<div><font face="" size="2">The article (below) talks about how the computer game industry is finally coming to grips with their lack of diversity in development. If you think that you'd like to learn how to develop computer games, consider competing in the Games4Girls (G4G) programming competition, hosted by University of Illinois.
</font></div>
<div><span><font face="" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></span></font></span> </div>
<div><span><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><font face="" size="2">The competition is open to all college women currently residing in the United States. Each student team must submit an on-line application (date announced soon). Visit the web site to complete an application:
</font><a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://www.cs.uiuc.edu/g4g" target="_blank"><font face="" size="2">www.cs.uiuc.edu/g4g</font></a></span></span></div><br>
<div>
<div><span class="e" id="q_112f91614944c5f4_3"><br>---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>A Few Good Women Are Needed in Computer Gaming<br>Computerworld (06/04/07) Pratt, Mary K.<br><br><a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyId=10&articleId=293317&intsrc=hm_topic" target="_blank">
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyId=10&articleId=293317&intsrc=hm_topic</a><br><br>Women are highly valued by the gaming industry for the fresh insight<br>they can bring, and this is creating opportunities for female tech
<br>professionals looking for job options outside of the usual corporate<br>IT departments. "If we want to have [game] titles that reach a diverse<br>audience, our workforce has to reflect that diversity," argues Sirenia
<br>Consulting game designer and developer Sheri Graner Ray, who is also<br>chairwoman of Women in Games International's steering committee. </span></div></div>
<div><span class="e" id="q_112f91614944c5f4_5">
<div><span>
<div> </div>
<div>Peter Gollan of Iceland's CCP Games believes adding more female game<br>designers could result in the production of content that draws more<br>female gamers, while University of Southern California School of<br>
Cinematic Arts professor Tracy Fullerton suggests that more women<br>would become game designers if there were more games on the market<br>that appeal to them. </div>
<div> </div>
<div>According to the International Game Developers<br>Association, only 11.5 percent of the gaming industry workforce was<br>female as of 2005. Graner Ray points out that most game designer<br>tutorials follow a distinctly male learning paradigm, that of jumping
<br>right in and playing with the game environment, while women are more<br>inclined to first understand games before they experiment with them.<br> </div>
<div>Also discouraging to female game designers are negative portrayals of<br>women and a strong anti-female bias in popular games, notes ECD<br>Systems CEO Jack Hart. Meanwhile, JupiterResearch analyst Michael<br>Gartenberg observes that women and girls have a greater affinity for
<br>games that involve strategy and puzzles than in violent first-person<br>shooter scenarios.<br> </div></span></div></span></div>