GeekGirls are cool, GeekWomen are harder to find
I think the new series of lightening talks and panels on game design and development as part of this year’s Q-Con are going to be really great. It was an inspired notion (of Glenn Davidson’s) to take the next logical step at a games convention and address the idea that attendees might actually want to be a part of the industry they are so keen to support as hobbyists. Of course, we will only know after Saturday if it actually worked, and if anyone was really interested… but I have high hopes.
There have been a bunch of logistical problems of course, mostly caused by the fact that they really are a last minute addition. It was only two or three weeks ago that the idea was even forming, so you can appreciate the massive amount of work it has taken to gather so much industry support and venue organisation in such a short time. Again, we have Glenn’s extended social network and sheer tenacity to thank for this.
One part of it I am dismayed about, however. I would have liked more women. We need female role-models, we need female perspectives, we need something that says to the female convention-goers that this is an attainable dream for them, and that a career in games doesn’t have to mean an all-male environment. We need a female presence to promote the idea that women can be taken seriously and are achievers in this area.
Unfortunately, this is not at all easy. It is a male-dominated industry. With our combined knowledge of local gaming stuff, both from a creative and technical point of view, we could come up with a total of only two or three women with games industry involvement. Googling did not really yield anything further. Of those, only one was available; Danielle Barrios, writer for the recent [in]visible Belfast ARG which was part of the Belfast Book Festival. She agreed to come even though she is getting married the next day. Otherwise we wouldn’t have had a single woman on a list of fourteen guests.
Given more time, I like to think that we could have come up with more. I like to think. But I’m not sure. Our criteria was that the guest had to have had something published or a recognised position at a studio. I was shocked at the lack of female mobile developers, when there seems to be a male developer around every corner. There are bound to be some women involved in games design, game writing or game artwork locally. I hope we can find them for next year, especially given more time to pursue third party contacts, and perhaps some larger game studios outside of Northern Ireland.
Why is it so hard though? Q-con itself, and Dragonslayers, the student gaming society that runs the con, both speak to the fact that there are local female gamers. Is it that they do not end up in the industry somehow, whereas men do? Is it just that they are more invisible than the men somehow? It is a cycle which is self-perpetuating, certainly. I hope if the talks and panels go well this year, that next year we can have one on Women in the Games Industry - it’s a subject with a lot of questions and no easy answers.
Q-Con Q-ED talks, Sat 25th June:
http://bitly.com/kuFWWo