Mia Consalvo wrote an article titled "Crunched by Passion: Women game developers and workplace challenges." She discusses the pros and cons of being a game developers and why so many women drop out of that field--it mostly has to do with the hours and 'crunch time' work weeks. She came to the conclusion though that "what keeps individuals working under such conditions, most of the women I interviewed used one word-- passion...it is passion for games that leads people into the industry, and passion that keeps them going through long days, little time off, and relatively low pay." (185).Is passion enough? Will this keep the profession always male-dominated?
Also mentioned in this article is a group called the Women in Game Development Special Interest Group aka WiGD and the author mentions that their email list has up to fifty posts per day (181). The mention of this group sparked my curiosity and I found their website: IGDA Women in Games. The website is actually pretty amazing and provides lot of support for women interested in games. The homepage highlights the latest news of women in games and there is also a link to sign up for your very own mentor. I wonder how many people sign up for a mentor and wonder how popular this website is. The general idea behind it is very amazing.
Consalve, M. (2008). Crunched by passion: Women game developers and workplace challenges. In Y.B. Kafai, C. Heeter, J. Denner & J.Y. Sun (Eds.), Beyond Barbie and Mortal Kombat: New perspectives on gender and gaming (pp. 176-191). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Image from the IGDA Women in Games website.
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