INVESTIGATION
"Women love video games but they do not create them": the finding made by the association Women in Games at the Paris Games Week is quite negative. It is based on a striking asymmetry: while a French video game player out of two is a player, women represent only 14% of the workforce of development studios. An under-representation that is not without consequences on the content of the works.
Disclaimer and questioning
"It has happened to me to make inappropriate remarks, I am in a position where I lead people and it does not always go very well": at 38 years old and despite a solid experience in the video game, Claire Léger has known the difficulties that a woman can encounter in this very masculine world. Today head of project in the Parisian studio Spiders, she is hardened. "With age and experience, I learned to answer those people who think I was not necessarily legitimate," she says. "And then, I'm lucky to be in a studio run by a woman, so we have a policy of zero tolerance vis-à-vis all inappropriate behavior."
Aware that this is not the case everywhere, Claire is involved in the association Women in Games, which has been advocating since 2017 for a better representation of women in French video game studios. "We find in our sector all the issues related to the unequal treatment of women and men in society," says Mylène Lourdel, treasurer of the association and ten years of experience in the video game. "We are more often questioned, which also implies that women feel less legitimate themselves, they do not put themselves on the front of the stage, even when they have experience. . "
Not enough strong women in games
And yet, the role of women is crucial in the studios. "We need this diversity to approach the subjects with a different look," says Jehanne Rousseau, founder of the studio Spiders. For this is the heart of the problem: while there is a massive female audience, the games are designed almost exclusively by men, with the bias that sometimes entails. Hypersexualization of bodies, lack of depth of female characters or simply lack of heroines are recurring criticisms of video games.
According to a study by the site Feminist Frequency, of the 126 games presented at E3 this year ( the largest video game show in the world, in Los Angeles, ed ), only 5% had as main character a woman, against 21% for a man. A finding that evolves little: it was 3% in 2016, 7% in 2017 and 8% in 2018. Where there is progress is that games offer more and more choice: 66% of games E3 proposed to embody either a man or a woman. It was 50% a year earlier. A tip for the studios since often there is only a difference in appearance between the man and the woman.
"Every progress is good to take, but that's not enough The number of female characters in the games is too low We want there to be strong women characters that emerge in the games", insists Mylène Lourdel, from Women in Games. But if, as she reminds herself, "it is first of all the character's writing, and not his genre, that makes one identify with a video game hero". But the conclusion remains that more women are needed in the studios: "There is a big stake in creativity, when you put three people in the room who have the same point of view, it is necessarily less interesting than if each brings different ideas. "
Actions in schools
So, how can I make more women in French studios? "The problem we have in recruitment is that we have almost male responses to our offers," grimaces Jehanne Rousseau, founder of Spiders studio. According to her, the substantive work must begin at the time of school guidance. "You have to talk to the students, tell them that they have a place in the video game, that it's not a male environment, that there's no gender and no gender, would be happy to have them on our side, "she says. The equation is simple: more female students in schools = more women in the studios.
"It starts early, telling his daughter who loves video games that she can quite work in this area when she grows up," said Mylène Lourdel. "You have to put in the idea that a man and a woman can do the same thing, and gender should not condition what we can become." With Women in Games, she sets up conferences and workshops in high schools and universities to convince future graphic designers, or simply video game players, that this sector is for them.
Then there is work to be done in schools that train video game trades so that the few students feel at home. With this in mind, the association signed, during the Paris Games Week, the very first charter "Equity, equality, ethics", with the school Rubika, based in Valenciennes.
"This charter requires us first to ensure equity in the student body but also in the speakers.We talk about equality between men and women, but it also concerns minorities and people with disabilities," says Benjamin Deroo, responsible for the school's communication. "Then, there is a creative aspect by pushing the students to establish a mixity within their characters.This year, we already present two games highlighting heroines."
Women are slowly imposing themselves
Little by little, these initiatives are paying off. The feminization of the video game public has led more young women to special schools. In Rubika, in the graphics branch, they are almost as numerous as men. On the other hand, in the computer industry, they are still largely outnumbered. But the numbers are there: "the proportion of women currently in video game training schools is higher than the proportion of women in the studios," says Mylène Lourdel, of Women in Games.
" We must continue because there is still a lot to change "In the studios too, women take more space. "There are a lot of men who are more sensitive to this issue than four or five years ago, and speech is free when it is not, things are moving in the right direction," he says. Claire Léger. For the project manager of the Spiders studio, economic pragmatism will also be right of the most macho leaders. "We accept better that there are players than before, and the more players there are, the more we accept that women create games because we take the audience into account." The goal is always to sell his game to a maximum of people. "
The situation is improving. But out of the question to stop at these few reasons for hope, warns Mylène Lourdel: "We sometimes rest a little too much on our achievements, saying: 'look, it is moving in the right direction.' If it evolves, it's because there are people fighting for it and we have to continue because there is still a lot to change. "