Attending Ohio University has been a surreal experience. Having lived in Athens my entire life, I never really imagined what it would be like to attend the university. I was incredibly excited to begin classes and become part of the university. However, as we started going around in my orientation group and announcing our tracks, I became increasingly more uncomfortable. My intended track is video game design and animation. I was one of four people pursuing this track in my group and of those four, the only girl.
When it came to be my turn, I caved and told the group that I was more interested in the animation part of the major, even though I have wanted to design video games for most of my life. For some reason I had convinced myself that I wasn't qualified to work on video games solely based on my gender.
In the past five years, diversity has been on the rise in video games, with more games opting for people of color as protagonists, such as Mirror's Edge: Catalyst that features a woman of color as its playable character. Games like Mirror's Edge and Nier Automata have been on the forefront of diversity in the industry.
But what about behind the scenes? How many of the developers working on these games are actually female? According to a study done by The Game Developers Association in 2014 only 22 percent of game developers were female, and even less than that are women of color.
Women in Game Development: Breaking the Glass Level-Cap gives us an accurate description of what it's like to work as a woman in the video game pipeline. Women's experiences range from being ignored by male coworkers even though they may be more proficient at a specific skill to being sexually harassed for profit and advertisement.
Many women in the field have opted to work freelance or not enter the industry at all, depriving our media of talented minds that have a lot to offer. So how can we help combat the toxic sexist environment in the game development profession? One way is to support women who chose to create games independently, by seeking out and playing more independent games. Supporting women in larger companies can be more complicated than just consuming media. If you like a designer or a video game make sure to leave a positive review of the game or tweet at the developers who made the game happen.
The best way to create a better environment for women in the gaming industry is to continually educate men and women on the subconscious sexism ingrained in our society that causes men to second guess women and women to second guess themselves.
Alaeta Fiocchi is a freshman studying games and animation and studio art at Ohio University. Please note that the views and opinions of the columnists do not reflect those of The Post. Have you ever considered the level-cap for women in the gaming industry? Let Halle know by tweeting at her af987416@ohio.edu.
