Christmas, 1995, I was 6 years old and I unwrapped my first video game console, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. You can imagine a 6 year olds joy at such a gift! And all the games! Alladin, the Lion King, and of course, Super Mario All Stars. My mom helped me to hook it up that night and showed me how everything worked. I played for hours until finally I was forced to put the controller down and head to bed. The next day I woke up, even earlier than I normally would, and strangely I heard the TV on. I found my mother playing MY snes! That seemed so weird to me, not because my mom was a woman, but because adults don’t play video games! It turns out my mom was the best player in the world when it came to Super Mario, or at-least she was as far as my 6 year old mind was concerned. Helping her to save the princess is one of my favorite memories as a kid. Mom still enjoys Mario games, even if she doesn’t play them as often, but because of her strong influence I’ve always had an appreciation for strong women in life and in video games, and that’s what this article is all about. The strong women who have helped to write, design, and publish all the amazing games we enjoy today.
Over the years, the video game industry has been more of a “boys club” in regards to the gaming industry and the fans in general. According to various studies done by the Interactive Games & Entertainment Association, Pew Internet & American Life Project,Interactive Software Federation of Europe, and various other groups tell us that the demographic of female players, has increased greatly from the early 90′s, growing to almost match the number of male gamers who are purchasing and enjoying games. So with more and more female gamers coming into play each year, what does this mean for the video gaming industry? Well for one, it means more fans which equals more revenue. More revenue means more games being put out for men and women to enjoy, and that’s something we can all appreciate.
Bonnie Ross, Kiki Wolfkill, Josh Holmes, Tim Longo, And Rob Semsey
While female gamers are becoming much more prevalent, in todays gaming community, it is also important to remember the women behind the curtain. Those that bring us the quality games that we all enjoy. Thinking back to 1995, when I was first learning the marvels of video games, a woman named Bonnie Ross was doing the same. Mrs. Ross began her adventure in video games in 1994, working on sports games for the PC. Over the last 22 years, she has lent her expertise to various projects, including Gears of War, Mass Effect and Jade Empire. in 2009 she helped to found 343 industries, where she took over and continued her longest standing project, and Microsoft’s flagship series, Halo. In addition to her success, Bonnie Ross has been a voice for women in the video game industry and community, speaking about sexism in video games, and cracking down on those gamers who, unfortunately, are biased against the female gamers in our community.
Amy Hennig
Another woman who works behind the scenes goes by the name, Amy Hennig. Mrs. Hennig is best known for her work directing and writing the Legacy of Kain series, as well as story line writing of the Uncharted and Jax and Daxter series, both created by Naughty Dog Entertainment. It is not known at this time why Mrs. Hennig left Naughty Dog after 10 years of service, but you can be assured that whatever project she next lends her creative genius too, will definitely be a good one. Amy Hennig is a woman after my heart in her belief that the a games graphics are meaningless if the story is not enticing. She has been honored for her writing style with an award from The Writers Guild of America. I, for one, hope she tries her hand at writing a script for a new Star Wars game. Considering her passion for the legendary franchise, I would be eager to play through the game of such a dedicated fan.
If you’re a fan of video games at all, chances are good you know who Jennifer Hale is, or if you’ve ever watched Cartoon Network, you’ve heard her voice. Jennifer Hale is a voice actress who is renowned for her library of both video game and animated tv appearances she has lent her voice too. She always plays the role of the strongest women around, including being the voice of the heavily armed and armored bounty hunter Samus Aran, who shocked the world with Metroid on the Nintendo as being the first female protagonist in a video game. She has lent her voice to various other roles for games including, Dragon Age, Bioshock, and portraying the female protagonist in the space RPG Mass Effect. Mrs. Hale has also been very outspoken against gender discrimination in video gaming, stating in an interview with Noel King for marketplace.org, “I myself would love to see more equal representation of women in games,
more empowered roles. Let’s remove gender from casting everywhere we can
and play around with it. Let’s do the same with race.”. This was in response to a video released by Anita Sarkeesian on her youtube channel feministfrequency, discussing the roles of women in video games. One of the reasons I respect Jennifer Hale is because of how she goes about making change in the gaming community. While she is not afraid to stand up and say when she thinks something is wrong, she doesn’t do it in a competitive, or aggressive way, opting to be more level headed about it and using her fame to spread the idea of equality in video games.
The gaming community has always been about friendship, enjoyment, and evolution, always growing to new heights, and breaking past limitations. I believe that one of those barriers is the gender barrier, women can and should enjoy the gaming medium as much as men do. And the women like this, the strong that stand up for the weak? Those are the kind of people who will shatter that window, helping the community to prosper, and continue to thrive for future generations to come. So fellas, if you’re reading this and have a special lady in your life, a wife, girlfriend, or even your daughter, the next time you’re wanting to buy a new game? Take her with you, ask her what looks fun to her, and buy it. Teach them how everything works, and let them enjoy the game with you, because that’s what video games are truly all about.
Site Title 