Multiplay i26 show report

The Frag Dolls

One thing that was instantly noticeable about this event was that there were far more women than we have ever seen at i-Series before. There were a lot of girl-gamers here with clanmates, a lot of girlfriends here with boyfriends, a lot of girls spectating and playing Xbox 360 and just a pleasing amount of oestrogen in general. This prompted a quick investigation of who these ladies are, why they were here, and whether or not gaming is now going truly cross-gender.


One of these lovely ladies goes by the name of Voodoo, and she's one of the Frag Dolls, a gaming clan set up by publishers UbiSoft to promote gaming to girls (as we reported previously). We grabbed a quick beer with the lass in the i26 bar area.

So, how's life as a Frag Doll? "Well, we haven't done many tournaments yet - we've been playing an awful lot on Xbox Live. It's cool - I work in GAME (the retail store) when I'm not playing, so my life is just games, games, games at the moment."

There are more girls at i26 than were here last time. What's your role when it comes to promoting women gamers? "Well, part of our job is to promote UbiSoft titles, but a big part of our job is getting girls into gaming in general. We're targeting any girls who are into games, either casually or more hardcore. We're trying to change girls from thinking gaming is just for boys and that they shouldn't be doing it. We figure that if girls can see high profile, normal people like us having fun gaming, they'll think, why can't they?"

Well, quite. But is there a problem with all this, in that most games are targeted at guys? "Well, I don't think that girls really like one type of game more than men or vice versa. I think part of the problem is that some games - like FPS titles - are targeted and marketed directly at men, whereas more casual games like Nintendogs or Sims are also marketed both genders, so those are the ones girls tend to play. It's like with films. The stereotype is that girls just like chick flicks and romantic comedies, but girls like horror and action movies too, when they're not excluded from them by bad marketing."

Interesting thoughts from one of the girl-gaming hardcore. How about something more light-hearted to finish - what is Voodoo playing right now? "Well, my favourite game type is FPS. At the moment, I'm playing Far Cry Instincts, and also Rainbow 6: Lockdown. I just got the new Star Wars Battlefront too, so I'm looking forward to getting stuck into that. I got drawn into FPS by the original Halo - I was so hooked on that, I set up Xbox Connect on my PC to play online multiplayer before Xbox Live launched."

Wow, Xbox Connect - that's pretty hardcore. It's good to see some high-profile girls challenging the perception that girls don't game - and I should add, in conclusion, that I saw Voodoo totally tear up the Perfect Dark Zero demo rig a little later. It seems she's got the next generation covered already...

[Colt-Killaz] Festa

So, moving from a high-profile girl gamer to a low-profile one we spotted tucked away in a corner of the second floor, playing Counter-Strike. Her name is Festa (aka Alana Andrews) and this is, apparently, the second time she's been to an i-Series LAN. She plays for clan Colt-Killaz.

Is it just our imagination, or are there more girls here than before? "There are definitely loads more here than last time... it's a good thing, definitely. It's far more acceptable to be a girl gamer these days, and I should know - I've been playing since 2000."

Is it true that a lot of girls get into gaming through watching their 'other halves' play? "Well, that's true for me. When my partner started playing, I could never get on the computer once he'd started a CS game. When I eventually managed to chuck him off, I thought I'd have a go at what he'd been playing. I got totally into CS, to the point where we had to schedule time on the computer to play."

Crikey, that's hardcore. But you've got your own rig now? "Yeah, we decided we needed two computers, and now I play regularly. I got a Shuttle with a Pentium 4 3.6GHz, 1GB of RAM and I just upgraded to a Radeon X850 XT PE, which is great. We're not one of those households that sits and talks to each other on MSN Messenger in the same house though - we're not quite that bad!"

Fair play. We watched Alana in action, and she was a pretty decent shot. It's great to see that these events are becoming more of a mixed-sex party atmosphere than a geek-fest.

Girls just wanna have fun

So what is the sudden catalyst for the rise in female attendance? We thought we'd go straight to the source and ask Craig Fletcher, who is Managing Director of even organisers, Multiplay. "The ratio is definitely getting better, isn't it?" Craig enthused. "I think a large part of that is down to the popularity of MMOs. If you look around here, there are a lot of people playing those, and they seem to be really accessible and popular with female gamers."

"Part of it is also that gaming is getting far more normal. Before, staying in and playing PS2 with some mates over some drinks was a 'sad' thing to do. Now it's perfectly normal - how different is it from watching the footie or a film? It seems like gaming is far more acceptable now, in general."

Even better is that it seems like girls are just as hardcore about all-night gaming as the guys. This photo, taken at 4pm, shows that regardless of gender, we're all prone to binge-gaming sessions with the required total-crash-out afterwards!