As their name implies, the Frag Dolls are equal parts hotties and hardcore gamers. The nine-member girl gamer clan is sponsored by Ubisoft and much of their work is marketing and promotions for the game developer. But they're also still a female "All-Star" team that compete at all sort of online games. GameSmith spoke to Rhoulette (Morgan Romine), one of the three original Frag Dolls and newcomer Spectra (Anne-Marie Wilson) about life as professional gamers.Interview: The Frag Dolls Take Aim At Gender and Games
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As their name implies, the Frag Dolls are equal parts hotties and hardcore gamers. The nine-member girl gamer clan is sponsored by Ubisoft and much of their work is marketing and promotions for the game developer. But they're also still a female "All-Star" team that compete at all sort of online games. GameSmith spoke to Rhoulette (Morgan Romine), one of the three original Frag Dolls and newcomer Spectra (Anne-Marie Wilson) about life as professional gamers.GAMESMITH: Who exactly are the Frag Dolls?
Morgan-- We are a group of nine pro girl gamers on a team sponsored by Ubisoft. We've been around for 6 ½ years. We're sort of an All-Star team, a lot of us play FPS's but we're all giant geeks. Three of us are still original members but we have a lot of new members too. We do a lot of marketing and promotions for Ubisoft. Because we're gamers, we can communicate our enthusiasm for Ubisoft products. We also represent the growing demographic of women who play and work in games. Basically, we want to raise awareness that girls love games, too. It's something that's becoming more visible but still needs a lot of work. We're trying to change perceptions about girls that game.
Frag Doll Rhoulette (Morgan Romine)
GAMESMITH: What do you think when you hear the term gamer girl used?
Ann Marie - I think of the stigma of the girl gamer. I personally refer to myself as a gamer, not a gamer girl. It's obvious that I am already female. At the same time, I understand why people use the term.
Morgan--Our team is evolving. I think when we first started, it was important to be known as girl gamers, but these days its more understood and it's more common. I think we'd like to see our sex as a non-issue. You know, a non-shocking thing that's we're girls. I think we're moving closer to a time when it won't be a big deal.
GAMESMITH: Do you hear any negativity about some of the pictures you take or they way you're portrayed in the media as being gamer babes?
Morgan---I don't know if it's any different than girls who wear sexy clothes in any venue. I've heard negative feedback, but you know, I think girls come in all shapes and sizes. A lot of us just want attention for kicking guys asses in games. We try to be role models where we can, we know there's lots of teenage girls following us and so we're image conscious.
I think it's part of our responsibility to be role models. We dress cute, but we're not overtly sexy. We have girly girls on the team and we like looking nice. I like the contrast. But as long as the team has been around, our outfits have been T-shirts and jeans. We're not wearing thigh highs and fishnets. But because we're cute girls, we get this perception and we're accused of trying hard to be sexy. It's like OK. I think it's because we're in the place we're in. It's the conclusion they get, but it's mindboggling and frustrating. We get criticized for wearing T-shirts and jeans. I'm not sure why they jump to that conclusion. That's not why we're in this, it's not for the attention. We're in for the games themselves. None of us as far as I know are models. We're not against it but...
You can't really reach out to girls if you try to be really sexy. Girls don't want to be friends with you if you're showing off your "hoohah." I haven't made any friends licking Xbox controllers.
Frag Doll Spectra (Anne Marie-Wilson)
GAMESMITH: If someone doesn't know you well, how do they usually respond when you tell them you're a gamer?
Ann Marie-- I get a range of responses. I work in the film industry and when I tell people, I get a lot of laughs and shock and surprise. And then after that initial reaction, I get a lot of interest and people ask a lot of questions. I tell them I play hardcore games and casual games. I really enjoy the reactions I get when I say I make a living playing video games.
Morgan--I'm actually a PH.D student at UC-Irvine and it's a very different world here. It's funny because my parents still actually ask me to explain what I do. I basically say we're marketing. It's easier to explain.
GAMESMITH: Some of the females I spoke with are embarrassed to proclaim themselves gamers. How do you feel about that?
Ann-Marie--You know, I understand wanting to hide it. I mean, I actually know guys that are closet gamers because they're girlfriends aren't down with it. I'm not a closet gamer. I'm so into it that it's hard to have some conversations with people that don't. I've never been one to hide my passion. I don't feel like anyone is going to treat me different.
Morgan--For us, we've been so publically involved in this that it's like - we're all in. We don't have qualms letting people know. But online, we do get emails from girls who say they love games but they didn't think it was an acceptable pursuit of their time. To see girls like us, is big for them. I think gaming still has a stigma that, number one, it's a boys toy, and secondly, that it's a pastime not worth the same effort as film or music. We'd like to see that change. We think games are vehicles for lots of different stuff. But there's still a stigma that it's not a cool thing to do and that once you're an adult you're suppose to grow out of it.
GAMESMITH: So you see a time coming when females and games won't be such this exotic thing?
Ann Marie-- I've been encouraged lately to see games like "Halo: Reach" and "Gears of War 3" adding female characters. Game companies are starting to realize that more girls are playing than ever before. It's pretty cool.
Morgan--Girls like to play as girls. One of the trends I'd personally like to see reversed is the gender imbalance in computer science courses because it actually dipped in the 2000's. That's pretty bad. I'd like to see it diversify out of just the white male. I think when more women get involved in the industry, we'll see a lot more diversity in games and we got a lot more work to do in that realm.
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