Personally, I don't feel the world has enough Girl-Gamers, so I set out to highlight girls in the gaming industry. To that end I had the privilege to interview FragDollsUK, a fun-loving group of girls who work with gaming company Ubisoft, whose bubbly personalities and passion for gaming really shone though in this interview, read it here:
Banxy : For anyone that is unaware, what is Frag Dolls UK?
Jam : Frag Dolls UK is an all-girl gaming group brought together by Ubisoft. We want to make gaming fun, friendly and accessible - no matter what your age, gender, or experience. We play on a wide range of platforms, with a wide range of titles (not just Ubisoft games.) When we're not gaming we're usually out and about attending gaming events all over Europe, or writing blogs and recording podcasts for our website – www.FragDolls.co.uk . Also, we're particularly proud of our FDUK community, and you can find us milling around on our forum on a daily basis. We talk about everything from the latest Burnout instalment to how to serve the perfect cup of tea.
Banxy : What is the age range of the Frag Dolls UK?
Jam : You should never ask a woman her age!
Banxy : Sorry! Being involved with Ubisoft must be a huge honour? Do you get to "pre-test" future Ubisoft releases? Which has been your favourite?
Jam : It is incredibly cool being part of Ubisoft. It means we get to hear all the big announcements before anybody else and, of course, play all the big games before anybody else! Frag Dolls is a pretty daring concept for any publisher. Taking a bunch of crazy girl-gamers under your wing isn't an everyday occurrence, and we are extremely blessed to have Ubisoft's support. Just last week I was at UbiDays with Frag Doll Kitt, interviewing Dave Doak (from Free Radical) for Haze, and Colonel Antal (from Gearbox Software) for Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway. As for my favourite pre-release, I was rather smug when a copy of Far Cry: Instincts (on the Xbox 360) popped through my letterbox. Xbox Live gloating here I come!
Kitt : I really liked playing King Kong the whole way through at Ubisoft's offices way back when FDUK started. Recently I got to play Jam Sessions on the DS through an amp it was excellent.
Jam, Kitt and Sarin |
Banxy : Cool. What would be the Frag Dolls' "Dream Tournament"?
Jam : Where all the participants get free cake! In all seriousness, it's difficult to say. Frag Doll Sarin and I recently attended World Gamer Live in Dublin for a GRAW2 competition, which was pretty fun. GRAW2 is probably my favourite online shooter at the moment. But then again you can play the best game in the world, but it's the team and your surroundings that really make the day. Everyone at WGL was really friendly.
Kitt : I'm a big Far Cry fan. I'd like us to maybe do an online tourney when the next instalment comes out. I'm also loving the look of Haze - Wouldn't mind competing in that. it's best when we're all together in a room, though. The atmosphere can get pretty intense.
Sarin : Anything on Rainbow six, preferably starting off with an online tournament and then fighting the final play off at Warfighters (www.warfighters.eu).
Banxy : The video gaming industry is often perceived as being generally guy orientated - Did any of the Frag Dolls, before becoming a Frag Doll, ever feel "they were the only girl playing" and do you feel this puts a lot of girls off computer games?
Jam : I grew up playing computer games with my brother and his male friends. I never felt like I was the only girl playing though, because my gender was never made an issue. It's true, sometimes it is a shame not seeing more females around, especially on Xbox Live. I think a lot of people – not just women – can feel a little intimidated, but after they make that first step they rarely go back. A lot of it is about perception and negative stereotypes.
Kitt : I'm a games journalist as well as a Frag Doll and I had a girl gamer column in Official Playstation 2 Magazine about 4 years ago. When I joined Frag Dolls, lots of girls said they remembered me and used to read my column every month. That was gratifiying but I wish I'd known back when I was writing it cause sometimes I really thought maybe I was the only one. Playing online also helps you to realise that there are plently girls out there.
Sarin : There were times when I felt alone in the gaming world, but Frag Dolls has really opened my eyes to amount of female gamers out there. Being the only girl never put me off gaming, and I was quite happy to chat to my male friends about bosses and level design. I think most women who game are quite content, but it is always nice to meet like minded people.
Frag Dolls UK - Full Team |
Banxy : Have many of the Dolls suffered any Game related injures? Such as Wii-Bruise or bloodshot eyes?
Jam : Street Fighter II: Turbo edition on the SNES was the worst for me. I started to get scaly skin on my thumb from mashing the controller too much. Ewww.
Kitt : I once had Playstation Knee. I'd been sitting with my legs crossed under me for literally years while I played and my doctor actually diagnosed me with Playstation Knee. I was very proud.
Sarin : I get thumb strain from boosting too hard in racing games, but I have never been diagnosed.
Banxy : Who would be the Frag Doll that plays games the most?
Jam : Sometimes it's me, and other times it's Kitt. On average though, it'd be Kitt. We're constantly battling to see who can get the highest gamerscore on Xbox Live.
Kitt : We all play A LOT. I personally play on every platform pretty much every week. Between work, research and pleasure I can be playing up to 5 new games per week and since I'm still playing many from the week before that number goes up and up. I have Tomb Raider Anniversary on the PS2 and Chocobo Tales on the DS both paused right now while I do this interview. The second it's over I'm going back to them.
Sarin : I probably play a little less then the other dolls because my second job is not in the games industry. However we all rack up quite an honourable amount of in game time.
FragDollUK Jam showing a Rabbid some love - Awww!
|
Banxy : What would be the Frag Dolls' most memorable tournament or incident in a game?
Jam : Having Kitt message me a photograph of her bum the day the Xbox Live Vision Camera came out was pretty horrific, although that's not really a game. My fondest memory was at a press day at Microsoft's offices for GRAW. It was girls vs boys on last man standing. It was incredibly close, and everybody was sweating buckets. The boys won in the end – grr!
Kitt : The time we were playing retrieval against our forumers on Rainbow Six Lockdown and I couldn't drop the canister so Sarin had to shoot me to get it off me.
Sarin : I have to agree with Kitt on the canister moment, but only because she will never let me forget it!
|
Banxy : Female gamers are many a guy's image of the perfect girlfriend - This must lead to a lot of male attention, especially at tournaments? Annoying?
Jam : Most attention is flattering. Too much attention is troublesome. Thankfully I've had extremely little of the latter. 99% of everyone I've met has been nothing but polite and friendly. Sometimes I've been asked if I'm really a gamer, but I don't take offence. A lot of them are just curious.
Kitt : As interested as any guy might be, hand on heart, people are incredibly polite and respectful when they meet us. If anything though I think all true gamers first interest when meeting us is to get on with the business of playing a game with us.
Sarin : Most men tend to be more interested in our in game skills then our girlfriend potential. When people meet us they are always very friendly, but I have never had a problem with them being overly friendly. Once they start talking to us, no matter what their original intention, they soon realise that we are not there to flirt, we are there to play games.
Banxy : Where else (other than tournaments) would someone often find Girl Gamers?
Jam : Anywhere! We don't all gravitate towards a handful of specific areas! You can find them at school, in the workplace, in the supermarket, in the pub. Most people I've met are gamers, but they wouldn't necessarily classify themselves so.
Kitt : Most girls are girl gamers. Ask them if they ever play Flash games at work or ever had a gameboy or can sing the Tetris tune. If you meet a nice girl and she isn't a gamer and you'd like her to share that interest with you send her to our website and forum and we'll have her turned around in no time.
Sarin : Erm, forums, the work place, cafes, at home curled up on the sofa, in the gym, and of course at Frag Dolls! Where ever there are women there are girls gamers lurking.
Banxy : The tough question - If you/the group had to choose, for online gaming, would it be a PC/Mac or a Console? Why?
Jam : I don't play PC games much because I can't afford the constant upgrades. Console is easily my online environment of choice. The real question is – Playstation Online or Xbox Live? Ooooooh….
Kitt : Console and in particular Xbox Live right now is where there's the most fun and cohesive community to play with. The Frag Dolls community on there are top notch people and incredibly welcoming. We've managed to foster a really cool atmosphere and ethos of inclusiveness and we're growing in number everyday. I love it! Come and join us any night.
Sarin : I love console gaming and find that the online community is increasingly friendly and easy to game with, but my heart will always be with PC gaming. I feel for the best quality in graphics and gameplay a PC really can deliver. Of course this comes at a constant upgrading cost so I can see why consoles are getting a lot of the good titles these days.
Banxy : What's next for the Frag Dolls UK? Any upcoming tournaments or events?
Jam : We have our monthly Frag Doll Friday coming up this week, and after that we're off to a bunch of music festivals all over the UK, including Download and O2. I'm also looking forward to hearing a recorded interview I had with Steve Jackson on BBC Radio 4. It's airing this week. You can find out more about all of these events by checking out our event section on our website – www.Frag Dolls.co.uk.
Kitt : The summer festivals are going to be mental! I'm really looking forward to Donnington. All through the summer we'll be at the big festivals fragging away. I'm looking out my rockinest clothes.
Sarin : We are attending alot of festivals over the summer both in the UK and Ireland. So if you're planning to go to a festival check out our calendar and make sure you don't miss us!
Banxy : Thanks FragDollsUK!
To find out more about FragDollsUK try out the following links:
www.fragdolls.co.uk
www.myspace.com/fragdollsuk
