I left the comfort of seaside Brighton yesterday for the quaint country charms of Cambridge to speak at the University's Computer Centre about the state of women in games. Joining me on a panel were local business veterans David Braben and Martin Hollis, and Alice Taylor , direct from BBC (her coverage is here). It was a great event (thanks Jez!), which pulled out many of the traditional arguments and discussion points about women in games (and also a few shortcomings of my own research into the area - thanks very much for the feedback), and was a great parallel to many of the discussions held on this topic in wider areas of Computer Science. Where are all the women? For a deeper analysis of this topic, check out the paper from SIGIS. It's a superb pan-European examination of strategies for inclusion across all areas of Information and Communication Technologies.
While everyone admitted that it's a good idea to have as diverse a workplace as possible, which means attracting as many women to the areas as possible (a topic hot at the minute due to the Education Guardian's arguably misleading headline of a few days ago), the solution to the problem was less obvious. One suggestion put forward by Braben particular to the games industry and semi-related to computer science was to redefine people's notion of what they're using. He proposed to eradicate the word "game" from what is traditionally interactive entertainment in favour of, well, something else. Others have said it before (Sony's Ray McGuire for one) and some have tried, but have they been successful?
There are a couple of reasons to take this radical action. First and foremost, many of the commercial interactives women engage in most regularly - the Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs), the business and management sims - are arguably not "games" in the traditional sense because they don't have a linear storyline (or one that needs to be strictly adhered to) or a conclusive ending.
Secondly, the word "game" is associated with the perception of "gamer": a pasty teenage boy with few to no social skills. I can tell you, that's not anywhere close to an a ideal possible self for many of my gender. It's not much of one for most of the male population either, and that's why the hardcore gamers are all, well, pasty teenage boys with few to no social skills (>ducks<).
Finally, and perhaps most lateral, "games" are moving beyond the historical conception of what a game is (see first point) and are expanding into something that pushes the boundaries of interaction, entertainment, community development, self-reflection and critical thinking. But how does that translate into a pithy, one-to-two word, marketing-friendly description which breaks down demographic barriers?
That's the $64,000 question.
So this is a call for suggestions, a challenge to come up with a better word for what we play than game. "Interactive Entertainment" is not an option, nor is "Community-based solution simulation". Thinking caps at the ready! Perhaps if we come up with something more concrete and we pass it on to the powers that be eventually it'll be adopted and more people will get interested in getting involved, resulting in more diverse and exciting products. We can all dream...
