Spending over 48 hours together at the Centre for Digital Media, female protagonists were at the centre of attention as women were creating mini video games and destroying the gaming industry’s gender stereotype. When it comes to gaming, most people are slow to associate females with actually enjoying having a controller in their hand and virtually fighting to the death, but it was a whole different story in the Canadian Game Jam organized by iamagamer.
Any observer of the sensational event held for the first time in Vancouver, can testify to the fact that it was certainly a success in every regard. On Sunday, the tables were full of programmers, designers and artists along with musicians creating perfect mini games that had female enthusiasts at the center of it all. Students from CDM, Art Institute and Emily Carr gave it their all to work in a limited time period and still make something that could blow away user’s expectations.
Dr. Kimberly Voll, who is a full-time member of the faculty at the CDM, was really hopeful of experiencing more events like this in the future.
“I want to do more with the ‘iamagamer’ organization; one of the things i’ve really learned over the years is how they provide a community with a voice and an opportunity to come together and make things better. I would love to do things for other underrepresented groups and raise representation across the board,” she said, according to techvibes.com. “As long as it’s frustrating to see misogyny in the industry, these [events] are going to keep happening.”
“There’s a lot of finger-pointing in the industry, as if it’s somehow trying to intentionally demonize women, and I don’t think that’s it at all,” Dr. Volladded. “I think we have a risk-averse industry—if you look at the production values, and you’re not making back that money, studios are going to close. So it’s hard to take that risk. But it’s not going to change until we, at a grassroots level, start changing our perceptions. It’s a lot harder to look within.”
It is reported that 50 games were created and some of them went above and beyond in the eyes of observers that were present there. Some creations were so serious about the stereotype against women that it focused specifically on that where women in the game would attack those who spread negatives messages about them. Some games even featured the LGBT spectrum and were certainly appreciated for their efforts at bringing people together while eliminating the differences.
Source: TechVibes
Image: Vancouver Observer
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