Hello, Tap-Repeatedly –
I wanted to write an actual roundup of games I played in 2017 – there were a lot of good ones – and I promise that I still will. But today I am merely stopping by to direct your attention to others today. This hashtag that I’ve seen on Twitter over the last week fills me with joy. I must bask in it.
Some people seem to be favoring #womenbehindthegames, and that’s also totally fine.
Why is this so, so important to me? Please click on it. Either one. Both.
It’s women, talking about the work they’ve done in video games!
So many times the story that you hear is: there are no women here. Or, what’s come to be worse for me than even that story is this one: Games are a harsh, unforgiving, horrible place to be a woman, and no woman belongs here. The stories about harassment are the ones that constantly go viral. Hell, years ago, I’ve even written such stories myself, because it’s an easy story to tell. Somehow it’s harder to simply showcase the work of women and allow them to shout: We’re here! We make things! We contribute and manage and produce and code and draw and direct and write!
There are some game-famous women:
There are some that have done work you may have seen, but never known about the person behind it:
There are many many, there is a huge variety, and my heart is filling and I never want to stop hearing these amazing stories.
I request that this hashtag go on forever, so that I can learn more about cool creators that I haven’t seen before, and also about some more interesting games that I have yet to play.
It’s not too much to ask, right?
AJ has been a workaholic lately, but if you miss her, you can email her at aj@tap-repeatedly.com, or watch her Twitch stream roughly twice a week at http://twitch.tv/litagemini.
That’s awesome! Calling attention to the work that goes into game development is good on its own, and helping to create a space where all the women who work in games every day have a chance to describe their roles is even better. I hope they keep doing this!