If you were good in your field, you wouldn’t be misrepresented
I look at #1ReasonWhy and I laugh at all the feminists who think they matter. Kotaku, Gawker Media’s video game blog, posted some of the #1reasonwhy tweets, and the clueless-comment haterade began to flow:ĭillon Paradis, a “game creator in the making,” according to his Twitter bio, had this to share: Naturally, the sexist backlash to the sexism complaints wasn’t far behind. Romana Ramzan claimed she was told that a networking event during the Game Developers Conference would be “a good place for a woman to pick up a husband.”Īnd then there’s the cold, hard question of compensation: According to an annual salary survey of about 4,000 gaming professionals by Game Developer magazine, female animators made $26,000 less than their male counterparts in 2011, on average-female programmers ($83,333) made about 10 grand less then male ones ($93,263). There are stories of being mistaken for a “real” developer’s girlfriend at conferences, getting passed over by mentors in favor of male colleagues with less talent, and the tedium of working on female game characters who exist to wear sexy outfits and sleep with the badass male hero. #1reasonwhyīecause the folks in marketing don’t bother doing their jobs when the video game stars a lady bit.ly/U0duoy #1reasonwhyīecause when we hired a female engineer at my company, I was skeptical. I’ve had prominent designers compliment my games, while complimenting my wife’s appearance, when we develop together. #1reasonwhy Once heard an Art manager say ‘We don’t need any more women, they’re more trouble than they’re worth’ as he viewed applications #1reasonwhyīecause conventions, where designers are celebrated, are unsafe places for me.
To wit:īecause I was told I’d be remembered not on my own merits, but by who I was or was assumed to be sleeping with. Female game devs-and their male supporters-have some theories. It’s a good question: While women make up 47 percent of the gaming audience, a 2005 study (the most recent comprehensive survey) revealed that more than 88 percent of the industry’s employees are male. What about brogrammers? Read about sexism in Silicon Valley.