Girls got game

Team erases male video-gamer stereotype

Joyzelle Davis, Rocky Mountain News

Monday, May 1, 2006

BOULDER - With her glittery purple eyeliner, quick smile and penchant for saying "beautiful," Shannon Ridge doesn't seem like someone who spends upward of 40 hours a week blasting aliens.

The 22-year-old Boulder resident is one of the top-ranked female players of Halo 2, the Xbox first-person shooter game. And in real life, she's leading a campaign to get other women to join the fun.

Ridge is one the leaders of the PMS (as in Pandora's Mighty Soldiers) Clan, a four-year-old, all-female gaming group. The clan - a term used for a team of online players that largely play shooter titles - is a mix of support group, training academy and recruitment center to take the intimidation factor out of entering the male-dominated world of hard-core gaming.

"A lot of guys who've had a bad day with their girlfriend, or never had a girlfriend, decide to take it out on us during games," said Ridge, who goes by her gamer handle of Mary Jane (as in Spider-Man's girlfriend). "Now it feels like all of these other women have your back."

Corporations, which recognize the growing role women are playing in the $7.3 billion gaming industry, are signing on, too. In the past six months, the PMS Clan secured sponsorships from Women in Technology International and Verizon's high-speed FiOS Internet service.

"We love what they're doing and why they're doing it," said David Leighton, president of WITI, which agreed to sponsor the PMS Clan's trips to tournaments because the gaming group fits with the nonprofit's mission of encouraging women to consider technology careers.

Women aren't strangers to video games. They make up 43 percent of the 150 million Americans who play games on either PCs or consoles like the Xbox and Playstation, according to the Entertainment Software Association. But the majority of women are more likely to be plotting their next move in quiet logic games like Solitaire rather than hurling bombs on Counter-Strike.

For Microsoft, which makes the XBox, women make up a mere 30 percent of its players, according to Aaron Greenburg, group public relations manager for XBox Live. Last month, Microsoft invited Ridge and other top PMS Clan members to its Seattle headquarters, where they were given sneak peeks of upcoming game releases and treated, she said, "like rock stars."

In exchange, some of the PMS Clan members will staff Microsoft's XBox booth at the E3 gaming convention in Los Angeles next week.

"We see them as very influential in the community," Greenburg said. "They've been instrumental in helping women get more involved with hard-core games."

Ridge's parents didn't intend for her to become an ace first-person shooter.

Linda and David Ridge, who both have careers in technology, refused their daughter's entreaties for video games throughout her childhood because "they were too violent," said Linda Ridge. But after Shannon Ridge turned 18, a now ex-fiancé introduced her to the thrills of Tony Hawk, and Ridge was soon besting the ex and his friends.

Shannon Ridge's initial excitement started to wane, though, until she encountered Microsoft's XBox Live. The gaming console changed the industry with its online connection and headset, which created a community of 2 million members who could gossip, strategize or trash talk while they stalked battlefields in games like Halo.

The voice chat feature was particularly appealing for women, Ridge said, because "we're such social creatures." But the technology also removed the androgynous cloak of a user name, and guys knew - and resented - that they were playing against a girl. Sometimes her comrades would gang up and "team kill" Ridge or, more commonly, they'd hurl insults not fit to be printed in a family newspaper.

The PMS Clan requires its members to resist the urge to hurl back. According to the 28-page member handbook, trash talk is strictly prohibited, and all members must close with a sign-off of "good game" regardless of what transpired. The intent of such standards is to add professionalism to the game, but it doesn't hurt the PMS Clan's marketability, either.

"They're like model online citizens," said Microsoft's Greenburg.

Joining the PMS Clan is free, though it's no minor commitment: Members must agree to a background check, attend practices and adhere to a dress code at events. The group takes any level of experience and talent, though it does screen for attitude.

"If someone is, to use the verb, -PMSing, it's not going to work," said Amber Dalton, a San Antonio resident who co-founded PMS Clan with her twin sister, Amy. "We're a team so we need to be cohesive."

The inclusive nature makes the PMS Clan one of the largest gaming groups around, with 400 members ranging in age from 9 to 62.

Contrary to the stereotype that gamers spend their days alone in darkened rooms, Linda Ridge has seen her daughter thrive in her position as Halo 2 game leader and marketing manager for PMS Clan. The group has taken Shannon to tournaments across the country, introduced her to industry insiders and taught her how to write grant proposals and marketing pitches.

The group keeps in touch via online forums and chats during matches, and members meet in person about a dozen times a year at competitions and industry events like the Consumer Electronics Show.

"There's a lot of opportunities to socialize," Linda Ridge said.

The PMS Clan has chalked up multiple appearances on MTV and a profile in Entertainment Weekly. So far, the media attention outweighs their victories. The group's best finish was sixth at the CyberAthlete Professional League Summer Championship, an international tournament. But Dalton is optimistic that the group's performances will only improve as younger female players get an earlier start on games.

"We'd rather take an eighth place in a co-ed tournament than finish first in an all-girl tournament," she said.

Pandora's Mighty Soldiers

• What: An all-female gaming group

• Founded: 2002, after the release of XBox Live

• Who joins: Females, regardless of age or skill, with an XBox and Xbox Live account or PSP and PSP online adapter

• Membership: About 400 worldwide, ranging from ages 9 to 62

• What about the guys? They can be "waterboys"-or members of the H2O Clan-at the invitation of a PMS Clan member. The H20 Clan counts 600 members, including Fatal1ty, the world's top PC gamer.

Top 10XBox LiveGames

1. Halo 2

2. Ghost Recon 2

3. Rainbox Six 3: Black Arrow

4. Madden NFL 2005

5. ESPN NFL 2K5

6. MechAssault 2: Lone Wolf

7. Counter-Strike

8. Project Gotham Racing 2

9. Rainbow Six 3

10. ESPN NBA 2K5

Website: www.pmsclan.com

davisj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-2514