They are totally right, it’s a shame that PC Gamer did not name a single woman.
One nitpick though: Two of the women named in the article, Rieko Kodama and Amy Hennig, did not create games for PC. Both were employed by console makers. Jen Zee being acknowledged is certainly deserved, but a there are many, many trailblazing women in PC gaming which should be highlighted: Roberta Williams (co-founder of Sierra Online), Brenda Romero (Wizardry series), Jade Raymond (Assassin’s Creed producer) or Danielle Bunten Berry (M.U.L.E.), just to name a few.
Particularly the omission of Roberta Williams who has not only co-founded one of early gaming’s most successful game dev studios and publishers, but also designed the long-running King’s Quest series which transformed and defined the adventure game genre, is inexcusable. It does not get more influential in gaming than that.
I am fairly confident that Roberta Williams was mentioned in Stephen Levy’s seminal work Hackers. It’s been 5+ years since I read the 25th anniversary edition so I don’t want to say it was good or bad; it was enough coverage that I remember it and think it’s really weird that PC Gamer wouldn’t include her work.
Was going to say, the PC Gamer bit is bad enough, but how do you write a rebuttal without mentioning two of the arguably most accomplished influential women in gaming, namely Roberta Williams and Jane Jensen?
Shame they didn’t even mention Stevie Case since they even had her on the cover of one of their issues from what I recall. As a Game God but I agree Roberta Williams should be on there.
Considering that the term “computer engineering” was created by a woman, programming is based on maths solved by a woman, and the push for graphics in adventure games was started by a woman, I don’t think PC Gamers list is worth even checking, as I know that many notable leaps in gaming I don’t know about have since been pushed by women.
Add comment