GamesIndustry.biz - Girls Making Games

Rachel Weber from gamesindustry.biz has penned an article in which she describes how 10 year old girls learn how to make video games. Here's how she begins her piece:

It's not standard practice for me to feel jealous of ten year olds, but hearing about Girls Make Games over the summer certainly made me feel something close to it. The scheme gives girls who love games the chance to actually make them, as well as meeting developers and like-minded peers.

Here's a quote on what this camp has meant to some of the girls:

Shabir tells me about another girl, a reluctant soccer player at a super sporty school. "She comes in, she's super shy, she's looking at the ground the whole time, does not make eye contact with anyone, not even her teammates. Over the course of three weeks, by week two, she had started talking. By week three she was raising her hand to answer and when she got the answer right she would do a little dance," says Shabir, her voice light with pride. "Her mom still emails us and she brings her to every event that we have here because it's impacted her personality so heavily. She's gotten better at soccer because she got better at making games. "

The industry seems to be encouraging this:

The industry itself has been supportive of the scheme, with Riot Games in LA, Bioware in Austin, Popcap in Seattle, and Double Fine all opening their doors so the girls can take field trips to real studios. Shabir would also like to see companies follow models set out by the tech industry and incentivize their staff for volunteering.

More information.

I wish Germany was not in a digital stone age. Not specifically about girls, but in some schools, IT is ot even mandatory. Time to leave this place, seriously…

Anyway, things like these are incredibly rare here.

I am (as a side job, if you want) working as a lecturer in games schools. And from that and the experience in studios I can only tell that there is a serious shortage of women in the industry. And if there are any women, 95% of them are artists.
I have not ever met a female game designer (inb4 Branda), and I know exactly one female programmer and one female web designer who wants to switch to programming.

I blame the school system. Seriously. As long as there are (female!) teachers that tell girls in elementary school that maths and "those computers" are not a girls thing, I have little hope. Yes, I have witnessed that. It is not often I feel the desire to throw people out of a window.
Teach 'em that nonsense at an early age and it is no wonder they develop an unbreakable fear of what is just some logical thinking.

As an addition, the IT teachers I had mostly sucked. I did not learn much of value before just starting to code myself.

I bet that this article is getting massive harassment flak from male gamers !

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
I bet that this article is getting massive harassment flak from male gamers !

Here is a quote from the founder of this organisation:

"I didn't grow up in the US so the term feminist is still really foreign to me. I've never really labeled myself (even while living in DC, with all the pressures of "are you leaning left or right?"). I support women's rights - heck, I had to work so hard to get an education myself because for many in the society I grew up in, it was an "unnecessary burden on my family to educate a girl". So in the definition form, a feminist is someone who "believes that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities", I would fall right under that. I mean, who wouldn't?"

I'm not sure how anyone could argue with that, but I'll place a small bet that some of them will have a go.