Sony’s MMO The Agency concerned with bras and A-line skirts

Women may be gaining ground in a male dominated society in the real world (see Hillary Clinton), but what about in the virtual world? Well, they’re getting there. Sony’s new spy themed console MMO is even concerned with “technical” details such as the difference between A-line and pencil skirts. It’s a brace new world for traditionally sexist game design, indeed.

Tale of Sony’s attention to detail comes from MTV’s Multiplayer blog and their interview with Sherry Floyd of SOE Seattle. Floyd works on the art content for The Agency. It’s all part of a bigger piece on Sony’s initiative to get more women into game design through the G.I.R.L. (Gamers In Real Life) scholarship program for women wanting to study game design in college. Floyd noted about the game she is working on

We have to do a lot of women’s clothing; half of the characters in the game are women. … I think it’s really good to have a female perspective there. I know more than once I’ve talked to an artist and said, ‘Um, you can’t cut the sleeves like that because her bra would show.’ You’ve got full-figured women in the game, and they would have to wear a bra! [laughs] Actually, everybody’s really respectful about it, and we do laugh a lot when we have these conversations. And I would say the men in our creative group definitely know a lot more about shoes, the cuts of blazers, A-line skirts versus pencil skirts and everything else than they ever cared to know. But they’re definitely educated now, and they’ve educated me as well, so it’s been really good.

The idea of an affirmative action program in gaming design may sound weird to some, but as Floyd points out there is a very unique perspective a woman can bring to game design. Not only this, but women are well represented in most other major creative fields, and it seems awkward that they aren’t in gaming as well. Perhaps this cut back on the number of Lara Croft-like designed characters? Probably not anytime soon, but certainly a little diversity can’t hurt. However, since there are so few black lead game characters, one has to wonder how many other minorities are well represented in game development?

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