by Tanya Short

Created on: June 22, 2008

Roughly around the same time I started wearing my first bra, my little brother was suddenly old enough to get his own console system and my parents assumed, or perhaps hoped, I would "grow out of" video games. I've been a gamer since I was five years old, but it didn't occur to me for some years that my interests were unusual for a girl. Not that it's stopped me.

Deprived of consoles, I turned to chat-rooms in junior high school and eventually text role-playing games online (MUDs). I founded Gamer-Girl.org (now defunct) and edited game journalism articles for staff writers, while interviewing developers and reviewing every game I could find. I've worked with teams of fifteen to create mods of Unreal Tournament 2004 and Half-Life 2. Gamer-girl.org now serves as my personal portfolio website as I enter the game development industry as a Level Designer. My passion for games isn't going anywhere soon.

All of these experiences have lent me a unique perspective on the so-called "gender issues" of the gaming community. In my experience, the biggest contributor to the male domination of the games industry is the marketing. Thirty or even forty years ago now, computers were seen as a "guy" thing, and it was fashionable for even highly intelligent girls to be ignorant of technology. In those days, maybe it made financial sense to assume that girls didn't want to touch a keyboard or a controller.

Fortunately, those days are mostly gone. Geek is in, games are flashy, and it seems like everyone over 40 is required to own a Wii. Yet on the whole, games marketing continue to be divided into the "girl stuff" and "everything else", when often a less binary approach would probably net even more profit.

The best example is probably Tomb Raider (the game series) versus Tomb Raider (the movie series). Both contain the same main character, Lara Croft, who runs, jumps, and shoots her way through ancient temples in a decidedly Indiana Jones manner. Yet the Tomb Raider game series attracted primarily male consumers until recently, while the Tomb Raider movie series attracted a more *ahem* diverse crowd. Why? Well, the game marketed Lara as a sexy, powerful woman ... you can control, and with which you can escape your wife. On the other hand, the movie featured Lara as a sexy, powerful woman, open to interpretation. Men could want Lara; women could want to be Lara.

However, as much as I would like to shovel blame onto the shoulders of the marketers, I'm afraid game content and game play

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