OMG. Man, to be a fly on the wall of the play testing room...

Hey, Gonzalo, the link doesn't work. Did they take it down?

Yup, Ian. They pulled the plug on the IP like the American Press on the CBS torture case. So my 'secret' pasword can be used for opening cans of tune.

I think it is a shame that just because a segment of the population is not represented in a game that people go all to heck over it. Who the heck cares, it is a game, leave it alone. It is examples like this that keep companies and products from being developed over fear of being "politically incorrect"

Here's a snippet from the game's website (game is still down for revisions):

But the fact is it takes a special skill set to manage an IT department. As IT manager you need to monitor industry trends and administer mission-critical resources for an entire company. At the same time, you have to manage increasingly tighter budgets - finding ways to do more with less - and possess the people skills to oversee staff and run interference with top decision makers.

The Intel® IT Manager Game tests your entire skill set - people management, resource allocation, strategic analysis and planning. It also tests your courage under fire - can you stand up to the scrutiny of top management along with that of your peers in the industry?

Given this charge, and given the continuing importance of gender issues in the field of IT especially, I think the omission of women is significant. As for whether Intel should have taken it down or left it up, I can only speculate. We have no evidence that the reason it was taken down has to do with this issue at all (or do we?). I don't think companies like Intel should shy away from such projects simply because they couldn't accomodate all the potential sensitivities, but isn't it startling that no one noticed that there were no women in the game at all? This isn't just a "segment of the population" we're talking about, it's a full 52% of it.

Hi D.,

I beg to differ. The "it's a game, leave it alone" argument is exactly what this blog is arguing against: games are not just trivial, but they do play a "real" role in our life. Specifically, in this case, the game is not only a game but also a training tool for the workplace. Workplace discrimination is a fact, and the fact that Intel forgot about women, may give players a hint of what they think about the role of women in IT.
As Ian quotes, the game instructions talk about standing up to "your peers in the industry". It would seem as if Intel would not think of women as peers.
Best,

Gonzalo

D.

I have to second Gonzalo on this one,

One of the main points about my rant is that games are embedded with unconscious political statements, which in the long run may serve to alienate women from playing them. The Intel game is exactly such a case.

If they had decided to use more abstract avatars - like chess pieces - for their employees I don't think this would even have been an issue, but since they had more realistic avatars this becomes an issue.

Btw. even the CEO in the game is a man, and so are the employees you're serving.

Tore -- interesting bit about the CEO. Since most of us didn't get a chance to play the game, I have to ask... are there any women represented in it at all?

There are two issues here, yes? The first is the notion that ideology in games may alienate women as players in general. The second is the notion that ideology in games may alienate women as workers, managers, leaders, etc.. Of the two, it's the latter I see as most troublesome in the Intel game. Can you say more about how you see the Intel game contributing to the former case?

BTW, TL started a related but separate discussion on Terra Nova about women avatars as in-game uteruses in the forthcoming Wild West Sim MMORPG.

Ian, the latter notion is definetly the most troublesome.

My position when it comes to games actually stems from Judy Wajcman's description of technology, which I blogged about here.
In essense she takes a position that technology is historically and contextually gendered towards males.

My working hypothesis on this is that when it comes to games we should look outside the actual games and into the broader social context in which they are used. For instance, In most game cafés in Copenhagen the players are male - younger and older. The women in there often only use webmail or chat functions. This is just one example - counter examples are out there.

The thing is that women gamers are often invisible in the public sphere around games. Aphra Kerr presented an article at DIGRA 2003 on this issue in Ireland.

Forgot to mention. No, I did not see any women in the game. I was grilled on occation by the CEO, a man, about what products the company should invest in - all Intel products of course. I also helped dissatisfied users - again men.

Basically I think they choce a series of staple graphics which did not include female avatars. I emphasise *I think*.

I looked at the game and I think they've fixed the gender issue (although I never saw the gender problem in the first place).

Yup, they fixed it. You can play the revised version here, and read my commentary on it here.

rtfvjiiioqs ulaoipypwua.

mybe they only wanted to do one model for the workers? more out of laziness than anything else? and would anyone of complained if you could only hire women? i agree workplace discrimination is a problem, but give me a break, noone would have said a word if you could only hire women they might of thought it was weird but no outrage. The problem in this country is that people are no longer being hired on their laurels but instead their race and gender, not whether intel screwed up political correctness in an IT manager game