General Video Game Thread

[Arkandel]

@faraday Again with the anecdotal reply from me, but although I've encountered (of course) far fewer women than men in IT, on average they were noticeably better at their jobs.

I've given this some thought, and the explanation seems clear. It's not so much that magically female programmers, sysadmins etc are better than their male counterparts; it's simply that in order to make it in the field they need to be better than average or motivated enough to invest in themselves and push through.

[Roz]

Wasn't programming originally thought of as "women's work" way back in the day? And then that shifted when people realized the incredible power and potential of it, and so it became a "man's field" and that's why the rates of female programmers a couple decades ago were higher?

[Arkandel]

@roz said in General Video Game Thread:

Wasn't programming originally thought of as "women's work" way back in the day? And then that shifted when people realized the incredible power and potential of it, and so it became a "man's field" and that's why the rates of female programmers a couple decades ago were higher?

I've heard about this, but at an 80s kid I do know I met waaaay more boys who even had access to/owned a computer than girls.

These days that's surely a non-factor since the financial investment is computers are far more common and online resources are so much more accessible (so a young girl can just go and look at tutorials online as opposed to having to gather the courage to walk up to a grizzled neckbeard and ask questions) that perhaps things are changing.

[faraday]

@roz It's a little more complicated than that I think. There's a graph in that When Women Stopped Coding article that showed that women dropped off sharply in computer science while still continuing to head towards parity of representation in other traditionally "mens work" fields.

A lot of it comes down to opportunities. That article (and others) talk about how girls entering CS degree programs in the 80's and 90's felt behind because they hadn't had the opportunity to work with computers as kids, unlike a lot of the boys (who had grown up playing video games). Girls interested in computers were often teased or discouraged from that pursuit.

These days - I can't throw a rock without hitting a "girls who code" camp/club/book/etc. for my pre-teen daughter. Lots of the girls in her class are into code, and just as tech-savvy as the boys. There's now better representation in kids cartoons/toys/etc. showing girls in STEM roles, so they don't see it as just a "boys thing". It really is turning around.

(Aaaand this is probably veering way off topic but whatever.)

[WildBaboons]

Video Game Related:

Uncharted fan film starring Nathan Fillion as the main character.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5CZQpqF_74

I've never actually played Uncharted but have heard many many times that Fillion is perfect for the role.

[Kanye Qwest]

@arkandel It can be very awkward to be a rare woman in a technical team of men.

The answer is not to just not hire women. The answer is to make your employees behave professionally while they are at work (which tech monkeys famously often do not), and encourage female applicants.

@roz Yes, it was thought of as women’s work. Demand went up, and with it pay, and suddenly girls are discouraged from it starting in primary school. So weird.

[Tyche]

@roz said in General Video Game Thread:

Wasn't programming originally thought of as "women's work" way back in the day?

Well in a way. When I started we would hand write programs on coding sheets and hand them off to data entry clerks who would key punch it on to cards. Most data entry clerks were women, and many of the female programmers I knew, did actually start out as data entry clerks or operators. But that doesn't really explain the high rates of women getting actual CompSci degrees in the 80's.

And then that shifted when people realized the incredible power and potential of it, and so it became a "man's field" and that's why the rates of female programmers a couple decades ago were higher?

No.

Edit: I would add that you didn't even need a degree to get hired as a programmer in the 80's.

[Tyche]

@faraday said in General Video Game Thread:

A lot of it comes down to opportunities. That article (and others) talk about how girls entering CS degree programs in the 80's and 90's felt behind because they hadn't had the opportunity to work with computers as kids, unlike a lot of the boys (who had grown up playing video games). Girls interested in computers were often teased or discouraged from that pursuit.

One problem with that article's theory is that the graduation should have dropped a decade or more after the introduction of the PC, not when it was introduced.

Here's an interesting analysis of the DICE 2018 survey by a nerdy engineer: Flawed Report Suggests Women are Discriminated Against in Tech

[Sunny]

Logging in to game server...

sob

[Packrat]

So I mentioned Star Traders a few days ago, today I found out that one the the developers streams on Twitch and seems to be a really cool guy as well as a huge Dune nerd?

It was pretty fun to chat with him not to mention informative.

[Arkandel]

A quick PSA for WoW players - your weekly chest contains 1000 Wakening Essences today (the price of a legendary item) whether you ran any Mythics+ last week or not.

[Arkandel]

Ugh, World Quest Group Finder doesn't work any more, and it won't in the future either since Blizzard intentionally broke that functionality.

RIP me

[Insomnia]

@arkandel Screw your world finder, there are no longer kobolds in the mines at the start of the human zone. The mine is closed! There's Blackrock Orcs, and goblin assassins now. Boo!

[Arkandel]

@insomnia What? But... the candle... who take candle now?

[Insomnia]

@arkandel There are still Kobolds in the Fargodeep mine.

[Arkandel]

@insomnia Phew, you scared me.

[Insomnia]

@arkandel I actually almost sent you a panicky all caps message on Steam last night because you, and a friend have very similar icons, and both happened to be online and right on top of each other.

[Arkandel]

@insomnia Why the panic?

[Insomnia]

@arkandel Because I hadn't been as far as Fargodeep mine yet, and change is bad. (But mostly because I have no idea what's going to happened with the undead starting area and all the changes to Silverpine, Undercity, etc. Are they going to be phased? Should I rush and finish all my undead starting quests now in case they change things radically like in Cata?)

Mostly because change is bad though. >.>

ETA: The mine is boarded up! You can't even get in there now. Where was I going to take candle?

[Arkandel]

@insomnia What I've been reading is that post-stat squish the entire process of leveling alts has been borked, as fights take way too long even at low levels (someone claimed his heirloom decked rogue was 2-4 shotting mobs at 25ish and now at 27 he needs double digits of hits to take them out).

Thankfully I had already leveled up my new monk main so I didn't have to go through that stuff. But I'll definitely miss the WQGF - I think it will have a definite effect on classes/specs who can't solo content as well as others. For example pet classes and tanks have a large advantage now, especially as fresh max level characters.