Sony Online Entertainment and The Art Institutes chose The Public in San Francisco as the venue to announce their new scholarship for aspiring girl game designers. G.I.R.L. (Gamers In Real Life) offers one lucky and talented female student at one of 39 Art Institute campuses $10,000 in tuition and the promise of a paid SOE internship of up to ten weeks.

Fittingly, the women currently working on The Agency, an upcoming MMO for PS3 and Windows, were on-hand to show off a trailer and tell the story of how they each broke into the game biz. Girls think it’s tough to get in because guys are generally the ones in charge.

The G.I.R.L. website has more stats , but for example: the percentage of women who think girls are deterred, according to the online survey by Insight Express (for SOE), is 61%.

Don’t be intimidated by the boys! Kick’em! Or rather, write a couple of essays, create some concept art and an in-game chunk of design to show off your mad skillz!

Make sure to hit up the website for more details, but they’re taking applications throughout April and May. The best way to change the “My Little Pony” stereotype of girl gamers is to get out there and make kickass games.

Tags: game_biz, game_designers, girl_gamers, PS3, scholarship, SOE, sony_online_entertainment

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2 Comments » John Kershaw on February 20, 2008 11:31 am Hmm, I’m always dubious e about things like this. Is this equal opportunities or positive discrimination? I can never quite work it out. I’m curious to know what they feel are “games that are more interesting for women to play”. girlgames on September 4, 2008 6:44 am very good RSS feed for comments on this post. Comment Now Note: Commenting on Ripten does not currently require registration, however to be eligible for contests on the site, you must be a registered user. Name (required) Mail (will not be published) (required) Website Commenting Rules: No hate speech allowed. If you must argue, please debate intelligently. Comments containing selected keywords or outbound links will be put into moderation to help prevent spam. Ripten reserves the right to delete comments and ban anyone who doesn't follow the rules. Thanks. Notify me of followup comments Tired of the Goomba? Upload your own custom comment avatar.