Quality, the Industry, and the Changes that need to be made

[Akasha]

Game Designer Sheri Graner Ray Talks to GameZone about Quality, the Industry, and the Changes that need to be made

“I can't imagine wanting to come work in the game industry after spending a couple of hours with Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing.�

You may not realize it, but men aren’t the only ones that make the game industry thrive. Men currently buy more games, but did you know that some of the games we men love were designed by women?

One of the most prominent and important women in the industry is Sheri Graner Ray. She has been helping to improve the game industry for years. One of her most beloved projects was the Ultima series, for which she worked at Origin Systems as a writer and designer. She began doing research on females and computer games while working as the Director of Product Development for Her Interactive. Following those accomplishments Sheri founded and served as President for Sirenia Software. Now she’s joined the team at Sony Online Entertainment.

Additionally, she wrote the book Gender Inclusive Game Design: Expanding the Market. And her work doesn’t end there. Sheri found another good reason to lose sleep: start a new conference that’s dedicated to women who are interested in the game industry. A part of the Austin Game Initiative, the Women’s Game Conference will focus on a variety of women’s topics, including examining career paths for women in the industry and issues related to working in the industry as women.

Recently I had the pleasure of chatting with Sheri about the Women’s Game Conference, her career, and her thoughts on the industry.

Start by introducing yourself to our readers.

My name is Sheri Graner Ray. I'm a Senior Designer with Sony Online Entertainment in Austin, Texas.

What are your duties as a Senior Designer?

SGR: I'm a game designer, which means I'm involved with the quest design, and story design, and conversation, and overall theme and aspects of the title that I'm working on.

What are the things that you personally look for in a game, both when you're playing and when you're designing it?

SGR: I'm an RPG player for the most part, and I'm a paper gamer from way back, so I tend to be very quest-oriented and RPG-oriented. So that's what I personally look for when I play games. So of course, depending upon the title I'm working on I like to see those kinds of things brought into the game.

How did you get involved with the Women's Game Conference?

SGR: I've been a speaker on the topic of women's games and girls' games and women in the industry for about 10 years now. I'm the co-Chair of the Women in Game [Development] SIG (Special Interest Group) for the IGDA, so it seemed like the time was right to do the conference. We're starting to see more women come into the industry. We're starting to see more interest in having more women in the industry from various companies, so this seemed like the time to pull together and do some networking.

What are your thoughts on the current state of the game industry?

SGR: In regards to women in the industry?

Yes.

SGR: There's been a tremendous shift of opinion in attitude just in the last 3-5 years. Up to 5 years ago and beyond the industry was still saying a lot of, "Why should we make games for girls?" or "We really don't care about women in the games."

Now for the last three years or so every time I speak, somebody will come up to me after I speak and tell me, "You know, we put an ad in a trade magazine looking for someone to come work for us. We've got 150 resumes and only three were from women. How can we get more women to apply? How can we get more women to be interested in this industry?" I think that's a tremendous and positive shift in change for this industry and I'm very excited about it.

Do you think it has to do with age? I started playing games when I was a kid. Most of my friends are the same way, and we've stuck with it our whole lives. I'm not sure how many adults who didn't play games as children are getting into them now. Could that be why fewer women play games, because they didn't get into it when they were younger?

SGR: Yeah, there's no question of that. It's because there hasn't been a lot out there for girls to play that appeals to the female market. The titles that have been marketed from another to the female market have been productivity-oriented. I can't imagine wanting to come work in the game industry after spending a couple of hours with Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing.

Imagine I'm a game developer and I want to make a game that women will love. What should I do? What are the things that I should never do?

SGR: That's kind of a scary question. It's kind of like asking, "What if I want to make a game that I know the Japanese market will love?"

Women are not a genre. They're a market. And they've got diverse tastes and interests and wants and desires in their entertainment. So it's really hard to say this is the women's game, or this is the game you want to make when you want to make a game for women.

It's more important to look at what things we're putting in our games that are barriers to access for the female market. Address those things, and simply make the titles that we're making today more accessible to the female market.

How do you think we can change the way that women are portrayed in some of the violent video games?

SGR: Change it! (laughs) That's gonna be a matter of education, and talking, and working with the designers so they can understand what it is they're doing in their portrayal of women that is possibly a barrier that prevents women from accessing the games. That's an educational issue.

In school or in college, what was the most important thing you learned that has helped you in the video game industry?

SGR: Wow, there's a good one. I always tell people my motto is never give up, never surrender, right out of "Galaxy Quest." So stick with it, and learning to be persistent, and stick with what I love and be true to what I love to do.

A lot of Japanese game developers tell their fans that if they want to make good games they must first have many interests and do many different things in life, and not just play games. What is your take on that?

SGR: I agree completely. I agree that a broad education is the best. To be a really good game designer you need a little history, you need a little philosophy, you need some sociology, economics – yeah, absolutely, the broader you are, [the better].

I also tell people that are interested in the game industry to play games and not just computer games. You need to play lots of different kinds of games. You need to sit down and play Scrabble with your Grandma. You need to go to a playground somewhere and watch kids play on the playground, watch how people play. That's really important to game design.

What's your favorite thing about working in the game industry?

SGR: The people. I work with some of the most creatively brilliant, talented people. No question.

Tell us about your book, "Gender Inclusive Game Design."

SGR: It's a lot about addressing how we make the games today and what things in our games today are barriers to females. It's about how to remove those barriers and keep your self-respect.

We don't have to make games about fluffy pink kitties for the female market to be more interested in our titles. We just have to do things like not put a hyper-sexual female on the box cover. We need to address how we structure our tutorials so that they are more open to female learning styles. And things like that we can do without making games about shopping or how to put your lipstick on. We don't have to do that. We can do other things with our titles to open up the market. And that's what the book's about – what exactly are those things we can do.

Do you think there's way to better market games to get women's attention?

SGR: Finding the key to marketing to the female audience is a big, very important thing that has to be done right now. I don't have the answer to that. I don't know exactly how it should be done. But I do know it is something that we're going to have to look at and address.

What has been the most surprising thing you've discovered when researching females and computer games?

SGR: Probably the most interesting thing I've found is the difference between young boys and young girls, little children, play. There's a definite break on gender line.

When boys play in a group, the way they play is each person, each young boy, attempts to dominate the playtime, imposing the way he thinks they should play upon the group. In other words, trying to get the group to play by his rules. Each boy in the group will do this.

On the other hand, girls will spend more time setting up the rules, working together to come up with a common rule set that they're all going to play by. The girls very often don't actually get around to playing, they spend more time making the rules. Whereas the boys do spend the time playing but are more concerned with trying to make sure it's played their way. I thought that was very interesting.

Have you continued your research?

SGR: You bet. Regularly. There's much more to learn.

What specifically are you currently researching?

SGR: I'm actually beginning to look into how what I have learned about gender in western culture applies to eastern culture. That's my next push.

Where would you like to see the game industry be 10 years from now?

SGR: I'd like to see a much more equitable percentage of females working in product development. I'd like to see 50/50 males and females in product development.

Thank you Sheri for such an interesting and insightful interview.

Interview courtesy of Gamezone