Guilded Lilies

The Iris Network: Women Gamers' Forum Launch

Tekanji over at the Official Shrub.com Blog has joyfully announced the launch of The Iris Network:

"After what seems like years of yearning, plotting, planning, discarding, and plotting and planning again, the dream to have a feminist-oriented community for gamers has finally been realized."

Tekanji put together The Iris Network forum with the help of site administrator Ravena in record time over the course of the last few weeks.  Their resolve to make this happen was fueled in part by a recent post on Kotaku which asked the question - Why aren't there more female gaming bloggers? - written by editor Brian Crecente.  In his post Crecente complained about not being able to find women writers for Kotaku, blaming his difficulty on this cryptically expressed perception:

"So I know they're out there, but why aren't there more of them out there, or more specifically, why aren't they, you know, more out there."

His post in no way considers the often rabidly misogynistic sentiments directed toward women gamers (nor the sometimes harsher responses regularly present in the comments section) that have been the standard for Kotaku for some time.  Perhaps he is trying to foster a change, but it may require a bit of introspection in the process.  Whatever editorial direction things end up taking at Kotaku, at least now there is an increased opportunity for women gamers in the form of The Iris Network.

Here is the mission statement for The Iris Network:

"After yet another bout of the “where are all the women gamers?” on the internet gaming communities, The IRIS Network (TIN) was finally born. Though there are many individual women gamers who write about their experiences, and many sites for women who game to connect and play with each other, none of these sites are there for the express purpose of highlighting gamers (both in the industry and outside of it) and bringing women’s perspectives into the mainstream. Though it may be a lofty goal, that’s exactly what we here at The IRIS Network aim to do."

And a description of the target audience: 

"Q: Who is this community for?

A: While I just described the forums as "feminist-oriented", this isn't a community just for feminists. It's for women of all walks of life who count gaming among their passions, men interested in networking with women gamers and perhaps learning more about inclusive game design in the process, and, really, anyone who has ever felt that they have been excluded from most games and/or gaming communities at large."

There are more things planned for The Iris Network, including an expanding directory of women who write about games, and an upcoming online gaming magazine called Cerise, due to launch next month.  I am very happy to see this online community for women gamers coming together and look forward to seeing it develop into a strong online community. 

UPDATE 4/9/07: I received some flak for describing the sentiments on Kotaku as being "rabidly misogynistic" (apparently we are not allowed to use the "M" word - I missed that memo).  Tekanji over at The Official Shrub.com blog has written a thoughtful post, Harrasment, silencing, and gaming communities, that covers a number of examples specific to the Kotaku website that were in my mind when I chose those descriptive words in my post.  Her post is very well done, and worth reading through, and gets to the source of the larger issues women gamers face in online communities.  I stand by my original assessment.

Jade Reporting: Gender & Games Resource

In case you have yet to discover the Jade Reporting weblog, let me introduce you:

"The Jade Reporting blog was founded in September of 2006 for the purpose of archiving any and all information that deals with gender and video games. Bad news, good news, just news… it doesn’t matter, we will archive it all. The lofty goals of this blog are not to pass judgment on the news that we offer up, but rather to collect them in the hopes of enabling more dialogue to happen in the blogsphere on the topic of gender and video games."

This clearing house of gender & game related goodness is a great place to visit for a daily selection of links, and along with Wonderland's Crystaltips' Bookmarks on del.icio.us, it has become one of my favorite morning visits.   

The archivers at Jade Reporting are the bloggers from three of my favorite women gamer related reads:  Tekanji from The Official Shrub.com Blog, 100 Little Dolls from the 100 Little Dolls blog, and Lake Desire from New Game Plus.

I have added a permanent link in the sidebar under "Linkage" to make it easy to find.  When you find yourself feeling that you would like to do some more blog reading along the various topics that include gender and video games, bookmark Jade Reporting and make it a regular stop on your daily blog read.

Long Live Computer Games Magazine

Well, as much as I hoped it wasn't true, it seems official: my beloved Computer Games Magazine has been done in by a lethal combination of corporate idiocy and spam.  Gamasutra reported the following on Tuesday:

"Independent sources, both via an un-named publisher dealing with the magazines and from industry messageboard QT3, have indicated to Gamasutra that U.S. print publication Computer Games Magazine and its sister MMO-centric Massive magazine have apparently been shut down by publisher TheGlobe.com."

Recent corporate stupidity by TheGlobe.com resulted in losing a very expensive lawsuit involving illegal spam and MySpace:

"It's believed that a recent lawsuit against TheGlobe.com over spam-related messages sent out on social networking site MySpace may have been partly to blame for the shutdown - a California court found TheGlobe liable in late February for sending "at least 100,000 unsolicited and unauthorized commercial email messages to MySpace members using MySpace user accounts improperly established by the Company".

According to an SEC filing from TheGlobe: "Total damages under CAN-SPAM could therefore range between about $40 million to about $120 million." The filing also indicated that "...any judgment against it would materially and adversely affect its financial condition and future operations, including the potential bankruptcy or cessation of business of the Company", though a final judgement had not been reached as of March 5th."

So it would appear that we will all have to do without the best print source for game related news because some idiot built their marketing strategy on spamming 100,000 MySpace members.  There is no indication that CGM was not pulling its own weight financially, or that their demise has anything to do with any failure on the magazine's part - they appear to be just a casualty of the larger business practices of TheGlobe.com. 

Since I reached the saturation point a long time ago with the bad-boy focus of PC Gamer magazine, this leaves me now with no options for print media for my computer gaming news.  Call me old fashioned, but I enjoy reading things that aren't on a computer screen.  I am hopeful that the people of CGM and Massive will find a way to re-group and recover in a financially independent way that will shield them from this kind of pointlessness in the future.

You can read the full Gamasutra article HERE.

Go Ask Alice: Game Industry Enui?

I have been getting my GDC news from Wonderland again this year, and enjoying the chance to see things through her filter.  This morning I was reading a post there about Whirled (from the creators of Puzzle Pirates), which Alice seems very excited about, and she also has some interesting things to say about the general state of the industry in contrast to more independent endeavors.

"Generally - I'm being broad - the games industry has been a pretty "closed" industry. Phil Harrison's nod to web 2.0 is the high-profile start of a big change, I think, but generally the games industry is (has been) mostly chaps doing mostly console games, for mostly very big budgets."

This comes as no surprise to anyone, I am sure, but there is something subtle about what she is saying:

"This year's GDC is strong on the alternative fu: indie games are Large. Casual games are Large. Serious Games are grabbing more and more attention.. and this web thing, MySpace is being mentioned a lot. The chaps  with consoles are raising an eyebrow, perhaps, as this alternaindustry grows at a startling rate, bridging the whitespace between both the games and web industries."

I have been noodling around about these same feelings myself lately, trying to find a way to write about them on the blog without sounding like someone making unsubstantiated generalizations about the games industry.  My thoughts about this have been pretty much based on instinct, a visceral response to what I have been exposed to in my introduction to my game education, and they haven't been settling in comfortably with me.  Now that I hear similar ideas being expressed by someone running right along the edge of industry developments, smack dab in the middle of the GDC, I feel a little more comfortable expressing some of these gut feelings here.

Almost the entire reason for me starting and writing this blog, from its very inception, has been about the glaring need for better representation of women gamers in the industry.  There has been a shift in my point of view - from originally seeing things as a gamer to looking at things from the point of view of someone wanting to work in the industry toward that change, but the focus has stayed the same.  It only seems rational that the industry needs more women making games before it will begin producing games that more women will enjoy playing.  But what has been percolating under the surface for me since taking the steps toward entering that industry is that the rational approach may not be the best approach, at least for me.

I now feel that the entire structure of the game industry is limited.  I no longer see the possibility that large shifts will occur from within that structure, but I do see those shifts occurring already from outside independent forces.  There will always be a fixed market for the kind of games that make up what we now think of when we think about mainstream games - the WoWs, Dooms, Halos, Ghost Recons, and Medals of Honor will continue to be successful in the way that summer blockbuster movies are.  Like the big budget Hollywood model, the increased cost of producing games will limit the comfort level with change from those previously successful recipes, including even the small changes that might expand the audience to include more women. Games like The Sims and Spore - truly innovative and hugely successful games, are not going to emerge from that structure.  Will Wright is the exception and definitely not the rule.

This is a 180 degree turn-around in thinking for me, and I am not sure yet where this is going to lead me, if anywhere at all.  I would appreciate being able to have a dialogue about these thought here on the Guilded Lilies blog, and will be writing more about this in upcoming posts.  Let me know your thoughts, and thanks yet again to Alice at Wonderland for her interesting coverage of the GDC.

Mind Games II: 3D Games & Depression

Thanks to Tiny Dancer over at gaygamer.net I got to read a very interesting article on how 3D game environments are being used as a measure for depression.  The article is featured on the Science Daily website, and reports on research results published in the March issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry (read the abstract HERE).  Here's the gist of the article:

"Scientists are using a virtual-reality, three-dimensional video game that challenges spatial memory as a new tool for assessing the link between depression and the hippocampus, the brain's memory hub. . . Researchers found that depressed people performed poorly on the video game compared with nondepressed people, suggesting that their hippocampi were not working properly."

Previous studies have linked decreased memory function with depression, associated with a smaller sized hippocampus among depressed individuals.  In order to test their theory, the researchers designed a spatial memory test for a selection of depressed and non-depressed patients, since spatial memory functions in the brain have been shown to reside in the hippocampus. What's interesting here is that they originally did this research using "a two-dimensional memory test traditionally used in such studies" but were unable to see any difference in performance between the two groups being tested.  They decided to rework the study using a three-dimensional virtual-reality game environment, and were able to more accurately measure differences in spatial memory between depressed and non-depressed patients.

Here is the conclusion they reached:

"Thus, the video game is a more revealing measure of spatial memory and a more sensitive measure of hippocampal dysfunction — a more powerful tool for exploring the link between the hippocampus and depression. It may one day be a tool for detecting hippocampus deficits in depressed patients."

From the point of view of the scientists who published these results, I can imagine they are pleased to have worked out a better way to test for depression related spatial memory issues using 3D video games.  From the point of view of a gamer, though, I am curious about the specific role that this type of 3D virtual world interaction could have for us.  Does this mean that there is the possibility that the converse is true - that interacting within 3D virtual game worlds could offer a way to improve the function of the hippocampus and perhaps strengthen spatial memory function among the depressed and non-depressed alike?

Everyone who has ever played a video game knows that the longer you play a game the better you get at it.  This isn't only the case when replaying the same area in a game due to familiarity with the specific landscape, but is also true with unexplored levels as you progress through a game.  If that weren't the case there would be no need for level designers to increase the difficulty of gameplay as the game progresses.  From a completely unscientifically based assumption, I would have to guess that the reason players get better as they go has much to do with the learning that is taking place as they play, and that learning, as far as the brain is concerned, translates into increased connection between neurons creating more and better connections within the brain.

I don't want to speculate how this assumption would expand to include the reduced size of the hippocampus as it correlates with depression, but I can imagine that time spent interacting inside 3D game worlds could provide opportunities to strengthen what spatial memory resources a player has - even if that capacity is limited by depression's affect on the hippocampus.  This makes me want to think, in my overly simplified hypothesis, that even depressed gamers have a chance at improved spatial memory functions compared to their non-gaming peers due to the time they spend interacting inside 3D virtual worlds.

I love that psychologists are interested in using game technology as a tool in their studies, but I think they could reveal some very interesting things when they do so if they also incorporated experienced gamers as part of the test group.  People have been speculating on the possible negative effect that games have on their players since the arcade days, especially when it applies to young children.  Wouldn't it be great to see studies like this one being done that begin with the hypothesis that time spent in 3D game worlds might result in positive effects on the players?  We might be surprised by the results.

Cover Girls: Game Covers Women Want To See

There is an interesting exchange of ideas floating around the gaming blogosphere related to the primary artwork associated with game marketing - box art covers - and how these images might appeal to women gamers.  This discussion originated in a post on the Yudhishthira'€™s Dice blog, where Brand asks this question:

"Ladies, what RPG covers (or interiors) have you seen that involve a woman in the art that make you say, "I want to play that"€ or, just as good "€œI want to play her."€ Or that make you feel like it is a game you could like, or be included in by a group of guys you'€™d never met and whose maturity you didn't neccisarily know?"

Tekanji over at the Official Shrub.Com Blog (with her usual skill of knowing a good idea when she sees one) has turned this into a meme and has received a number of good responses.  Here at Guilded Lilies (with MY usual skill of not catching onto a good thing until everyone else has moved on to something else) I have decided to add my perspective to the dialogue.

I would like to discuss two covers from RPGs for the PC that have good inclusive box art.  Below are images from Dungeon Siege and the DS Legends of Aranna expansion pack.  Both covers are pretty much the same, but it was the first Dungeon Siege box that got me interested in playing the game and had me looking forward to the later expansion of the game.

Click on images for a larger version.

This cover art works for me primarily because it shows a female character that isn't objectified, but instead looks capable and ready to get things accomplished in the game world.  The expression on her face is confident and self-assured, with a dash of sass in her wry smile.  At the time I played the original Dungeon Siege I wasn't familiar with the kind of female characters being designed to appeal exclusively to the hard core male gamer demographic, so my original reaction on seeing this cover art wasn't in relation to what it wasn't showing me - overly sexualized female game characters.  I didn't read it as necessarily inclusive to me as a woman gamer, because I didn't realize at that time just how non-inclusive most game art could be toward women gamers. Call me naive, but my interest in this game was based purely on it making me feel that it was a perfectly normal thing for me to want to play a fantasy RPG on my computer - and that is precisely why I think it is successful.  That feeling was reinforced by gameplay that lived up the inclusive artwork on the cover, and I was able to enjoy playing an equally strong female character with none of the starting stat differences between genders present in other fantasy RPGs.

The one important thing I would like to point out about my experience with the Dungeon Siege cover artwork is that this box art didn't just sell me on this particular game and the expansion pack, but it also turned me into a gamer.  Dungeon Siege was the first real PC game that I played with anything like dedication, even though I played other computer games before that (the Myst games, and some other casual games).  Until I played Dungeon Siege I would have never considered myself a gamer, and it opened up my interest in finding more games like it to play.  The inclusive quality of that artwork is what led me into the whole genre of fantasy RPGs on the computer, and led to me playing a load of other kinds of games that followed.  As many of you know, I came to playing games later in life, and rather than having access to being introduced to games through a sibling's console I had to cross the line of perception - that games are for immature boys - on my own.  I'm not sure I would have done that without the help of a game like Dungeon Siege, which thankfully had a marketing department with enough sense to sell their game in a way that didn't automatically exclude someone like myself from buying it.

This is an open ended meme, in that I am not going to tag anyone in particular.  If you are interested in throwing your point of view into the pot, have at it - also, this meme is not limited to just video games.  Here are the details of the original meme as posted on the Official Shrub.Com Blog:

Meme Rules:

1. Copy the text of the original challenge from Yudhishthira'€™s Dice and give a proper link attribution.
2. Copy these rules exactly (including any links).
3. Find images of game covers (interiors are okay, too) that make you want to play the game. Any kind of game - video game, card game, tabletop RPG, etc -€” is fine. Post them and include a short (or long) explanation on why the image makes/made you want to play the game.
4. The original challenge is about finding out what women think about how game art is marketed and therefore it is targeted at women. I'€™d like to keep it that way, please.
5. You can tag as many or as few people as you want. You do not need to be tagged to participate in the meme.
6. When you make your post, please post the link on this thread so we can all see what others have said.

All I would add is that I would like it if you would also leave a track-back link to my post if you are writing yours after reading about it on Guilded Lilies.  Thanks!

UPDATE 3/3/07:  I only just now noticed that 100LittleDolls tagged me earlier, so HERE is a link of thanks to her response to this meme.  Sorry I missed it earlier, thanks!

"One Man's Idol Is Another Man's Eye Candy"

I just read through a great article on gaygamer.net  written by Tiny Dancer. The post is called Metasex Appeal: Why Games Might Be More Gay-Friendly Than We Think, and is worth taking the time to read through.  Go ahead and read it, and then we can see what you think.

I find an interesting parallel in this piece to some of the issues that have been discussed on Guilded Lilies in the past, especially in relation to how games can be designed to be more inclusive for women gamers. I have often expressed my belief that it wouldn't take much at all to remove the largest and most obvious barriers to women gamers, and for the most part I can see that awareness working its way into the collective consciousness of the game making psyche.  In a similar way, Tiny Dancer is saying this about his hopes for gay gamers:

"I suppose the heart of the matter is that I'm rethinking my position on the nature of what a "gay game" might look like. It's not that I'm rescinding my hope for an all-out responsibly designed gay main character or gay-targeted game; rather, I'm asking myself if in our anticipation we might be overlooking a culturally relevant subliminal and transitional period similar to the sea-change that's taken place in gay-targeted print and TV ads."

In other words; the revolution might just be a quiet one.  I can see the same quiet revolution happening for women gamers as well, as the full financial impact of this growing multi-billion dollar industry starts to stretch itself beyond its fanboy roots.  In a sense, I am hoping that the changes are already in place in the development cycle, and that women gamers and gay gamers (and gay women gamers too) will see the results sooner than we expect.  Maybe it will be such a subtle shift that it won't be obvious that things have changed all that much, at least for a while.  But someday we will look back at all the rabid commentary from the fanboy gamers and websites (you know who you are . . .) the way we look back on all the immature insults of junior high.  And we will sigh and say - Thank the Gods THAT is over with!

And your thoughts are . . .?

Mind Games

I just read an article on Yahoo! News about games targeted at improving mental health.  One specific game, called MindHabits Booster has been designed to help raise self-esteem by training players to focus on positive feedback in the form of smiling faces, picked out from a crowd of frowners.  This from the mindhabits.com website:

"We drew on research showing that certain people have attentional biases toward socially threatening information, so they automatically focus on any sign of rejection or criticism from others, which in turn perpetuates their sensitivity to rejection and heightened tendency to experience social stress."

The concept behind this kind of interactive therapy seems sound and well-researched, but I am wondering about the implementation.  There seems to be something missing from what is being offered by MindHabits Booster, at least from what I can see in the demo version. If psychology based games like these are tested and proved to be effective in having specific and lasting effects on issues such as self-esteem then there is going to be a great deal of interest in this approach to game design.  But if these games are going to be more than the equivalent of having to remember to take your multi-vitamin everyday - as in, I know this is good for me so I have to make myself play this for ten minutes everyday - then the gameplay elements are going to have to be developed with the same kind of scrutiny that have been applied to the psychological elements.  Are we actually going to spend the time playing self-improvement games of any type if they aren't fun and compelling?  Dance Dance Revolution succeeds first as a really fun game, and then as a great source of aerobic exercise.  Do you think that schools would be adding DDR to their curriculum if they were only as much fun as your average aerobic workout tape?

I am particularly interested in seeing the development and appreciation of games as a medium expand beyond the present borders of entertainment, and have no doubt that we will see a great explosion of new applications for interactive game-like environments used for a wide range of "therapies" as time goes on.  I am always interested when I see things like MindHabits Booster because it gives me a sense of watching this medium develop right before my eyes.  I know it is only a matter of time before someone takes a Will Wrightian leap forward with this kind of game idea, and it will be fascinating to see what simple shifts in thinking will lead into altogether new ways of experiencing games.

I have embedded a trial of the game below to give you a chance to try it out (let me know if there are any technical issues with it working from the blog).  Please let me know what you think about this demo, I will be interested to hear your thoughts.

Demo Source: http://www.mindhabits.com

Grown Woman Making Games

You may have noticed that things have been a little quiet at Guilded Lilies.  First there was the entire month of September that I took off from blogging, and then there was the month of October with barely enough posts to distinguish it from the previous month.  November postings have been pretty scarce as well.  For all (both) of you who have been wondering what is up with the GL blog, wonder no more.

I am very pleased to announce that I have been accepted into the Masters of Interactive Technology, Art Creation Specialization, at The Guildhall at SMU.  In January I will begin a two year intensive program to learn everything I need to know (but was afraid to ask) about how to create art assets for the digital games industry.  I spent the month of September preparing a very involved portfolio assignment for my application, which was the reason for my blog vacation.  I then spent the month of October and most of November fretting over whether I would get into the program, and was thus too preoccupied to think about anything else, including blogging.  Now that I have been accepted, I am up to my neck in the details of packing and moving and preparing to start school after the first of the year.

The result of this will be a shift in focus for the Guilded Lilies blog, which will mean that for the next few months posts will be few and far between as I relocate and settle into the school routine.  The Guildhall program is intense, with little time for anything else, but I hope to maintain the GL blog - albeit in a different format.  At this point I expect to blog primarily about my experiences as a grown woman learning how to work in the digital games industry. This may mean that the format will become less focused on opinion pieces (not that I won't still have an opinion, far from it) and more of a personal journal blog.  I will also focus on the specifics of digital art creation for the game industry, as soon as I learn enough to have something to say about it. The blog may be too much for me to keep up with once reality sets in, but I am determined to keep it going at least on some level.

So now that I have an exciting future of creating artwork for digital games ahead of me, think of the Guilded Lilies blog as making a subtle shift from Grown Women Playing Games to add Grown Women Making Games to the mix.  It may be dull here until after the holidays, but things are going to get much more exciting once I get started.  I can't believe I am really going to get to do this, and I look forward to sharing my amazement with you here as my education progresses.

Geek Books: Game Art Book Recommendations

Next Generation has recently posted a list of "50 Books for Everyone In the Game Industry", (link via Wonderland, where all good links come from!) put together by game designer and author Ernest Adams.  The task of putting together such a list in the first place is in no way an easy one, and Adams explains the limitations of his list in the introduction.  He purposely left out any tech specific books, so my personal interest in finding good books on creating game art isn't covered there. It is an interesting list, and I will certainly spend some time looking into a few of the titles he recommends.  I would also be interested in seeing a list like this put together that suggests more non-industry books (there are a few included in his list) as a way to broaden the scope of thinking for people inside the industry.  The one example that jumps out at me is the book A Pattern Language, by Christopher Alexander.  Adams says about this book "Will Wright says that this book was part of the inspiration for The Sims."  That sentence alone is enough to get me interested in reading this title, and  so I think it would be fabulous to also see a list of other books like this, ones outside the gaming mainstream, that have been inspirational to leaders in the industry.

I have had it in the back of my mind to write up a review of a few good game related books I have been reading lately.  In the spirit of supplementing the areas of Adams list that were necessarily brief I will throw a few more titles out for those of you who share my interest in learning more about the art creation aspect of games.  I don't have Adams' professional experience to offer - my perspective is that of the rank amateur eager to find the right book to learn something useful on my own.  Computer books are expensive, and there is nothing more disappointing that plunking down $30 - $50 on a title that doesn't really deliver on the promises made on the cover.  This is especially the case when buying books online, when the only real information you have is what other people have to say about the book.  Hopefully you will find something useful here.

First on my list is a title that Adams includes: Creating the Art of the Game, by Matthew Omernick, 2004.  This book is a simple introduction to the processes of producing game art.  This is not a book that contains software specific tutorials; although there are a few brief descriptions of how certain tasks are done in Photoshop, Maya and 3D Studio Max.  It is a book for beginners, and provides a helpful introduction to the basic functions of the elements used in art creation, with chapters on textures, modeling, lighting and effects.  It is a well designed book, with helpful illustrations and an engaging text.  I highly recommend this one!

As a companion to the above title, you might also be interested in finding a copy of Game Art: The Graphic Art of Computer Games by Morris and Hartas, 2003.  This is a pretty fluffy book, so don't expect to learn anything deep or meaningful from reading this one.  Instead it is a large format picture book with a wide range of game art offered in full color.  I have found it useful to look at the variety of images from a wide range of games, especially since I haven't seen many of these games from playing them myself.  I picked this up cheaply online, but you may also be able to find a copy of this in your local library.

The next great title is:  Game Art: Creation, Direction, and Careers, by Riccard Linde, 2005.  This is a perfect follow up to Omernick's book, as it takes all of the topics in his book to greater detail, and throws in a useful look at the specifics of careers available for game artists. If you read Creating the Art of the Game and find you want to know more, this book is the next step.

There are two books on creating textures that I have found very helpful: the first is 3D Game Textures by Luke Ahearn that I discussed in detail in THIS earlier post.  The second book is The Dark Side of Game Texturing by David Franson.  This book offers more of the same helpful sort of step-by-step Photoshop tutorials of Ahearn's book, but with an emphasis on the types of textures used in FPS and action games.  These two books cover pretty similar ground, so you may not feel the need to buy both of them (in which case I would recommend Ahearn's book, which is much
more comprehensive) but I was happy to have more tutorials and the different perspective that Franson's book offers.

I recently found the book Action Anatomy by Takashi Iijima, 2004.  It is full of useful visual information on the human figure, and is an excellent reference for character design.  It was put together specifically for game design, animation and digital artists, and is a reference book that I am sure I will use again and again.

The last two books I will mention are waiting in the wings - I have them on hand but I haven't had a chance to read through them yet.  They both look very promising, and offer another level of information for the would-be game artist. Both of these titles are designed for digital artists in general, rather than specifically for game artists.  I will let you know more about these once I get a chance to dig into them.

• [Digital] Texturing & Painting by Owen Demers, 2002. The first half of the book covers art theory and how it applies to games, with the second half dealing with the technical applications.
• [Digital] Lighting & Rendering by Jeremy Birn, 2000. This book looks to offer a solid introduction to the function of light in 3D art. 

I am interested to hear what you think of this book list, and would also love to hear about any more of these kinds of books that you would recommend.  All the title links will take you to Amazon.com where you can find more detailed information on the books and can read the customer reviews.  You may also be able to get used versions of books for a lot less than the cover prices from Amazon or one of the many other used book websites online.

Celebrating Oblivion Mods

The post over at PixelRage called 13 Oblivion Mods That Should Not Have Been ("that should not have been mods that is") has been making the rounds of gaming blogs. There are some great looking mods on that list, and I am looking forward to adding a few to my Oblivion playing experience.

I was very happy to see that Tycho over at Penny Arcade felt that the Oblivion Book Mod by Phoenix Amon was overlooked on that list, saying:

"Conspicuously absent from that list was Book Jackets: Oblivion, a project I've mentioned previously that gives every in-game book a unique cover, an undertaking which I am prepared to call the apex of human endeavor."

High praise indeed, and I'm very happy that her mod will get even more appreciation due to the high level of readership they have at Penny Arcade. All her creativity and hard work certainly deserves the recognition.

Equally kind is the short piece over at the Official Shrub.com Blog adding my Oblivion Equalizer mod as number 14 to the list.  Since the Oblivion Equalizer took a total of 5 minutes to make compared with the untold hours a mod like Book Jackets: Oblivion, it is funny for me to think of it in the same category with all these complex mods.  But looking at it from the point of view of something that shouldn't have needed to be modded - at least from the perspective of women gamers - puts the focus on the inspiration that got me into modding Oblivion in the first place.  Thanks to Tekanji for her recommendation!

BBC Ahead of the Curve on Women Gamers

There is an excellent article up on the BBC website by Jane Wakefield: All Women Gamers Please Stand Up.  Take a few minutes to read it when you have a chance.  In usual BBC fashion this piece cuts through the fuss, is free of the usual gender antics, and clearly sorts out the place women gamers are at.  How refreshing!

This one quote from the article jumped out at me:

"EA's chief executive, David Gartner admitted at a recent gaming conference that his company could increase sales by a billion dollars if it cracked the problem of how to get women more involved in games."

I can imagine no better motivation for game developers to consider women as a market than this image: An enormous green wave of money flowing from women's pockets and collectively washing over the game industry.  Money is the great equalizer, and it is in the process of transforming the game industry into an interactive entertainment Titan. Thankfully it is now becoming clear that women will be recognized for their interest in this new medium, if for no other reason, then at least for the contents of our pocketbooks.

What is great about this article is all the comments from readers.  Here are a few of my favorites:

"Women buy more magazines than men so why not a gaming mag for women? If the industry stopped targeting men between the ages of 18-25 with their advertising and made it more unisex, then maybe that would go someway to solving the problem." - Tracie, Wales

I've been gaming since I was a girl although I actually prefer gaming with someone else- either two player games or as a partner on a more elaborate game. My husband is great at manipulating characters on screen and fight sequences but often lacks an overview and problem solving skills whereas I am the opposite so we have developed a passion for playing games together, using both our natural skills. It means he can enjoy the adventure and puzzle solving games that he normally would get stuck on and I get to enjoy the action games that I find frustrating to move about in. I'm fearful of saying that this reflects a gender split but perhaps it reflects the way that we complement each other.

For us it's a social activity unlike watching and consumming TV or films- are we alone in gaming like this? Do things always have to be polarized? - Jenny Jones, Bristol

"The point is, it doesn't matter whether a game is aimed at men or women, the point is that the industry should forget trying all kinds of gimmicks to sell their wares and instead focus on giving us (men and woman gamers) quality games instead of poorly made games that should be shunned by all of us." -  Chetna, Vilvoorde,Belgium

"The companies involved in the gaming industry are thinking way too hard. A Desperate Housewives game? Please. We don't need "girly" games.

We play the same games as the boys do. We like strategy games and action games and shooters. Don't insult our intelligence.

Here's what the games industry can do to bring in more of the ladies: give us real women characters. Don't give us the sassy vixen who speaks in constant double entendres, or the blushing damsel who needs rescuing. Don't make us wear body armor that covers less than a bathing suit. Don't make us play the sidekick; give us a real heroine. We want to be what we are: brave, clever, and every bit as capable as a man." - Larkin, San Francisco, USA

"I've been gaming all my life, and frankly most of the games I've seen that have been targeted at female gamers are...awful. I personally don't need pink and fluffy to make me play a game, what I want is glitch free coding and female characters that aren't solely there to provide eye candy, and don't spend the whole time trying to get into the male lead's underwear." - Sarah Young, Durham

It cheers my little old gamer's soul to read these comments, especially associated with something published by the BBC.  Let's hope the discussion of women gamers can remain as clear and productive as this as it continues to progress.

Link via wonderful Wonderland.

Massive Magazine Launch

The premier issue of Massive Magazine has arrived, and looks great.  The large format of the magazine definitely lives up to its name.  This quarterly offshoot of Computer Games magazine expands one of my favorite sections there, and the overall feel of the magazine is designed to appeal to a more mature audience.  I suppose using the term "mature" is kind of a weird way to describe people primarily playing MMO fantasy games, but you know what I mean.  Three of the five editorial staff members are women, and the presence of Cindy Yans as Features Editor alone was enough to make me subscribe.  Add to that articles by Richard Garriott, Nick Yee, and Raph Koster, and you have a very promising beginning.

In the introductory editorial, Cindy Yans asks some fundamental questions about people who play MMOs:

"Why do we play these games?  Why do we play dress-up and collect stupid trinkets and swing axes and bash monsters and pilot vehicles and join virtual clubs.  Why even care? Why isn't it a waste of time when a large segment of the population insists that it absolutely is a waste of time?  Why are we here?  Why do we return time and time again?  What on earth are we getting out of these make-believe worlds that we can't find anywhere else?"

These are the kind of questions I ask as I find myself logging into Guild Wars for the 755th hour of my life, even when I have 6 other highly compelling single player games loaded and ready to play on my computer.  As fascinating as these questions are to me, the fact is, contemplating possible answers to these questions has never made me want to stop playing.  If anything, thinking about the motivation I have for games like Guild Wars makes me even more curious about their appeal.  Massive Magazine looks to be a great way to follow this interest and gain some insight into the growing world of MMO games.  I am so glad to find a game publication that appreciates the fact that in addition to their being female readers, there are those of us who are also old enough to remember when Jimmy Carter was President.

Jimmy who?

GL is in the House

Well, sort of anyway.  I am in the last throes of completing my project, and have enough of a break in the work load to put up this short but frivolous post.  And it's about time too!  I haven't had much spare time to play games, but nothing a good solid week of playing won't remedy.  Waiting in the wings in my shiny new copy of Lego Star Wars II, still in the shrink-wrap even, and I can't believe how much self-control I have.  It will be the big reward for finishing up, so I have it propped up on my desk to keep me working.

In the mean time you can see THIS great Flickr photoset of screen shots (via Wonderland) from Lego Star Wars II, if you haven't already dug into the game yourself.  And remember:

"Do, or do not. There is no try." - Yoda

Keep It Super Secret, Keep It Super Safe

I know this is slightly old news, but I came across this curious bit of game development news in my in-box this morning via the Gamasutra Career Newsletter - it is a call for applications for the recently formed Slipgate Ironworks MMO project headed by the closest thing that the game industry has for a tabloid darling - John Romero of Doom fame:

"John Romero's newly founded and funded MMO game company in the Bay Area is developing a Super Secret Mystery Project that will be revealed to only the most qualified candidates!

My executive cabal and I are very excited to build an amazing development team and create something truly unique. . . Apply now and prepare to enter the reality distortion field!"

Must . . . not . . . mock . . . game . . . developers . . . arghhh!  I will say that this job listing did stand out from the others in the email so it is surely distinctive.  Do you suppose that applicants deemed unfit by the Executive Cabal ever return from that Reality Distortion Field?  And does anyone know how I can receive a John Romero Super Secret Mystery Project decoder ring?

If you feel up for the running of the gauntlet at Slipgate Ironworks you can read the full listing of job openings HERE.

You can read more about the launch of Slipgate Ironworks HERE and HERE.

Pay To PlayStation: PS3 vs. PC

One of the largest deciding factors between playing games on computers versus consoles has been the price.  For many households without a PC the gaming console has been the lower price alternative for gaming.  The cost of a top of the line gaming PC can easily exceed $4,000, and keeping up with the constant improvements can mean spending a sizeable chunk of cash on a fairly regular basis. Up until recently, having a top of the line console would only set you back $200 or $300.  What is interesting to see with the advent of the PlayStation 3, is the price of playing games on a console is increasing in a big leap, bringing it much closer to the costs associated with a low-end home computer.

It is difficult to compare the PS3 to a gaming PC, there are not very many side-by-side elements that can be easily analyzed for performance versus price.  I am more interested in the psychological idea of how much people are be willing to pay for a console, especially one that is anticipated to be in short supply on release.  I recently came across this article from BBC Online.  The online store at Play.com has begun taking advanced orders for European customers for the top of the line (60 GB) PS3 for the sum of £549, or around $1,014 US dollars.  I have seen all sorts of projected prices for the PS3 once it is released, but according to the BBC article Sony announced the price for the PS3 at $785 dollars (£425), so this is a bit of a price gouge to be sure.  The combination of the already high suggested price and the projected scarcity of these units on release will likely make this type of pricing fairly common for those sellers lucky enough to have them available before the end of 2006.

It is safe to assume that there will be a good number of people willing to pay $800 - $1,000 for a PS3 at release, so we are now definitely in the same neighborhood as home computers when it comes to price.  This is far from the $4,000 + top of the line gaming computer, and additionally, the specs offered by those systems are often more than is necessary to play most computer games.  To make my point I have this scenario to offer (as an example, not a recommendation):  Computer Games magazine has given the eMachines T6532 their Editor's Choice red star in the July/August issue (see page 73).  This basic computer system comes with an Athalon 64 3500+ CPU, 1 GB of RAM, a 200 GB hard drive, the usual DVD drives, Windows XP, etc, and an Nvidia Geforce 6100 video card that is unfit for playing games.  They suggest swapping the video card for an NVidia GeForce 6800GS or 7600GT, at which point you have a very competent gaming system, including the upgraded video card, for less than $750.  Consumer Games magazine says this:

"For all the folks who say they don't have the budget for PC gaming, show them this small but powerful system."

The price for this PC doesn't include a monitor, but since the PS3 requires a television as well I didn’t include the monitor price into the comparison. And what about that television?  The high price for the PS3 is justified by Sony because of the Blue-ray high definition player included with the unit.  Sony is saying that for the price of the PS3 you will get a great deal on their combined gaming console and HD player.  The problem arises when you consider the price of a HD Television.  THIS article by Aaron Stanton suggests that the addition of a HD television to your gaming package, to take advantage of what you are paying so much for your PS3 in the first place, would add over $1000 to the price tag of your PS3 gaming system. Here is what Stanton has to say:

“The PS3 relies on a feature that can't be utilized without equipment that sells for double the PS3 itself. Sony is hoping the PS3 will be carried by a feature that will go almost unused by the time the PS3 is replaced by the PS4.”

In the end you are paying for features that for most people will remain unappreciated.  When you compare a similarly priced PC & monitor package, you get a lot more functionality for your price.  Ultimately, when you compare both the PC and the PS3 to the Wii, Nintendo ends up looking like they have a pretty clever marketing plan.

The decision on whether to buy a PC or a PS3 will most likely be made based on more than price, and there are any number of reasons why one approach will be better suited for any given individual.  Making this price comparison does provide a different perspective on the future of computer gaming as it relates to the competition offered by consoles.  I see higher priced gaming consoles as being a good thing for computer gaming - the tightening of that price gap will make the value of playing games on the computer (along with all the other functions it offers) more apparent.  The more you have to pay to PlayStation the brighter the future of computer games becomes.

Thanks to Wonderland for the Del.icio.us link!

Oblivion Book Jacket Mod Now Available

Phoenix Amon has announced the release of her anticipated "Oblivion Book Jacket Mod" today, and it is now available to download.

Download the Standard Res Version (26 Mb): HERE, and HERE.

Dwonload the High Res Version (92 Mb): HERE,  HERE and HERE.

Read the release thread on the Elder Scrolls forum HERE for more details.   More download sites will be added, and I will update as the links become available.

As Phoenix was putting the finishing touches on this much anticipated release she took time out to answer a few questions:

Guilded Lily:  What is the official name you are giving this mod?

Phoenix Amon:  Book Jackets: Oblivion (to distinguish it from my Morowind version and additions that I may do for the earlier TES books that have been added).

GL:  How much time do you think you put into this modding project, or would you rather not think about it?

PA:  Well I guessed when I was starting that it would take a little more than 3 months based on the time I'd spent on the Morrowind version and the added complexity of Oblivion's graphics. That turned out to be accurate. In terms of hours, I haven't a clue. :)

GL:  Were you surprised by the response to your mod on the Elder Scrolls forum while you were working on it as a work in progress?

PA:  Very. I didn't expect to get so many responses.

GL:  You have said that you wished you had waited to announce the mod on the forum until it was closer to completion, but do you think that the interest generated was helpful in providing encouragement for such an ambitious project?

PA:  Considering how long it took to complete the project, I think if I'd waited until it was half done to announce it there still would have been time for a lot of people to see the WIP threads. But I would have missed out on some great suggestions too, so I'm not sure which way would be better.

GL:  Now that the Oblivion Book Jacket Mod is complete, do you have any plans for additional mods, or will you be taking a break?

PA:  I do want to relax and play the game a bit. I've been asked to contribute books to a few mods in progress and to make covers for those Morrowind and Daggerfall books added by mods. For the Morrowind books, I want to try creating new meshes to fit my old textures rather than doing the textures again.

I am very happy to have this mod to add to my playing experience in Oblivion, and it represents an opportunity for a big increase in enjoyment based on a relatively small aspect of the original game design. Additionally, I will have the pleasure of seeing one of my original Celtic knotwork designs that Phoenix incorporated into the design of the Children of the Sky book cover included in the mod.

If you are playing Oblivion, you owe it to yourself to add this mod to your playing experience.  You will see why Ashley Chang, producer for Oblivion, had this to say about Phoenix Amon's Oblivion Book Jacket Mod:

"This is one of the most creative mods I've ever seen."

Thanks to Phoenix Amon for all the time and effort put into making this very creative mod -  it is sure to become one of the "must have" Oblivion mods available.

You can read my original post about the mod (when it was still a work in progess) HERE.

Getting More Women into Game Development: An Interview with Tara Teich, Part II

At the recent Women in Games International conference keynote speaker Denise Fulton, head of Midway"s Austin studio, had this to say on the topic of getting more women working in the game design industry:

“I’m a hiring manager,” Fulton explained.  “I’ve been a hiring manager for a number of years. One out of maybe twenty resumes I see is from a woman – that’s not about who’s good, who’s bad – you’re just not seeing them apply.”

She expresses one of the ultimate issues responsible for the number of women working in the industry - the limited number of women applying for jobs.  In this second part of my interview with AI Programmer Tara Teich (read the first post HERE) I have asked her some questions specific to the point of attracting more women to game development:

Guilded Lily:  The number of women working in game design has been slowly increasing, but there is still a vast majority of men working in the field.  What do you see as the major obstacles to getting more women involved in the game industry, and what do you think could bring more women into this field?

Tara Teich:  So many people are trying to answer this question.  I think there are so many issues here.  First, why aren't there more women programmers in general?  I remember reading a great article in the Boston Globe about this.  And thanks to the power of the internet, you can too: LINK HERE (free registration required).

    The basic idea is that during the dot-com era, everyone and their cousin was becoming a computer science major so they could make big bucks.  With overwhelming class sizes, the profs starting trying to weed people out by making the intro classes really tough.   In these weed-out situations, you lose a higher percentage of women then men, or so says the article.

    I know that was the case at my school.  Many women I know either took the intro CS class and then stopped because it was too tough, or were intimidated out of it by reputation alone.  Fewer women go into CS as a result.

    This is probably a bit of a touchy subject, but I'm going to say what I think.  Women are more social then men.  Not *all* women of course.  But as an aggregate, women are a more social creature then men.  Programming tends to be a very solitary, very isolating path.  You need to be satisfied working on challenges within your own head, and not necessarily interacting with people at all.  Once you get out into the workforce, programming is a much more shared challenge.  But in school, group projects are few and small.  I think many women get turned off by that sort of required solitude.

    Next up, the challenges of getting into the industry.  This issue applies to both programmers and designers.  Start with the pool of programmers - already not many women there, my graduating class had 10% women, in 2000 - and let's start applying to the games industry.  Send out those resumes and hear nothing back.  We lose some people to well paying non-industry jobs.  Some stick it out, they make demos, they take internships for little pay and apply again.  We lose some more.  After all this, how many are left at all?  What percent of them were women to begin with?

GL:  I get the sense that programming is the area of the game industry that has the lowest percentage of women.  Do you know if that is the case?

TT: I don't actually know.  I've only worked at one game company so far, and the numbers of women that I've seen at all are too low to be able to make that kind of a generalization.  On my last project, however, we had three women programmers at one point, out of 10 programmers total.  That was quite exciting.  But very unusual.

GL:  What are some of the better approaches you have seen to encourage more women to consider the game industry as a career?

TT:  I think the biggest change for the better has been the rise of "geek chic."  It's become increasingly "cool" to be a geek.  When I was growing up, I was mocked by my peers as a nerd for my love of gaming.  No one admired me for being a girl into gaming.  I don't know what's caused the cultural shift (maybe the dot-com era and the realization that being a nerd can bring in the bucks?), but today everyone I meet thinks it's totally awesome that I'm a gamer.  Kids today don't have the same difficulties that some of us had.  It's fine if a little girl wants to play a computer game now - gaming has just become more mainstream.  With more and more girls growing up gamers, it becomes more likely that more of them will want to make games.

    Everyone is constantly discussing what we can do to bring more women into the games industry, but I don't think we need to work so hard at it.  I think it's getting better every year because of this gradual cultural shift.  More women play games, more women will make games.

    I think the best thing to do is to constantly encourage girls and remind them they can do whatever they want.  Send women from the games industry to talk to the girls and tell them about their jobs.  Send women to universities to remind them as they grow that we're out here and we're having fun.

GL:  Do you feel that as the game industry grows that the percentage of women working in game design will naturally increase, or do you feel that there will need to be a continuing effort to increase the number of women in game design.

TT:  I think I covered this a bit.  Yes, I think it will naturally increase.  But I do think that some game companies need to grow with the times and make sure they become welcoming to women.  I had the good fortune to work at a place were I was completely respected, but I've heard from women in the industry who had terrible experiences where they were made to feel like their gender was all that mattered.  I'm sure this is true in many non-game companies as well, but it's something that we should be extra aware of as companies that were female-free for many years gain their first women employees.

Thanks very much to Tara for taking time out from her busy schedule to answer these questions, and best of luck to her in her new job.  You can keep up with Tara's progress via her blog, Free Candy for Everyone.

Getting More Women into Game Development: An Interview with Tara Teich, Part II

At the recent Women in Games International conference keynote speaker Denise Fulton, head of Midway"s Austin studio, had this to say on the topic of getting more women working in the game design industry:

“I’m a hiring manager,” Fulton explained.  “I’ve been a hiring manager for a number of years. One out of maybe twenty resumes I see is from a woman – that’s not about who’s good, who’s bad – you’re just not seeing them apply.”

She expresses one of the ultimate issues responsible for the number of women working in the industry - the limited number of women applying for jobs.  In this second part of my interview with AI Programmer Tara Teich (read the first post HERE) I have asked her some questions specific to the point of attracting more women to game development:

Guilded Lily:  The number of women working in game design has been slowly increasing, but there is still a vast majority of men working in the field.  What do you see as the major obstacles to getting more women involved in the game industry, and what do you think could bring more women into this field?

Tara Teich:  So many people are trying to answer this question.  I think there are so many issues here.  First, why aren't there more women programmers in general?  I remember reading a great article in the Boston Globe about this.  And thanks to the power of the internet, you can too: LINK HERE (free registration required).

    The basic idea is that during the dot-com era, everyone and their cousin was becoming a computer science major so they could make big bucks.  With overwhelming class sizes, the profs starting trying to weed people out by making the intro classes really tough.   In these weed-out situations, you lose a higher percentage of women then men, or so says the article.

    I know that was the case at my school.  Many women I know either took the intro CS class and then stopped because it was too tough, or were intimidated out of it by reputation alone.  Fewer women go into CS as a result.

    This is probably a bit of a touchy subject, but I'm going to say what I think.  Women are more social then men.  Not *all* women of course.  But as an aggregate, women are a more social creature then men.  Programming tends to be a very solitary, very isolating path.  You need to be satisfied working on challenges within your own head, and not necessarily interacting with people at all.  Once you get out into the workforce, programming is a much more shared challenge.  But in school, group projects are few and small.  I think many women get turned off by that sort of required solitude.

    Next up, the challenges of getting into the industry.  This issue applies to both programmers and designers.  Start with the pool of programmers - already not many women there, my graduating class had 10% women, in 2000 - and let's start applying to the games industry.  Send out those resumes and hear nothing back.  We lose some people to well paying non-industry jobs.  Some stick it out, they make demos, they take internships for little pay and apply again.  We lose some more.  After all this, how many are left at all?  What percent of them were women to begin with?

GL:  I get the sense that programming is the area of the game industry that has the lowest percentage of women.  Do you know if that is the case?

TT: I don't actually know.  I've only worked at one game company so far, and the numbers of women that I've seen at all are too low to be able to make that kind of a generalization.  On my last project, however, we had three women programmers at one point, out of 10 programmers total.  That was quite exciting.  But very unusual.

GL:  What are some of the better approaches you have seen to encourage more women to consider the game industry as a career?

TT:  I think the biggest change for the better has been the rise of "geek chic."  It's become increasingly "cool" to be a geek.  When I was growing up, I was mocked by my peers as a nerd for my love of gaming.  No one admired me for being a girl into gaming.  I don't know what's caused the cultural shift (maybe the dot-com era and the realization that being a nerd can bring in the bucks?), but today everyone I meet thinks it's totally awesome that I'm a gamer.  Kids today don't have the same difficulties that some of us had.  It's fine if a little girl wants to play a computer game now - gaming has just become more mainstream.  With more and more girls growing up gamers, it becomes more likely that more of them will want to make games.

    Everyone is constantly discussing what we can do to bring more women into the games industry, but I don't think we need to work so hard at it.  I think it's getting better every year because of this gradual cultural shift.  More women play games, more women will make games.

    I think the best thing to do is to constantly encourage girls and remind them they can do whatever they want.  Send women from the games industry to talk to the girls and tell them about their jobs.  Send women to universities to remind them as they grow that we're out here and we're having fun.

GL:  Do you feel that as the game industry grows that the percentage of women working in game design will naturally increase, or do you feel that there will need to be a continuing effort to increase the number of women in game design.

TT:  I think I covered this a bit.  Yes, I think it will naturally increase.  But I do think that some game companies need to grow with the times and make sure they become welcoming to women.  I had the good fortune to work at a place were I was completely respected, but I've heard from women in the industry who had terrible experiences where they were made to feel like their gender was all that mattered.  I'm sure this is true in many non-game companies as well, but it's something that we should be extra aware of as companies that were female-free for many years gain their first women employees.

Thanks very much to Tara for taking time out from her busy schedule to answer these questions, and best of luck to her in her new job.  You can keep up with Tara's progress via her blog, Free Candy for Everyone.

Women in Game Development: An Interview with Tara Teich

The topic of women working in the game industry has come up a number of times on the Guilded Lilies blog.  When looking at issues in game development that impact women gamers, especially elements that work as a barrier to women players, the general solution always ends up having to do with getting more women involved in the development of games.  The rough estimate of the number of women working in the game industry today is 10%, and many companies are making efforts to see that number increase.

I am interested in finding out more about the women who are involved in this industry, and what they think will help attract more women to game development.  To that end I have put together a two-part interview with Tara Teich.  Tara is an AI programmer working in the games industry.  I met Tara on the Women in Game Development email list, where she can be counted on to express a clear perspective on the issues discussed there.  I was curious to find out more about Tara's work, and her insights about what it is like for her working in the games industry.  Tara took some time out from preparing for her move to the west coast to answer some questions.

I asked her to introduce herself and the