I’m attending Digra 2005 here in Vancouver. Although it’s been a busy week juggling Digra and VidFest, I did manage to get to the IGDA sponsored Digra panel Friday afternoon.
This panel consisted of five men from local game companies: EA, NextLevel, Relic, Radical and I forget the last one (sorry, whoever you are). Jason della Rocca moderated and started with a series of questions, after which he waded into the audience (consisting almost completely of academics) and took audience questions.
A woman (I didn’t see her, so I don’t know who she was) took the panelists to task for using incorrect statistical data on the subject of women in computer science programs. As she continued with an explanation of the data and a follow-up question (”what percentage of your company are women?”, I believe), two of the panel members began to talk over her. Not answering her question, not talking between themselves without their mikes, just talking over her. She was good about it (basically, she ignored it), but it was incredibly rude on their part.
I wanted to jump up and grab a mike and point out that this behavior is a major reason that women are under-represented in computer game companies.
I’ve been married to two women in the gaming industry. Both of them made me aware of times when they could say something in a meeting that would be completely ignored, but if I (or another male) said exactly the same thing it was seized upon and seriously considered. This behavior is insulting. It’s demeaning. It sends a very clear statement that women are second-class citizens in gaming companies — just as they are in most games. One can argue that there are few successful female-oriented games (or games that appeal to women, if you prefer) because women don’t like games, or that the makers of games are primarily male and they don’t understand women, or that women want relationship in gaming and that’s too hard for us to do now. But I think the reality is that women are shown quite clearly that they’re second-class citizens in games and that prevents them from being able to create games that will appeal to a wider class of women.
If you want women to join your companies and make contributions, don’t treat them like children. Don’t walk all over them simply because they are female or because they have different ideas. Those are the reasons you want them there. So long as women are treated this way, there won’t be a lot of them in the business, and there won’t be a lot of games which are popular among women. It’s that simple