G.I.R.L. Game Design Competition

Sony Online Entertainment LLC (SOE) hosts an annual game art & design scholarship competition for girls only called G.I.R.L. at their website.

I'd entered it a while back, and was selected as a semifinalist.  Semifinalists had to create two  pieces of concept art - one environment and one posed character that were new and inspired by a choice of one of Sony's game properties.   There was also a 500 word essay about women in the gaming industry that answers the following questions: 

Why do you want to work in the gaming industry? How can you change and improve the image of women in games?  How do you think such changes will help create games that more women will want to play? 

 Likened to a magician with a box of tricks, the modern gaming culture is a white, Anglo-Saxon protestant man. His tricks are a rich history of archetypes drawn from the range of Campbellian hero cycles from Gilgamesh to The Lord of the Rings. As traditional gender roles are ascribed, women in gaming are relegated to romantic interest, the wise old mentor woman, the less mighty then the male protagonist warrior, Magdalene or the Virgin Mother. With primarily five women to choose from for the hundreds of games released each year, it is no wonder that both female and male gamers have become bored and mostly ignore these old hat additions to any narrative. As an aspiring ‘magician’, I hope to show new roles and twists not just for female audiences, but to enrich the storytelling and awareness of all the culture of entertainment.
 Subtlety of role and character should be emphasized in much the same way as a control in an experiment. By choosing gender as the control, for example in a team-based story or performance, an audience loves or hates a character based on their actions and reactions within their environment. All male examples abound in two-man comedy: Abbot & Costello, David Spade & Chris Farley, and Beavis & Butthead. These are ready to mind examples, while concurrent female duos are lacking. ‘Partner’ situations in crime drama, which can edge into the comedic sublime, hold similar state. Watson & Holmes, Poirot & Hastings, and Martin Riggs & Roger Murtaugh of Lethal Weapon all brilliantly portrayed through the decades, admirable in their faults and triumphs. The Dame of female sleuthing, Miss Marple, has no partner associated. Rita Mae Brown’s modern mysteries give Mrs. Murphy a man and two cats. Examples of heroic, “Fantastic” Fours stand out for men as well, The Brothers Earp and Doc Holiday, the Ghostbusters, and the boys of South Park. Female groups of any number lack the same colour of character. Playboy-bunny fashion for She-Ra, Sex & the City titles itself nicely, shopping and romance for the “Charmed” Ones, and all well within insipid, ascribed gender definition. Depth does exist, but in small and singular flashes. Kouta Hirano’s Integral Hellsing and Production I.G’s Balsa of Seirei no Moribito are characters whose strength and interest within plot, and not within the five stereotypes, are noteworthy. Neither woman is overshadowed by men, or infallible. Both display consistency without instance of distressed damsel syndrome.
    The lack of development of the female antagonist and protagonist is a sign of juvenile development in the storytelling skills of the industry, and a fear of a perceived ‘risk’ in acceptance. Boredom of the audience with the existing face cards is evidence enough that the culture wants an act that doesn’t involve superfluous women. I want to show audiences new archetypes - a Suicide Queen and One-eyed Jennys.  Then audiences will see a trick they don’t know the secret to.

Spooky forest in complementary palette.

Little forest-dwelling Harvester of the glow leaves.