This Week in the News
by Kira Scott and Filamena • December 16, 2012 • News • 1 Comment
This post talks about the potential impact flexible work hours could have on women. I couldn’t help but think how this could apply to women in game design too. – Kira
“I believe there’s a misconception that if you put a girl or a woman on the cover, the game will sell less. I know I’ve been in discussions where we’ve been asked to push Ellie to the back and everyone at Naughty Dog just flat-out refused.” An interesting post about the battle to put a woman on a video game box. – Filamena
Gail Simone was dumped by DC. Fans are flipping shit. – Kira
About the Game Design and Flexible Work Hours issue… Most of the women I know in gaming work the gaming job around their day job, with the exception of video game design which is its own high-pressure culture. Most of those same women I know don’t have children. Looks like there’s a link there… I’m fortunate enough to work full time in the tabletop RPG industry, but it’s a combination of freelance gigs and running my own business. It works great for me to do this and still be a full time mom, but it’s taken me years to get here. I don’t think I could work these same hours if my children were still small. I pray that the next generation of women game designers can handle it better and faster than I did.
About the Putting a Woman on the Game Box… I find it very interesting that they would be reluctant to put a woman on the cover, not for gender equality, but for simple marketing tactics. When designing my banner ad, my consultant told me to put a woman in the artwork “if you’re okay with that.” Of course I was.
He said that people–male and female–react more positively to women in ads, and not even sexy women. Just female. Anyone interested can see the ad here: https://beautifulbrainsonline.com/ilovebrains/