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.

(Wo)Man's Best Friend: Fable 2

Game developer Peter Molyneux is in the news for storyline innovations for the upcoming game Fable 2, which has no official release date but is expected some time later in 2007.  In last Friday's BBC article Molyneux announced that one of the new goals of the game would be to create an emotional connection between the player and game elements.  Peter Molyneux is building love into Fable 2.

I would like to say two things briefly before getting to the heart of this post:  First - that I am happy to see that there will be an option in Fable 2 to play as a female character. The lack of this option has kept me from playing the original Fable game, although I have been very curious about the elements of character development used in its design.  Second - it is also nice to see a developer speaking so strongly about the importance of story.  Molyneux had this to say in a recent GamePro.com interview:

"My ambition is to really just tell a really compelling story. What I keep saying in our meetings is that we have got to think more like storytellers and less like programmers."

There is still a great deal of difference of opinion about the importance of story in games, but since my views fall clearly on the side of storytelling, I am eager to see how this will be explored in Fable 2.

The thing that I find most interesting about the incorporation of love into the design of Fable 2 is one of the ways it is being implemented.  The main source of this emotional connection will be the love and devotion you feel from your character's pet dog.  Here's what Molyneux had to say about it in the BBC article:

"We have spent an enormous amount of time and effort to make something that feels real. I want you to make you feel it is a real dog. I want you to feel something when you play a game; that's what this feature is about."

Your character's dog will be replacing the UI map in the game, acting as your guide through the game world.  Your dog's appearance will be unique to your character, and it will change as your character changes based on the choices you make in the game.  Here's more detail of your dog's function in the game, from a GameSpot UK article:

"One of the most intriguing things about your pet dog is that you'll have no direct control over it whatsoever, while almost everything that you do will influence its behavior. When you're walking around, he'll rarely stray too far away from you, but he'll actively explore the area and, in doing so, he'll draw your attention to points of interest and anything that has changed since the last time you were there. Furthermore, when he senses danger, he'll move ahead of you and start barking and growling to alert you. Your dog will be your guide through the free-roaming world that Fable 2 takes place in, and he purportedly performs that duty so well that Lionhead has seen fit to do away with the first game's minimap."

I find this to be a very compelling idea, and will be interested to see how this is actually implemented in the finished game.  I may have to wait a while longer to get a chance to play this game on my PC, since Fable 2 is being released first on the Xbox 360, but it is definitely something I would like to experience playing.

This seems like such a vast improvement to me over the role that dogs have in Oblivion, that I just have to mention again how impossible it is for me to understand that the Bethesda development team would think that gameplay which includes regularly having to kill dogs, even if they are bad dogs to begin with, would be a good design decision (see my previous post on this HERE).  Since Molyneux has identified the relationship between player and dog as one of the main ways in his game to generate the feeling of being loved - the feeling of unconditional love and devotion that is present in that relationship - then Bethesda's oversight seems even more glaring now than it did on release.

PS:  There is an Oblivion pet mod called "Cheydinhal Petshop", created by Lady Eternity & Proudfoot, which allows you to have a pet in Oblivion that levels along with your character.  I haven't tried it out yet, but it is listed among the featured Oblivion mods in the April issue of Computer Games magazine.  Additionally, for a very simple fix that eliminates the need to kill dogs in Oblivion, try my "No Bad Dogs" mod available HERE.

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 . . .?

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.

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?

Take A Falcon To Lunch Day

Below is an ad that has been running for several months in PC Gamer magazine.  It is an ad from Falcon Northwest, makers of high-end PC gaming systems:

All I would like to say to Falcon Northwest is, please, somebody; take this model out to lunch so she can stop eating her shirt.

I am getting a bit fatigued by seeing this ad in each issue of PC Gamer I receive lately, and increasingly tired by the fanboy focus of the magazine.  I am going to let my subscription run out on PC Gamer, and stick with Computer Games magazine as my source for print based gaming news from now on.  Computer Games has shown its willingness to grow with the gaming demographic, and provides gaming news and reviews that don't automatically assume that every reader is an immature adolescent male geek.  It isn't this ad that has caused me to throw in the chewed-on tank top of a towel with PC Gamer - this ad is benign in its relative idiocy.  It is more their editorial focus that just doesn't work for me as a reader.  Every magazine has the right and financial need to choose their demographic, and PC Gamer does focus on a niche, but I am no longer willing to put up with the overall pandering to the generally immature nature of their perceived readership that permeates the magazine's content. Maybe someday PC Magazine will grow up a bit and make it out of Junior High, but for now I have had enough.

By the look of things I think Falcon Northwest should make an appointment for their model with an ophthalmologist after lunch as well.

You can see a high resolution version of the ad HERE.

UPDATE 10/4/06:

Dear Falcon Northwest,

I see from your ad in the November issue of PC Gamer Magazine that you followed my suggestion and took your model out for lunch before your most recent photo shoot.  It's nice not having to look at her chewing on her tank top anymore, but I think by the way she is twisting it with her thumb that she may still be feeling a bit peckish.  Maybe next time you should insist she order from the desert menu as well?

Thanks for your time.

Sincerely;

Guilded Lily

PS:  I still think she could use an eye exam.

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 games she has worked on:

My name is Tara Teich and I'm 27.  I've been working in the Boston area for 6 years and am in the midst of moving to the Bay Area.  My MobyGames profile is complete, so that's the easiest place to look for the games I've worked on: LINK HERE.

Guilded Lily: How long have you been working in the games industry, and what type of work do you do in making games?

Tara Teich:  I've been in the games industry for six years.  I'm a programmer with a specialty in Artificial Intelligence.  Most recently I was the AI Lead on Empire Earth II and then the Lead Programmer on the EE2 expansion pack.  While AI is quickly becoming one of the newest buzz words in game news, many folks don't really know what working on a game's AI really means.  EE2 is a real-time strategy title - the easiest way to consider it is as the computer opponent.  When you play against the computer, everything it does is AI - deciding how to gather resources, where and what buildings to construct, what troops to build and where to send them - these are all elements of the AI. 

GL:  What is your education background - did you want to work in the games industry while still in school?

TT:  I have a BS in Computer Science from Northwestern University.  I always knew I wanted to be a games programmer, but wasn't necessarily sure how it would come about.  I first started programming really trivial Basic games when I was 11 - nothing anyone would want to play, but my heart was in the right place.  I entered Northwestern certain the CS was the right degree for me.  When it got along to my senior year I was determined to land a job in the games industry, but knew it was pretty difficult to do, so was willing to accept some sort of software engineer position as a fallback if absolutely necessary.

GL: With your experience working in the games industry, how important do you feel a specific education in game design is?  Do you think it is better to learn-as-you-go through job experience or to start from a strong educational background in game design?

TT:  I'd first like to make it clear that I'm a programmer, not a designer.  These are two completely separate jobs.  I saw many job candidates come through the door for a programming position when they really want to be game designers.  They are not the same thing, and in most cases, you cannot be both - at least not on a big budget "AAA" title.

As a programmer, I don't think a specific game curriculum is needed.  The most important things I looked for when hiring new programmers was intelligence and passion.  If you made 10 games at your specialty game programming school but you're not bright and excited, I wouldn't hire you.  You need to care about your work, be willing to devote yourself to your job, and realize how much there is that you don't know.  That's what matters.

As I've said, I'm not a game designer, but I've had the pleasure of working with many.  None of our designers had any sort of specific training - they had history degrees, CS degrees, English degrees.  Most came into the industry by proving themselves in the QA department.  They bring varied knowledge, and again, passion and enthusiasm.  Those are the things you need above all else.

GL:  Have you ever been in a work environment that was not supportive of you?

TT:  Never.  I know how rare that is, and I consider myself incredibly lucky.   I've never had my gender become a factor in my career.  Everyone has always dealt fairly with me and appreciated what I know and can do, not what I look like.

GL:  What specifically drew you to game development?  What is it about game development that you would recommend to other women considering pursuing a career in that field?

TT:  I love games.  That's the bottom line.  I've been playing video games for as far back as I can remember.  The idea that I could be a part of crafting something that could bring someone else as much entertainment as I received was really exciting.  I don't even remember the desire to work in the industry as a decision - it was just something I always knew I was going to do.

GL:  Do you still have time to play games?  What are a few of your current favorites outside of the ones you have worked on?

TT:  I do have time to play games.  For the last year, I've been playing way too much World of Warcraft.  I'm just a little bit addicted.  :)  I have a regular group that plays every Sunday night, and it's a lot of fun.  Before the WoW addiction started I played a lot of strategy games on PC - Civilization is my all time favorite, and I got a little time in on Civ 4.  I played some Galatic Civilizations 2 when it came out as well.  Console RPGs are my other big interest.  I was sooo close to the end of this one title called Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne (I was in the final dungeon of this large RPG) when I started playing WoW and unfortunately I've never quite made it back to complete it.  I really like the Final Fantasy series - FFX and X-2 had some great emotional impact for me.  Oh, and the first Xenosaga was fantastic!  But I digress.  Yes, I have time to play games, even in the industry.  I make games because I love them, and I think if my job took that away from me, I wouldn't want to do it anymore.

Tara has her own blog Free Candy for Everyone where she writes about games, tech gadgets and movies.

Stay tuned for part two of my interview with Tara Teich: Getting More Women into Game Development.

Oooooh, Statistics!: Macrovision Corp. on "Casual" Gamers

This bit of statistical goodness is just in via the Gamasutra website (found via Netwoman):

"A new report released by Macrovision Corporation, which operates the Trymedia Network for the digital distribution of PC games, reveals that, according to a recent worldwide survey, 37 percent of those who use casual games play nine or more two-hour 'sessions' each week.

In addition, the survey, of 789 worldwide participants, found that casual gameplay happens most often at night, as opposed to during commute hours or other 'quick break' times during the day, again indicating that the moniker 'casual' is a little anachronistic for the gameplay style."

This makes for a nice piece of statistical support of my previous post - Hardcore vs. Casual: It's a Woman's Prerogative - in why the language used to describe women gamers doesn't work.  The dismissive quality of the term "casual" as applied to women gamers just doesn't hold up under scrutiny as an accurate description of how women actually play, even if it is puzzle games they are playing.  Women play games - with dedication apparently - and older women play games too:

"Other findings include the fact that 37 percent of casual game players are between the ages of 35-49, while 28 percent fall between the ages of 50-60. Casual game players were found to be predominately female, with women making up 71 percent of those playing. Interestingly, 58 percent of those surveyed were found to have no children under age 18 living in their households."

Women gamers already knew this about themselves, but this presents a fairly significant shift in the conventional wisdom about the gaming habits of women:

"Our survey has determined that mainstream audiences dedicate a substantial amount of time to gameplay -- not just in 15-minute increments as previously thought," said Loren Hillberg, executive vice president and general manager of Commerce at Macrovision. "Whether advertisers are reaching out to casual or core audiences, we want them, through the results of our survey, to realize who gamers are, how they operate and what they like."

I would only add that this is helpful information as well for those developing games, not just those marketing them.  Since it supports the idea that women will play games for more than small time segments, developers don't have to automatically dismiss women as a potential market for a longer game format.  Even though this information is specific to "casual" games, it shows that women do invest a significant amount of their recreational time playing games, and it is so very nice to see the understanding of that fact expand though studies like this. 

So Many Virtual Books: Oblivion Book Jacket Mod

In my travels on The Elder Scrolls Oblivion Forum I recently found a post on a modder's work in progress to replace all of the 300+ in-game book jackets (that are a little ho-hum) with dynamic looking covers. This may at first seem like a frivolous mod, compared with mods that create new quests or fresh dungeons to crawl through.  Judging from the response in the forum from those following this project it is clear that this is far from true, as this has become an anticipated release within the Oblivion modding community.

The Oblivion Book Jacket mod was first announced on the forum at the end of April.  Since that time there have been hundreds of replies to the forum posts about this mod, with well over ten thousand viewings. The mod creator is Phoenix Amon, a thirty-something modder who has been active in the modding community for a while, having created a similar book mod for TES III: Morrowind. 

I was curious to find out more about her modding project, so I asked Phoenix a few questions about what the process has been like for her.  Here are the results:

Guilded Lily: How long have you been modding games, and TES games specifically?

Phoenix Amon: I honestly can't remember. It's been years. Most of what I've done has been for my own use because I have a bad habit of starting projects that are too big to finish. Book Jackets for Morrowind was the first large mod I released for any game. That started out as something for myself, and I didn't decide to release it until I was about 50% done and sure I could finish.

GL: Do you see this as a hobby, or do you work in the game industry or want to work in the game industry?

PA: Definitely a hobby. I don't have broad enough talents to work in the industry, and I think being trapped into someone else's concepts would bore me anyway. I've always enjoyed art but I'm not very good at it. Modding gives me a chance to be artistic in a small way.

GL: How much time do you spend modding, and do you enjoy it more than playing games?

PA: I spend more time modding than playing recently, but I enjoy both a lot. I wouldn't have bought Oblivion if it hadn't been moddable, but that's because I knew from experience that I don't like a lot of Bethesda's game design choices. It's not a deciding factor for all games.

GL: What got you interested in making mods for Morrowind/Oblivion?

PA: Seeing what other people were doing. I'd find 4 mods that each had something that I liked and some other things that I didn't, so I started trying to put together all my favorite parts. Then I got caught up in the "playing with legos" aspect of it. Making 3D art is fun, but it's more fun when you can feel you're walking through a house you built yourself.

GL: You are about halfway completed on the book jacket mod - do you have a sense of when you will release it?

PA: It'll be at least a month, could be 2. After I finish the graphics I'll still need to do some polishing. And 2 very kind guys are working on proofreading all of the game books for me, so I'll need to re-import some of the text. There are a lot of spelling and grammar errors in the books and my mod will not be compatible with any other mod that corrects them, so I want to combine those features.

GL: Do you think that as a woman you approach modding any differently than your male counterparts? Do you see modding as a way to make games more enjoyable to play as a woman?

PA: I think women are people-pleasers more often than men. That's a bug in my system, at any rate. So in this case where I made the mistake of announcing what I was up to so far in advance, I'm going to be including a bunch of alternate designs to try to please a wider audience. That's not unique to being a woman, but probably somewhat more common.

I don't think there's any type of mod that universally appeals to women rather than men, but there are probably some types that fill gaps more often noticed by women. For instance I think when NPCs in a game lack any form of personality, women will be more likely than men to be bothered by it. Mostly, though, I think mods make games more fun for individuals by allowing them to tailor their own experience.

GL: Do you find that male modders on the forums are surprised when they learn you are female?

PA: Sometimes yes, particularly in the gaming communities where I've been more on the technical than the artistic end. But it surprises me when they're surprised because I'm always aware of lots more women doing the same types of things.

I enjoy sharing what I've learned, and a lot of times where I do the teacher routine and then people find out I'm a women their response is, "So that explains the patience!" Which it doesn't; I'm not patient, I'm greedy. I want what they are going to be able to create after they learn how to use the tools. ;-)

GL: Do you have any suggestions for modders just getting started with the Oblivion CS?

PA: Download other mods that do different things and pull them apart to see what they're made of. Like everything else, it's easiest to learn by breaking something. ;-)

GL: Is there anything specific you would like to say about your mod or modding Oblivion in general?

PA: Hm, freeform… um… About my mod I'd like to thank everyone who's taken the time to make comments more thoughtful than "That's awesome, dude!" It's hard to find people on the net to give an honest critique on a work in progress or finished project. Sometimes I don't agree with people's comments and sometimes I don't have the talent to incorporate them, but I really appreciate getting thoughtful feedback in all cases.

About modding for Oblivion, I'd like to encourage people to keep making small changes. It doesn't have to be grand in scope to be a great mod.

Thanks very much to Phoenix for taking time away from working on the book jacket mod to answer my questions.  I know I am not alone in anticipating the release of this Oblivion mod, and will post links on the GL blog once it is available for downloading.

Until then you can follow the development of this project on the Elder Scrolls forum with the current thread HERE, with previous forum threads HERE, HERE and HERE.

You can view all of image files Phoenix has posted to the forum at her PhotoBucket album HERE.

UPDATE 7/15/06: The Oblivion Book Jacket mod is now available - read more HERE.

Vive La Différence: Nintendo DS Lite

I have been having a little fun with an image from a French Nintendo website, one of several released (as far as my awful French comprehension skills will reveal) for an advertising campaign called "Lifestyle of Nintendo".  You can see all of the images by following this link HERE and scrolling to the bottom of the page. 

One image in particular caught my eye, primarily because I don't believe I have ever seen such a thing before: sophisticated women playing games.  Okay, so they are beautiful young sophisticated women playing games, but they are doing it in such a subtle and self-reserved manner.  This is in complete contrast to the usual way in which young women are presented in console or game advertising, as accessories for the male players, or as a kind of gaming cheerleader while their male counterparts are having all the fun.  These women have an air of being singular and self-possesed, equally at home playing Super Mario or Brain Age, or not playing anything at all.  Although the women in this image are young and beautiful and sexy, they are not being depicted as brimming forth from some chain-mail bikini in the traditional booth babe ideal that I am used to seeing. Not a glimpse of cleavage to be seen!

Maybe these images look so fresh and different to me because they are directed at a French audience instead of the usual American advertising fare I see.  I think though, based on the presentation of the Wii at E3, that Nintendo has discovered something ahead of the other major game console makers: women are worth marketing to.  There has been a great deal of speculation about who will win the next generation console wars.  If Nintendo succeeds in attracting women as buyers, then without a doubt they will see the benefits of accessing an untapped market that makes up over half of the population.

I for one have been so bludgeoned to the brink of death by the sexism that is the standard for game advertising that I don't even mind that these images are a little silly when you examine them.  Sure, everyone seems to be wrapped up in their own existential funk in these pictures, with a sense that they can hardly stand themselves because they look so beautiful and cool.  But I don't mind that at all because it is so blessedly DIFFERENT. Say what you will about these advertising images from Nintendo, but to me it feels like a crisp breeze blowing in off the peaks of Chamonix.

Buuuuuut - I myself could not resist the urge to add captions to the image, and I blame it on an unnamed member of the Women in Game Development email list (where I first heard about these images) who suggested as much. Plus, look at all that blank space above their heads, it's just asking to be filled in with imagined thoughts ala PhotoShop.  Don't you want to do the same thing too?

You can link directly to the original full size images HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE.

The Mother of Invention: Mysty Watercolor Memories

It's Mother's Day, and so time for me to pay tribute to the mother of my computer game obsession: my own dear Mum!

She may not realize that she plays such an important roll in my gaming life, and when she reads this she may be scratching her head asking "where did I go wrong?", but it is to her that I owe my fascination with computer games.  It is my mother who gave me my first computer game many years ago, the original Myst game for the PC.  She played it first, and then got me and my siblings to play it as well.  As simple as that game format looks today, it was enough to capture my imagination completely - and here I am today, blogging incessantly about games, all thanks to Mum!

My mother isn't an Old Grandma Hardcore by any stretch of the imagination, and she would want me to make that clear from the start.  I love OGHC, but I'm pretty sure that my mother doesn't swear like a sailor while playing games, and she has NEVER been on MTV!  My mother has never played a console game and has only ever played games from the Myst series.  What she lacks in breadth she makes up for with sheer dedication - which can be attested by the fact that she played Uru (until even she couldn't stand it anymore). She has played all the games in the series right up to the End of Ages which she is currently stalled in playing, due to some irrational aspect of the game story (an arbitrary puzzle sequence). She has stuck with them, and try as I may, I can't get her to play anything else.

I played Myst, Riven and Exile and enjoyed those games very much. Sometimes I would go to my mother's house and we would play the games together.  She would sit and watch my slow progress, and try not to give away the answer to the puzzles. The artwork in those games is what captivated me, and it generated an interest in the interactive potential for illustrated storytelling that still motivates me.  I lost interest in the Myst games at Uru - a disaster of a game.  How much fun is it to navigate a 3D game world when all you do is bump into walls?  Soon after I discovered Dungeon Siege, and I have never looked back at the old point-and-click Myst games since. 

I respect her dedication to the Myst game format even though I moved on years ago.  I have tried to interest my mother in other games without any luck.  If she could get over the shooting people all the time aspect of game play I think she would love interacting with the world of Half Life 2.  Besides, I think a good shooter game would be just the thing she needs.  I'm not sure if I will ever get her to see my point of view on this, but I did get her to sit through the first Tomb Raider movie, so perhaps I need to introduce her to Tomb Raider: Legends?  The third person perspective removes the direct responsibility for killing from the player onto Lara Croft, so perhaps that would work. 

So, Mum, the next time you call and I can't talk because I am playing Guild Wars you will understand that you have only yourself to blame.  And when you worry about me playing violent games, that it will make me aggressive - that's all yours too.  You started this thing innocently enough, but start it you did, and I can't thank you enough.  Happy Mother's Day!

Hey, maybe I could get you interested in playing Guild Wars!?!

UPDATE 5/31/06:  I found out via the Terra Nova blog that Uru Live is being resurrected.   Now there's something to get my mother's attention!

Hardcore Vs. Casual: It's A Woman's Prerogative