The 3G Summit: Interview With Mindy Faber ~ She's Got Game

Friday, July 16, 2010

The 3G Summit: Interview With Mindy Faber

Recently, my friend at Set On Stun told me about the 3G Summit. I took a look at their site, and not only was I interested, I was impressed. The 3G Summit, in short, is being held at Columbia College in Chicago, Illinois. The four day event is going to pull fifty urban girls from area schools and give them an introduction to the video game industry with speakers and workshops, and they will even be making their own game prototype (no fair!).

I did an interview with Mindy Faber, one of the event planners who have helped make this event a reality:

The 3G Summit is extremely unique, and innovative. How did the idea come about for the 3G Summit?

At Columbia College’s Interactive Arts and Media Department, we have a fantastic game design program. But when I arrived in 2009, we only had one female in our graduating class that year. Our Chair and faculty want so badly to diversify our student body, but this is a bigger problem than any recruitment strategy can solve. It is ubiquitous and it is cultural. Over the long term, if we want to achieve our goal of 50% men and 50% women game design majors in our department, we need to first understand why the problem exists and then galvanize the necessary forces to overcome those obstacles. That is why we decided to organize the 3G Summit. Luckily, the Ellen Stone Belic Institute for the Study of Women and gender in Arts and Media stepped in to join us as a presenting partner and they have brought so much to this effort.

I think the 3G Summit is unique and innovative for a couple of different reasons. #1 it is designed to be an intergenerational experience among women and girls and this cross-generational collaboration happens both through discussion, mentorship and hands-on game design. According to our research, these kinds of experiences are rare. There have not been many opportunities for the pioneers women in game design to come together with the new generation of female gamers to discuss openly share, discuss and prototype together. #2 – Also, the 3G Summit is very multi-dimensional. We are trying to look at the issue on many levels – but we are not just focusing on how male and female game preferences might differ. We are really trying to de-bunk some stereotypes and false assumptions about those gender differences that say for instance, girls want to play online social games or fashion games and are not competitive, while guys are all about first person shooters, sex, violence and mastering the difficult console game. On the other hand, we are also trying to impact the gaming industry and the gaming culture to address the problem of the gender gap which is very very real. If only a tiny fraction of game designers in the industry are women in what is our society’s fastest growing and most lucrative cultural medium, what does that mean if girls are left trailing in the dust? So we want to open up the dialogue about that as well. And perhaps most importantly, we want to learn if we can make a difference in the lives of girls by giving them mentorship, networks, training and support. Will more girls consider advanced technology and gaming in their future career or college experiences if they are actively encouraged early on? Finally, games can be a powerful vehicle for social change and education and for reaching youth on many levels. It is important to break through the notion that games are a guy thing.

How did you select the attending girls?

There were couple different ways we could have gone about this. One way to could have been a process for identifying 14-18 year old girls who are passionate about gaming and would love to participate in this experience. That was a very tempting way to go but it would kind of miss the point to target only those young women already heading down a path toward game design. So rather than choose the girls, we chose schools and after-school organizations that were dedicated to gender equity, diversity and technology education. These five partners then went about identifying ten girls who wanted to be involved from their group. The goal is to make 3G a multi year initiative and the girls who participate this year will return as mentors themselves next year so that we can build and grow this into a real network and support system. Also, those schools and organizations will continue to work with the girls. We can train their teachers and work with them over the long haul to bring about real change.

How will it open up opportunities to the attendees?

This is very important to us and it is a great question. Our goals are to enhance the digital, social media and game design skills for each participant but we also want to empower them to not only become more confident technology users but to become better advocates for gender equity in their everyday lives.

The attendees will be making game prototypes at the 3G Summit for a competition.

Have these girls had previous experience in making prototypes? And what do you expect or hope to see?

Most of all I hope to see surprises – game concepts that challenge our assumptions about what girls like to play and on what platforms. I expect outside of the box thinking, challenging games and prototypes that transcend the predictable genres and conventions that we all know too well. I think better games can be made and these girls will provide glimpses into that exciting future!

Do you think that the 3G Summit will impact how females are viewed in the gaming industry?

It depends on who is willing to listen. Those that choose to target their games not only to the safe established market but are willing to diversify and broaden their reach, will be the dominating leaders in the future industry.

Do you intend on expanding the 3G Summit to possibly state or national status?

Yes- we see this as a dynamic, multi-year exploration and practical intervention developed around focusing a long-term gender lens in the field of gaming and interactive digital play. We are in it for the long haul wherever that takes us.

For more information on the Summit, go to http://imamp.colum.edu/3gsummit/ and watch for another interview soon with one of the student planners!

The Student Planning Team (A-Team)

What do you guys think of this? I believe it is an amazing idea! Make sure you check out the interview with student volunteer Amanda as well!

Posted in 3G Summit, Game Events by Rachel

3 comments: to “ The 3G Summit: Interview With Mindy Faber ”

Stacey
July 16, 2010 at 10:15 PM
hmm, it sounds really interesting. One thing this article has brought to my attention is all of the new gaming organizations popping up for women. I think it's great that there are all women organizations out there to influence more females, but now I'm starting to believe that I've seen a little to many of them. Not that it's a bad thing, it's just that if the goal is to try to get females to have an equal chance in the gaming industry don't you think we should be doing co-ed groups and organizations? So men in the industry can see that women are just as good as they are at a first-person shooter or something like that?
Rachel
July 18, 2010 at 10:24 AM
I don't think it's about women being as good as men at the same thing (such as a first person shooter). One of the things I am excited about seeing is what type of games they come up with for females to play.
Stacey
July 18, 2010 at 12:05 PM
Oh I see. I'm excited about that as well. :)

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