The presence of female developers in the gaming industry has more than doubled since 2009. Even though this is the case, it seems like the industry is still dominated by males. For a long time, many games have been developed with males in mind. There are tons of games out there that have a stunning, scantily clad female who is in distress, and it’s the main role of the gamer to focus and claw their way to the rescue. Thankfully, these stereotypes are about to change.
Gaming developers are now beginning to recognize that over 44% of their customers are in fact female and if they want to keep the playing field fair, then they need to try and change this. More and more female gaming creators are now working behind the scenes to try and make sure that they change the current mindset.
Winds of Change
Gamergate has exposed some of the ugly sides of the gaming industry that women have experienced over the years, and there is a good amount of change coming about as a result. Gaming culture might have been borderline misogynistic for some time, but there is ample evidence that people are willing to change. In Seattle, which is actually home to the gaming industry titans, there is a venture capitalist who has stated that he is only going to make an investment in the tech industry if there is a female co-founder. The best online casino game providers out there are also trying to adopt this approach, to ensure that they are being as fair as possible to their users.
Intel has made the effort to invest over $300 million into the female diversity division. They are committed to ensuring that the women who work in the industry are given the support they need. They are also making sure that over the next decade, people are doing whatever they can to try and make sure that diversity is no longer an issue. Some games are incorporating strategies into the programs that they have so that they can try and stop any gender bias as well, which is truly great. Riot Games have even gone as far as to adopt in-game strategies to let them know when the comments they are making are not wanted by the community.
Pay Equality
Various studies have been done to try and ensure that pay equality is a focus as well. According to Gamasutra, it seems that there is, in fact, a pay gap between female and male developers. The disparity really does equal 86 cents on the dollar. The unfortunate pay gap partially comes down to the theory that women are much more likely to have to take time off from work so that they can take care of their family. This gives them less earnings over time. Various administrations are now working to try and ensure that the pay gap is reduced as much as possible. The average salary for the gaming industry shows that men on average make around $85,000 and women only came away with an average of $72,000.
