Communicating key research findings to the game industry has the potential to raise industry consciousness about the impacts of negative stereotypes and suggest tangible ways to make games more appealing to girls and women. Reaching students in game design programs and their teachers could also help educate the next generation of game designers become more aware of and concerned about gender and games. This project will use audience participation design methods and stakeholder involvement to envision and create a persistent, technologically advanced, informative, authoritative, interactive online vehicle for disseminating gender and games research findings, carefully tailored to the overt and subtle professional and personal needs and interests of the target audience of commercial, educational, and serious game industry professionals and game design educators. The project is developed and supported through the Michigan State University GEL Lab (Games 4 Entertainment and Learning).
Intellectual Merit--FYI Site will be designed to disseminate gender and game research findings to inform and ideally modify commercial and educational game industry practices so they will better serve and inspire girls and women. In developing FYI Site technologists and a design team will listen carefully to researchers, commercial and educational game industry professionals and game design educators with the goal of optimizing form, style, content, and social interaction of this modern, specialized industry-academia conduit. Participation and promotion will be fostered through stakeholder involvement including formation of a volunteer editorial board.
Broader Impacts-- FYI Site will reach a larger audience by making carefully tailored information available when the game professional or educator encounters a need for that content. FYI Site can serve as a prototype and model for other entertainment research-industry conduits. By exploring Web 2.0 technologies such as audio and video podcasting and social tagging, FYI Site merges emerging technologies with user centered design practices.
