thanks for your input.

The bridges of madison Country is by far one of the worst movies of Clint Eastwood. but womans love it to death. if we made a game of that movie, I can assure that most of thyese womans will not play it. why? because they just don't like it. it may sound a bit odd, but, hasn't this been this way since mankind origins? males at war and females at home. both genres have their own natural interest, IN GENERAL, and with the natural exceptions. we have female cops that fire guns, male nurses that heal you... etc. the world, in terms of gender participation, is quite balanced, and has changed Alot since our parents teach us that girls plays with dolls and boys with cars.

I don't believe that market is actually making games for females, or for males, except maybe those who are obvius(like Dead Or Alive series, for example ). even so, games like Final Fantasy VIII for example has a deep charge of emotion, specially focused in love, but that doesn't mean it was made for girls. same for Counter Strike, wich is a game of team work and strategy, not of male supremacy. -?-

we can't expect that your sister could be fond of games involving violence, or some sort of it, just because she is not fond of it. not because is a woman. like if we invited our girlfriend to wrestling, or monster truck races. same as if girls invited their boy friends to go shopping or do girls's stuff.

however, we must all remember that in the end, we are speaking of an Industry. its all about bussiness, and business has nothing to do with gender equality. its all about selling. anyone who has been gaming quite a lot would remember John Romero's girlfriend, and how she was used for Id Software's marketing(Playboy's photo session included).


its all about money kids.

Assassin's Creed only sold so well because of Jade Raymond   

..I kid.

As for women entering the industry naturally, I believe it's already happened for the women who are drawn to the way the industry is now, which is full of games about war, sports, puzzles and dungeon and dragon themes.  That's about %1.5 women who would be naturally interested in these sorts of things in the general population, which is about what you see in the industry.

Now, if you're a woman interested in horses, babies, fashion, chatting, makeup, cooking, dolls, sewing and knitting like my sister is, there is no way she'd work in the industry as it is now. She thinks we're all sick, sick monsters. (She even dislikes Super Mario Brother galaxy, because there's shooting and squashing of enemies, which is too aggressive.) To attract someone like her to the industry to make games for women like her, you'd have to pay her a ton of money, which is what Sony seems to be doing. 

I've worked in the game industry for many years and only know one female game designer. Martha completed
'Law & Order: Celebrity Betrayal' for Lime Life recently and designed an award winning multiplayer online game in Russia. She doesn't design games for women and we had to agree the one game aimed at women was hard for both of us to relate to.

"Playing poker is like getting a bikini wax!  *giggle" ????

The idea of getting some fresh blood in, who understand a growing market isn't a bad idea really.

The Bratz games are examples of games made by women for... well, girls in this case. I attended the talk they had about it. It's spesifically made with girls and female-strong locations in mind (shoppingmalls etc.) and women were more or less in charge of that one. ( I can only speak for that spesific ps2 game though)

I have no problem with women in the industy, what I'm thinking of is the method this is done. I feel the female integration is something that should happen 'naturally'. Once you have the work (in this case, casual games), the people with the right competance will fill that spot. If that happens to be women that's great. If women seem to enjoy this kind of game (as stated), they will most likely apply to those positions. However, having a different set of genitals does not give you any expertise on a particular subject of gameproduction apart from knowing what it's like to be a woman (or male, respectively).  This is important in this case because the money you get is not for your competance in female psycology, but simply for getting a degree. A degree you can use for any branch in the industy, making your gender irrelevant. This argument naturally goes both ways. All men can't do 'hardcore' games and you shouldn't get extra pay for being male.

Of course... getting women into the industy won't go 'naturally' without some promotion, so I stand by my fist statement: It's the method that bugs me.

its a marketing trick. They put some hot girl in the lead to make some crapy game. Male players will just buy it because hot girl made it.

This scholarship program must be an April Fool's Joke.  Women can't design anything except for dinner. 

(I'm not sexist, I'm just hungry.) 

 

Maybe those Barbie Games?

Well its to encourage women to enter the industry which is a good cause! In my multimedia classes, there are like 1 or 2 girls for 20-30 something guys in most courses. It would sure bring some diversity! But on the other hand, what sort of "diversity" would it bring? Is gender diversity really relevant in this industry, is there a difference to see between a game made by mostly men or women? Is there actually an example of the latter out there? Personally I think someone's culture probably has much more impact on anything created than gender, but as I don't really know any good examples of games made by women, I don't have any means of comparison...

One could also argue that its not really for creative diversity, but rather to break the "men's industry" stereotype which could be  (well, it most likely is) the cause, rather than the consequence, of the lack of women working there.

S...so much q...questions...

at least we hope that she is not a stereotype.

That, or the troll men that make up 100% of the SOE design studios were getting real lonely without a lady smurf.

LADIES, IT'S A TRICK I TELLS YA', A TRICK!!

Nah, but seriously, a scholarship is a scholarship, no matter where it's coming from. Hope who ever wins it, deserves it.

So I reckon hermaphrodites only get $ 5000?

Gender spesific deals bug me. If they're making casual games, then hire the best people for casual games. It's like saying all women are predisposed for the casual market...

"especially casual games which are largely pixel based"

Yeah, if you count RPGmaker projects perhaps. 90% of the casual games are not remotely close to pixel art.

Knackers can stay Skull. Just tuck it in, put on a wig, and you're a bonafide woman.

Worth loosing my knackers?.. I'll pass this one. :p

I wonder why they use "his or her school" in the last paragraph, even though the scholarship is for females exclusively. haha, maybe that laws of political correctness apply even in cases where they don't make sense?