Laura Fryer, Director of the AdvancedTechnology Group and an executive producer with Microsoft's Xbox division. Courtesy The New York Times/Annie Marie MusselmanThe New York Times published a feature about women in the computer and video games industry, including programmers, game designers, and producers. Among the women interviewed for the article are Ion Storm's Denise Fulton, executive producer of the next Deus Ex sequel; Nicky Robinson, a veteran programmer with 21 years in the games industry; Sheri Graner Ray, a senior game designer at Sony Online Entertainment; and Laura Fryer, Director of the Advanced Technology Group and an executive producer with Microsoft's Xbox division.

Unfortunately the article is incredibly shallow and therefore all-too-typical of many of Katie Hafner's reports.

Beyond the usual platitudes about games being for males, the lack of women in the industry, games being violent, the obligatory women and Sims reference,  the article makes absurd declarative statements like:

Behind the computer screen, as in front of it, video games are a man's world.

Apparently Katie Hafner hasn't heard that a significant percentage of computer and video game players are -- GASP! -- female. About 43% are women, according to Electronic Arts, the world's largest publisher of computer and video games.

The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) -- formerly the Interactive Digital Software Association (IDSA) -- published a 2003 study that found 26% of adult women are gamers. In an Oct. 4 article in the Arizona Republic titled, Young women blasting way into male-dominated online gaming world, Rene A. Guzman of the San Antonio Express-News writes that, "The ESA estimates women make up nearly 40 percent of computer and video-game players."

Obviously the EA and ESA numbers have to be taken with a grain of salt since they are hardly disinterested parties, but those numbers are worth taking note of.

Are men the majority of people who work in the games industry? Undoubtedly. Is that a problem? I would say it is, but it's a solvable problem. But the characterisation of the industry as being "a man's world" is nonsense. The implication of that choice of words is that women can't get into the games industry and don't belong in the games industry. If one extends that kind of logic, women don't belong in the broader technology industry, either. Don't be fooled -- game development is unusual in that it is both an artistic and highly technological venture.

As someone who has worked in high technology for many years, I would be interested to see some statistics that compare female employment in the games industry to employment in the software development industry and  technology development field in general. I suspect that one would be hard-pressed to distinguish which numbers came from which study if you removed the report covers.

The games industry is one where there are more candidates who want to get into the industry than there are jobs available. That makes it extremely competitive. If fewer women pursue degrees in fields that traditionally lead to game-related jobs, the initial candidate pool is small. Those who are actually hired are a small subset of that already small group. That says nothing of those women  (and men) who don't even consider game development as a career choice.

Game design is a highly specialised job that has no clear or direct career path. I know this because I know and have met many designers and they all say the same thing: a good education, an interest in games, being a person with interests besides games, and demonstrated skill at your part in the production process are elements that will lead to opportunities -- but there are no guarantees. Luck is as much a factor in garnering a highly coveted game design job as anything else. It may even be the most important factor.

Robinson said she felt an obligation to make games more appealing to women. To that end, she said, she has worked to make the user interfaces more intuitive. "I personally loathe interfaces that are cluttered," she said. "I've heard this as a common complaint from women."

While this is interesting, I, too, personally loathe cluttered user interfaces. It's not something that is exclusively in the domain of women. I've heard many complaints about interface design and usability from both men and women. Designing more intuitive user interfaces will make games more appealing to both men and women.

... But what do women want in a video game?

Not, many participants agreed, a lot of graphic violence. They said that first-person shooter games, especially those with female characters that are depicted in sexually suggestive ways, are offensive.

Setting aside the issue of sexually suggestive game content, which most reasonable people can agree offends women in particular, the idea that women find first-person shooter (FPS) games offensive is odd. The best FPS players I know are female. They don't find FPS games to be offensive. The FPSes do contain graphic violence, but that can be adjusted in the game settings for most games.

The article relies on assumed "knowledge" about games that amounts to perpetuating and reinforcing stereotypes -- stereotypes that are part of the game industry culture, even to women like Laura Fryer.

Ms. Fryer said she recently had two teenage girls as houseguests, and was surprised by how much they knew about games. She took them to Microsoft and watched them play Halo, MechAssault and other shooter games in the lobby. She was surprised to see that, against stereotype, they were completely comfortable with the games. "That opened my eyes," she said.

The description of  how Laura Fryer's encounter with two teenage girls changed her view and ideas is a story worth pursuing. Instead we got the same old, tired, endlessly recycled angle.

The article discusses some issues surrounding corporate culture and some of the initiatives underway to increase the participation of women in games that are worth reading, but what could have been a promising and intelligent feature turns out to be another pedestrian disappointment.

The sidebar -- which lists "some more elaborate games that appeal to women" -- is just as predictable, with the headline They Collaborate, Socialize and Borrow Clothes. You can write your own retort.

What do women game designers want? The same thing that male game designers want: to make a fun, great game that reaches a wide audience with enough financial success that they can continue to make great games in the future.


New York Times

Young women blasting way into male-dominated online gaming world Arizona Republic 2004.10.04, Rene A. Guzman, San Antonio Express-News Oct. 4, 2004 12:00 AM

  • [Google cache] (the Arizona Republic site was having trouble resolving)

Microsoft "Women Get in the Game" press release 2004.01.08 (collects several statistics about women and games)

Wall Street Journal (via There)
Where the Girls Are; They're Online, Solving Puzzles And Making Up Characters In Narrative-Driven Games 2003.10.28
(article that reports some of the ESA survey findings, discusses the business opportunities in the games industry, and catering to a growing female audience in particular)