Coming into the VFS game design program, I knew that my class would be predominantly male, just like the game industry at large. I figured, maybe 5-10 girls out of a class of 30. Little did I know, the demographics would be even more skewed. There is only one other girl in my class.
Needless to say, I was pretty intimidated at first. Most of these guys have logged hundreds if not thousands of hours playing games like World of Warcraft and Bioshock. They could probably play the games in their sleep, and I wouldn’t be surprised if some of them slept with controllers under their pillows.
After the first day of classes, I was still a little wary. Sure, the guys seemed congenial, but could I really be friends with them? There were guys who joked about including boobs in every video game, guys who had already been involved in game development for years, and other guys who rarely said anything.
As the week went on, I made an effort to get to know as many of the guys as possible. As it turns out, they’re all completely different. Some just graduated from high school, others are career changers, and they come from all corners of the globe. As the conversations piled up, gender started to fall away.
Now, at the end of my first week, I know that I’m among an amazing group of people, both male and female. There are people here I could be great friends with, others that I might start a business with. Whatever the outcome, I’m confident that we’ll learn more than we can imagine from each other within the next several months.