[casual_games] Why We Need Women

[Tom Park]

>> BTW, Will Wright is a man

>

> He's also smart enough to work with/for a diverse group of people. Don't

> forget about Claire Curtain (sims game designer), Lucy Bradshaw, and no

> doubt others I'm not aware of.


Yah, Claire Curtain and Roxy Wolosenko. I was very impressed by their
analysis/mockups for the UI design. I remember Claire really wanted to
do a Pets expansion pack long before Unleashed got green-lighted.

Someone else mentioned Chris Trottier. One of the gameplay developers
told me that Chris did most the game tuning on The Sims -- she adjusted
the prices and needs-relief of the game objects so they were balanced.
(Think of "The Price Is Right".) Later she co-designed The Sims Online
with Will.

Jenna Chalmers was also a designer on the expansion packs and on TSO.
I don't think a guy would have so enthusiastically designed the wedding set
(gazebo, flowered arch, etc) as Jenna. She was also responsible for the
cool dance pieces in House Party.

It's probably true that PopCap hasn't suffered much from lack of female
developers, but nevertheless I think The Sims benefited to a great extent
from its female designers specifically because they were female.


BTW, there was at least one gay developer on The Sims team too. I think
he was partially responsible for same sex kissing & partners in The Sims.

On the other hand, I noticed that the sims could be either straight or gay,
but not bi, and I changed the code to allow that. But I'm not bi. I just 
tend
to see a lot of grey in the world.
--t