Women in Games Meetup!

To start off, it finally happened! A few of us as part of the NGF WIG group (especially Shruti) were thinking about it, but something or the other always put the plan on the back burner. This time too we picked the date and announced it but later realized it fell on a festival day. We also had some trouble with the venues at some areas. But we got past all that hurdles and finally hosted this awesome meet across 7 cities!

We had Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Delhi and Chennai women joining in. We also had some really nice men who helped us organize this meet. Cheers to them!

Special mention to our one woman army in Chennai, Asmita! More power to you, girl! It starts with one :D

Bangalore Special (21st March 2015)

The Bangalore meetup had a RSVP that went closer to 18, but had only 10 women who could make it. Owing to the Ugadi festival, some women couldn't sign up either. If all that is to be considered, then we should on an ideal day hit an easy 25-30. Let's hope we see that day soon!

Radha, Neha, Poornima, Megha, Arundhati, Garima, Pavithra, Anupam, Jennifer, Sujatha

There was a Video games meetup before our WIG meetup and I headed there first. I met Arundhati there and we headed to the WIG meetup together. Arundhati is full of enthusiasm and energy and it can rub off on you! XD

We reached the venue around 2:45 pm and we had Megha, our punctuality queen, waiting there for us! She got there before I (being the organizer) did. (The meetup was at 3 pm, so don't judge me! :P)

Next to get there was Neha, who despite not keeping well came to the meet. It's hard to get that girl to rest! :P Accompanying her was our knight in shining armor; Vijay. Also our photographer for the event!

While I got around setting up the laptop for the Google hangout with the other cities, we had Garima who joined us. Garima, the sole artist in the meetup decided to take the plunge and come all the way although her friends had a change of plan in the last moment! Kudos to her!

Next to join us was Anupam and Jennifer; the pretty BFFs! ^^

Then came along Radha, a children's book author who has published many books to her name! Woohoo!

While we were wondering whether we should wait or begin with the formal introductions, we had our calm and composed Pavithra join us.

Although the RSVPs were more, 10 was the ideal count I had in mind. I was telling the girls that if only one more girl just turns up!  And that's when our 10th warrior, Sujatha, walked in and we all cheered her much to her surprise. :D

We connected now and then on Google Hangout with other cities. But there were connectivity and background noise issues in some cases. Lesson for next time, I guess!

We started with our formal introductions and learnt a lot about each other, how we entered gaming industry and what makes us stick here. Discussed our interests, had our share of jokes, games we like to play et all while sipping on our drinks and eating our munchies of course!

Overall, a super fun evening! And we are definitely doing this more often!

Our handsome photographer

Last but definitely not the least, our thanks to Grubnomic, Bangalore who were kind enough to give us the place without any qualms, a good WiFi connectivity along with some great food and drinks! Thanks Chandni! :D

Do visit them, Bangaloreans!

Gaining Control - Postnoon Hyd Article

Postnoon Hyderabad had contacted  for an article on women in gaming.
Click here for the article.

Posting the same here:

Looking at the big push toward mobile gaming and casual gaming and what’s happening with the Nintendo Wii, women are slowly entering the gaming industry. Their numbers are few but there is hope for change.

Female representation in the creative industries has always been a topic for debate. Take the gaming industry in India for example. It has predominantly been a male-dominated one. So much so that hearing of a women gamer or developer in India has been few and far in between. We spoke with two women from the industry to know of where women stand in this field.

Purnima Iyer, game designer at Knowledge Adventure India (Bangalore) and Co-founder at Pinaka Interactive (Navi Mumbai) gives us an insight. On the industry she says it is a fledgling one. “It is great, still growing and has a long way to go. Innovation and quality is what we need to focus on. We should help each other out, share knowledge, promote and grow together,” she says. Numerous questions come to mind talking about women in the gaming industry, ‘Is the profession suitable for women? What are the timings? What about male co-workers, family etc…?’

Answering all these questions, Moumita Paul, a game designer at Lakshya, Pune says, “This profession has a lot of potential for women. There is a whole lot of different things to be done and not just gaming. There is testing, designing, production and developing and women can be a part of all this. Women have a flair for the creative, however, production has its limitations in terms of family because of the long hours.” Purnima adds that most companies do have flexible hours and work-from-home options.

For Moumita, getting into the industry was met with opposition from her mum who was concerned for her. Her mother stopped speaking with her, but Moumita persisted and finally won her over.

On the behaviour of men in this industry, Purnima says, “It can be quite subjective, some do some don’t.” But Moumita feels otherwise, “At least at work, men are very welcoming and supportive as there are very few enterprising women. In fact, most of them are surprised that a woman could be part of the programming or developing.”

But the bone of the contention still remains the portrayal of women. Moumita who is also an avid gamer, agrees that mostly women are given sexy avatars in games.

“Women are mainly designed to be hot and sexy as that’s how the men prefer them to be.” Purnima adds, “There are games which portray women as the damsel in distress who has to be rescued by the male protagonist; but then that is the case with most fairy tales too! There are games where the women are portrayed as equals. Whether they are the protagonist (Lara Croft, Bayonetta) or feature as a supporting protagonist (Half-Life 2). Many RPG (Role-playing Game) and RTS (Real-Time-Strategy) games give you the option of creating a woman character and building woman units respectively. Then of course is the question of objectifying and sexualising the women. To that, we have games like Portal where the playable character Chell, was not sexualised.”

But what both women seem to agree is on the lack of awareness and false concepts regarding a career in this field. At the NASSCOM Game Developer’s Conference this year in Pune the Women in games panel, announced the formation of a Women in Games Special Interest Group, which will help attract more women to the field. Moumita advises that all the women out there who are looking for a chance should do their research first and then enter this field. Half-baked notions can be dangerous.

Gaming: Enter the male bastion - TOI Bangalore Article

TOI Bangalore had contacted me for an article on women in gaming. Considering the fact that it's always the Bangalore newspapers that contact me, I think I should shift base there! :P

Click here for the article.

Posting the article here. Colored my quotes.


Gaming blows these girls away 
Narayanan Krishnaswami TNN

Bangalore: Nehal Shah is a twentysomething independent design researcher.She is also a level 67 Tauren Druid in Blizzards Massively Multiplayer Online blockbuster,World of Warcraft,and a gamer for the last 12 years.
Shah says she spends two to three hours everyday gaming and spends at least a thousand rupees a month on her hobby.Shah is one of a very rare breed,the female Indian gamer.Worldwide,women make up 40% of the gaming public.In India,that number of those who identify themselves as gamers is almost non-existent.Mehr Singh is a film student in Pune.I just dont get why women dont game,I really dont think its because games are marketed more towards males.I grew up with gaming--we started off with those ancient consoles that used cartridges and I have always enjoyed it, she says.

Gaming: enter the male bastion
Bangalore: Mehr spent most of her second year of film studies two to six hours daily playing Defence of the Ancients in a nearby gaming parlour.I was introduced to DoTA by a bunch of my friends all guys,though,and I was blown away, she says.

Pradipta Sarkar,27,is an editor in a New Delhi publishing house.She doesnt have a console,but she says she loves playing games whenever she has access to one.I go to my friends places when I want to play and I play for hours at a time. Pradipta believes buying a game console is simply not on the radar of women consumers. I like to play,but I'm not willing to spend Rs 30,000 on a gaming console,"she says.

Purnima Iyer is the co-founder of Pinaka Interactive,a Mumbai-based game and app design company.She says there could be several reasons for the low numbers of women gamers in India.The expenditure may not be supported by the family,the friend circle may not be involved in gaming,and some have the notion that gaming is for men and women playing games are looked down upon or even called irresponsible.Plus,not many games are women friendly and tend to have strong stereotypes that are oriented towards men,like violence,gore and skimpily-clad women.

Purnima says there are things about gaming behaviour that she finds irritating which may put off other women gamers. In a MMOG (massively multiplayer online game) context,when you walk in as a female avatar,firstly they assume you are a cross-dresser.Once you make them realize thats not the case,they get all lovey-dovey.While this can be advantageous for some (many quest items can be easily retrieved),it gets really troublesome.They rarely call you for a raid etc,just because they assume you cant play as well as a guy! 

The gaming industry,which has always been a male bastion,believes that a game with a female as a main character will suffer in terms of sales unless she is skimpily clad and improbably endowed as in the early iterations of Lara Croft or the more recent Bayonetta.Stereotypes like these have perpetuated the association of videogames with male adolescents.

There have been attempts within the industry to change this.Lara Crofts latest avatar shows her realistically proportioned and giving up her very short shorts for a sensible pair of jeans.Mass Effects advertising now shows Commander Shepard as a woman in armor."Things are changing for good",agrees Purnima. "But sometimes,it's fun to play as a male character like in GTA".

Women on Top and Loving it - DNA Bangalore Article

Women on Top and Loving it, DNA Bangalore, Apr 24th 2010. By NT Balanarayan

Click here to view the original article.

Click on Page no 10 and then click on the heading on the right panel to view it properly :)

Reposting the article, colored coded my quotes :)
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Women on top and loving it

Women working in top tech jobs in India think it's a level playfield, provided you have the right attitude, says NT Balanarayan

The US may be the leader in technology development, but fewer than 24% of the top tech jobs in the US are held by women, according to surveys. Many women are unhappy with the workplace glass ceiling, which means they get overlooked for the top job despite being well-qualified. The percentage of women in top tech jobs may not be high in India, but they certainly make it count and make their presence felt. Anuradha, senior vice-president (engineering) at Subex, Bangalore, has over two decades of experience in the telecom field. If you live up to the role expectations, and have the right attitude and balanced approach towards work and colleagues, there is no differentiation, she says. "On the work-front, I have never faced such challenges. Even while studying, there were no differentiations whether it came to scoring marks or when I needed to demonstrate my mettle. The challenges are mostly in maintaining a balance with your personal life if you have a family — be it the role of spouse or mother. For that, developing a congenial support system is very critical," she adds. Maintaining balance is an issue for Priya Venkateshan, a Bangalorean who is a pursuing her MS (computer science) and is involved in research on machine learning at University of California, Irvine. "Now, being in the tech field is probably easier in India. But it takes a lot to get to the top and you don't have many role models," she says. Striking a work-life balance is the biggest stumbling block. "If your workplace understands that you have a life, then great! But if they don't, then you'll need to go the extra mile. At my workplace, it's more chilled out to be in an R&D job than in a development job. The farther you get from the market, lesser the stress," she adds. Divisha Chandna, senior product manager (widgets), Opera Software, says not all women think gender is an issue while selecting a job. "I am in a product management role. I work with the sales, marketing, engineering and management teams and enjoy the interactions. As a rule, it's important to pick a role based on interest rather than gender," she says. "I have been working in the IT industry in various roles for the past seven years. I joined Opera right after college, so most of my learning has been on the job. Most of my colleagues and managers were quite young too, and more passionate than experienced. This meant there was little status quo or rules that I had to deal with. The only thing that mattered is interest and contribution to the role. It's a good industry for women to be in and I hope to continue to be a part of it. There is a lot of room for growth, and gender really is a non-issue, but with one exception. When I joined the software sales team for a year, I did find that being woman was a challenge. For a while, I enjoyed the travel and the excitement of meeting new customers on a daily basis, but I could not see myself living out of a suitcase for too long. I was also the only female sales employee in a team of 48. It is always better when there is a little more diversity in a team," adds Divisha. But not all women have pleasant experiences at the workplace. Purnima Iyer, game developer at Indiagames, describes an unpleasant encounter she had when while on the job hunt after college. "I got a job interview with a mobile company and I had a terrible experience. The interviewer just wouldn't believe I actually 'coded' in my final-year project. He said we might have bought the project. I explained my role, but he suggested the two guys in the team did the coding. Maintaining my temper, I asked him, 'Then how did I clear your technical round? I had to write code samples and answer the other questions too.' To which he said that I might have cheated. He said he'd ask me a technical question. He pointed to a random location on the screen of a mobile device and asked me to tell its coordinates! My answer: I snatched my resume from his hand, took my file and walked out of the room." Purnima adds that there are fewer women in certain fields of technology because of pressure from parents. "My parents forced me to shift to a software company after I started working in a game development company because they couldn't picture a woman in this field. It took a while for me to convince them that game design is a good profession," she says. So how many women does she work with? "Not many. Most women here work in marketing, sales, HR. From what I've seen, there are very few women who are really passionate about gaming. Most people see it as just another job," she says. "I used to play this Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) game called Ragnarok and most people there thought I was a cross-dresser and just couldn't believe girls are into gaming. I met other girls playing the game, but yes, we were a small group in comparison to the number of men," she adds.  balanarayan@dnaindia.net ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ However, the fact is my parents forced me to shift to a software firm not because they couldn't picture a woman in this field. It was because, they weren't aware that gaming was a professional field. And nowadays even youngsters have to be made aware of the career opportunities in gaming. So our traditional parents' awareness about the industry cannot be questioned :)

Thanks to DNA Bangalore's Gaming and Technology Reporter: NT Balanarayan for this article. He's also the man behind GameBashing, and has been kind enough to add this blog to the list of Indian Gaming Blogs :)