The 100 Most Influential Women in Gaming 108
Ground Glass writes "Next Generation has posted a list of the 100 most influential women in the games industry. It's an exhaustive and nonsense-free take on a subject particularly important to the male-dominated world of videogames. From the article: 'A gender-inclusive approach to game design and marketing of games may ensure that most, if not all, considerations to producing games for myriad markets are not overlooked. Games are no longer produced for a niche market of players; they are produced for complex, over-lapping layers of demographically, geographically, socially and culturally-influenced consumer groups.'"
This is GREAT news (Score:2)
100 Most Influential in Gambling? (Score:1, Offtopic)
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Cool links. [blogspot.com]
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Number 1... (Score:5, Funny)
Top 10 maybe (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Top 10 maybe (Score:4, Insightful)
She was originally only going to publish 50. (Score:1)
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I understand your concern. To be honest, when I saw that Fiona put up 100 names, I read through the list with a critical eye. I'm a female senior programmer in the industry, and I've even been a lead before. I'm pretty well known, have spoken at conferences and universities, and have been consulted for books and articles on a number of occasions. So, you
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Now this is a great iniative (Score:2, Interesting)
umm, Dani Bunten? (Score:2)
http://dir.salon.com/story/tech/feature/2003/03/1
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Good point (Score:2)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Bunten [wikipedia.org]
--
Carnage Blender [carnageblender.com]: Meet interesting people. Kill them.
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Now, the one omission I can't figure out is Stevie Case. Like her or not, despite the fact that she got her position mainly because she was John Romero's girlfriend, she was still more influential than most of the women on this list. (It doesn't have to be a good influence. Hell, I don't think the cynical commer
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Jon Romero (Score:5, Funny)
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Uh-huh.
I recall PC Gamer having a picture of Stevie Case [wikipedia.org] on the cover, and talking about how she was one of the `Gaming Gods'. While I may not agree with you about John, I would have to say that Stevie was indeed rather attractive, though I tended to question her actual influence on the gaming industry at the time. I don't recall seeing her name in the list given today (and really didn't expect to see it, but I did look for it.)
Should be #1 (Score:1)
missing: the one who is not only most important... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:missing: the one who is not only most important (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.sdsc.edu/ScienceWomen/hopper.html [sdsc.edu]
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Re:missing: the one who is not only most important (Score:2, Informative)
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Troll.
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Good point. I shouldn't have assumed that the typical programmer is capable of thinking up a simple one-to-one swapout algorithm if someone hadn't thought of it before. Come to think of it, that's probably why most bogus patents are granted in software:
Patent Examiner(PE): Hm... okay, it looks like they're trying to patent one-click shoppin
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I don't see why you're so bitter about this. There's a first for everything. While it looks obvious to you now, 50 years later, considering you've probably lived most if not all of your life with programming languages that use English words, it probably was a lot less obvious back then.
Airplanes would have been invented without the Wrigh
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That couldn't be farther from the truth.
The concept of a steam engine seems fairly obvious now, pressure from the steam makes stuff move, easy. Go back a few hundred years, and tell someone with much less technical experience than the average person today has, and they'll give you a funny look.
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Ah, but therein lies the rub. At the time she was doing many of these things, there were practically no competent practitioners of the art. And nothing was obvious to anybody. Period.
She was one of the very first people to ever work on computers.
Not to over-inflate her importance, but you're kind of saying "Well, Newtonian physics is obvious to any first year physics student". The old adage in science is "I see far
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That is especially true when you considered; you were set up in an environment where such was pervasive, and for them it was unheard of.
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You do realize that when Admiral Hopper was assigned to work on the first computers the US had (and I do literally mean first) there was no history to precede what she ended up working on, don't you??
She worked on many pioneering projects, and I believe can be credited (blamed?) with the invention of COBOL to simplify things.
Insinuating that the work Grace H
Which begs the question (Score:3, Funny)
*ducks*
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Does that count?
Yep, exactly 100. (Score:3, Interesting)
(Emphasis added).
So if it's exhaustive, then there can't be a 101th member. Of course, it reads more like 'these are females that I know currently in the industry, or peripherally related'. Hell, Ada Byron [sdsc.edu] probably had more influence than any of the ones on the list, even if it was indirect.
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Thanks! (Score:1, Offtopic)
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Roberta Williams? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Roberta Williams? (Score:5, Insightful)
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I still agree that she should be among the most *influential* women in gaming. Even though she's no longer active, the influence that King's Quest and Phantasmagoria alone had on the market is still felt today. (And would anyone doubt she couldn't pull strings today if she wanted back in the market?)
Best Roberta Williams Picture (Score:4, Funny)
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Those were the good ole days!!!!!
"Rod of shafting +9"
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The link is mildly "Not Suitable For Work" . . Just so you other people know.
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Bogus list (Score:2, Redundant)
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Morgan Webb? (Score:1)
On a purely gratuitous note: Morgan Romine of Frag Dolls is just scorching
Click print to see them all... (Score:4, Insightful)
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I'd rather see a "past and present" article (Score:1)
A salute to a pioneer (Score:5, Funny)
-Eric
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So, do you still keep in touch?
ducks
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With her or the videogames?
-Eric
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Why, the video games, of course. =) You know you've got a 1979 vintage copy of larn hanging about.
Hmmmm.... (Score:2)
It's interesting to see that there are that many "influential" females in the industry.
(*) Again, I don't play online, maybe going and playing the Sims may help.
No Mynx? (Score:2)
I don't know about you (Score:2)
She's about 5 or 6 pages in. Can't miss her!
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Jack Thompson (Score:1)
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ffs, why are we still doing this? (Score:2)
I thought we stopped doing that in junior school dodgeball teams.
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I don't know if that's true or not, but it's certainly the view that's promoted by making these lists that discriminate by sex. Why else would you exclude men from your list?
I can understand the segregation in sports where people of one sex have an inherent physical advantage over those of the other. But for purely intellectual things, like any sort of high technology, it just promotes the nonsensica
They could find 100?! (Score:2)
Not only could they find 100 women in gaming, at any capacity, but they found 100 that are influential?
I'm actually astonished.
Not that I think that's a good thing-- I just think finding 100 *people* that are actually influential is astounding considering most gamers can't name more than 5 "celebrity" gaming figures, be it male or female. Granted, this is harldy the only test for "influence," but it's certainly not far fetched to think they are, perhaps, digging a bit deep to
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(Please take in the light-hearted manner it was intended)
Didn't RTFA, but looking at them I'd likely say... (Score:2)
In addition to Roberta Williams' absence... (Score:1)
Honesting, ANY designer should be on the list over a "Director of Human Resources" or "Marketing Director" or many of the other titles of the people on the list, and Roberta Williams was hugely influential, and Jane Jensen has gotten tons of praise for her work with Gabriel Knight...
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I'm just guessing, but #100 would be... (Score:1)
I think I've figured it out (Score:3, Insightful)
Rob
Headline inaccuracy... (Score:1)
Great list for a laugh. (Score:2)
There's a lot of women in the industry, they just haven't been in the industry for as long as others, or others have not done as much in the current years. Roberta Williams for one hasn't had a game to my knowledge for years.
I can live with Clans, programmers, and producers (I'll even go with project managers) But why is CEos there, and why are they talking about companies who write Game guides? N
This is sad, (Score:2)
On the other hand, I don't think I could name that many influential males either. Carmack and Romero? Richard Garriot? Tim Sweeney? There just aren't that many star individuals.
Where is KillCreek? (Score:2)
She was hot, a level designer, a great gamer and was featured in Playboy.
Marketing weasel pats self, fellows, on back... (Score:1)
See if you your name your article GAME INDUSTRY'S 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL WOMEN and then fill it with VPs of Marketing and your own boss (I regularly find myself contemplating this months rolling deadline and thinking "This is rough, thank god Mary Margaret Walker, CEO of recruitment agent Mary-Margaret.com is on the case.") you're just aiming to embarrass yourself to the Industry and its customers.
But, on the other hand, that's not really your audience is it?
The two they left out (Score:1)