GameDAILY BIZ: Women are underrepresented in the games industry, both on the development side and on the consumer level. What do you see as the key issues causing this imbalance, and is this also the case in Australia?

Evelyn Richardson: Companies aren't attracting women from a range of possible sectors because they do not use lateral recruiting channels. Currently, traditional channels like game developer magazines are used and many women find the ways in which these magazines portray women as stereotypical and hence not compelling. Other more innovative avenues could be used; e.g. science and technology and design publications (graphic design, creative mags, animation, etc.)

As with the global market, Australia faces these issues. However, companies are trying to address the imbalance and more actively recruit women. Over the past 2 years, I've visited pretty much every game development studio in Australia, and over that time the growth in the number of women is apparent. But, we still need to attract more.

BIZ: Does Australia have a unique approach to addressing this imbalance such as degree courses, or networking and business groups that encourage women to get into the industry?

ER: We do have a Women in Games Network (www.womeningames.org.au), which has been established specifically to provide a support mechanism for women in the local industry. The network is growing and it is our hope that it will provide a forum for support, mentoring, and discussion.

The GDAA also sponsors the Women in Games Lunch at the Australian Game Developer Conference each year. In the past two years, we've had over 45 women attend those functions -- up from 8 at the conference the year prior to that. Compared with similar international events (e.g. in the US) that's a significant number.

BIZ: Some of the best-selling games of all time have been games that appealed to a female as well as male audience. What are the content choices that developers can make to broaden the success of their games with the female audience?

ER: There are a lot of games that appeal to guys and many that appeal to women -- i.e. strategy games. In terms of broadening the audience, it's not necessarily a case of rewriting games or changing genres, it's more a case of focusing on more intelligent game design; for example, World of Warcraft (a role playing PC game) is very popular with women. There are games that could broaden the context of how women are portrayed as characters in those games and move away from the bimbo, high-heeled 'chicks' to more relevant and appealing female characters.

BIZ: What can we do as an industry to attract and retain women into careers in game development?

ER: Like many industries globally, we need to address some cultural issues within studios, which means creating environments that are friendly for everyone and not boys' playgrounds! In terms of the future, more family-friendly policies will be necessary if the global industry is to minimize churn as the younger talent gets older and wants to balance family and work commitments. Women are interested in working in the games industry and globally the industry is growing up, but in terms of some of these issues, it's still an adolescent. There is some work to do to create work environments where gender doesn't matter (these observations apply across the world).

BIZ: Which professions/sectors do women typically migrate from to enter the games industry?

ER: They come from a variety of areas: graphic design, fine arts, and programming. Many women move into games development through someone they know already working in the industry -- i.e. their peer network.

BIZ: Australian games firms work seamlessly in the lucrative Asia Pacific markets, so your member companies would have considerable experience in that region. Are Asian firms and Australian firms working in Asia also experiencing this industry gender imbalance?"

ER: Yes. Asia is experiencing this gender imbalance. But we'd need to look at each part of Asia rather than generalizing. We know, for example, that in Malaysia and Singapore there are larger numbers of women doing computer science but we don't know that they're moving into games.

BIZ: Thanks for your time, Evelyn.