A Woman in the Gaming Industry
photo courtesy of Women In Games event website
This post was originally published March 14, 2024.
The video game industry has been experiencing massive layoffs. Just this year, nearly 10,000 people have already been laid off. It’s absolutely heartbreaking to witness, and it’s just as heartbreaking to face the frequent rejections and uncertainty that comes from trying to build a path in the industry right now.
My experience with video games started when I was in elementary school. I would watch my brother play Age of Empires on his computer and beg for a turn. Years later, after getting my own computer, I remembered the game and downloaded it. I forgot how much I loved that game. Particularly, Age of Mythology, which was my gateway to all my archaeological interests. After playing dozens of other games, I was surprised to find myself working on a game myself.
The Station is an augmented reality mobile game that seeks to get kids outside and learning about STEM. When the grant money came into the little educational nonprofit I was working at, I was asked to put on many different hats, including a literal hunter’s orange hat that didn’t look good on anyone. I was ecstatic though. I was able to be creative at work and spent my time mostly checking for problems with the game and writing STEM-related quests.
My goal as a writer is simply to tell stories, and some of the first stories I fell in love with were the ones told through a game. Over COVID, I started playing more story-rich games. Stories about fantastical worlds, stories about death, stories about freedom, and the whole time, I thought to myself—”I want to write these stories.”
Then I learned about the most recent Women in Games expo. Stuffy academics had turned me away from conferences, but my creative passion and the event’s free admission pulled me in. The virtual nature of online conferences always feels incredibly impersonal to me and minimizes the most important feature of the event: the networking. Yet, this event hosted a networking feature that stood out from every other I’d been to. For five minutes, I could randomly connect with another attendee and talk. We exchanged Linkedins, and I left the conference having had a handful of genuine conversations and several more that I was able to follow up with through direct messages.
As I continue my job search as a creative and narrative expert, I want to acknowledge the people who make the path a little easier. Being a woman in just about any industry is hard. I’ve been talked down to and ignored by professionals because of it, but I’ve never let it stop me. It was so nice to make real connections with women who have had similar experiences. A week later and I still feel hopeful. Change happens slow, but women always find a way, and I am one of those women.