Girl Gamers Australia

WiT Awards 2008 Women in Technology

We'd like to give a big shout out to our lovely PR Tracy for winning her 'Office for Women - ICT Career Development Award' over the past weekend. The WiT Awards were held in Brisbane, Australia and Tracy was nominated for her work in the IT industry. We'd like to give a shout out to her as she's helped us out a lot here at GirlGamers Australia. She has a true passion for not only IT, but also for women in IT and she's a nice person to boot!

We'll be running a feature in the coming weeks on some of the more important Women in IT websites around, including those related to the video games industry. For now though you can check out the Australian branch of Women in IT HERE.

Congratulations Tracy!

Women in Games Conference 2008

It's almost time for the Women in Games Conference 2008 and we'll be covering it in as much detail as we can. This year the conference takes place at Warwick University from 10th - 12th September 2008 and includes the keynote speakers: Sara de Freitas (Serious Games); Karen Brennan (Scratch, MIT); Paulina Bozek (Sony); Karen Clark (Bioware) and Eileen Brown (Microsoft).

The Programme includes:
"Motivating Young Women in Game Development Via the Pixels, Programming, Play & Pedagogy Project" Scott Leutenegger, Professor and Game Development Program Director, Computer Science Department, University of Denver.
"Women in Games: an Iranian Perspective" Ms Faranak Fotouhi-Ghazvini, PhD student, Department of Electronic Imaging and Media Communications,School of Informatics,University of Bradford.
"Playing with Constrained Agency: Video Games and the Question of "Choice"" Juliette M. Ludeker, PhD Student, Rhetoric and Composition, English Dept, Purdue University and Wendy K.Z. Anderson Doctoral Candidate, Rhetorical and New Media Studies, Humanities Dept, Michigan Technological University.
"Hunting for Fun - The Serious Games Challenge" Mary Matthews, Strategy and Business Development Director, TruSim (Blitz)
'Diagetic Media' - Beyond First-Person Shooters" Ana Kronschnabl, CEO, FluffyLogic.
"The Pink Wink Workshop" Fiona French, Course Leader BSc Computer Games, Associate Director and Barbara Zambrini, Producer : Gamelab London, London Metropolitan University.

And that dear friends is but a drop in the ocean as to what is on offer at the conference. We only wish we could be there to hear some of these great discussions.

For full programme information on the Women in Games Conference 2008, head over to the official Women in Games Website. Oh and for Australian, Women in Games also has an Australian sector that you can check out at Women in Games Australia.

Feminized girl gaming team

Thought the following press release might be of interest to female gamers and those interested in what's happening in the realm of female gaming, so here goes.....

With immediate effect the Female Counter Strike Source team previously known as ‘Feminized’ have become part of Reason Gaming’s expanding PC division. With a strong track record behind them the girls plan to build upon previous successes and represent Reason Gaming to the highest level in the European community.

With an undefeated record in the Femina Source League the previous Feminized line up have already displayed their potential with a flawless record. Reason’s new lineup will be taking part in the next season of the Femina Source League, SGL’s Benelux Premier Division and Enemy Down’s ladder in addition to planning boot camps and LAN’s in coming months.

The squad consists of five core members recruited from UK, Switzerland, Norway and Denmark bringing together the greatest female gaming talent in Europe, "We are proud to become part of Reason-Gaming! After finishing top in the first season of the Femina Source League undefeated, we knew it was time to move on to competitive mixed tournaments including LANs” remarked Kelly-Anne Chapman squad leader. “We have recently strengthened our team with a new 5th, and we look forward to continuing our success with great results under the Reason tag. Joining Reason will make our goals a reality, and we are pleased to have the opportunity to become part of their success story!"

“After venturing into female gaming earlier this year we were pleased to see so much interest and activity. Feminized had an impressive track record and with our other teams representing Reason at a European level we knew that the dedication and skills shown by these players were exactly what we are looking for.” noted Ben Dalloway, General Manager.

Women in Games Conference set for mid September 2008

Women in Games press release:
Blitz Games Studios today announced its sponsorship and positioning as a key partner and supporter of the UK’s annual Women in Games (WiG) conference. This year’s event, co-organised with Rare Ltd. will take place at Warwick University from the 10th-12th September.

As part of its sponsorship Blitz is providing a fabulous conference dinner at historic Warwick Castle on the night of 11th September for all attendees.

Kim Blake, Education Liaison Manager for Blitz commented, “We’re proud to be one of the trail-blazing developers working closely with academia to promote the industry to a wider range of potential recruits. Teaming up with Women in Games is one of a number of initiatives that we have planned for this year and one that we feel particularly strongly about. While we have a relatively high number of women at Blitz we are looking to increase that figure for ourselves and the industry as a whole.”

Blitz Games Studios’ talented workforce employs 12% percent of women at its HQ in Leamington Spa across a variety of positions in game development as well as the more traditional HR/admin roles.

Jane Sinclair, an organiser of Women in Games and Associate Professor at the University of Warwick added, “We’re delighted to have the support of Blitz as one of our key sponsors. Women In Games continues to grow as a thought provoking and educational event for both the games industry and academia – we hope to announce an especially strong line up for this year very soon.”

The Women In Games conference encourages research and seeks to promote careers for women within the games industry. Making this career path attractive from a female perspective doesn't just make good business sense, it's vital both commercially and artistically.

A major theme of Women in Games 2008 is exploring ways of encouraging more women to enter games and increase their prominence across the industry, ultimately demonstrating how the female perspective can provide a rich new angle on the gaming experience. Other themes will focus on the latest game research with a particular emphasis on areas that affect, or are affected by, women.

Men are welcome too! Although this conference is concerned with women and games please note that men are also very welcome to attend. The industry needs a meaningful dialogue between the sexes as it moves forward.

For further information, to submit a paper or an idea for a session and to register please visit: Women in Games

SOE G.I.R.L. - Gamers In Real Life

Gamers in Real Life is a new initiative by SOE (Sony Online Entertainment) to "help girls get their game on". SOE has set up a progressive new scholarship program with The Art Institutes designed to educate and recruit more women into the video game industry.

The official SOE G.I.R.L. -- Gamers In Real Life -- scholarship is the first of its kind with The Art Institutes to encourage students toward career paths in the creative and applied arts, ultimately resulting in the development of games that are more interesting for women to play.

"It's no secret to female gamers: Women are out there in significant numbers, playing MMOs, action games, first-person shooters, etc. What is lacking in the equation are women behind these games and we hope G.I.R.L. can help support this program," said Torrie Dorrell, Senior Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing, Sony Online Entertainment. "SOE's program is a key component of our G.I.R.L. initiative because the scholarship will be the gateway for one student into this field of expertise; I invite other publishers to join us in supporting this initiative."

This is awesome news for young women wanting to get into the industry. Be sure and check out the official G.I.R.L. website for more information.

GDAA - Australian Games Industry Event info

GDAA will be hosting a private invitation only Australian Games Industry Business Networking Event in conjunction with Austrade on 21st February during the GDC conference and expo in San Francisco. This will be a major marketing event for the export focused game developers in Australia.

“We are limiting the invitation to around 50 – 60 key CEOs and decision-makers (publishers, investors, game developers etc) to the event at which real business can be conducted in relaxed and corporate environment” said Greg Bondar, CEO of the GDAA.

Australian Game Developers will be showcasing their capabilities at the business session.

“GDC is a world class event and an important event on the Australian game developers’ calendar and GDAA will be making the point to all international investors, publishers and game developers that making games is a serious business in Australia” added Greg Bondar.

eGames Expo heads to Melbourne Australia in November

Heads up Aussie readership, this is for you specifically. The successful eGames Expo is returning to Melbourne and will showcase the latest in gaming and digital entertainment. The eGames and Entertainment Expo takes place at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre from 16 – 18 November this year. This is Australia's Largest Video Games and Digital Entertainment Expo, so if you're in Melbourne or able to get there, do so.

Visitors to the Expo will be able to play unreleased and all the latest titles hitting the market over various platforms, including Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii and PC. As well as all the gaming goodness you'll also be privy to the latest products including Media Centres, mp3 players, Portable Video Recorders (PVRs), Blu-Ray and HD DVD Players and the biggest and the best in High Definition screens. Check out all the info you can digest at the official eGames website.