Spotlight on Digital Media And Learning

6.28.10 | Forty percent of all players of computer and video games are women, according to the Entertainment Software Association. But you wouldn’t know it from the male-oriented marketing campaigns for new and upcoming games such as “Red Dead Redemption” and “Call of Duty” that dominate the airwaves and billboards.

This discrepancy—as well as the desire for a stronger female voice in the digital gaming industry—is the motivation behind the 3G Summit: The Future of Girls, Gaming and Gender, which convenes Aug. 12-15 at Columbia College in Chicago.

This four-day conference and workshop will pair 50 Chicago-area female high school students with several female professional game designers who will act as mentors and who will help foster a conversation about young women’s place in gaming culture. A news release from Columbia College provides more detail:

The 3G Summit is a rare opportunity to learn what young women want from electronic and online games, and according to organizers, is specifically designed to help change the conversation in education and in the world of technology as it provides insight into gender equity and gaming. It also looks at how digital games delivered over mobile phones and social networking sites can be used for social awareness, civic engagement, and cultural expression.

Organizers are working to support the empowerment of young women to speak out for, and participate in, changing the gaming culture and raising awareness of female gamers and their perspectives.

“As it evolves and matures, the game industry is looking to new voices and new perspectives in order to imagine its own future,” says Los Angeles-based Tracy Fullerton, who will be among the professional mentors. “I can’t think of a better place to start developing those voices than a gathering like the 3G Summit, where young women can begin to imagine themselves as creative leaders of that future.”

With new insights and skills, the students will develop concepts for their own games over the course of the weekend under the mentorship of the five professional female game designers as the final deliverable for the summit. The girls will present their game concepts on the final day of the summit after which a team of senior Columbia College Interactive Arts and Media students will develop the concepts into games as a fall semester project.

“The summit engages girls as future game designers and powerful technology users, not just as an untapped consumer market,” says Mindy Faber, co-organizer and director of Open Youth Networks in Columbia College’s Interactive Arts and Media Department. “Ultimately, bringing more women to the table in the gaming field changes what gets made, how it is made and to what purpose.”

Read the full release here.