Comments on: Finding and Hiring Female Developers

By: Darren Torpey

Darren Torpey — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 03:42:00 +0000

Seems to me there are two basic parts to it. As Craig said, don't overreact with patronizing or demeaning over-sensitivity and don't presume that conventional wisdom's takes on what women like in games are accurate.

Besides that, it's all about not driving them away. I think you are right to just assume that your company would be fine because it's cool but not because that's enough. It's because, assuming you choose the right people to work with (at least at first) your company would hopefully not create the kind of culture that would drive women away. Of course, that again gets back to the not overreacting issue.

Okay, so maybe it's not possible, because "boys will be boys" so unless you start with a radically and outstandingly balanced set of workers the culture will just "naturally" come up. But I'm not so sure about that. If you start with the right people, you might have a chance.

I think there are plenty of women out there who are just right and who *will* be naturally attracted to your company. The trick is just to not drive them away. ;)

By: Ian Schreiber

Ian Schreiber — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 23:04:00 +0000

Strangely, nearly all the women I know in the industry are on that list.

While I’d like to think this is due to my great networking skills to know so many influential people, I suspect it’s mainly because there are only 100 women in the industry, total…

By: Bradley Momberger

Bradley Momberger — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 06:03:00 +0000

But then I realized what a patronizing attitude that is. Sometimes I feel like "make it social" is the new "slap on a Barbie license."

I think you may be giving the general public too much credit here. Remember the old Stiglerian* adage, "Nobody ever went broke underestimating the (taste|intelligence) of the American public." The fact that you're having these thoughts that "social elements => female-friendly" is not patronizing so much as it is a conditioned response based almost entirely on the economics of the industry. The catch that you're falling victim to is that you're crawling back into the box. You're being a suit about it and letting a slanty view of what sells influence your idea of what to make. And that's not why you are where you are, is it?

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*Stiglerian: in the vein of Stigler's Law, attributed to people who never coined it but not to whoever actually did.

By: Craig Perko

Craig Perko — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 04:38:00 +0000

(Now if you have a blogger 2 account, you can't post to blogger 1 blogs? Oh, come on, that's just flat-out retarded.)

Don't know much about female devs, but it didn't seem very hard to find a female artist.

I think a lot of people get too wound up about the issues, and then when they try to deal with an issue, it just daunts them and they flatline.

I see too many people approach an issue that daunts them with an oversensitivity that drives people away. I've seen a lot of people who simply approach it openly and with confidence, and they seem to succeed.

If you need a female dev, go find one. They exist, and even if they are too busy or uninterested, they may know - get this - OTHER female devs.