CULTURE | An incognito gamer girl talks about her job as a software engineer in what seems like a dude-dominated arena.

2018: In 2005, I was tasked with writing a piece about video games for girls for Dose. For that piece, I interviewed three so-called “industry insiders” including a woman who was working as a software engineer for Electronic Arts in Vancouver (then known as EA Canada or EAC).

She was a friend of a friend, and very kindly gave me quite a detailed interview. Unfortunately, after the piece published, she found herself in hot water at work. It was a hard lesson for her about how quotes can be cut and taken out of context, and how you can’t really trust journalists. For me, it was a hard lesson about how guilty I was for doing this stupid and embarrassing job.

And for what, really? Some trash article about nothing?

Making people unhappy with their quotes, for the sort of pointless filler stories that don’t matter, is a normal thing in the industry, but one I learned to despise.

The truth is that this person gave a very pro-industry interview. Unfortunately, the quotes that I chose didn’t really reflect that.

To my mind, gamer culture was already toxic and misogynistic, but she really didn’t want to leave me with that impression. She postulated that marketing might be a problem, but that games themselves were for everyone.

I’m not sure she was right, and I wish I could know how she feels today, 13 years later.

I’m sure that, as a middle-aged woman with more than fifteen years of experience under her belt, and the whole Gamergate thing in the rear view, her thoughts on this subject have changed (though perhaps not, who knows).

Anyway.

The point is this: For the purposes of this site, I’ve redacted her name from the initial piece. At the same time, I thought what she had to say in full was a lot more interesting and fair than the quotes Dose actually wanted. So I’ve included my Q&A interview with her here, in full.

Photo by Pat Kwon on Unsplash

Okay gamer girl, tell me about your job as a software engineer for EAC.

I like the position because I get to deal with a lot of different areas of the game while still having a specific area of responsibility. I’m 25 and I started working at Electronic Arts Canada [less than six months ago, after previously having a similar job with a different company].

Do you think you bring anything special to the team as a woman?

No, I don’t. I think any project will always benefit from varied perspectives, but [the game I work on] is already a pretty established franchise. I think I’d have more to offer the team if I played [sport redacted]! I think [sport redacted]’s the only sport we produce a game for that I haven’t actually played in any serious context.

Tell me about how many women work with and around you?

At one point, we counted 10 female software engineers, six of whom were on some [sports] title or another.

For some perspective, we have over 1200 employees in that building (to be fair, I have no idea how many of them are SEs – hundreds, anyway).

There are other women, of course, in human resources and recruiting. When I first started I got a lot of, ‘Are you an artist?’ or ‘Are you in QA?’ so I’m assuming there are other women in those departments as well. I was pretty annoyed by that at first, but it seems to have tapered off now that I’ve been around for a while.

Tell me about game development. I’ve heard EAC has some innovative techniques?

I’ve heard that in previous years, [game development] teams have gone to [sport redacted] matches, but I’ve seen nothing of the sort so far. There’s an intramural league going on right now, and as soon as the construction is done on our parking lot, there will be more sports leagues running outside.

We have been encouraged to watch games, but at the moment our team is so huge, I think the main thing they’re focussing on is team-building in general. We’re a large team and so spread out that most of us don’t know each other.

We do have a lounge with all the latest consoles and stacks of games, and a resource centre from which we can borrow the latest games to see what our competitors are up to or just to check out what’s happening in the world of gaming.

Is EAC a boys’ club?

EA Sports makes sports titles, which they’ve made a conscious (in fact, outright) decision to market only to men. You may have seen the commercial that involved a couple who was madly in love until the guy sees a poster for the new Madden game and sends his girlfriend off in a cab without him. When EA first started marketing sports games, a long time ago, their targeted market was “sports fans of all ages”. Now we’re told repeatedly that our image is about “guys being guys”.

So the vibe isn’t misogynistic or sexist?

I guess the big thing is that the company is composed mostly of men, as I mentioned before. Any time you get a large group of guys together, they’re going to want to do guy-like things. Movies end up being about toilet humour, parties end up being Superbowl parties, etc. It’s not a conscious decision to exclude women. In fact, everyone is welcome at these events. It’s more that they’re ALWAYS typically guy activities, and that’s the sort of thing that is likely to improve with more women in the industry.

In terms of making decisions about the games, I’m a programmer, not a producer, but everyone’s input has been solicited in terms of gameplay mechanics, look and feel, etc. I don’t think [game title redacted] is a game that’s specifically oriented towards one gender in terms of its development.

Just out of curiosity, why do you feel that games are geared only towards guys?

There’s a great article about women gamers in this month’s Game Developer magazine. (I was trying to find the link for you, but it looks like you’ll have to get your hands on it yourself.) They mention a really interesting study that was performed before the launch of the Nintendo DS.

A group of women were shown the Nintendo DS itself and were allowed to play with it for a bit. Afterwards, a survey was taken, and something like 80% of the women were interested in purchasing one. They were then shown one of Nintendo’s commercials that involved a man and woman in bed in the dark. And the guy was playing a DS while a voiceover proclaimed it as the “second best thing to do in the dark”. The women were again surveyed about buying the DS and now something like only 20% of them were interested in buying one!

I forget the exact percentages, but it was really interesting to see the insanely huge impact that marketing, and who it’s geared towards, has on the demographic of gamers.

So the issues are more with marketing than with the actual games?

To be honest, I think that’s where the disparity lies. True, there are a number of games that seem specifically designed for guys. But think of how many more are marketed that way! I think if a girl can be convinced to pick up a game and try it for a while, chances are … she’ll find it appealing for many of the same reasons guys do.

What are some of your favourite games?

Game still from one of Jen Selk’s favourite game: King’s Quest V, Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder, 1990.

One of my favourite games is Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation. It’s the first game I played where I really cared about the main character. I didn’t want her to die. I started screaming when she was ambushed. And I would rather reset the game and try again than watch her drown. Lara Croft gets a lot of flak for her ridiculously shaped body and the commercials and hype based on it. (Also the fact that the last two Tomb Raider games sucked, but that’s neither here nor there.) Pick up a controller though, and you’ll realize that there’s a great story and challenging puzzles behind it.

I mostly play a lot of action/adventure titles like Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Ratchet & Clank … and some RPGs like City of Heroes, Final Fantasy X, and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.

Right now I’m playing City of Heroes, SSX3, Burnout 3, and KotoR 2. I’m thinking about trying the new gamer’s heroin, World of Warcraft, but I’m not sure I want to give up my life like that!

Gamer girl out.

This interview with a gamer girl was conducted for a piece about games for girls that published in Dose on June 27, 2007. Read it here or see the clipping below.

Published in Dose, June 27, 2005.