by Angela Patane

Created on: June 24, 2008

When I interviewed for my current position teaching design fundamentals in a Southeastern Game Development program, my potential employers, both women, informed me that the game development industry is "male dominated." "Are you comfortable with teaching 50+ students, all of which are male?" the course director asked me. I replied that I had spent my life playing games, mostly of the Nintendo persuasion, and didn't mind relaying my knowledge to who ever was interested in receiving it. "Besides, how can women be included in this field if they relent at the thought of working in a male dominated environment?"

This seems to be the case with female gamers as well: because the market does not refer to them as "target," women internalize their rejection from the gaming community. Analysts and market researchers are finding demographics that already exist, of course, for releases like "Metal Gear Solid 4," but that does not mean that women are not playing these games. The idea of a target market maintains a core audience that is sure to purchase the product produced, which no doubt assuages the executives who are pulling the production trigger. But the core of the market does not reflect its margins. During recent months, I have seen an increase in female students enrolled in the Game Development program, a trend that begins with gaming. More and more women are tossing aside the male marketing ploys of many development companies and finding relationships to even the more strategic or violent games that are traditionally attributed to male gamers.

And what do the men think? The opinions vary, as can be imagined. Recently I was faced with a student who made the claim that "women do not play complex games," and that they are more interested in playing simply controlled computer flash games. As the teacher I felt compelled to tell the student that making a generalization based on gender, race, religion, creed, or sexual orientation is inappropriate as his all-male classmates saluted me with smiles or nods of agreement. This is the example: there is always going to be the closed-minded, engendered male gamer, but most men want to see women playing games, not because their girlfriends, sisters, and mothers won't be upset when they spend 12 hours playing World of Warcraft, but because they are tired of the maintained structure of oppression. The intelligent men realize that including women in gaming and game development adds a dimension of gameplay that is not totally accessible with an all male community.

The struggle for equality is not going to end in the gaming community until it ends in the world at large. However, managing niches like gaming and game development to include females helps the struggle because the only way to break a cycle of oppression is for the oppressed to place themselves where they are unwelcome, and greet those who are happy to see them, and change the minds of those who want them gone.

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