Women & Text-Based RPG's

[Mierza]

Greetings,

 

I'm a young woman from Australia and I'd kill for a chance to get into the game design industry. However, there are a few things that I'm curious to know more about.

 

1. I've glimpsed at articles about women in the game industry. To those that have experience working in game development, does gender really affect the environment you work in?

 

2. I love games of all platforms, though especially PC RPG's. My experience as a game designer/administrator is unfortunately limited to text-based mmorpgs that some of you may know as MUD's. Will this be enough experience to get my foot in the door of a position with a development company.. especially if needing to relocate?

 

Thanking input in advance,

 

~Jade

[Megatron]

yes

[Akari]

2. I love games of all platforms, though especially PC RPG's. My experience as a game designer/administrator is unfortunately limited to text-based mmorpgs that some of you may know as MUD's. Will this be enough experience to get my foot in the door of a position with a development company.. especially if needing to relocate?

Depending on the extent of your design/administrating role in MUDs, they can definitely help. If by 'design' you mean you've handled building areas, placing stuff in them, and scripted events in them, then yes, that experience will help. Whether it's enough is always up to the individual looking at your resume, but every game-related thing helps.

 

-Akari

[Aaron Contreras]

1. Yes. As with all gender issues, there are positives and negatives. In the game industry, my experience suggests that the positives *far* outweigh the negatives for women.

 

2. I also have a long history in text-based games and I don't believe it has helped at all in landing a development gig. As Akari mentioned, it really depends on who is looking at your resume. I would take your text-based experience and the skills you have built up with it and throw that into developing a level or module in a program developers will be more familiar with. I doubt that any prospective employer has bothered to log in to some of the text-based games listed on my resume.

[Magena]

I think it was danien who posted something about two years ago (on the old BIS boards) about female game designers. - and the fact that right now females have a good shot of getting in to many companies, there is also help for females who want to get training (Though I don't remember the specifics).

 

I think in many professions (especially where computers are a serious part) the work environment tends to be male heavy - but other than those guys who think that women are useless except to cook dinner, they are usually more than willing to have women in their company. - especially if we prove that we actually can do the work, and they won't loose thier jobs over it. :D

[Schazzwozzer]

Seems to me that a female game designer, assuming she would be qualified, would be a tremendous asset to a RPG development team. There are, after all, generally quite a few females in these games we play and not so many female designers. Heck, I don't think I know of any. Granted, male designers have done some pretty decent jobs on female dialogues, but I think that a talented female would be able to bring a certain authenticity to the table. Also, the RPG is a genre that has a higher-than-average appeal to female gamers and being able to maximize that is certainly valuable.

 

As for getting into the industry, I unfortunately have no experience to cite, but I shudder to think of the difficulty of breaking into the industry as a designer. As an artist, I'll be able to rely on my m4d skillz (and the skip in my step) to hopefully land me a job. As a designer, you're trying to get hired for the ideas bouncing around in your head, and, as this forum suggests, there are a lot of people with ideas. I guess that I would just try to immerse myself in everything I could learn about game design. Do a search on Amazon and see if any promising books turn up. I'd probably try to churn out a NWN module or three or maybe go pick up a copy of some community-heavy FPS and learn its level editor. I imagine it'd also be worthwhile to at least learn the basics of modelling and programming. Also very important (or not, I don't know) would be to show that you understand the give and take of game development. Ultimately, I think it comes down to just making a good impression, and making it clear that you truly want the job. With small development teams especially, they're not just hiring a cog in the machine, but somebody that they're going to enjoy being around and will be complementary to the team as a whole.

[Karzak]

If you are a hottie it will help.

[Mr. Teatime]

A female designer might be useful at bioware to bring some realism to those godawful romances they put in their games.

[Akari]

2. I also have a long history in text-based games and I don't believe it has helped at all in landing a development gig.  As Akari mentioned, it really depends on who is looking at your resume.  I would take your text-based experience and the skills you have built up with it and throw that into developing a level or module in a program developers will be more familiar with.  I doubt that any prospective employer has bothered to log in to some of the text-based games listed on my resume.

While every person's experience is different, it was specifically my projects with text-based games that got my resume looked at for game programming. Which is why this topic caught my eye.

 

Though the advice everyone keeps giving with regards to NWN module creation is a good idea too. The cool thing about NWN is that the toolsets that you get with the game are pretty much the exact same tools that the designers at Bioware have to work with. Which is nice since you can also use the tools to open up the modules that come with the game in order to see how they work (or fix the buggy multiplayer support in Hordes).

 

-Akari

[Atreides]

1) Heck, they used to run around wildly with pants on their heads at BIS, but besides that I don't think it should matter that much. Nowadays more than most times, gender matters less.

[Rise]

GIRLS CAN'T PLAY BASEBALL!!!

[Tigranes]

Actually, they can.

[Mierza]

lol! Some of you guys are crack ups!

 

If by 'design' you mean you've handled building areas, placing stuff in them, and scripted events in them, then yes, that experience will help

By 'design' I mean yes, building areas, items, programs, etc. But I also mean starting from scratch, recruiting team members, the creation of concept and design documents, as well as endless writing and organizing my artists, programmers, etc.

 

I'd probably try to churn out a NWN module or three or maybe go pick up a copy of some community-heavy FPS and learn its level editor.

 

Awesome suggestion, I'll do that.

 

If you are a hottie it will help.

Reckon I should include my pic in the resume then, eh, Karzak? I'm attractive, but I'm hopeing to get a position where they'll hire me for my brains and ability! But thanks anyway.

 

A female designer might be useful at bioware to bring some realism to those godawful romances they put in their games.

 

We need more female characters in games.. It's frustrating playing as a bloke in Tony Hawks 3, or Vice City!

 

GIRLS CAN'T PLAY BASEBALL!!!

 

Well.. what can I say. I can't play baseball.. softball's another story. But then, taekwondo is more my cup of tea.

[HiddenAssassin]

Well.. what can I say. I can't play baseball.. softball's another story. But then, taekwondo is more my cup of tea.

 

Hides scared then remembers he isn't on a horse so he stands up straight and pokes out his tongue

 

Are any of your MUDs online that might help if you can give them a address

 

also if they're any good and are online can u post the url cause i quite like them.

[Karzak]

lol! Some of you guys are crack ups!

 

 

 

If you are a hottie it will help.

 

Reckon I should include my pic in the resume then, eh, Karzak? I'm attractive, but I'm hopeing to get a position where they'll hire me for my brains and ability! But thanks anyway.

Why does it have to be about brains? Most of these designers don't know what a hottie looks like outside of 3d max, think of the good you could do them.

 

Taking TKD instead of a real martial art does call your jugdement into question, but don't put much weight into what I say anyway..

[HiddenAssassin]

Hey if it wasn't for twae kwan doe the koreans would be speaking japanese right now

[Karzak]

Hey if it wasn't for twae kwan doe the koreans would be speaking japanese right now

LOL, no.

[Mierza]

Why does it have to be about brains? Most of these designers don't know what a hottie looks like outside of 3d max, think of the good you could do them.

Hah! Well, I wasn't aware of the situation. Gimme a job and I'll soon find out though

 

Taking TKD instead of a real martial art does call your jugdement into question, but don't put much weight into what I say anyway..

 

Dude...! TKD is one of my most favourite sports! I also do hosinsul karate and bujinkan ninjitsu if that's any reassurance?

 

 

 

lmao, I think I like this place...

[Hubert the Beardless]

Dude...! TKD is one of my most favourite sports! I also do hosinsul karate and bujinkan ninjitsu if that's any reassurance?

 

lmao, I think I like this place...

Well, maybe they hire you for mocap.

[HiddenAssassin]

Hey if it wasn't for twae kwan doe the koreans would be speaking japanese right now 

 

 

LOL, no.

 

 

What I was told was twae kwan doe was perfected against mounted opponents i.e the attacking japanese. That is why they were able to repulse their attacks

 

Can some one that knows what they're talking about say yay or nay?

[breakdancing negro]

If you are a hottie it will help.

 

Reckon I should include my pic in the resume then, eh, Karzak? I'm attractive, but I'm hopeing to get a position where they'll hire me for my brains and ability! But thanks anyway.

 

1. Yes. As with all gender issues, there are positives and negatives. In the game industry, my experience suggests that the positives *far* outweigh the negatives for women.

 

From what I've seen, games with females at the head of the development and production tend to be very rich and well done. They're also few and far between. Roberta Williams seems to have experienced quite a bit of success in her endeavours, and I can say that when I played her games 10 years ago, they were certainly very entertaining and rich in depth. There's an interview with her here.

[leombruno]

Good luck.

[leombruno]

What I was told was twae kwan doe was perfected against mounted opponents i.e the attacking japanese. That is why they were able to repulse their attacks

 

Can some one that knows what they're talking about say yay or nay?

 

I don't think we need to consult the experts for this one.