Sony Establishes Scholarship For Girl Gamers
MMO juggernaut Sony Online Entertainment plans to partner with The Art Institutes to create a scholarship for female gamers–one of the first such scholarships specifically created to “educate and recruit” more women into the videogame industry, reports EarthTimes. “It’s no secret to female gamers: Women are out there in significant numbers, playing MMOs, action games, first-person shooters, etc. What is lacking in the equation are women behind these games and we hope G.I.R.L. can help support this program,” said Torrie Dorrell, SOE’s Senior Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing. After surveying female students enrolled in game development and graphics classes at The Art Institutes schools, the SOE team found that 61% of students surveyed believe male dominance in the industry is a deterrent to women pursuing a career in gaming and 42% of those surveyed would like to see women portrayed as leaders in video games. The G.I.R.L. (Gamers In Real Life) scholarship includes $10,000 in tuition at an Art Institute school and a ten-week paid internship at any of the Sony Online Entertainment studios. SOE, the hitmakers behind the EverQuest and Star Wars Galaxies series, hope that other developers will follow their lead, according to Dorrel, who says that the G.I.R.L. scholarship “will be the gateway for one student into this field of expertise. I invite other publishers to join us in supporting this initiative.”