Melissa Batten was a Software Development Engineer for the XBox team. Before that she was a Harvard-educated lawyer who worked as a public defender, handling domestic violence cases, in North Carolina. She was also a victim of domestic violence (DV). Her abusive husband killed her a few weeks ago in a murder-suicide after she had moved out and taken out a restraining order on him.

Domestic violence is a pervasive, deadly problem that affects us all. This incident is not an isolated act, nor can it be viewed in a vacuum. We lost one of our own. But there is more to take from this tragedy than it simply being a woman in the industry who died. Batten’s murder wasn’t an outside incident; it was part of a greater pattern of violence against women. It was enabled by a culture of misogyny that all too often trivializes domestic violence and puts obstacles in the way of the victim who tries to protect herself. Even in this case, where Batten did everything she could to get out of her situation and stay safe, her abuser had no problem shooting her outside of her workplace.

As gamers and game industry professionals, it’s our responsibility to take a deep look at ourselves, and our industry, and think about the ways that we’ve enabled a culture where violence against women is not taken seriously. Many gamers think that greater societal problems such as domestic violence and violence against women has nothing to do with their beloved hobby, but they are wrong. For one, games like the GTA series rely on sexualized violence and otherwise reflect sexist dynamics in order to add to their realism. Tying it into an example closer to real life, consider the harassment of Jade Raymond. The violence may have been verbal rather than physical, but it was rooted in the same sense of ownership of women that was the root cause of Batten’s husband killing her before he killed himself.

One way that we can honor Batten’s memory is to get educated on issues such as DV and violence against women and stop denying that they have nothing to do with us and our hobbies/careers.

More on Melissa Batten

• Husband’s rage not contained by piece of paper
• Xbox Developer Killed In Murder-Suicide
• Domestic violence claims XBox Developer

Domestic violence resources

• The Domestic Violence Handbook
• What is Domestic Violence?
• Domestic Violence at SafeCanada.ca
• The Domestic Violence Handbook

X-posted: Official Shrub.com Blog

Sony Online Entertainment is holding a competition to decide who gets a $10,000 tuition scholarship.

From the official site:

The official SOE G.I.R.L. — Gamers In Real Life — scholarship is the first of its kind with The Art Institutes to encourage students toward career paths in the creative and applied arts, ultimately resulting in the development of games that are more interesting for women to play.

[...]

The G.I.R.L. Scholarship will officially begin on April 1, 2008. In order to be eligible to participate, entrants must be a current student at one of The Art Institutes schools. Students are required to submit an in-game design, concept art and two essays. The deadline to enter is May 31, 2008. The winner will be announced on or about June 30, 2008.

One skilled student will win a $10,000 tuition scholarship towards his or her education at The Art Institutes school at which he or she is currently enrolled and a paid internship of up to ten (10) weeks at one of the Sony Online Entertainment studios (located in Austin, Denver, San Diego and Seattle). Entrants will be judged by a panel of industry professionals from SOE.

Since it’s so narrow — limited to only those currently enrolled at one of The Art Institutes schools — I’m not sure how effective it will be at promoting the stated goal. Still, it’s drawn a fair amount of PR and anything that raises awareness as to the barriers that women face when trying to enter the industry is good in my book.

I have been reluctant to address the Jade Raymond incident here not because I don’t think it’s relevant to the topic of this blog (it is) and not because others have said it better than I (though they have), but because it hits close to home. Too close, really.

But before I go into that, let me link some of the other voices that have risen to comment about the incident. (more…)