Women’s participation in the gaming industry has exploded in the last decade. I know this to be true, and I am proud to say I am a woman gamer. According to Forbes, approximately 40% of the gaming industry in both the U.S. and Asia is women.
Today, women are a critical part of the gaming industry but if you had told me 10 years ago that I would have a career centered around entertaining others while casually playing video games in front of a live audience, I probably wouldn’t have believed you.
How I Began My Career in Gaming
My road to becoming an online gamer was a long and winding journey. After essentially running away to Manhattan at 18 to study acting at the prestigious American Academy of Dramatic Arts, I did the typical thing every actor did: I got an agent. After booking only a few acting or modeling gigs over several years, I eventually started shooting photography as a hobby. Soon, I was assisting photographers. That, in turn, eventually led me to my own photography business.
Even though I did pretty well, I soon found myself unhappy. I felt lost. It just wasn’t my passion.
I continued to spend my time in NYC, working dull jobs at restaurants, spas, bars, gyms, promo modeling, anything to pay my bills (especially those student loans, am I right?). And at the end of a long day, I’d come home and game. Gaming was the only thing that relieved my stress and helped my brain stay in the moment, without fixating on the past, or worrying about the future. When I played, it was just me and the game.
Looking back, gaming had actually been a constant in my life; casually gaming with my dad and brother, while taking turns playing Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter and Road Rash on our Sega Genesis. The competition between the three of us helped me become the go-getting woman I am today. I’d also play Nintendo 64 with my best friends Brent and Brandon, and we’d be raging at GoldenEye 007 for hours. Man, I miss those days.
Then, Christmas of 2014, and my dad surprised me by sending me my very first gaming console: an Xbox 360. In the past, when I’d gone home to visit, my dad and brother would get me to play Call of Duty or Halo with them. I was terrible, but I loved it: everyone sharing the same screen, followed by one of us cheating because we could see the other player’s location and stream snipe them, and finally our hyper-competitiveness causing rages, squabbles, and uncontrollable giggle fits. We’d all get so mad, we’d storm off in a huff (at least my brother and I did). It was tremendous fun.
Once I returned to New York, my dad wanted to stay in touch with me, so he sent me a gaming headset so that we could not only play, but talk in-game. I had no idea such a thing even existed. It renewed my excitement about gaming like never before. I approached my agents, asking if there was any way they could look into submitting me for jobs in either game-related streaming or hosting. To my massive disappointment, I was met with blank stares.
It was so frustrating. I knew I was onto something, but I didn’t have the proper guidance or representation at the time. If only I’d had a friend who was a tech wizard back then, I could have (and would have) pursued this career much sooner.
Undeterred, I continued my research and attempted to film myself playing with the first capture card I ever bought. I recorded my efforts, then tried to go back and add commentary… but it was, to put it lightly, a disaster. My first ever attempt at creating content was a bold first step, but it was clear I had no idea what I was doing.
Eventually, reality returned, and whatever that momentary dream was, it had faded to the back of my mind. Back I went to all those mindless, busywork jobs that led me nowhere. Finally, it took a bad job out on Long Island coupled with a very toxic relationship to send me running back down South so I could move in with my best friend, and try to heal and start a fresh life.
After six months of a deep depression, I woke up one day in July 2018 and sat down at the kitchen table for my afternoon coffee. I started crying because I felt like a complete failure. I had no savings, no plans, and seemingly no future. In the back of my mind, I was still wanting to stream games on the internet, but I desperately needed technical help to get started. I had researched the topic a hundred times, but I could never come up with a solution. I didn’t want to start all over again. It felt like all that time and money I spent in NYC had just led to a dead end; I just needed help. Determined not to fail, my best friend and I did research on inexpensive, pre-built PCs, and after settling on one, he lent me the money to buy it. From the second that PC was purchased, I knew I just had to give it everything I possibly could.
And I did.
I had no idea what I was doing, but I knew I could learn.
After hours of research, and a week of trial and error attempting to perfect my gaming setup, I finally went live.
My first stream, I had three people in chat who said hello. I was elated! The next stream, there were six. Eventually, the same people would show up and offer encouragement or support. Much more technically advanced than I, they offered their time and money to help me upgrade my stream. I still fondly remember my community donating enough money so that I could upgrade my RAM in order to run certain memory-heavy games. Having never opened a PC before in my entire life, I was terrified I was going to destroy this expensive, crucial piece of equipment. Once, I actually thought I’d damaged all my brand new sticks of RAM when I had, in fact, simply installed one backwards.
The same people kept showing up, followed by new names. My sub count grew; the donations continued. I couldn’t believe it. Every penny earned immediately went back into upgrading the stream. Eventually I was introduced to a little game known as ‘PUBG’, and my stream really took off. I began sending in applications for the Twitch Partner Program and one day, it finally happened. After a little more than one year of streaming, I was accepted.
I literally fell to my knees, sobbing, tears streaming down my face. Not because of the title of “Partner,” but because I hadn’t given up on my dream. Because I took my pain and sadness, and channeled it into something positive. I had started my own business and I was succeeding. People willingly supported me and liked me. I was meeting so many incredible people who, for some inexplicable reason, lifted me up and actively rooted for me.
The Twitch community was amazing. I quickly made friends, and even better, they were women. I had long suspected I was on the verge of something 10 years ago when I had first attempted to stream, but I had thought I was unique. Little did I know, there were many other women thinking and dreaming the exact same thing as me. In fact, they were on this platform years earlier, and were far superior gamers than I was. My interest was largely casual, but there was another entire world I never even knew existed: Esports – highly skilled players who competed at major events… and, yes, a small percentage of those were also women! My eyes were opening at a rate I’d never imagined!
Back in the day, being a woman and wanting to game was considered outside of the “norm”. Today, that isn’t the case at all. Women just like myself are piling into the gaming industry and we are seriously talented. While the ratio of men to women in the competitive arena is still a bit one-sided, it’s evolving quickly. More organizations like Women in Games are arising, seeking equal representation for women in the gaming industry.
In the last few years, women have made huge strides: My friend @Smintee on Twitch told me of the first ever all female PUBG tournament that took place back in 2018 in Shanghai, China named, “The Zowie Divina PUBG tournament”. For that event, the Pittsburgh Knights, an esports organization now partnered with the NFL’s Pittsburgh Steelers, specifically recruited @Taryn, @Hellauchiha, @Smintee and @Masq. Amazing!
No doubt the world being stuck in quarantine this past year has led to a major spike in content creation (and gaming in general), but even without the pandemic effect, the sheer volume of women in the gaming industry will continue to rise.
So don’t be too surprised if you end up randomly queuing with a “girl gamer” in the near future, fellas. My advice? Be nice, because they just might end up carrying you to a giant dub.
Feature photo via Ashley Anderson (KittyKosmos on Twitch)
