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[Purple Cheeto]

Per the LA Times.

Female characters, while still not the norm, are becoming more prevalent in top-shelf video games. And at USC, there's been a dramatic rise in the acceptance of women into the game design program. In 2011, USC admitted 15 men into its graduate track and five women. In 2015, those numbers were nearly reversed with 12 women and seven men. There's a similar trend at the undergraduate level. In 2012, just seven out of the program's 27 freshmen were women. In 2014, freshmen women outnumbered the men 14 to 7. And in 2015 the numbers were even

"Halo 5: Guardians," "Assassin's Creed Syndicate" and "Fallout 4," among others, gave prominent roles to women. And today, Lara Croft has been remade into a believable character, one who just so happens to dress the part of an archaeological adventurer.

Elizabeth Swensen, a research associate at the school and graduate of the program, recalls a far darker time.

"I felt like it was not a game for me," she says of the original late-'90s "Tomb Raider," which she received as a gift when she was child.

That's when the "Tomb Raider" star wore skimpy shorts and a tight top that accentuated her itty-bitty waist and not-so-itty-bitty chest. "I looked at the way these games were advertised," she says. "They generally were advertised for people who were attracted to women," she says of the games. "That was not me. So I felt alienated."

Then Edwards discovered the 2003 game "Beyond Good and Evil," which stars a young photojournalist named Jade who embarks on a conspiracy story involving aliens.

"She's an interesting role model, in that she dressed in a way I could imagine myself dressing," Edwards says. "She fought in a way that I thought was really fun.

There will, of course, be obstacles.

For one, the path from student to game designer isn't necessarily a direct and simple one. Then there are the game players themselves.

In recent years, certain segments of the gaming community haven't always been hospitable when it comes to welcoming new voices, especially those belonging to women.

A 2015 documentary, "GTFO," chronicles the harassment endured by female game developers and critics by members of the game playing community. Outspoken analysts of video games, such as cultural critic Anita Sarkeesian, who created a video series called "Tropes vs. Women in Video Games," are subject to online harassment and death threats.

The industry is aware. "Sexism among gamers" is cited as the No.1 factor when it comes to "influencing society's negative perception of the game industry," according to IDGA's 2015 industry survey.

Then there's "gamergate," the online movement whose followers appear driven by a fear that serious criticism or a rise in diverse, experimental games will result in a sort of politically correct makeover of the medium.

In this climate, it's perhaps something of a miracle that women make up the majority of USC's master's game program. There was a fear, for instance, that gamergate would drive women away from studying games.

"When I was 6 or 7, I had a small child-life crisis," says Maria Ferreri, a freshman in the program. "I was starting to like things that were more for guys. I liked electronics and cars and games. I ran to my mom crying and said, 'What's wrong with me? I should have been born a guy.'

"My mom says, 'Maria. It doesn't matter. Be proud of being a woman. Be proud of who you are. You can like and be whatever the hell you want.' I've always held that in the back of my head going forward."

Campos says being a female game devotee set off a few "weirdo alarms" in her day. But, she says, the grief often came from women, not men.

"Like, 'You are deviating from the mean,'" she says.

"That's not to say that girls are terrible," she says. "They just don't realize you have permission to do this."

What can still be improved, the students agree during a roundtable discussion, is the way women are portrayed in games. There are some exceptions. Some cite mainstream games such as "The Last of Us" and "Mass Effect" as giving them believable female characters. One says games are still a bit of a "wasteland" when it comes to creating respectable heroines.

In the "Super Mario Bros." universe, for instance, Campos says there's no female character as cool as Mario or Luigi.

"Like," Campos wonders, "where's the Gothed-up princess?"

Much more at the link. Good to see that those fringe lunatics are having the opposite effect on the industry that they were hoping for.

 

[gazele]

Thats awesome (good job USC!)

Hope to see some cool games come out of this

 

[ExVicis]

Always good to see new blood in general. We need some new ideas in this industry.

 

[Thabass]

Nice!

 

[DocSeuss]

Not really that surprising. Women outnumber men in pretty much every single department in higher education ever. Until recently, I worked in higher ed. This was a source of discussion.

 

[buddha0991]

for some reason i thought this said the ufc game design program and i thought it was weird that the ufc had a game design program.

 

[Lightning Count]

Good news, we need more women in the industry, maybe they'll bring us some fresh new ideas.

 

[SkeptiMism]

Not really that surprising. Women outnumber men in pretty much every single department in higher education ever. Until recently, I worked in higher ed. This was a source of discussion.

If you look at the former years, it is pretty surprising though.

 

[smokeandmirrors]

Diversity brings new ideas. This is great news.

 

[jon bones]

Tremendous news! The more diversity we have in gaming, the better.

 

[Bubbavelli]

Woah thats cool! Finally one good thing to come out of my school

 

[Mesoian]

Cool. I'll be interested to see what comes from it.

 

[ShyMel]

This is really awesome. Can't wait to see the results down the line.

 

[arts&crafts]

At my university it was like 3-1 women to men in the whole school. Although my computer science classes had 2 girls out of 30. (this was a few years ago)

 

[Purple Cheeto]

Cool. I'll be interested to see what comes from it.

Well here is one of the latest games to come from someone who went through the program:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/388880/

 

[Lime]

Can't wait until things get shaken up in this god forsaken entertainment industry with all its white dudes and white dude marketing and products. Maybe this will also change all those sensitive fanboys that want to maintain and defend the status quo.

I hope racial/ethnic diversity is also on the rise.

 

[NipplesAndToes23]

Not really that surprising. Women outnumber men in pretty much every single department in higher education ever. Until recently, I worked in higher ed. This was a source of discussion.

Where'd you get that from? My personal experience and from sources online, some tech majors were highly male dominated.

Good shit though.

 

[ExpressGalaxy]

This is just those who're accepted into the program, correct? I'm curious what the male/female ratio for applications vs. those who are accepted is.

 

[jon bones]

Well here is one of the latest games to come from someone who went through the program:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/388880/

looks great, and right what i'm in the mood for - bought!

 

[spekkeh]

Not really that surprising. Women outnumber men in pretty much every single department in higher education ever. Until recently, I worked in higher ed. This was a source of discussion.

Uhm, when it comes to games education, that's still very surprising. I get some girls in my game design classes, but it's more like one out of ten. Which is still good in comparison with e.g. computer science (1 in 30), but bad in comparison with industrial design (1 in 4).

 

[uncredited male]

I am at a school with both CS and FA game design programs. Women have much greater representation in the FA program. The CS one is kind of a tube steak convention but the demographics are slowly shifting.

 

[StarStabbedMoon]

Unfortunately diverse student populations and potential hires don't always translate into a diverse industry workforce. I work in a profession that historically has been very male-dominated despite a fairly equal representation in student populations in recent years (both from my own experience and statistics). That's still the case, with only slow and gradual improvements.

That's progress, but businesses still need to catch up to the variety of talent available to employ.

 

[Femto.]

This is rad, hopefully we get more people from different walks of life as well in the future.

 

[Tal Shiar Agent]

You'll start to hear heads exploding all over the world in a few years when gamergaters realize everything they've been doing has only hastened the inevitable equalization of games.

 

[Sumio Mondo]

Good. The more potential Jane Jensen's, Amy Hennig's and Corrinne Yu's the better. Hopefully will lead to different kinds of games being made.

Well here is one of the latest games to come from someone who went through the program:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/388880/

80s teen movie influence. Ghosts/Horror and an Adventure game. Right up my alley. So buying that.

 

[balohna]

Maybe one or two of them will make a living in the game industry, even!

Spoiler

I kid, as a graduate of a game design program.

 

[Yopis]

How many are minority's?

 

[jrDev]

All we need now are more minority races...

 

[Alpha Phoenix]

Good news!

 

[AstroNut325]

I can only dream of going to USC. It's way too expensive!

Respect to the women and men getting in.

 

[Mesoian]

Well here is one of the latest games to come from someone who went through the program:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/388880/

Ah, Olli Olli 3.

I'll probably play through this game over the weekend. It seems neat.

Where'd you get that from? My personal experience and from sources online, some tech majors were highly male dominated.

Good shit though.

I think he means from an administration aspect.

 

[Breakbeat]

Hopefully USC's game design program has significant programming or art components, we desperately need more women in the industry and many of the ones I know who did a game-related program in college did straight-up design (little to no programming) and can't get jobs now The ones I know who do have jobs seriously buckled down either on art or programming.

 

[Morrigan Stark]

Great news!

 

[Fisty]

Where'd you get that from? My personal experience and from sources online, some tech majors were highly male dominated.

Good shit though.

This is an MFA program though, and higher ed at that. Not entirely surprising that more women are getting involved, looking forward to what these people work on

 

[Commanche Raisin Toast]

Hopefully they can either start their own games companies or get picked up by companies that don't have any toxic environments for them to struggle in.

Seems like we hear about female game devs having a hard time regularly these days. Even if some great female designers come out ready to make awesome stuff they'll still be at the mercy of the companies they work for.

 

[spekkeh]

Unfortunately diverse student populations and potential hires don't always translate into a diverse industry workforce. I work in a profession that historically has been very male-dominated despite a fairly equal representation in student populations in recent years (both from my own experience and statistics). That's still the case, with only slow and gradual improvements.

That's progress, but businesses still need to catch up to the variety of talent available to employ.

I mean they need to hire people coming out of university in the first place. The games industry is crazy protectionistic. Need only apply if you have ten years of work experience as senior developer at a big company and we had Twitter contact. Diplomas? We don't have any, not interested in yours.