Technology Degrees Allow Gamers to Turn Love of Play Into Their Work

The gaming industry is starting a new campaign this year. It wants more women in gaming. No, not as players, but as employees. According to site, GamesCareers.biz, the industry has discovered that 10% of all applications received are from women. As industry studies state 38% of all gamers are female, it's a situation they feel must be rectified immediately. There is more to this field than just development and a degree from accredited online schools will open many doors.

Admittedly, video games suffer from an incredible overdose of testosterone. Go to a convention and predominantly the only females present are convention employees, booth models and bored dates and mothers. To those in the industry, this means they are missing an incredibly huge part of their market. The best solution is to employ more women, both on the development and marketing side, in order to address this situation.

In fact, the situation is considered so dire that no less than Microsoft itself held a conference in its corporate facility in Redmond, Washington, to review the problem. CNET reported that 150 people showed up, with nearly 90% of them being women. The cable news service joked that it was close to all the women in the industry.

Then again, if one reviews the employment situation, it's easy to see why many women are turned off about working in the game industry. For instance, the gaming giants EA and ActiVision are facing a civil action regarding its working conditions. Game developers are expected to work longer-than-average hours with little or no overtime. As game developers tend to be younger than in most other software providers, this is a situation that is particularly hard on young mothers with infants to pre-teens. No matter how cool their mom's job is, the kids do want to see her occasionally.

One company taking the initiative is Sony Online Entertainment, another leader in the video game field. According to CNN, they have created have created G.I.R.L., Gamers In Real Life, a scholarship program to attract more young women to careers in game development. It is being led by Torrie Dorrell, Sony's Senior Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing.

Gamers In Real Life has already given scholarships of $10,000 each to two deserving women, with plans to announce a third this May. Another perk of the program is the beneficiaries will also be hired as interns at Sony. For those interested in learning more about this program, the Internet will provide additional information.

This aren't the only monies available to women who want to create fun as a career. One thing to consider is that game development is a part of computer science, and as such is considered a STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) career. Another good source for financial aid is the National Science Foundation for an S-STEM scholarship/grant.

Finally, as many accredited online schools offer game development as part of their curriculum, they are excellent places to find out more about the industry. So, a good place for a woman to find out how to facilitate a technology degree online is through her school's financial aid officer. As it is, the gaming industry is aware of the need. It's up to enterprising women to take advantage of it.