue of gay marriage in the US right now. It gets a huge amount of support from young people whose ideology is at odds with that of their parents.
 

hentropy

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Feb 25, 2012
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This is exciting news, when I'm on the night shift for the sentry to protect the survivor's compound from raiders in 20 years, I'll be able to spend my few hours of leisure time playing non-sexist video games.
 

Skeleon

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Andy Chalk said:
Kim Swift may not be as instantly recognizable a name as, say, John Romero...
Would anybody want to have a name as instantly recognizable as John Romero's? I mean, yeah, his name is recognizable, but is it still recognizable as something positive at this point? :p
 

Roxas1359

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Aug 8, 2009
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Hopefully her prediction will come true. I think that one way to help with her goal is to smack Team Ninja upside the head because out of all the companies I've seen they are the worst when it comes to sexism. Honestly I'm still predicting that their next game with having breast with arms and legs that fight each other.
 

RaikuFA

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I hope it happens sooner. But I can tell in the next few days or so, a developer will throw a tantrum over what she said.
 

RobfromtheGulag

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May 18, 2010
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Yep, gonna harp on Skyrim Fallout some more.

Player (who saves the world) can be either gender, with nearly any physical traits.
Males & females in the game world all look realistic rather than inordinately beautiful (no, they don't program in acne textures, but you get the idea).
Clothing is on the whole practical for both genders. Support characters come in all shapes sizes and genders.

What is the male reaction to this? Create a nudity mod and body replacer for female characters nearly within a week after the game is released. This is user content however, so in my book it's okay.

And there's hope here, because these games do amazingly well, despite the stock games having a minimum of female objectification. It proves that though perhaps sex sells, you don't need it to sell your game. And Skyrim's rated M, it's not a game the teens are fawning over, it's not E for Everybody babysitter fare, it's a game for older players.

There's all this talk of sexism in games, but people seldom note that there are prominent examples of progressive games. Mirror's Edge? Fans are clamoring for a sequel, EA has all but said they're working on it, and the game featured an unsexualized plausible female lead. (inb4 she wore a tank top so she's objectified, inb4 'but we wanna be sexy')
 

Twilight_guy

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Nov 24, 2008
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*looks at over a century of efforts to achieve sexual equality* *see current state of things*
Yeah, I don't see that happening in 20 years. I see that happening in 200 years.
 

Blind Sight

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Problem #1 is reversing the trend of women getting less technical and computer science degrees. In 1984 37% of computer science degrees were given to women, by 2007 it's at 22% (figures from Jolie O'Dell). To be completely frank, there simply isn't enough competent female tech professionals to create gender duality in the tech industry in general, much less the video games industry. Aiming for the younger generation is the best plan so far, much better then unrealistic expectations of the gender gap closing anytime in the near future.
 

Zachery Gaskins

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Mar 29, 2011
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Skeleon said:
Andy Chalk said:
Kim Swift may not be as instantly recognizable a name as, say, John Romero...
Would anybody want to have a name as instantly recognizable as John Romero's? I mean, yeah, his name is recognizable, but is it still recognizable as something positive at this point? :p
Daikatana. It works as a punchline to any joke you tell.

A priest and a rabbi walked into a bar. Daikatana.
 

Hagi

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Apr 10, 2011
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Both good and bad news I guess.

Good that it's being said. Bad that it actually needs to be said.

Overall I agree but I do think sexism, bar obvious exceptions (games whose message is that either gender is inferior), isn't really a game-specific problem.

A game featuring a big-breasted character in a chain-bikini isn't sexist, it's simply catering to a certain niche. An industry where a certain niche is the only one being catered to however is sexist.

A progressive industry isn't one where all games feature unsexualized plausible characters. A progressive industry is one where a wide variety of games, including ones with hyper-sexualized ridiculous characters as well as the opposite, are being made and a wide variety of niches are being included in the hobby.
 

Imp_Emissary

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May 2, 2011
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Hope that we can get all that done even sooner. All this stupid "D: Girls can't play games, and never did play video games before" bullcrap is really getting old.
 

Zachery Gaskins

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RaikuFA said:
I hope it happens sooner. But I can tell in the next few days or so, a developer will throw a tantrum over what she said.
Followed by at least 100 manchildren attempting to be the first ones to ask how she has time to develop games from the kitchen.
 

Zachery Gaskins

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RobfromtheGulag said:
Player (who saves the world) can be either gender, with nearly any physical traits.
Males & females in the game world all look realistic rather than inordinately beautiful (no, they don't program in acne textures, but you get the idea).
Clothing is on the whole practical for both genders. Support characters come in all shapes sizes and genders.

What is the male reaction to this? Create a nudity mod and body replacer for female characters nearly within a week after the game is released. This is user content however, so in my book it's okay.
It's not okay in that it continues to expose a cultural problem in that apparently there's a niche audience that can't game without an erection.
 

FFP2

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Dec 24, 2012
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Man, Mrs. Swift is my favourite person in the industry!

But I really doubt it will end in 20 years.
 

Alfador_VII

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I agree with her hopes, and it would be a great thing to see. We must aim to reduce sexism in gaming.

However sexism is so endemic in other areas of life, like cinema, literature, even business that there's no way it's ever going to go away totally.