Mary Flanagan: Designer, Tiltfactor
Author of this post: Beth A. Dillon | About Blog Authors »
What do you get when you put together a writer, artist, designer, academic, and activist all in one? Mary Flanagan and her work at Tiltfactor, the first academic center to focus on social activist games. We had the chance to nab up an interview with Mary all about her work and role in feminist game design. Because, yes, games can be feminist!
Q: So here I am, trying to figure out where to begin! You’re a writer, artist, designer, and activist. Even before your work in games, your artwork addressed interactivity between humans and technology with an emphasis on gender. Can you tell us a bit about how you’ve gotten where you are and how being a woman influences your career?
A: I studied film in college and really delved into computer use through making databases of a film library and through experimenting with animation. I was always one of the few women doing such work, even when moving on to interactive media and design. Yet I had great role models; my aunt way back was a programmer, and my boss at Second Look computing in Iowa, where I learned Hypercard and Supercard, was a dynamo educational technology person who designed laserdisc systems in the 1980s for interactive storytelling. My dad was an electrician and tinkerer. So I’ve had great role models who investigated novel technologies and computers right in my midst.
This does not mean I’ve been an overly technical person. Sure, I get excited by “neat” innovations– I am a geek — but I have always thought about them in context (a lot). Maybe too much. I believe that on some level, computers are culture machines, and things made with them are too. And this culture has been defined and reified by systems made at times where diverse voices were just not involved in having a say. It is natural for such a system to reflect the dominant values of the time in which they are built, and in a Western, cold war, white, male, scientific community, computers evolved in particular ways that do affect how we use them and in turn how we see the world.
So I tend to ask things like, what if we followed another logic system in determining base computational systems? (Helen Verran’s 2001 book on Yoruban logic is interesting food for thought, as would be other aboriginal approaches). If one’s hard drive is framed as a world of information by one’s operating system, then the operating system might even be considered a form of culture. Who had a say in defining that culture? If computers help frame how we see the world, what would happen, for example, if we removed the command and control paradigm and they became something other than directly controlled, useful tools? Sometimes questions like these may seem over the top, but in fact, I think if we make some interesting comparisons about the computational systems and gender we might find that if the dominant male culture that had formed the systems were more diverse, we would have more curious, and likely better, tools, and ones that may be more values-rich in their design.
These types of questions, I believe, can really lead to innovation in categories other than gender, as well.
Q: Oh and by the way, not to forget that your doctoral thesis from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design concerns a feminist game design methodology. What do you feel defines games for women and what is the importance of our role in designing these games ourselves?
A: For me, this question has to return to the idea of a standpoint or a point of view. This area of study in the past century was innovated by feminist scholars interested in questions of equity between very different types of people– rich or poor, brown or white, male or female. Feminism interests me not only because it framed the investigation about women, but more broadly, because the movement defined a new way of understanding the world through people’s perspective and elevated such “underdog” perspectives to be as valid as dominant ideas in a given culture. Therefore, to have games for women, it fundamentally means to have games for different types of people: an expansion of the market if you will, but also an expansion of groups of values, of playstyles, of what is important, of even consciousness. So a feminist game design methodology by its very definition cannot make the player into a single type of player, but must address several standpoints, several points of view. These might include alternate reward systems or recognizing different intentions when playing a game (free play or competitive for example).
Q: Do you consider yourself a member of game industry, or do you feel you’re on the fringes as an independent game developer, academic, and activist? How do you feel the academic community differs from the industry community in regards to gender?
A: Luckily, I like all of these groups. Each one brings inventiveness and energy to making games. But here are some observed dilemmas: The industry community has been waiting for female players to “catch up” to male players and just get into games like Shooters or EA Sports, rather than address alternate players overall and consciously and rigorously diversify.
The academic groups in many cases are not making games but studying them, and they often study the popular games, which are made primarily by white men. Look up the International Game Developer’s Association study (igda.org) on game industry demographics, and you will find that less than 10% of the games industry in the US is female. Why is it not a more diverse industry? Often the response is (outside WoW) that women do not like games. Tell that to all the girls out there playing hopscotch, dolls, and double dutch that they don’t like games or want to make them!
The activists are trying to get their messages out there, and sometimes leave out the experiential aspect or some of the fun.
I think I’m located in between all of these poles. I want to make unusual little games that intentionally have messages, but even more, intentionally offer moving, interesting, or profound experiences. So that might make me ultimately more allied with the arts than any of the other labels…. so it is a good thing to try not to worry about the labels.
Q: Tiltfactor, a lab of activist and socially-conscious software based out of New York, facilitates your work. Can you tell us a bit about their mandate and projects to date?
A: Tiltfactor started as an experiment to harness the group power of production, involve students, integrate research, and make interesting games in a team based model. It evolved to be much more powerful and important. Some of our research projects really have the potential to shift thinking in the field of game design. Right now we’re working on Values at Play (http://www.valuesatplay.org), a project where we are making tools and examples that showcase how and when values are in designed artifacts, and how we can choose which values show up in our software. We’ve developed “Grow-a-Game” cards and are creating a host of tools to help kickstart values in design conversations. We’re also making a set of games, curriculum, doing a study, interviewing, blogging… it is a large project! Our new game Profit Seed, about GMOs, will be launching in July 2008. Other projects have included the Adventures of Josie True, the first online adventure game for girls which was available free of charge with teachers guides back in 2000.
Other new projects include artworks: I’m working on a set of game mods and some larger sculptural works involving pirates and 1980s games that will show in galleries. The Tiltfactor group is doing an urban game this September at the Conflux festival where we are sending players out on cultural and food missions to real NYC neighborhoods, and at the end of the day we’re eating the results. To us, it is essential that we pay attention to place and culture in our design work.
Q: What do you enjoy most out of your career (and life)?
A: I believe that if you follow what you love, you cannot help but contribute to overall knowledge and experience. I have been lucky to be able to make creative things and to be able to think about them in interesting ways, and share this with people around the world. There is nothing as pleasurable as seeing someone use and enjoy something you have made, if it is something you believe is good.
Q: What advice do you have for women currently in the industry or interested in breaking in? Should they even go after industry, or aim for the independent or academic lifestyle? Any helpful resources for any of these choices?
A: Women in the game industry are certainly a minority, and will of course face challenges like being overworked and feel overly responsible for team success for less pay. But it is a good time to break in: companies know they need more women, and more women can show their “chops” about games. From my own experience, I know I could always use more negotiating skills. I cannot tell you how many jobs I have had where my male counterpart has earned more money than I have, for example, with less experience. This has happened in the industry, in academia, and in the art world for over 20 years now. But it does not happen as much these days — not because there is less systemic discrimination, but rather, I’ve learned to ask for what I need to do a great job and have more clout to get it. Game companies need women right now. Women can ask for what they deserve and more.
I am a huge fan of mentoring, and found the Women in Games UK conference really supportive. The Women in Game Development mailing list (Send women_dev mailing list submissions to women_dev@igda.org) is a great support network and resource as well.
It was enormously helpful for me to have industry experience before attempting to do my own development or teach. I would encourage everyone to be a part of the development of commercial projects, even if your ultimate goal is indie development or teaching. I would look for companies with the most talented people, where you can really learn from peers, and where the corporate culture is attended to. I think it would be very difficult to learn how large creative teams really function otherwise.
