Female gamers play and now design video games
Kristin Cantu
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Edie Moh would love to be a video game hero in RL (that's real life for you non-gamers), rescuing princesses and going on "crazy missions to save the world."
Moh is just one example of how females are more present than ever in the video game world. You will not only find them as central characters in games but also taking charge of the controllers.
Thirty-eight percent of all video game players are women according to Entertainment Software Association's website. Women over the age of 18 are a significantly greater percentage of gamers at 31 percent of the gaming population where boys 17-years-old or younger are 20 percent.
Sony has taken note of this and wants to bring even more females to the gaming field. They don't just want more players. They want women designing the games.
"It's no secret to female gamers [that] women are out there in significant numbers," said a Sony representative. "What is lacking in the equation are women behind these games."
Sony teamed up with The Art Institute schools and revealed this year their G.I.R.L. (Gamers In Real Life) scholarship program. "This competition is the first of its kind to encourage [female] students toward career paths in the field of video game design and production, ultimately resulting in the development of games that are more interesting for women to play," Sony's website said.
The G.I.R.L. scholarship is offering a $10,000 education award and a 10 week paid internship at one of the Sony Online Entertainment studios located in San Diego, Austin, Seattle and Denver.
Didi Cardoso, the managing editor and public relations coordinator or Grrlgamer.com, started gaming when she was six-years-old. She said bringing more female gamers and game designers to the industry will "serve as an example to other females who are not so comfortable with the female gamer concept. It's ok to play games and follow gaming as a career option if you're a woman."
The Art Institute schools offer a game art and design program for its students and it seems to have become a phenomenon on the west coast.
Carolann Russell, a game design and art major at The Art Institute of California San Diego, "thinks it's actually great" that Sony is offering this scholarship.
"You don't hear so much about women in the industry and it shows women you're a part of the game industry too."
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