Yesterday, G4TV ran a really good profile on gamer, designer, student and all-around awesome young woman named Alicia Crawford. Crawford was this year’s recipient of the Gamers In Real Life (G.I.R.L.) Scholarship Award and a paid internship with Sony Online Entertainment studios. G.I.R.L. is possibly one of the industry’s most forward thinking initiative to answer the age old question, “how do you get more women into such a predominately male industry?”
Though on the outside, SOE can very well be criticized by writing off the $10,000 scholarship, however by combining the scholarship with an opportunity to intern at a working studio, bigger than having a portion of your tuition paid for (believe me, that’s pretty big) is getting that much needed real-world E word: Experience.
As told to G4:
“I’ve gone from learning about developing games to being able to work in the industry,” Crawford says. “When I go back to school I’ll know where to focus my skills at. This experience will make me better fit to get a position in the game industry in the future. I have more knowledge about what I need to do and what I need to know to be a game artist. Also it’s been a blast.”
SOE seems to be on to something here, if we really want to attract more women into the game design business, the industry needs to create more opportunities for women and in turn women will take video game design, stories, and game play concepts into a new and exciting world. Who knows, maybe one day it’ll even make up for Dead or Alive: Xtreme Beach Volleyball.
Source: G4TV
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