This just in from Conference Central:

The Women In Games conference encourages research and seeks to promote careers for women within the games industry. If games are to become a true sibling medium to music and cinema, the industry needs greater balance in its audience and its workforce. The Women In Games conference welcomes participants from both industry and academia, providing a forum for presentation and discussion of issues relating to all aspects of women’s involvement in games, including game development, game playing and women as portrayed within games.

Although this conference is concerned with women and games please note that men are also very welcome to participate! The industry needs a meaningful dialogue between the sexes as it moves forward.

This year’s conference is co-organised by games company Rare Ltd (www.rare.co.uk) and the Computer Science Department at the University of Warwick (www.dcs.warwick.ac.uk)

Further details of the conference and this year’s themes are available at the conference website: www.womeningames.com

The Speaker Submission deadline has moved to Monday 23^rd June 2008

Thinking of submitting a talk, or offering to participate in a panel, but thought you were too late? Think again! We have extended the deadline to Monday 23^rd June to allow you some more time.

We are keen to have more offers on the themes, “Dressing up Programming” and “Technology in Schools” in particular, but submissions on any of the themes still welcome.

For more details on how to submit, please check out www.womeningames.com

Keynotes Announced

I am pleased to announce our Keynote speakers for this year’s Women In Games conference:-

Karen Brennan (Scratch, MIT)

Sara de Freitas (Serious Games)

Eileen Brown (Microsoft)

Karen Clark (Bioware)

Paulina Bozek (Sony)

I invite you to check out www.womeningames.com for more details on these excellent speakers.

Conference Dinner at Warwick Castle

We have a fabulous conference dinner, a mediaeval feast arranged at Warwick Castle, sponsored by Blitz Games Studios (www.blitzgames.com). It is included in the conference price, and is sure to be an excellent night!

Sign up Now

Registration for the conference is open, sign up now to ensure your place. Conference-standard accommodation is available on campus - no need to drive during the conference, parking is free, and evening meals and entertainment all included!

Advertise

Got something to advertise? Get in touch to find out what sponsorship options we have on offer. The conference relies on the generosity of our sponsors.

For further details see www.womeningames.com or contact nicola@womeningames.com

Just what it says on the tin…

There are only a few more days before the deadline to submit your paper/poster/panel ideas or your speaker availability is up, and we’d like to add you to the growing list of top-flight content!

We’re looking for papers and speakers on the following areas:

*Dressing up programming - is this the way to go?
*Perception of Games Industry - what is it like to work in games?
*Technology in schools - why do girls get turned off?
*Development and Play - do women do it differently?
*Education for Games, Games for Education
*Seriously applying games for fun and profit

More information can be found on the Women in Games website. Look forward to seeing you there!

Bobbie Johnson and I, plus ARG developer Six to Start’s Adrian and Dan Hon, plus Bibrick’s Rachel Clarke plus TheDaveGreen would like to open an invitation to WiG and its friends to come and join us at GameCamp - the first games-specific unconference in the UK.

We’re opening up 10 places to WiG (secret password: WIG) for the event, which takes place on 3 May in trendy East London, and they must be claimed by Monday 21 April, so register your interest asap!

What the heck am I on about? Keep reading for more more more…

THE BASICS
==========

What: One-day event about games and play
When: Saturday May 3, 11am – 5.30pm
Where: 15 Hanbury Street, London, E1 6QR
How: Bring your imagination and something you’d like to talk about
Why: Why not?

WHAT IS GAMECAMP?
==================

GameCamp is a free, public one-day event for people interested in gaming and play. The objective is simple: to talk informally with like-minded people and get excited about stuff involving games of all kinds.

WHAT GAMECAMP ISN’T
===================

GameCamp is NOT a business networking event, and it’s NOT a chance to pitch ideas – although you might meet people you’d like to work with.

WHERE IS GAMECAMP?
==================

GameCamp will be held between 11am and 5.30pm on Saturday May 3rd at 3Rooms in the Spitalfields area of London. It’s about 10 minutes away from Liverpool Street, Whitechapel or Aldgate East Tube stations.

HOW GAMECAMP WORKS
======================

GameCamp is a communal “unconference” run along the principles of BarCamp.

That means EVERYBODY is encouraged to join in and be ready to give a talk, take part in a discussion or run a session.

We let you decide what the order of the day is: in the morning, once everyone has registered, you’ll get a chance to add your session to The Grid – the editable conference schedule that’s posted on a wall at the venue. This cacophony of blu-tac and sheets of A4 paper will list all the rooms and times that are available for the day, letting everyone see at a glance which sessions are coming up, and decide on the ones they’re most interested in attending.

The sessions are arranged as half-hour blocks split across several rooms, with 15 minute breaks between each period. We’ll take a 45 minute break for lunch at about 1.30pm and will convene at the end of the day to wrap things up.

Running a session doesn’t mean you need to prepare a speech – remember, the day is meant to be informal and fun – but you should have a good idea of the subjects you are interested in. This is a chance to try things out, to try new ideas, NOT just to run through the same presentation you’ve used before.

You might want to talk about something you’ve been working on, but we don’t necessarily need to know how great your latest game is. In fact, some of the best presentations at BarCamps have avoided pitches altogether. Like ‘How To Make A World-Class Martini (with tasting session)’. You might want to organise your session around the best Guitar Hero techniques, your top Open Source Game picks, or your latest theory on game design. We like people who are prepared to get stuck in, try new things and bring some fun to proceedings.

IS THERE MORE?
==============

Full details are available on The Guardian website!

The Women in Games Conference 2008, which Microsoft is helping to organise, is now issuing a call for speakers and submission of papers!The conference will be held at Warwick University on the 10th – 12th September 2008. If you would like to know more, please visit the Women in Games website.

The goal of the conference is to promote careers for women within the games industry. If games are to become a true sibling medium to music and cinema, the industry needs greater balance in its audience and its workforce. How can more women be encouraged to get into games? How can female perspectives provide fresh gameplay experiences? The Women In Games Conference 2008 aims to answer these questions.

Keep reading for the Call for Papers:

Please keep in mind the themes when submitting papers.

Key Dates:
31/05/08 Submission deadline
15/07/08 Notification of acceptance to all contributors

Types of submission:
Submissions can be made within the following categories: full paper, short paper, poster, panel or student forum. All submissions will be anonymously peer-reviewed by the Women in Games steering committee.
The conference materials are intended to be published in two different ways this year. Firstly, we are hoping to secure a contract to publish a selection of papers that closely address our theme in an appropriate academic journal. Details should be available before the anticipated submission deadline so check the website regularly for updates. Secondly, we are gathering selected papers from this conference along with selected papers from the three preceding Women in Games events in order to publish these in a Women In Games digest again we are still working out the fine detail of where and when this will be published. There will be no automatic publication of conference papers but we are requesting that you follow a specific set of deadlines in relation to your research/contributions if you would like to be considered for either of these volumes.
Full papers
Full papers are reports of research that should be ongoing and complete or near to completion at the time of the conference. Submissions under this route will be entered in to a peer review process for both of the publications. Papers may address any of the areas identified in the conference topics. Previously published work is not eligible. You should expect to have around 20 minutes to present your work and 10 minutes for questions and discussion.
Electronically submit a cover sheet, which includes the paper title, the name, address, phone and fax numbers, and email address of each author and a 30 word summary that will be suitable for inclusion in the programme and on the website to introduce the paper. Submit an abstract, not to exceed 1200 words, which must include - at the top of the first page - the paper title and a statement as to whether the research is completed or the anticipated date of completion. Any paper proposal extending beyond the 1200 words will be excluded from consideration.

Short papers
Submissions are solicited of short papers that address any of the conference topics. Authors are encouraged to submit late-breaking research results and work in progress that show the latest innovative ideas. Short paper submissions should report original work and must not have been published previously nor be a condensed version of previously published papers. Short papers will be considered for inclusion in the Women In Games digest. You should expect to have around 10 minutes for the presentation of your work followed by around 5 – 10 minutes for question and discussion.
Electronically submit a cover sheet, which includes the paper title, the name, address, phone and fax numbers, and email address of each author and a 30 word summary that will be suitable for inclusion in the programme and on the website to introduce the paper. Submit an abstract, not exceeding 600 words, which must include - at the top of the first page - the paper title and a statement as to whether the research is completed or a work-in-progress. Any paper proposal extending beyond the 600 words will be excluded from consideration.

Posters
Poster submissions addressing any of the areas identified in the conference topics are invited. Authors are encouraged to demonstrate work in progress and late-breaking research results that show the latest innovative ideas. Electronically submit a cover sheet, which includes the poster title, the name, address, phone and fax numbers, and email address of each author and a 30 word summary that will be suitable for inclusion in the programme and on the website to introduce the poster.

Submit a two-page summary, which will be used as the basis for review. Posters will not be included in the proceedings.

Panel, Workshop, Masterclass
Suggestions from industry and academia are welcomed. Electronically submit a cover sheet, which includes the theme for the panel discussion, the name, address, phone and fax numbers, and email address of the chair for the panel and a 500 word statement explaining the panel with 250 word individual abstracts for each panellist. Successful candidates will be responsible for enlisting panel members and chairing the panel. Panel should normally involve 3 – 4 participants and you will have around 90 – 120 minutes for all presentations and discussion.
Student Forum
Under-graduate and Graduate students are encouraged to present at the student forum to be held during the conference. Electronically submit a cover sheet, which includes the presentation title, the name, address, phone and fax numbers, and email address of each author and a 30 word summary that will be suitable for inclusion in the programme and on the website to introduce the presentation. Submit an abstract no longer than 1000 words summarising the research activity, which will be used as the basis for review. Successful candidates will present their work at the conference.
Conference Language
WiG 2008 is an international conference and contributions are welcomed from all parts of the world. However, the official written and spoken language of the conference is English. Please remember that the delegation will include international representatives from industry and academia and appropriate (”jargon-free”) language should be used at all times.

Important dates:
31/05/08 Submission Deadline in all categories
15/07/08 Notification of Acceptance sent to all participants
22/08/08 Speakers/Contributors Registration Deadline
05/09/08 Deadline for Open Registration
10-12/09/08 Women in Games 2008

All participants will be provided with further details and guidelines on the publication procedures at the event. It is our hope that we will be able to provide a free copy of the digest/proceedings to all attendants but there is a possibility that there may be a small charge for this publication – again we will notify participants at the event.

Here they are, hot off the presses, the Women in Games 2008 conference themes!
/* —————————————————————————————- */
/* 0001 Dressing up programming - is this the way to go? ———————————- */
/* —————————————————————————————- */
/*
Initiatives have been launched to encourage people (read girls) to do programming without realising that they are doing anything ‘hard’, and then they perhaps appreciate that it wasn’t as hard as they thought.
What initiatives are out there? Do these work? Do they have credence? Do they hide the realities of what programming is?
*/
/* —————————————————————————————- */
/* 0010 Perception of Games Industry - what is it like to work in games? —————— */
/* —————————————————————————————- */
/*
Working in the games industry is more mature than many people might imagine, and does involve a lot of hard work. It requires people to work together as a team and communicate effectively.
How does this compare with the outside world’s perception? How does it compare to other creative industries of film or music? How can we change that perception if it is wrong?
*/
/* —————————————————————————————- */
/* 0011 Technology in schools - why do girls get turned off? —————————— */
/* —————————————————————————————- */
/*
Encouraging girls to study technology is fundamental to increasing the number of women in the games industry. What is happening in schools to result in very few girls coming out of school with Computer Science, fewer still studying at degree level, before finally only a trickle of women are attracted to working in the games industry? How does this compare with other countries?
*/
/* —————————————————————————————- */
/* 0100 Development and Play - do women do it differently? ——————————– */
/* —————————————————————————————- */
/*
What are the different perspectives that women bring to both playing and the design and development of games? How much is it just more of the same; what are the differences in how they play, what they produce and how they go about it?
*/
/* —————————————————————————————- */
/* 0101 Education for Games, Games for Education —————————————— */
/* —————————————————————————————- */
/*
What skills are needed to work in the games industry? Are they provided by higher education, and are they options taken up by women?
How are games used in education? What is the current state of play? Is this approach (and the types of games used) equally attractive and educationally beneficial to men and women?
*/
/* —————————————————————————————- */
/* 0110 Seriously applying games for fun and profit ————————————— */
/* —————————————————————————————- */
/*
How is the growth of the serious games sector impacting industry and research? What does the future hold for game powered applications and will they still be fun? How are women expressing themselves in this space? In what ways are games pervading our culture and what implications does this have for the future?
*/

The government’s independent review of the effects of videogames and the internet on kids and young people was released today.

Authored by child psychologist ‘and mother of two’ Dr. Tanya Byron, the Byron Review aims to support the government in their approach to game and online content understanding and regulation. From the Executive Summary:

Hardly a day goes by without a news report about children being brutalised and abused in the real world or its virtual counterpart. Some make links between what happens online or in a game, and what happens on the streets or at home.These headlines have contributed to the climate of anxiety that surrounds new technology and created a
fiercely polarised debate in which panic and fear often drown out evidence. The resultant clamour distracts
from the real issue and leads to children being cast as victims rather than participants in these new,
interactive technologies.

The games industry has been waiting with bated breath for this since it was announced by the Prime Minister late last year, and over the six months since, there has been a mountain of speculation about the outcomes - and about the author herself. Her press diary is booked up completely, but there will be an interview on next week’s Tech Weekly podcast. I’m also attending a press Q&A next week where industry will have the opportunity to speak with Dr. Byron.

If there’s anything you’d like me to ask, please do add it to the comments below.

If you would like to read the report, you can download it from The Guardian, or from the DFES.

Games for Girls

When? 26th March, 6-9pm
Where? Wellcome Collection, 183 Euston Road, NW1 2BE
How much? FREE – but booking essential, via the website www.createkx.org.uk
Japanese women have overtaken their male counterparts to become the biggest users of Nintendo’s Wii and DS machines in a seismic shift that the company said would “transform the video games industry”. Leo Lewis, The Guardian

Girl? Geek? Gamer? None of the above? If you’re already in the industry or considering a move to the sector then join us.

As Japanese women overtake men as the main users of Wii and DS, what is the future for women and the games industry? We’ll be holding a lively discussion on the changing role of women in games, from some very different perspectives. You’ll also have a chance to stick your own oar in.

Hot topics will include:

• The Future of Gaming: How is software/content changing? Are women playing a fundamental role in its development? And will current changes make the sector a more popular choice for the next generation?
• A Different Perspective: What are the qualities which women can offer in design, development, management, leadership and steering?
• The Road to Success: in a growing industry with such diverse skills requirements, what are the necessary skills, opportunities and rewards?
• The Female Factor: Matthew Jeffery, Head of European Recruitment at EA Games advised responding to growing skills shortages by attracting talent from other new industries - particularly women. Should there be more incentives for women to work in games? Is it really beneficial to target women separately? Should we stop focussing on gender, or is it the best way to ensure continued innovation in the industry?

And the most important part follows: Wine, nibbles and chat.

Speakers:

Toby Barnes
Executive Producer, Pixel-lab

Emmeline Dobson
Game Designer, Nik Nak Games

Divinia Knowles
Head Of Operations, Financial Controller, Mind Candy

Sandi Kurkdjian
Partner, Harbottle & Lewis, lawyers specialising in media and entertainment law.
Steering Committee, Women In Games

We are proud to announce publication of a selection of papers arising from WiG2007 in a special Gender and Games section in issue 2 of the online games studies journal Eludamos (http://www.eludamos.org).

Many thanks to all our contributors and an especial thank you to my co-editors, Gareth Schott and Barry Atkins.

We continue with our ongoing publication plans for the Women in Games conference in a number of avenues to ensure that the work offered at the events reach the widest possible audience.

BIRDS EYE VIEW ANNOUNCE THEIR LONDON FESTIVAL,
MARCH 6TH – 14TH 2008, AT THE ICA AND BFI SOUTHBANK,
PLUS AN EXCITING MIX OF EVENTS AROUND THE COUNTRY DURING 2008
www.birds-eye-view.co.uk

What, Where and When?

From March 6th-14th 2008, Birds Eye View will be showcasing a programme of innovative and inspirational shorts, features and documentaries from women all over the world, screening at leading London film venues (mainly the Institute of Contemporary Arts and the BFI Southbank). Special features of the 2008 festival programme include:

Clowning Glories: Women in Film Comedy before 1930, BFI Southbank
Keen to address the question of the under-representation of women in comedy, and the implications this has for the entertainment world, Birds Eye View will programme a retrospective celebrating early women pioneers in silent comedy: the directors, the writers and the performers who – much more so than today - brought personality and creative direction to the films. Filmmakers and stars in the programme so far include; Dorothy Arzner, Clara Bow, Mary Pickford, Marion Davies, Agnes Christine Johnston and Ossi Oswalda. There will be discussion and debate on these issues, and some of the UK’s leading contemporary female comics will introduce screenings, including Jo Brand. Female musicians will play live soundtracks to the films – including Mercury nominated Zoe Rahman (and female vocal group Juice), Nikki Yeoh, Alcyona, Jean Hasse, Jane Gardner and ‘twice Grammy nominated’ Imogen Heap. In partnership with the BFI the festival has confirmed In Conversation with Victoria Wood, an evening event taking place on March 11th.

Screwball Women: The golden age of Hollywood comediennes, BFI Southbank
To tie in with Birds Eye View festival, the BFI Southbank will run a programme of brilliant classic comedies throughout the month of March. Films include; She Done Him Wrong (Mae West), It Happened One Night, My Man Godfrey, Stage Door (Katherine Hepburn and Ginger Rogers), Bringing up baby (Katherine Hepburn), The Women (Joan Crawford and Rosalind Russell), His Girl Friday (Rosalind Russell), The Philadelphia Story (Katherine Hepburn), The Lady Eve, Love Crazy, To Be Or Not To Be, Born Yesterday (Judy Holliday), and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Marilyn Monroe).

Innovation
This part of the Festival will focus on new and innovative uses of moving image, from interactive mobile phone art to video games, music videos and VJing. These include:
- Women in Video Games: a panel discussion with leading women from the very male dominated games industry (Emma Westecott, Organiser - Women in Games 2007 conference, Katie Ellwood - games designer and filmmaker, Gabrielle Kent, Games Designer, Animex Festival Game Director), a masterclass on screenwriting for games by Katie Ellwood and a showcase of the work of women video games designers on consoles in the ICA bar.
- Women in Music Videos (showcasing the latest works by Alma Ha’rel, Kinga Burza, Kim Gehrig, Sophie Muller, Shelly Lore, Kim Albright and many more)

Two of our intrepid WiG 2008 hosts were recently featured in an iCast at the University of Warwick, discussing this very question. Three cheers for Nicola and Sara!
Sez Nicola:

I just wanted to let you know that Sara and I took part in a ‘ Warwick iCast’, a video which is part of “a project to develop an internet video service for the University of Warwick focussed on the promotion of research, science and business activity”. The iCast was about women in the gaming industry and was filmed at Rare at the end of November, and featured myself, Sara, George Kelion (PR guy at Rare), Nathan (a CS lecturer at Warwick ) and Becca (a CS student at Warwick ). We were basically discussing various issues / experiences.

Well it’s gone live! Check it out and tell us what you think.