When it comes to the Middle East, it's hard to get rid of stereotypes: deserts, oil, conservatives, tycoons... As for the complex element of the game, it seems that it is not in their dictionary.
Indeed, gaming was once a gray zone traded and circulated industry in the Middle East, but now the situation is gradually changing.
Saudi Arabia, for example, the Middle East's largest economy with a highly young population, has now incorporated gaming into its diversified, digital economy at the national level. The emergence of games, e-sports, metaverse and Web 3.0 has brought more modern technology and entertainment options to locals, and "local tycoons" have become "krypton gold bosses".
In fact, the "krypton gold boss" is only our imagination, and more ordinary Saudi Arabians actively participate in the game community, including women.
They have long begun to extend from games to reality, using the power of serious games, trying to change the rules of reality, creating their own communities and specialized events, and even standing at the center of the game industry as esports players, developers, leaders of the larger community, and men.
Female gamers, once ignored, are aware of their existence through GCON
Worldwide, the lack of female players in tournaments is a common problem in the industry, and it is more difficult for women to present themselves as gamers in reality. In the GDC2023 official survey of game practitioners, "white" and "male" account for the overwhelming majority, and the "minority" status of female practitioners may also limit women's choice of related occupations.
Saudi gamers have a similar sex ratio to other regions, and nearly half of female gamers need more space to play and expect more opportunities in related career choices.
But a decade ago, when esports and related professions in Saudi Arabia shut out women, gaming was a personal experience at home or in the bedroom for most girls, who couldn't even imagine the existence of other girls who also loved it.
But the GCON (Girls' Convention) changed everything. GCON is the first game conference in Saudi Arabia dedicated to female gamers, and now has a certain influence in both the region and the industry, the event has been sponsored and supported by Huawei, Microsoft, Nintendo, PlayStation and other companies, and has also reached a strategic partnership with Saudi Telecommunications Corporation (STC).
Ghada Almoqbel, CEO of GCON, shared at W Lover Gamers 2022 that when GCON was first established in 2012, the situation in Saudi Arabia was completely different than it is now. At that time, the Saudi game community did not welcome women, "I wouldn't even say it's not popular with the industry, it's just the game community", because even the game community is not open to women, and it's a bit crazy to say "industry".
"But the game can be played against tradition, and that's how GCON began." Just like playing monsters in games, Saudi women started with the GCON community, constantly breaking through the prejudices and constraints in the game industry, and growing into professional esports players, game practitioners, or other fields with more opportunities, and those who once could not have imagined life.
Entering the "gaming industry" is no longer a wild imagination
Felwa, Tasneem and Najla are the founders of GCON. They love games and are among the first to try to change the rules.
As women were turned away from the Gamer's Day Convention, the largest gaming event of the year in Saudi Arabia, they decided to organize a gaming convention open to female gamers, and the success of the first GCON confirmed the existence of the Saudi female gamer community and opened the door to the 3,000 attendees and more women who came after, including Ghada.
Ghada, who was still in high school in 2012, didn't get involved right away when she heard about GCON. In addition to her siblings, she didn't know any other girls who loved games, and she was more confused about this game activity open to women, "What is this game activity that only women can participate in?" Wouldn't that be a trap? ”
But in the second year of the event, Ghada decided to participate, and the decision opened up opportunities from the other side of the world.
Discovering that so many girls in Saudi Arabia enjoy and understand games is a crucial moment for Ghada, who is about to enter university and start a new stage of his life. This determines what the game means to her, and it doesn't stop at entertainment.
Ghada longed to have a stronger connection with the community and was determined to be a part of that community, so after graduating from high school, she became more interested in GCON. In addition to her work as a content creator supporting the community, she also tried her hand at marketing, business analytics, and even worked with government agencies during college.
"It was a very busy but indispensable period for me, and I enjoyed every minute of it", although some of the work was not related to games, and this experience allowed her skills and knowledge to be proven in more industries.
When talking about the experience, Ghada believes that her struggle and focus are definitely one factor, but GCON brought these opportunities to her, giving her the opportunity and courage to participate and create her own future. This also made her understand the same situation of girls: success is inseparable from enthusiasm and opportunity, and she wants to provide the same opportunities for other young girls, which prompted her to take over GCON a year before graduating from university.
Now, Ghada has been working in the Saudi game industry for more than 8 years, in addition to continuing to support the operation of the GCON community, she is also responsible for business development at the Saudi game company Nine66, and is also a co-founder of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) in Riyadh, representing Saudi Arabia at the World Game Forum and Summit, and giving back to the Saudi women's gaming community with more resources and opportunities.
In Saudi Arabia today, the words "game industry" and "policy" have completely different meanings than they did ten years ago, and girls have the opportunity to put "game" in a more important position in their life planning and imagination, and we know that Mashael Abualnaja, who works in advanced learning and development at Savvy Games Group, is one of these girls.
The choice to become a gaming practitioner has changed Mashael's life and professional life over the past few years. "I've met a lot of people, dealt with companies and industry workers from different countries, and I never imagined that one day there would be such a change."
This is the sixth year that Mashael has co-organized The Global Game Jam, a regional organizer of events in the Gulf States and Southwest Asia, and was selected to participate in this year's GDC.
Mashael's interests and career choices were also questioned at the beginning, with someone telling her "games are for kids" or "If you continue to do this stupid thing, no one will take you seriously."
But Mashael had a clear and firm plan for her career direction in the game field from the beginning, and it was not a vague decision like "working in games", but a vision that had been repeated countless times in her mind and conversation: "One day, I will make achievements in this industry, and I will work in human resources in the game industry, especially in talent development".
For her, work is not about doing simple work or being on a shift, but about being able to do things that make the cerebral cortex excited at the first thought. This exchange at the Game Developers Conference, as well as her past volunteer work at the International Game Developers Association (IGDA), made her realize that she still has a lot of room to learn in terms of developing the game industry community, developing more industry relationships, developing game talent, and understanding the Saudi game industry as a whole.
For more girls like Ghada and Mashael, it's not enough to be the lucky ones to be accepted into gaming communities and careers, to be exposed to details that "excite the cerebral cortex" every day as soon as they wake up.
More importantly, to seize the industrial resources and attention brought by national policies, they must let more girls who love games see and truly seize the opportunity.
It is also necessary to strive for a better platform, more opportunities
Whether it's the Middle East or more parts of the world, female gamers and practitioners who want to integrate into the gaming industry will only see more than we realize now.
Haya Al-Qadi, marketing manager at Galaxy Racer, mentioned in a discussion at The Next World Forum that many people don't realize that in Saudi Arabia, there are almost equal numbers of male and female gamers in console games, and there are almost more women than men in mobile games.
But women have long chosen to hide their account information or their real gender in order to avoid conflicts with other players, harassment and online violence. The reality is equally disturbing: this year's GDC San Francisco venue saw harassment and refueling of female attendees, sparking a series of controversies.
Ghada's interview with Hia Magazine also confirms the distress that these conditions have for female users. In GCON's market survey, 19% of women said they were reluctant to participate in events, 70% preferred to participate in special events open to women, and 81% expressed concerns about lack of opportunity, fear, and reluctance to appear in the media and other public places.
In addition to the risk of harassment, the gaming experience for female gamers is similarly limited, with very few games and settings tailored to women in the overall Middle Eastern market. But because women in the Middle East are thought to have similar preferences for hardcore games like shooter and SLG, or are deliberately circumventing cultural taboos, developers pay little attention to the issue.
For example, before Pinplay observed the western element mobile game "Frontier justice" released by Longteng Jianhe in the Middle East, he found that although the player's gender can be set at the beginning of the game, it only undertakes the same routines, gameplay and plot as male characters, and does not really strive for the retention of female players, even the choice of custom hairstyles and clothing must be opened after the town is upgraded to level 12, and female users have long been lost before playing to this level.
GCON founder Felwa, who now runs marketing at Nine66, suggested during a discussion at the Pocket Gamers Connects Jordan venue that the impression exists because women once had few real choices. For a long time, what kind of games are popular in Saudi Arabia and whether women can enter the game industry have been dominated by men, and there are no games designed for women. But now more women entering the gaming industry could change that stereotype.
We did observe that the proportion of hyper-casual games with less gender-restricted experiences in the Saudi app market is increasing significantly.
While Nine66 strives to cooperate with more game companies, education industries, and investors to build a complete game industry ecosystem, Ghada is trying to fight for more opportunities and changes for women.
"E-sports has been attractive to Saudi women gaming enthusiasts from the beginning, and with the Saudi government's interest and support for esports, we need to pay more attention to women in this field to win greater support from the private and public sectors for them", and they will try to ensure that women are not excluded from the policy dividends as the Saudi gaming industry enters a golden period of growth.
We've seen more girls who have benefited from the community continue to do so while remaining open to working with the male player community:
In 2017, GCON partnered with the organizers of Players Day to host the country's first gaming convention open to both male and female gamers; In 2018, Saudi Arabia's first esports cup was also open to players of all genders and ages.
Although GCON's work plan was clearly interrupted by the pandemic, the industry is now buzzing again. The announcement of Vision 2030 also created excellent market conditions, "During the period when the event was stopped, many people told me that women still want their own space to meet people who are equally interested, and this is something that we take very seriously."
More events, esports training, educational courses and forums for game development are on GCON's agenda, and more people interested in working in the gaming industry are included in the concept of "community".