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A review by dorinlazar
Women in Gaming: 100 Professionals of Play by Meagan Marie
2.0
Ok, let's talk about the elephant in the room. I really think that these X women that did Y collections are pretty dumb, not because it's something about women and omg that's bad, but because it feels like you're cherry picking and blowing the merits of those women out of proportion; it feels like you're lying by discarding „competition”. I really hope that feminism will get out of the need to segregate based on sex soon, because boy, this is tiresome.
The book is a collection of portraits, bios, targeted mini-interviews and a few articles on gaming. 100 women that had important contributions in gaming. So, let's go for the good, the bad and the ugly.
The good: this collection is quite interesting. The selection made by the author is, generally, commendable. Of course, she ends up adding people like Anita Sarkeesian there, but I guess that's unavoidable; fortunately, the author had enough class to leave out the Kickstarter fraud Zoe Quinn, so I guess there's a positive there. There are a lot of people from various areas of the gaming industry presented there. There is diversity in all ways imaginable (except sex, of course). I love the fact that there are a lot of essential roles in gaming portrayed, roles that are usually forgotten or disregarded. There's a reason why the credits roll for an Assassin's Creed game goes for 8+ minutes, there are a lot of people involved, and this book manages to portray some people in those roles.
The bad: The book is meant to be inspirational, and this is where I think it fails. Sure, one might argue that I'm not in the target audience. But there are books written about women that can be inspirational to men, and viceversa. The gender of the people should not change the impact they have on other people. So I blame the author; the personal short descriptions are caught in a D&Dish format that ends up making no sense (especially the „projects shipped” which sometimes is something like „how many things my employer released while I was working there”). The images are blurred to look 8-bit-cool but end up depersonalizing the women depicted.
The ugly: The bios are a mess - too small to matter, and too restrictive to leave space for the anyone to express themselves. They manage to make Brenda Romero boring. And I think that's the saddest part about this book. If your first contact with the people from gaming industry is this book, you'll be hit with accountants and PR people in which passion and attitude is just another number in a spreadsheet. The portraits are depersonalized. This book is as exciting as 100 LinkedIn profiles can be.
Overall, it's a missed opportunity. A blatantly sexist effort that makes gaming boring.
The book is a collection of portraits, bios, targeted mini-interviews and a few articles on gaming. 100 women that had important contributions in gaming. So, let's go for the good, the bad and the ugly.
The good: this collection is quite interesting. The selection made by the author is, generally, commendable. Of course, she ends up adding people like Anita Sarkeesian there, but I guess that's unavoidable; fortunately, the author had enough class to leave out the Kickstarter fraud Zoe Quinn, so I guess there's a positive there. There are a lot of people from various areas of the gaming industry presented there. There is diversity in all ways imaginable (except sex, of course). I love the fact that there are a lot of essential roles in gaming portrayed, roles that are usually forgotten or disregarded. There's a reason why the credits roll for an Assassin's Creed game goes for 8+ minutes, there are a lot of people involved, and this book manages to portray some people in those roles.
The bad: The book is meant to be inspirational, and this is where I think it fails. Sure, one might argue that I'm not in the target audience. But there are books written about women that can be inspirational to men, and viceversa. The gender of the people should not change the impact they have on other people. So I blame the author; the personal short descriptions are caught in a D&Dish format that ends up making no sense (especially the „projects shipped” which sometimes is something like „how many things my employer released while I was working there”). The images are blurred to look 8-bit-cool but end up depersonalizing the women depicted.
The ugly: The bios are a mess - too small to matter, and too restrictive to leave space for the anyone to express themselves. They manage to make Brenda Romero boring. And I think that's the saddest part about this book. If your first contact with the people from gaming industry is this book, you'll be hit with accountants and PR people in which passion and attitude is just another number in a spreadsheet. The portraits are depersonalized. This book is as exciting as 100 LinkedIn profiles can be.
Overall, it's a missed opportunity. A blatantly sexist effort that makes gaming boring.