Video game industry in UK fights gender imbalance

Game developers aim to address misconception ‘ it’s easier for men to find jobs in the industry’

London: Giving life to a black elf in a fantasy video game, softly spoken schoolgirl Hannah leans into the microphone to deliver an ominous warning: “This world, and everything in it, will burn!” With seven other schoolgirls, the 13year- old is learning the tricks of the gamer trade as part of an initiative to encourage more girls to enter the industry.

For the past three years Creative Assembly, one of Britain’s largest video game developers, has hosted girl- only workshops at its offices in Horsham, South London. “We encounter a lot of feedback from school students and parents,” said Jodie Azhar, lead technical artist on Total War: Warhammer, the studio’s flagship series. “We want to address these misconceptions such as ‘ it’s easier for men to find jobs than it is for women in this industry’ and ‘ my mom tells me to get a real job.’” With her rectangular glasses and red highlights, Azhar knows as a young female that she is an exception in Britain’s video game industry.

According to a 2016 study, women fill only 19 per cent of jobs, despite the fact that women make up half of British gamers.

“In that 19 per cent, how many of those women are actually making games?” asked Marie Claire Isaaman, president of the “Women in Games” group, which seeks to increase female representation.

“If I look to a range of other data, most women aren’t making games,” she added. “So you have all male team( s) developing female characters. That can be a big problem.”

Much of the disparity can be traced back to a supply shortage, with fewer girls chosing to study STEM ( Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) according to Richard Wilson, head of the Independent Video Game Developers’ Association, UK. Studios “can actively go out and try to encourage more women to get a career in video games industry.”