[game_edu] Implications of students going into a male-dominatedindustry?

[Dan Carreker]

Unfortunately, we don't have a class devoted to this. There is one week in
Intro to Game Design that deals with designing games with cultural
differences in mind, but as far as I know, that's the only laid out portion
of the curriculum that specifically deals with diversity in games. As of
right now, the classes that deal with ethics, sociology, and career planning
are general in nature and group together students from multiple disciplines.

 

What I have done with my Intro to PC for Games class (which focuses on
software such as MS Office) is create assignments that deal with diversity,
particularly as research projects that focus on game developers who come
from minority groups or who have disabilities. 

 

--Dan Carreker

 

 

 

  _____  

From: Ian Schreiber [mailto:ai864 at yahoo.com] 
Sent: Sunday, September 18, 2011 11:23 AM
To: IGDA Game Education Listserv
Subject: [game_edu] Implications of students going into a
male-dominatedindustry?

 

Hi all,

This (long but worthwhile) article has been making the rounds on Twitter
recently, so I thought I'd bring it up here:

http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/misc/22786_To_My_Someday_Daughter.html

While it focuses primarily on the Magic:the Gathering player community (as
that is what the author is closest to), I think the sentiment can be applied
to just about any male-dominated industry, from video game development to
mechanical engineering to business.

Personally, in my industry survey class I make it a point to spend some time
talking about gender/minority issues. Students in these groups need to be
prepared for potentially unjust treatment. Students who are not, need to not
add to the problem. (I would actually just as soon make Women's Studies or
Minority Studies a required course for all game dev majors until such time
as the industry fixes itself, but so far I haven't had the power to affect
curriculum that much, so I'm left to just make a "strong recommendation"
that my students will go on to ignore.)

It makes me wonder though: the fact that the industry is predominantly
white, male and straight, and that this lack of diversity is a problem in so
many ways -- is this a problem on everyone's radar in the educational space?
How do different schools handle this (particularly trade/vocational schools
that are highly industry-focused)? Does anyone require students to take an
entire class in understanding unequal societal power dynamics... or do you
graft it on to a single class as an isolated topic, and hope it sticks... or
do you try to integrate these discussions throughout the curriculum (say, by
having game design students make games for target audiences other than
themselves)... or does the topic never see mention in the classroom at all
because it's seen to be outside the scope of game dev?

In short: where are we now, as a collective? Is that where we should be? If
not, what do we need to change to get us there?

- Ian

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