PAX AU notes: Women in Video Games
Nov. 7th, 2014 11:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alias_sqbrWomen in Video Games
Rebecca Fernandez [Chapter Leader, IGDA Sydney], Mary King [Digital Marketing Consultant, Contractor], Nicole Stark [Co-Director, Disparity Games], James Dominguez [Journalist, Fairfax Digital], Tara Brannigan [Community Relationship Manager, PikPok], Leigh Harris [Director, Flat Earth Games]
IGD Sydney. I don't know what this means or why I wrote it down, but there it is.
First: this was not a panel about Gamergate! It was also not about ethics in games journalism! Much laughter.
Women are only 10% of the industry, we can't do all the work.
A study on online harassment showed that men (or male seeming psuedonyms? Can't remember) recieved more offensive names, deliberate embarassment, and physical threats. Women recieved more stalking and sexual harassment.
You can mute and report people, get them banned.
League of Legends: They changed it so you can't talk to the other team (in PvP?) and harassment went down.
The nature of the game affects the nature of the players.
Many women don't make it obvious they're a woman. But they shouldn't have to, and saying they should is victim blaming.
Community ground rules empower players to criticise bad behaviour because they can point to a rule which has been broken.
Battle Cry: encourages players to give "enemy" players salutes and awards for good gameplay.
Women are 22% of developers and 4% (!) of programmers
People hire people they know, which is usually other white etc men. They should instead cast as wide a net as possible and avoid male dominated places when hiring.
Need role models in the industry.
Women feel the need to show up to panels like this to increase visibility.
Talk a lot about negativity.
Pik Pok is very diverse.
Adventure express is 50/50 male/female and not all white.
Every day and thoughtless sexism: Harvest Moon forgot to change the appearance of a female character's avatar to female in the map, showing male was the default.
If you make the female character the default male players FREAK OUT. I vaguely recall one of the panelists saying he did this and wrote about it and a bunch of male gamers got really offended.
"Gender Nuetral" protagonist with cigar and trenchcoat reads as male, so they added an option to be explicitely female.
People assume gender neutral mooks are male.
More men pretend to be women in order to get special treatment than women try and use their femaleness this way. So any "woman" you meet online doing this is likely to be a guy.
Noone says "male gamers", there are "gamers" and "female gamers". People vs female people, etc.
Use female pronouns by default in writing about PCs of ambiguous or chooseable gender like Mass Effect.
It's wrong to write articles that make this huge deal about a FEMALE game developer instead of treating them like just any other developer, but we also want to highlight role models. This balance requires balance and intelligence. Mention gender and achievements like "first woman to X" but go on to discuss aspects about them other than their gender.
All female tournaments: can be inviting to newer players and create a sense of togetherness. Get very little prize money. Ok for amateurs but have downsides and weirdness at the top levels.
Female game devs encouraged others.
A playwright writing about gaming related harassment asked people to approach him after the panel to tell their stories.
Things men can do to help:
Speak up to say nice things.
Listen and don't dismiss women's concerns and complaints by saying things like "Oh maybe they didn't mean it that way".
Default to belief and acceptance.
"Women only good for welcoming new players"? What did I mean by this??
The kind of harassment women experience online would not be legal on the street.
Need spaces where trolls can be trolls if they want, but it shouldn't be the default. GTA did something like that: people who broke the rules too often ended up only able to talk to other rule breakers.
Any situation which is 50% female is percieved as majority female, and thus a GIRL'S game. Male is the default.
There is more than just two genders (this from a non binary person in the audience)
Rebecca Fernandez [Chapter Leader, IGDA Sydney], Mary King [Digital Marketing Consultant, Contractor], Nicole Stark [Co-Director, Disparity Games], James Dominguez [Journalist, Fairfax Digital], Tara Brannigan [Community Relationship Manager, PikPok], Leigh Harris [Director, Flat Earth Games]
IGD Sydney. I don't know what this means or why I wrote it down, but there it is.
First: this was not a panel about Gamergate! It was also not about ethics in games journalism! Much laughter.
Women are only 10% of the industry, we can't do all the work.
A study on online harassment showed that men (or male seeming psuedonyms? Can't remember) recieved more offensive names, deliberate embarassment, and physical threats. Women recieved more stalking and sexual harassment.
You can mute and report people, get them banned.
League of Legends: They changed it so you can't talk to the other team (in PvP?) and harassment went down.
The nature of the game affects the nature of the players.
Many women don't make it obvious they're a woman. But they shouldn't have to, and saying they should is victim blaming.
Community ground rules empower players to criticise bad behaviour because they can point to a rule which has been broken.
Battle Cry: encourages players to give "enemy" players salutes and awards for good gameplay.
Women are 22% of developers and 4% (!) of programmers
People hire people they know, which is usually other white etc men. They should instead cast as wide a net as possible and avoid male dominated places when hiring.
Need role models in the industry.
Women feel the need to show up to panels like this to increase visibility.
Talk a lot about negativity.
Pik Pok is very diverse.
Adventure express is 50/50 male/female and not all white.
Every day and thoughtless sexism: Harvest Moon forgot to change the appearance of a female character's avatar to female in the map, showing male was the default.
If you make the female character the default male players FREAK OUT. I vaguely recall one of the panelists saying he did this and wrote about it and a bunch of male gamers got really offended.
"Gender Nuetral" protagonist with cigar and trenchcoat reads as male, so they added an option to be explicitely female.
People assume gender neutral mooks are male.
More men pretend to be women in order to get special treatment than women try and use their femaleness this way. So any "woman" you meet online doing this is likely to be a guy.
Noone says "male gamers", there are "gamers" and "female gamers". People vs female people, etc.
Use female pronouns by default in writing about PCs of ambiguous or chooseable gender like Mass Effect.
It's wrong to write articles that make this huge deal about a FEMALE game developer instead of treating them like just any other developer, but we also want to highlight role models. This balance requires balance and intelligence. Mention gender and achievements like "first woman to X" but go on to discuss aspects about them other than their gender.
All female tournaments: can be inviting to newer players and create a sense of togetherness. Get very little prize money. Ok for amateurs but have downsides and weirdness at the top levels.
Female game devs encouraged others.
A playwright writing about gaming related harassment asked people to approach him after the panel to tell their stories.
Things men can do to help:
Speak up to say nice things.
Listen and don't dismiss women's concerns and complaints by saying things like "Oh maybe they didn't mean it that way".
Default to belief and acceptance.
"Women only good for welcoming new players"? What did I mean by this??
The kind of harassment women experience online would not be legal on the street.
Need spaces where trolls can be trolls if they want, but it shouldn't be the default. GTA did something like that: people who broke the rules too often ended up only able to talk to other rule breakers.
Any situation which is 50% female is percieved as majority female, and thus a GIRL'S game. Male is the default.
There is more than just two genders (this from a non binary person in the audience)
