Beyond the Numbers
According
to the International Game Developers Association’s “Game Developer
Demographics” report from 2005, there are about as many LGBT people in
the games industry as there are in the general population (about 5
percent—although, admittedly, some studies put the “real world” number
around 10 percent).
Talk to a
few people “in the know,” though, and you get the distinct impression
the industry’s a much lonelier place than the number implies.
Jeb
Havens, probably one of the most visible and vocal LGBT developers,
says, “It’s not like there’s only a handful” of gay people making
games, “but there’s no presence or community. There’s no ‘gay’ face to
it.”
Hopefully the lead designer at Troy, N.Y.-based 1st Playable Productions (www.1stplayable.com)
is ready for his close-up, because if anyone is going to be the “gay
face” of the games industry, it’s Havens. The 26-year-old, who makes a
mean board game when he’s not crafting titles for 1st Playable, has
spoken about diversity within the industry quite a few times over the
last few years, including the Game Developers Conference and the Sex in
Video Games Conference in 2006, and just led a series of LGBT
roundtables at this year’s GDC.
“I started about a
year and a half ago,” he says, “after attending my first GDC in San
Francisco and being surprised that there was no mention of gay
anything. The topic never came up at all.
“Almost
everyone was male,” Havens recalls, “and there was such a strong
frat-boy heterosexuality among the industry people that it made me
realize that even if there were gay people in the industry, they
probably wouldn’t feel very comfortable talking about it.”
Everybody’s Talking
Talking
about being gay isn’t a problem for Brian Sharp. The 26-year-old
employee of Midway Games (he works at the company’s office in Austin,
Texas) says, “I’ve been out in the workplace since, well, since I came
out. It’s never been a problem.”
Sharp, who got
into the industry as a high schooler when a family friend started a
game company, has had ample experience. After that first gig, where he
worked on graphics and engine programming, he moved to 3dfx, Ion Storm,
Ageia and Maxis before his current stint at Midway.
“I
have never experienced any direct discrimination as a result of being
gay,” Sharp says, “although there’s definitely the unstated assumption
in a predominantly male, predominantly straight industry that everyone
thinks ‘that picture of that chick is really hot.’”
Don’t
take that to be an out-and-out indictment of the industry. “I don’t
bring it up randomly or wear a t-shirt that says, ‘I’m gay,’” Sharp
says, adding that whenever the subject of his boyfriend has come up,
for instance, “Co-workers have been, without fail, completely
nonplussed at the idea, which is exactly what I’d hoped for.”
Being
gay seems to be a non-issue at Brooklyn-based mobile development
company Sonic Branding Solutions as well. While he worked there, Mark
Thrall, who previously worked at Liquid Entertainment and Warner Bros.
Online, said “I’m completely ‘out’ in all aspects of my life. I moved
to New York with my boyfriend and he frequently walks with me to work.
We’ll exchange a kiss outside of the office.”
The
29-year-old admits to being a bit nervous about discussing sexuality
when he first entered the industry, “but when the issue came up with a
few co-workers, they reacted quite well. One of them even apologized
for using the term ‘gay’ so much, and he completely stopped using the
term as slang.”
His experience at Warner Bros. was
much the same. “The guys there didn’t bat an eye,” Thrall says. “I
brought a date with me to a dinner party and that was my big ‘coming
out.’ Again, no one said a concerned word—no one cared.”
Although
amiable indifference to gayness in the gaming workplace is acceptable
enough, bona fide interest is always preferred. That’s what Anne
Gibeault has come face to face with at Montreal office of Ubisoft (www.ubi.com).
The
36-year-old animator (she’s worked on such titles as Prince of Persia:
Warrior Within, King Kong and Splinter Cell: Double Agent) says, in her
experience, her game-development peers have been a pretty welcoming
bunch. “I’ve never heard anything homophobic,” she says, adding “I’ve
always been out, everywhere I’ve worked. Everyone reacts fine with it.”
That’s
especially true of Gibeault’s family situation. “I have a baby,” she
shares, “and it seems everyone is pretty curious how we managed this,
me and my girlfriend.”