Women in the Gaming Industry

Women make their marks in an industry traditionally dominated by men. An interview with Nina Ferriera.

by Andrew Ayala

Women are continuing to constantly break barriers in the video game industry. Whether they are successful streamers, competitors or developers, women are continuously opening doors for proper representation in a field that was once dominated by men.

Newzoo.com, provider of games and esports analytics, says that women make up 46% of gamers in the U.S. Their research says that 36% of women gamers are time-filler gamers who play when they have time to spare or at social events.

Long Beach State University, like many other colleges across the U.S., has an esports club with many women who are members.

Third year kinesiology and exercise science major Nina Ferriera has a passion for video games and likes to play when she has free time.

“I used to watch my brother play when I was little because my hands weren’t big enough to hold the controller yet. I’d just watch him play with his friends and would think ‘that looks like so much fun, he’s always laughing and having a good time,’” she said. “Soon enough, I got sucked in and started playing and now I can’t stop.”

Ferriera admitted she doesn’t keep up with too many streamers but does watch Pokimane at times because she can be entertaining.

Although Ferriera doesn’t stream as often as she likes due to a busy schedule filled with work and school, when she can, she live streams her favorite game “Rocket League.”

Image capture by Andrew Ayala

For now, her intentions with streaming are to entertain herself and others. In the future, she says it would be “awesome” to eventually become someone who competes or streams for a living.

The issue is keeping up with those who have the time to constantly practice and broadcast live. If her following continues to grow she feels she has the potential to become a big-time streamer who promotes representation for women in the industry.

GlobalWebIndex, an audience targeting company that provides audience insight, said that in 2019, 35% of Twitch’s users were female. This was a significant change considering that just two years prior, only 18.5% of users on the platform were female.

“I think it’s cool for people like me who have only seen men play and dominate the industry to see other girl streamers and professional players. It can bring up other women and make them feel like, ‘Oh I can do that,’” said Ferriera. “It always seemed like a guy's game. That’s almost why I didn’t start playing and I would just watch him. I started to think that it’s something girls weren’t supposed to do.”

Characters in video games can also be an issue when it comes down to the proper representation of women. There are countless instances where players can choose either a man or woman for their character, and the woman is wearing little-to-nothing while the man has a full and proper suit of armor.

Ferriera says that she always plays the male protagonist because of the over-sexualization that comes with choosing a woman character. In her experience, that wasn’t limited to the character’s base form. Even the armor upgrades seemed flimsy and unsatisfying. In a few other games however, such as some titles from the “Pokemon” and “Assassin’s Creed” series, make women characters look good without the over-sexualization and stereotypes.

Some thing Ferriera brought up that has produced issues for her in the past is men completely losing their cool and acting like children as soon as they hear her voice via game chat.

“Whenever I play online, I'm almost afraid to talk in the game if I’m not in a group of friends, or if I’m playing solo,” she said.

“Valorant” is a first-person shooter where she has had many instances of her communicating with her team and someone shouting, “Is that a gamer girl?” Hearing statements like that shut her off and make her not really want to talk anymore.

“From what I have seen, there are women who sexualize themselves to try and make money that way,’’ she said, “[but] I have a lot of fun with my friends and think we’re really funny, so I just want to try and spread that joy to other people.”

Although some barriers have been broken, there is still much progress that needs to be made.

“If [women] started talking more in-game, then it would make that ‘Is that a gamer girl?’” joke less common,” she said.

In addition, with more and more women competing in professional games and pursuing careers in the industry, Ferriera believes the playing field will finally level out in terms of representation.

“I think if we keep pushing we can eventually make it more of a norm for girls to be in the games and in turn, break down some of the barriers that are still up,” Ferriera said.

Watch Nina Ferriera play games like “Rocket League” and “Valorant” at twitch.tv/EliteEliminator4.