Game companies are traditionally a man’s world. This is not a shocking or particularly controversial statement. And one employee at Hawken developer Meteor Entertainment is lucky enough to be a part of a company that beats these odds.
Meteor Entertainment, she says, is a great place to work as a woman. She works in an “all-female team of data scientists in the gaming industry,” making her the “professional equivalent of Amelia Earhart riding the Loch Ness Monster.” Secondly, her company has plenty of women working for it; including, in her words, “half the executive branch.”
But there is one thing she doesn’t love about her job. With all the gender-awareness she appreciates about her job, there is one piece of comic art for the game that she hates. It is a picture of a young woman who, in her words, “has so obviously taken a break from her important welding to offer me a piping cup of coffee and/or a vigorous hand job[.]” With her breasts just barely avoiding breaking out from under her tiny t-shirt and her face a sultry request, it’s little surprise that this image is bothersome. It is also her CEO’s favorite image.
So she “pranked her boss” and had coworker Sam Kirk create another image, fueled by “feminist indignation, hysterical giggling, and two $90 bottles of añejo tequila.” This one was called Bro-sie the Riveter. They replaced the other image in their boss’ office with this one.
The CEO responds in the best way possible:
“That was a brilliant prank. You called me on exactly the bullshit I need to be called on. I put up pictures of half-naked girls around the office all the time and I never think about it. I’m taking you and Sam to lunch. And after that, we’re going to hang both prints, side by side.
Very cool, Meteor Entertainment. I hear your game is fantastic, and I can’t wait to duke it out mech style.
