Pit of War, a web-based MMORPG, is adding the possibility to play as a woman gladiator. The new gender doesn’t have any perks or downsides—it is just an aesthetic change. Outcast Games has also added six new races to the game, each with their own pros and cons.

The new races are an addition to the human race and three previous races. Win the gladiator battleground with, the Elaar, the Spite, the Dunder, the Urk, the Snivler and the Thug.

These aren’t the only changes Outcast Games has made to Pit of War. Characters with two-handed weapons can no longer attack using the off-hand, among other minor tweaks to the mechanics of the game.

It is great to see Outcast Games add women characters, but the company said the women bring sex appeal and new strategies to the game. The women don’t have any perks, so basically there is no strategic element to the gender. Outcast Games says the women bring “WOW factor” to the game. When the demographic of gamers is more even than ever, why market the looks of a character, instead of the ability for women gamers to feel more connected with their character?

Welcome, GamingAngels readers! It’s time to start bringing you more Women in Games interviews. Why? Because so many people don’t realize all the different ways that you can work with games. You don’t have to be a programmer, or an artist — you can take your skills and make a gaming-related career out of it, and that’s pretty awesome.

We start with someone who can answer quite a few of the questions I’ve gotten (mainly, how do I start writing about games?) much better than I ever could — Susan Arendt, Managing Editor at The Escapist. Not only will you learn how she got into this and what she does on any “typical” day (even though there isn’t one), but you’ll also find out about what she loves in female game characters (and you can view her whole PAX panel on that here, hooray), what she looks for in a good pitch and just what it’s like to be a woman in such a male-dominated field. Yeah, game development is full of men, but so is games journalism. Not really a surprise, right? There is also some puppy talk, because puppies are obviously the most important thing ever in an interview about working with games.

Enjoy — and learn!

There is a tiny bit of mature language in this interview.

Tiffany: What has your career path been like to get you to this point?

Susan: Well, I worked in the “real world” for quite a while before I ever got into this. I started writing on the side for a volunteer site about ten years ago and eventually became executive editor. I had a blog on 1up and was waiting for someone to notice how amazing I was and offer me a job. (Which actually kind of happened.) So I wrote for free for five years before I ever got to do this for reals.

When you started in the “real world,” did you ever see yourself getting to this point? Or heck, even getting involved with games to this degree professionally?

Well, I hoped, of course. But back when I graduated college (in the Dark Ages), you still had to move if you wanted a job in game journalism. And you worked in print. The Internet existed, but people maybe used it for email, if that. It was far from commonplace. And I wasn’t in a position to move to Chicago or San Francisco, so I figured I’d never get to achieve my dream of combining my great loves of publishing and gaming. But then the internet took over, and suddenly you could do this from anywhere. I never really thought I’d get to do this – but when I got the chance, I jumped at it.

So now you’re Managing Editor…that’s like…what? #2 in command at the Escapist empire?

Susan: Correct.

What’s your typical day like? Is there a typical day?

There’s really no such thing as a typical day! I’ll field pitches, edit features, oversee the news team, work on a review, if that’s applicable, write an editorial, if something’s on my mind, interact with the community, record a podcast. you get the idea.

Very freeform.

Very much so. There’s always loads to do, plus the regular nuts and bolts of training people, meetings, etc.

But overall just getting done what needs to be. Are things a little more difficult with the main offices in Raleigh?

Not at all. The majority of people I deal with, I deal with online, but other than time zones being problematic, it’s no trouble unless the person is in Australia or something.

And then they’re just on a different day and everything goes to hell.

Exactly! Fortunately, the furthest away my regular contributors are is Scotland on the one side, and California on the other.

A relatively small band of longitudes!

Yeah, could be much worse.

I do have to wonder, do you sometimes feel like you’re left out as an outlet because you’re not in the big hub cities? Or do freelancers really help scratch that itch?

Oh, sure. being so remote works both for and against us. On the one hand, we’re not in the San Fran echo chamber. We tend to think a bit differently than other folks because we’re not seeing and hearing the same things from the same people all the time. On the other hand, that also greatly cuts down our face time with developers and PR. We don’t go to the showcases and stuff, so we get left out a lot.

I’d hope that Epic wouldn’t leave you out. Since you’re kind of right there, haha.

Heh, yeah, they are just down the road. Insomniac, too, though I’ve yet to visit them. I promised I’d bring cookies.

Ooh, yeah, don’t go on that trip without the cookies, then.

Red Storm is here, too.

Now you’re just blowing my mind.

I know, people don’t expect it!

I was wondering if you had any particular opinions on outlet exclusives, as you can’t always make showcases and such.

I understand the business side of them, but they’re annoying. I mean, I get it – PR forms a plan and wants to make a big, focused splash. But I’d be just as pleased if they never existed. Yes, even if that meant we didn’t get them, either.

Switching to something else entirely — is it ever a little more difficult to be a woman doing what you’re doing?

Absolutely sometimes it’s more difficult, but the flip side of that is sometimes it’s actually easier. If you’re a woman writer in this industry, you will absolutely get opportunities simply because you’re a chick. Of course, it’s up to you to do something with those opportunities when they come along. There’s a lot of accidental misogyny that goes on, which is really not fun.

Some is not-so-accidental…but that largely comes from readers, not actual professionals.

Do you think that you deal with a completely different set of reader expectations as a result of your gender?

Yes and no. When I first started writing about games, 10 years ago, I had to prove to readers that I knew what I was talking about before they took me seriously. That doesn’t happen now, but I do think that some readers are just plain nicer to me than to the other editors on staff. Or maybe I’m just nicer to them!

Reciprocal niceness.

Well, cliché as it sounds, guys don’t tend to worry about people’s feelings as much as girls do, and that can come through in how you interact with your audience. They appreciate it.

So that definitely works in your favor. And mine, I guess, and any other woman who sets out to do this kind of thing.

It sure can. Of course, there’s the other side of it. There are definitely people out there just waiting for the smallest reason to call you stupid. Because, obviously, no woman doing this job actually knows anything.

Well, of course. We all just do it to attract lovers and titillate men.

Naturally. We’re all just in it for the attention, don’tcha know.

Because once that plain Jane turns on the 360, she’s suddenly Carmen Electra. Or some other, less-90s lady.

Yeah, I don’t know who the new hottie would be. Um…a Kardashian, maybe.

Yeah, I’ll just throw a dart at one and hope it doesn’t hit Rob.

So, do you think you work differently, or just overall see games differently as a result of what people would expect from you as a woman?

Nope. I do what I do, and I hope people enjoy it. If they do or don’t because I have certain bits in my pants, well, there’s not much I can do about that. Seems like a weird criteria to use when judging someone’s work, though.

When I first started writing, I didn’t use my name, or a picture of myself, because I didn’t want people to know my gender. I wanted them to like my work — or not — based on nothing but the work. And that’s still how I treat it every day. I am who I am, and naturally part of my perspective is shaped by my gender, the same way it’s shaped by my age, my upbringing, the fact that I’m from Pennsylvania…it all goes into making me who I am.

You know that there’s something wrong with a lot of female characters in games. To the point where you had the PAX panels on the subject. For people who couldn’t be there — what is your ideal female character, is she anywhere out there, and has the industry gotten anywhere close to creating her?

There are plenty of great female characters…well, maybe not *plenty*…but they’re out there!

I like different characters for different reasons. Take Vanessa Schneider from PN03, for example. Great character…super cool, total badass — and there’s absolutely no reason for her to be a female. Nothing in the story or the game mythology that says the protagonist needs to be a chick. Make the hero a boy, and all you’d really have to change are some animations — the core game would remain unchanged. But she’s there, because someone decided, hey, why not? That’s fantastic. I wish that happened more often.

There are some protagonists that should be male, and some who should be female. But when it doesn’t really matter one way or the other, I wish developers would just shake it up a bit and choose a female more often. Players don’t mind, I promise you.

Do you wish more games gave you the gender choice? Or is it that the ones that don’t just can’t fit it in the narrative?

Giving the player the option of gender choice simply won’t work in all cases. If you want to structure a specific narrative, you need a specific character — not all games lend themselves to the kind of open-endedness that lets you create your own protagonist. I won’t turn a game down simply because I have to play as a guy, but I do wish that some more consideration went into whether or not it HAS to be a guy.

I think that the perception from the moneyhats is that consumers won’t buy games with girls in the lead role, and that’s just selling the audience short. Men are smarter than that.

Well, okay — there are lots of great women out there. But what kind of female character is one you wish you’d seen by now? There’s a possibility that there’s not one.

I’m actually really looking forward to the Lara Croft reboot. Because she’s capable, but scared. There’s not a lot of subtlety in game characterization. You tend to have characters who are one thing or the other. They’re a badass, or they’re the ingenue. They’re the villain, or they’re the saint.

What I love about the revamp is that she’s still got guts — she’s gonna do what she has to do — but she’d really rather someone stronger, braver and older came in and took over. That’s not an option, so she buckles down and gets it done.

No one really ever wants to make the in-between for some reason, but humans are the in-between.

Exactly! I’m not brave every day, in every situation. I’m a strong, independent woman, and some days, I really just want to be taken care of.

So far, she looks like the “realness” injection that’s gone missing so far.

Exactly. But she’s not so “real” as to still not provide the wish fulfillment and escapism that a game should.

Exactly.

One day, I’ll stop nerding out over Lara, but I guess that day isn’t today, heh. Are there any characters that still elicit that kind of reaction out of you? Vanessa?

FemShep.

Ooh, we are all FemShep. What do you think of the decision to create an “official” version of her?

It’s equal parts fanservice and gimmick, but I don’t mind, because at the end of the day, they’re acknowledging she exists.

You deal with hundreds of freelancers. What’s the best way to make you stand up and take notice? I suppose in both good and bad ways.

The good ways are to be professional, and come with an interesting, fresh idea. As far as the bad ways go, coming with a feeling of entitlement, behaving like a spoiled child, or overlooking the fact that you are, in essence, applying for a job and should behave as such.

Most folks who pitch are just really, really green and they don’t really understand what they’re doing. Here’s a great example: I had one guy send me a pitch email that was grammatically incorrect — typos, no capital letters, no punctuation. So I rejected him. He replied and asked, hey, can you tell me why you shot down my pitch? I told him, straight up, your pitch email. If you can’t care enough to write a grammatically correct email, how can I believe you can pull off an entire article?

He was shocked. It had never crossed his mind that a “casual” email, as he thought of it, would be perceived as unprofessional.

Ohohoho, how silly of him.

People don’t realize that I’m not their buddy. I’m someone they’re asking to give them money in exchange for their writing acumen. They also don’t realize that it’s not JUST about how good your idea is. It’s about what I need at that moment. If I just ran two articles about Pokémon, I’m probably not going to commission your Pokémon pitch, at least not right now. Even if it’s a good idea.

So your advice to potential pitch-ees would be to pay attention to the outlet you’re submitting to, be professional down to the last comma and….well, is there anything else?

Be creative! For the love of little puppies, don’t pitch me the “why movies about video games always suck” article. Or the “how to get your girlfriend to play games” article. Those have been done to DEATH. What makes for fun forum fodder does not necessarily make for a good feature article.

Speaking of puppies — favorite puppy? This is very important. Very, very important.

Well…mine, of course. OK, she’s not a puppy anymore. She’s four. But she’s so cute. Half Golden Lab, half Whippet. Also, Corgi puppies are omgsocute.

And with the Corgi comment, you just passed the test I made up just now.

Hooray!

Have I left anything out not related to puppies that you’d have wanted to talk about? Favorite game, mayhaps?

Adopt from your local shelter! Sorry, last puppy comment. And I can’t possibly pick a favorite game. Too many that I love for so many reasons.

Quite acceptable.

I love Phantasy Star Online and Yoshi’s Island and Silent Hill and Oblivion and Grandia II and TimeSplitters 2 and Professor Layton and so many others.

Do you have any advice for women who are looking to get into writing about games?

Be confident. Find a mentor, if you can, or just a sisterhood to help you on the days you need a gut check. Just get out and DO IT. And if someone makes you feel like you don’t belong, ignore them or tell them to shut the f*ck up — whichever you feel is more appropriate to the environment.

It is not easy to be the only girl in the room. It can be, at times, very uncomfortable. But it’s so worth it, man, it really, really is. You have the chance to inspire others. Take it.

The Consumer Electronics Show is winding down today but there are still interesting facts coming out of CES. Blog Her’s Eliza Camahort Page presented a study at CES as part of the MommyTech summit. The survey was conducted by Nielsen and was across a community of 37 million women.

Interestingly enough, the survey showed that when it comes to purchasing products, women look out the opinion of other women before purchasing. 84% of Blog Hers and 69% of typical Americans turn to blogs for references before they buy. 56% of BlogHer members turn to social networks for information.

In terms of marketing to women, the survey found that “women want to read online reviews by women”. As a group it seems more women are price-conscious over early adapters of technology. A device that women love is something that is all-in-one and combines communication and entertainment.

Below is a copy of the study which is incredibly useful in getting some information on how in general women determine their purchases. Of course, this isn’t true for all women, as many women do read male sources for information as well. Overall, it supports our mission at GamingAngels that we work to provide women with a source that they can trust for their gadgets, video games and book choices.

Photo via the ESA Foundation website

Thirty students, all women or minorities, will receive scholarship grants from the Entertainment Software Association Foundation for the 2011-2012 school year.

The $3,000 scholarships were offered to students enrolled full-time at accredited four-year colleges and universities as well as graduating high school seniors who plan to go into fields necessary for video game creation, including graphic design, computer science, animation, computer programming, software engineering and digital entertainment.

“ESA is proud to support the next generation of video game industry innovators. This year’s scholarship recipients have the talent and passion needed to succeed in our industry, and we are confident they will go on to create games that will entertain, educate and inspire,” said Michael D. Gallagher, president and CEO of the ESA, the trade association that represents U.S. computer and video game publishers. “These students will also play an important role in enhancing diversity among game developers, a critical factor in fostering the variety and creativity of content that drives our industry.”

Here’s a full list of scholarship winners — congratulations to all of them!
Alexandra Barlow
Hometown: Scarsdale, NY
Institution: Ringling College of Art & Design
Major: Game Art & Design

Coleman Beasley
Hometown: Boise, ID
Institution: University of Idaho
Major: Computer Science

Ashley Carli
Hometown: Harvard, IL
Institution: DePaul University
Major: Computer Games Development

Janelle Desborough
Hometown: Canton, PA
Institution: Art Institute of Pittsburgh
Major: Game Art & Design

Miranda Due
Hometown: Broken Arrow, OK
Institution: University of Southern California
Major: Interactive Entertainment

Ardra Farrier
Hometown: Apple Valley, CA
Institution: California State University – San Bernardino
Major: Graphic Design

Desiree Fernandes
Hometown: Granby, MA
Institution: Champlain College
Major: Game Art & Animation

Nicolette Hart
Hometown: Round Rock, TX
Institution: University of California – Santa Cruz
Major: Computer Science: Game Design

Eileen Heilsnis
Hometown: Apex, NC
Institution: Savannah College of Art and Design
Major: Visual Effects

Rachael Hosegood
Hometown: Barre, MA
Institution: Becker College
Major: Interactive Entertainment Design

Jennifer Johnson
Hometown: Redmond, WA
Institution: DigiPen Institute of Technology
Major: Production Animation

Gabriella Jraige
Hometown: Los Angeles, CA
Institution: Otis College of Art and Design
Major: Digital Media

Elizabeth Kirby
Hometown: Redmond, WA
Institution: DigiPen Institute of Technology
Major: Production Animation

Kim Krueger
Hometown: Port Washington, WI
Institution: University of Wisconsin-Whitewater
Major: Multimedia Design

Erica Larson
Hometown: Bozeman, MT
Institution: University of Idaho
Major: Virtual Technology Design

Karen Layman
Hometown: Warren, CT
Institution: Becker College
Major: Interactive Entertainment Design

Charles Lee
Hometown: Bellevue, WA
Institution: DigiPen Institute of Technology
Major: Real-Time Interactive Simulation

Valerie Magri
Hometown: Milford, NH
Institution: Rochester Institute of Technology
Major: Game Design and Development

Mavin Martin
Hometown: West Jordan, UT
Institution: University of Utah
Major: Computer Science

Kevin McQuay
Hometown: Atlanta, GA
Institution: Morehouse College
Major: Computer Science

Gordon Ngo
Hometown: Burke, VA
Institution: George Mason University
Major: Applied Computer Science

Anna Nguyen
Hometown: Chicago, IL
Institution: Drexel University
Major: Game Art and Production

Joanna Ogburn
Hometown: Hilton Head Island, SC
Institution: Savannah College of Art and Design
Major: Sequential Art

Mario Ramirez
Hometown: Chicago, IL
Institution: Columbia College Chicago
Major: Game Design

Emily Russo
Hometown: Uniontown, OH
Institution: Kent State University
Major: Computer Science

Audre Schutte
Hometown: Snohomish, WA
Institution: DigiPen Institute of Technology
Major: Production Animation

Jennifer Tran
Hometown: Bothell, WA
Institution: DigiPen Institute of Technology
Major: Production Animation

Charles Weaver
Hometown: Northfield, VT
Institution: Champlain College
Major: Game Art & Animation

Angela Wilson
Hometown: Valrico, FL
Institution: Savannah College of Art and Design
Major: Animation

Gretchen Zarle
Hometown: Akron, OH
Institution: Bowling Green State University
Major: Digital Arts

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Prior to joining Turbine, Linda was an independent design and project management consultant, and Creative Director at Create Studios, Inc. She was at while at Blue Fang Games, and was Design Manager of the design department. She worked as a Producer of Zoo Tycoon 2: Marine Mania, and was Lead Designer on Zoo Tycoon 2: Endangered Species and Senior Game Designer on the best-seller Zoo Tycoon: 2. Before that she was Executive Producer for Strategy First, and before that… well, you get the idea…30 years is a long time!

Linda was co-founder of the former Sirtech Canada. While at Sirtech she was the Project Lead on the award-winning RPG Wizardry 8 and Co-designer of the Jagged Alliance strategy role-playing series.

Linda Currie is an industry veteran dating back to the early 1980’s, holds a B. Sc. in Economics from the Wharton School of Business and has extensive experience creating and working within teams of various sizes and functions.

Geek Woman: As a gaming industry veteran what changes have you seen affecting the role of women in game design since the eighties?

Linda Currie: There is little doubt that women are holding a wider variety of roles, including very influential roles in some of the largest gaming companies that exist and that there are more of them. Is that because there are simply more roles due to a growth in the overall industry, or is it due to an increase in the proportion of women in the industry? Alas, that’d be a good question that I’m totally ill-equipped to answer as I’ve had the pleasure of working with other women on almost every project I’ve worked on…. even in the 80s!

It seems like there are more women gravitating to art and design in gaming than there was before, are you seeing this change at all on a daily basis?

I see more and more women in every sort of role, not just art and design. As far as noting change on a daily basis?  Nope, can’t say I’ve observed change at quite that level of granularity.

If you were starting over today, attempting to break into the gaming industry, how would you do it?

These days there are more and more options for getting a foot in the door of the gaming industry but the most commonly used is through QA.  Of course with there are 1000x as many people looking to get a foot in the door so some other things to consider are:

There are an increasing number of game development programs being offered at schools throughout the country. When I first saw game development appear as academic course offerings (many years ago), I was skeptical. Since then I have seen the knowledge they bring to their students and having met and hired many great candidates graduating from these courses, I can attest first-hand to their value.  So getting into one of those programs won’t hurt and the opportunity to intern somewhere or simply make a personal connection to someone working in the industry is just the boost you need.

There are numerous other things you can (and should) be doing. Visit the wealth of game development related websites. Consider internships, paid or even unpaid if you can afford it. (Large companies often have official internship programs but your role may be small… small companies on the other hand often rely on developers wearing many hats and may expose you to a lot more variety.) Become a game guru on a given game and get yourself recognized by the devs. Read job postings to see what different roles are looking for… and develop those skills. Read books to help you understand the concepts of game design and the process behind it.

But ultimately, when you’re in a crowd of a 1000 people, whether you’ve gone to “game school”, have read every game development book known to man or have expertly mastered game X, you need to do things to get yourself noticed. Create things yourself. Teach yourself tools. Compile a portfolio of work. And make sure you make it’s easy for a prospective employer to see, read or experience your stuff. Do this and show off skill and initiative at the same time!

What challenges are there in working on design in a game that has so much source material to consider?

A couple challenges come immediately to mind. We know that our particular source material is incredibly iconic and very much loved by such a huge audience. This puts great responsibility on us to ensure we handle it with care and respect.  Then there is the incredible detail that exists in Middle-earth. It’s a lot to keep track of. Fortunately we have amazing (and much loved) Middle-earth experts on our LOTRO team and they are an essential ingredient in our ability to deliver such a rich and authentic experience to our players.

On a long running game like LOTRO, what projects are there for you to work on?

An endless variety actually! For every project we could possibly undertake, I typically put a colored sticky note on my wall. My office is now a mosaic of colored pieces of paper! We have so many things we’d like to do that there is never any doubt that we’ll run out. Our biggest dilemma is which to pursue next! And while I wish I could share some specifics (and I bet you’d like to hear ‘em), I’m afraid I have to leave you in the dark as to what those projects are for now J

Can you tell us what being a Design Director means for those who don’t know?

For me it means planting creative seeds and watching them hopefully grow into huge plants. It means providing guidance, giving feedback, sharing and shaping ideas, and acting as a liaison between design and other departments. It means problem solving. It means planning, planning and more planning. Planting more seeds. More problem solving. More planning. Rinse and repeat.

What types of tasks do you have to perform in your job?

My days are really never the same and the things I do each day are constantly changing. But there are some constants… lots of meetings, lots of email, and lots of conversations. I do little to no actual game design. I know, sounds weird huh? The reality is that I work with a team of excellent designers and they do the hands-on game design.  I get to plant seeds J

Were you a fan of LOTR prior to working at Turbine?

Yes, absolutely. I was first introduced to Middle-earth from the books… geesh, I can’t even remember how many years ago that was (either that or I refuse to count that high!) That triggered a great love of fantasy worlds and fiction.  And perhaps with that early exposure to the quintessential party-based adventuring story, it’s no wonder that my introduction to Wizardry with its party-based game play so successfully pulled me into this industry forever.

Are you playing LOTRO yourself?

Yup! I’m especially fond of my Lore-master J.

What are some of your all time favorite games, or game art?

Now that’s a hard question. There are so many games that gave me such great experiences that a favorites list would be really long… and it would go back a really, really long time.  Without doubt though, the two franchises that have had the biggest and most far-reaching impact on me were Wizardry and Jagged Alliance… without those experiences, who knows whether I’d even be here completing this interview for you today!

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Shan Poon from Two Tribes has told us that she has been playing video games since she was a little girl.

She also says, “I had never imagined I would work in, or be a part of the gaming industry. Mostly because in my imagination I always thought only men were supposed to work in the gaming industry. So, after high school I choose to study social work and graduated, after spending two years in the field of social work I knew something was wrong. I knew this wasn’t really the field I wanted to work in, so I decided to take a risk and find my way towards the gaming industry. Then, at the age of 23 I choose to study Media and Entertainment Management with just one goal in mind, the gaming industry, I had to find an awesome internship and get them to hire me. Now here I am, working as PR & Marketing Manager for game developer Two Tribes. Although I didn’t really have all the experience, during my internship I showed my passion and motivation towards my work in the gaming industry. They acknowledged it and hired me to work for them after my internship. Although Two Tribes is a small company, it gives me enough space to let loose my creativity to set up some interesting and outstanding marketing activities for our games. I’ve been working on iPhone and iPad games, PC games, DSi Games and worked closely with companies such as EA Mobile, Chillingo, Valve’s Steam and Nintendo.”

Geek Woman: You mention in your bio that when you were growing up that you thought that only men could work on video games, how did you get that feeling?

Shan Poon: Mostly because of the environment where I’ve been grown up as a kid. I only played video games when I was either alone or with my brother and our neighborhood friends (who were all male). When I started to get my own (female) friends, it was a big no no for me to play video games (because I was a girl). I had to switch my video games for more girly things, like playing with dolls and stuff. With this in mind and everyone telling me that video games aren’t for girls, I just assumed that video games were only meant to be played by men and be created by men.

How did you get past having those feelings and move on?

Actually, because of Mortal Kombat for the Playstation 1, haha really! When you are young, it’s really important for you to know how other people think about you as a person. You don’t want to feel like an outsider and I did, because none of my friends had any interest in video games and said video games were for nerds to play. Of course I didn’t want my friends to see me as some kind of nerd, so I never actually told them I loved to play video games. Around the age of 14, during a party, my eyes got caught by some guys AND girls playing Mortal Kombat on the Playstation 1. It was actually the first time in my life that I saw 3D animation out of a video game console. I just couldn’t resist and had to play it. At that moment I was like: OK, I really don’t care what my friends think about me now, this is just too awesome! During that party I also made some new female gamer friends

What were your favorite games as a kid?

That’s a hard question, I enjoyed (and still do) a lot of games when I was a little kid. But if I have to choose, I would pick Gremlins (Nintendo), Tiny Toons (Nintendo), Kirby Adventures (Nintendo) and there was a great Olympic game on the Gameboy which was very addictive, I don’t remember the name though.

You had a career change early on in your life, moving from social work to gaming, what motivated you to take the leap?

I was still young when I graduated for social studies and I just took a job to earn money for my living. After spending two years of working, it just didn’t feel right, like something was missing. I didn’t want to spend my whole life working with this gnawing feeling. I was still young so I had the opportunity to get more educated without spending too much money. Although I knew the industry of games was very interesting, I always thought that you have to be talented in math (programming) or drawing (designer) to get into the industry of games and I sucked at both. During that time I was following the conferences at the E3 and I was kind of surprised to see all kind of people speaking who actually worked on the business side in the industry of games. So at that moment I knew it wasn’t necessary to be a programmer or designer to work in the industry of games. My goal was set, I wanted a career in the industry of games on the business side.

Did you have to get more education or take courses to approach the new career direction?

Yes, although I did had the experience and education on business level for the non-profit sector, I did know that I had to get more educated in the profit sector and especially in the entertainment field. Because I already had a Bachelor degree, I tried to earn a Master degree in Media, Art and Communication. But after spending 2 months in books only, I quit the University, I needed more practical work than only books. So, I started my second Bachelor degree in Media and Entertainment Management and just a week ago I graduated

How did you get the job at Two Tribes?

Through my internship. When I started my second Bachelor degree, I knew my internship would be my first step towards the industry of games. During my internship I’ve worked really hard to show my passion and motivation towards my work. Luckily the people at Two Tribes acknowledge that and offered me a job after my internship.

Is it difficult to get internships in gaming?

Yes and no, it depends on different factors. For example if a student is looking for an internship at a AAA-company (like Nintendo or Blizzard) you have a lot of intern openings to go for, but you will also have a lot of competition. As a student you really have to stand out to get an internship in a AAA-company. If you go for a smaller company (like ours) you don’t have many intern openings to go for, but because the competition is smaller, your chances are higher.

Also our company is established in the Netherlands, over here we just have a few (small) game/publishers companies, so we don’t have that much opportunities if you compare it with the United States for example. But like every internship and/or job, if you really are motivated to get into a company, just go for it and do your best!

What do you do there?

A lot of things! My main task is to devise a marketing strategy and a marketing plan for our games. Where large companies have different departments for every piece that concerns marketing, here at Two Tribes I’m responsible for every piece. Beside my main tasks I take care of the communication with the press, publishers, platform holders and our community. I also arrange interviews, features, (p)reviews for our games and since I’m the only woman in the company I’m also responsible for company parties (see picture)

What were some interesting marketing activities that you came up with for them?

Since we are a small company, our budget for marketing is way smaller than AAA companies. Our marketing activities are mainly focused through the internet. So the best part of this job is to find a creative way to stand out on the internet. I’ve really enjoyed thinking and creating our marketing strategy and campaign for our game Swap This! We’ve thought of a marketing strategy where we didn’t want to show anything off the game itself before the release, but only about the mechanic part of the game. Unfortunately I didn’t had the chance to carry out this marketing strategy because EA Mobile showed interest in our game.

One of my favorite marketing activity is cross-promotion, where I can think about cross promotional ideas for our games. Like the cross promotion we did for our games (Toki Tori and RUSH) during the Portal 2 ARG.

Are there upcoming games from Two Tribes that you want to tell us about?

YES! We are currently working on a game called Swords & Soldiers for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad! The game is originally developed by Ronimo Games and we from Two Tribes are improving the game for the Apple Appstore! The storyline and characters of the game are hilarious! The gameplay is suited for casual and hardcore gamers! Highly recommended for everyone who owns one of the iOS devices. More information will be revealed on our website: www.twotribes.com

Geek Woman: This is your first game can you tell our readers a little about your team? Are you all from Canada?

Kristen Forbes: I’ve been working with creative teams for my entire career, and doing that in game development for something like 13 years, yet only twice have I been fortunate enough to be on a team with as good a dynamic as this one. Believe me when I say it’s not an easy thing to achieve – to gather a group of disparate individuals and have them function as a unified team in short order.

It worked this time, in my opinion, because we had great diversity of talents, personalities and cultures – for every senior developer we also had a junior; for every male, we had a female; for every core gamer, we had a casual counterpart – it’s an extremely well balanced team of bright individuals, each of whom had a distinct voice to lend to the game.

What challenges did you face as females in the male dominated game industry?

In traditional console development we’ve all had a variety of experiences, from the very positive to the somewhat negative. But overall, there have been very few downsides to working in a male dominated industry. If there had been, we wouldn’t still be here.

As a start-up female-led game studio, we continue to have the advantage of being unusual and standing out, of being easily remembered not only because of the name Silicon Sisters but again because of scarcity, and though no one has yet approached us and offered to write a 9-digit cheque, at this point there’s no reason to attribute that lack of digits to any gender issues.

School 26 is your dating game that is offered on the iOS platform, will you be bringing it to other formats?

I’m interested that you call it a dating game and I sympathize with your struggle to identify the genre. It’s not a dating game by traditional definition, nor is it entirely an adventure game. We call it a Social Mastery game and that, though not a typical genre, feels the most apt description.

And yes, School 26 is offered on iOS of course and also is available for Android on the market right now. You can find it here for iOS. The game will also be coming to PC and Mac in the next few months.

Who wrote the multiple choice questions that are used in the game?

Our game designers, primarily Shannon Lee and also Bryant Drew Jones, wrote those questions and I have to say that the researching and writing of them was a really fun and collaborative process. Answering the in-game quizzes causes the player to pause and reflect on a huge number of personality characteristics and situations. Likewise, writing them causes the entire team to pause and reflect!   It was a lot of fun.

The seed idea for that part of the game came from a couple of places – one was the compelling and sometimes revealing quizzes you find in teen magazines, like ‘Should your guy friend be your BF?” or “What makes you a special friend?”  We put some of those in our mental blender along with concepts like the Myers-Briggs personality types, and the self-diagnostic ladders in medical textbooks, then we hit the puree button and came up with our quiz concept.

It only got a 12+ rating on the Apple App store, considering the content descriptors, were you surprised?

We’re very well versed in ratings boards and content descriptors thanks to the excellent job the ESRB has always done. On the Apple App Store, the developer initially fills out the rating chart themselves, so we put ourselves down as a 12+ based primarily on the alcohol references. Apple of course corroborated that rating once they had played and approved the game. So no, we weren’t surprised.

And of course, between us we have our own 12, 14 and 15 year old offspring to gauge against, as well as our numerous focus testers, so we’re pretty clear on what they’re aware of. Don’t forget that mainstream television shows like Glee depict all these same kinds of issues and handle them in gracious ways as well.

You make reference to Tarot cards, but those aren’t Tarot in the game, why not a more supernatural design on the cards?

The cards in the game are more of a hybrid of Kate’s mystical family background and her high-school reality. Although they bear some superficial similarities to the Tarot arcana, we didn’t want to explicitly incorporate Tarot designs or meanings because Kate’s cards and their gameplay function represent something else entirely.

The characters in the game make references to parties, drinking, and drug addiction, wouldn’t that be more expected of a college crowd?

Those are issues that college students deal with, but it’s a mistake to assume that high schoolers aren’t facing the same things. We were careful to do our research by speaking to teens and focus-testing the game so that our themes would reflect issues that were real to them in their world. When we sat down with high school girls and talked to them face to face, we learned they want to be treated like adults, and they’re not interested in experiences that shy away from the issues and situations they’re dealing with on a daily basis. Decisions about underage drinking were definitely on their list.

In fact, at our game launch party, a 14-year-old girl played the game through then left with her mom. Her mom emailed us the following day with this comment: “Just a quick note to say thank you for hosting your launch last night. A funny thing happened on the way home. My daughter opened up about some things going on at school. This is something that never happens, she rarely tells me anything.” We thought this was awesome, and really cool that the mom used this experience to connect more fully with some of the tough stuff her daughter was facing at school. That felt like a win.

Would you consider including character customization, in an update, perhaps similar to the trivia game Know or Go so that players can choose their own character, as well as other options such as skin tone, and hair color?

Customization was a feature we really wanted to include but were unfortunately unable to this time around because of scope. We did make it so players can change the main character’s name, and further customization is definitely something we will be looking at for a potential update or future releases. Being able to put yourself into the game is very important to us.

For a dating sim the choices are very limited, why didn’t you include GLBTQ lifestyle choices in your game?

School 26 isn’t a dating sim; the game isn’t about exploring Kate’s sexuality. The player is free to express themselves anyway they please with the quizzes and emoticons.  We wanted to allow players to explore different identities as Kate via a spectrum of emotional responses. The player is free to associate platonically with whichever characters they choose and can define the dynamic of these relationships through our emoting mechanic.

It seems to be very hetero-normative on the one hand while on the other hand the content is too mature for anyone under 17, who is the game intended to serve?

The hetero-normative environment of the game’s high school is disrupted and subverted via a prominent coming-out scene in the second half of the story. It was important to us to attempt to reflect the reality of high schoolers, many of whom experience discovering their sexuality and yes, even coming out during their mid-teen years.  We tried pretty hard to make the game representative of the high school experience. Our thinking was that, if we can make these characters and these issues feel real, like something you would see and experience in high school, then it will resonate with the kids who are facing similar situations every day.