Celebrating Women in the Industry
January 2008 Issue
Features
- From the Editors
- Craft Check: Gaming Gloves
- Gaming in the Media: Women Working in Games - 5 Viewpoints, 2 Ways to Play
- Market to Me: Women as players
- Gamer vs Gamer: An old debate for the new year: casual vs. hardcore
Interviews
- Industry Interview: Naomi Clark
- Blogger Interview: Mighty Ponygirl [Feminist Gamers]
Articles
- Gender & Live-Action Role Play: Reality Repackaged
Author: Samara Hayley Steele
- Planning a Women-Only Gaming Group
Author: Robyn Fleming
- Celebrating women in the industry
Author: Andrea Rubenstein
- Choosing Imitation Over Innovation
Author: Richard Pilbeam
In this ongoing series, Samara shares her experiences as a female LARPer in a male-dominated LARP Organization.
Robyn outlines the trials and tribulations of organizing an all-women gaming group.
Andrea looks at some of the influential women in the video game and tabletop gaming industry.
Richard discusses ways in which imitation and a lack of innovation help to perpetuate sexist themes in games produced by the RPG Maker community.
Gamer Stories
Reviews
- Super Mario Galaxy
- Retro Review: Pitfall!
Odds 'n Ends
What better way to kick off the new year than with a feature celebrating some of the influential women, past and present, in the industry? This article looks at some of the women who have made an impact on the gaming industry as a whole.
Roberta Williams
Roberta was one of the first household names for women in games. In addition to pioneering graphical adventure games, Roberta co-founded the company that would become Sierra with her husband, Ken Williams.
Her wildly successful King’s Quest series earned her the title “Queen of the Graphic Adventure”1 and she was a role model for a whole generation of young girls. Although she retired in 1996 from designing games, she remains an influential part of gaming history.
Ann Dupuis
The president of Grey Ghost Press, Inc., a game publishing company known for publishing Fudge, a popular open source roleplaying system, Ann Dupis has a long history in the tabletop gaming industry. Her writing career began with two articles, one in Steve Jackson Games’ Roleplayer! magazine and one in Dungeon! magazine. After having several published works for companies like Steve Jackson Games and TSR, Ann was introduced to the Fudge system.2
In an industry where women are mostly authors and marketing directors, Ann stands apart as an entrepreneur who not only didn’t let her first failed attempt at starting a publishing company to stop her, but used that experience to turn her next attempt into a sucessful indie publishing company.
Jane Jensen
Another pioneer of the video gaming industry, Jane Jensen launched her career in the gaming industry at Sierra Online, where she worked on titles such as Police Quest III and eventually co-designed King’s Quest VI with Roberta Williams. But Jane really made her mark in the computing world with her Gabriel Knight series.3 In 2002 she co-founded Oberon Media, a company focused on developing and publishing games for the casual market.4
While her Gabriel Knight games may have earned Jane a place in gaming history, her current work in Oberon Media is what will inspire a new generation of girls looking to go into the industry.
Kelley Barnes-Herrmann
Kelley Barnes-Herrmann began as a volunteer for White Wolf’s official fan club, organizing events as the Camarilla’s convention manager. In November 2005, one year before the merger with CCP, she was hired as the Marketing Director and also serves as the Club Director for the fan club. Kelley’s first introduction to the gaming industry was Gen Con, where she helped to write and run the LARP events during the late 90’s. Her most recent projects include being part of the design team for Scion and Changeling, marking the first time her name has appeared in the credits of a White Wolf book.
As someone who has spent a lot of time out there networking and organizing fans, Kelley is out there in the trenches of the industry being a role model for women in the traditional gaming industry. One of her favorite aspects of her job with CCP is that she is able to help coordinate charitable donations through drives organized by the fan club.
Jennifer Tsao
Jennifer Tsao is the managing editor for EGM. In addition to her written work, Jennifer has made various TV appearances, such as debating with Jack Thompson in a CNN spot entitled Some Video Games Encouraging Violence?.5
She is a role model for women who want to go into the gaming industry but are afraid that they need to choose between children and their career. In summer of 2006, Jennifer took maternity leave6 and since then has written about her experiences in EGM and frequently blogs about being a mother in the gaming industry over at 1UP and her other blog, Mental Hijinks.
Elaine Chase
Elaine Chase is the Senior Brand Manager at Wizards of the Coast. Her involvement with gaming is pretty impressive; not only did she have a stint with game development7 she also worked for Wizards as a DCI manager, R&D, and before that was a pro-tour player.8 As the Senior Brand Manager, Elaine is in charge of making sure that untapped markets get tapped9, which puts her in an excellent position to make sure that the new generation of female gamers are made to feel that Wizard’s products are for them.
For more information on influential women in the industry see Game industry’s 100 most influential women for video games and Notable Women RPG Authors for tabletop games.
Footnotes
1 Roberta Williams. MobyGames.
2 Ann Dupuis: The Before Time. Fudge Factor. April 01, 2004.
3 Jane Jensen. Wikipedia.
4 Bio. JaneJesen.com.
5 Live from the headlines: Some Video Games Encouraging Violence? (transcript). CNN.com.
6 On cream puffs and console launches. Jennifer Tsao’s 1UP Blog.
7 Elaine Chase: Directory. LinkedIn.
8 Hall of Fame: One Woman’s Ballot. Wizards of the Coast.
9 Ask Wizards - March, 2007. Ask Wizards. March 20, 2007.
10 Ask Wizards - May, 2006. Ask Wizards. May 23, 2006.
